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In synagogues and on the streets, Israel’s new ‘faithful left’ is making itself felt
TEL AVIV (JTA) — “Everyone who answers, ‘Thank God’ when asked, ‘How are you,’ raise your hand,” Brit Yakobi asked the crowd of 700 people gathered in an Orthodox synagogue in Jerusalem.
The overwhelming majority of hands shot up.
“Everyone who is mortified with our current government, raise your hand,” continued Yakobi, the director of religious freedom and gender at Shatil, an Israeli social justice organization founded by the New Israel Fund.
Once again, almost every hand went up.
The display took place at a Jan. 25 conference billing itself as for Israel’s “faithful left” — a demographic that many consider nonexistent but which is seeking to assert itself in response to the country’s new right-wing government.
Israel’s politics leave little room for left-leaning Orthodox Jews. In the United States, the vast majority of Jews vote for Democrats, and even in Orthodox communities, where right-wing politics are ascendant, liberal candidates hold appeal for some. But in Israel, the official leadership of religious Jews of all stripes is firmly entrenched in the right — and their followers tend to vote as a bloc.
The hundreds of Orthodox Jews at the conference hope to change that dynamic, and have already started doing so by showing up en masse — and to applause — at the anti-government protests that have swept the country since the beginning of the year. But while their list of goals is long, they are also taking time to appreciate the unusual experience of being together.
A view of the attendees at the first meeting of Smol Emuni, the Faithful Left, in Jerusalem shows many kippahs — typically not associated with left-wing politics in Israel. (Photo by Gilad Kavalerchik)
“Just being in a room and realizing I’m not the only one like me was amazing,” attendee Shira Attias told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “The main takeaway for members of this niche and controversial group [is] to feel on their skin that they are not alone.”
Nitsan Machlis, a student and activist, agreed. “I’ve never seen so many people in a room together with whom I felt like I can identify with both religiously and politically.”
The conference took place inside the Heichal Shlomo synagogue, located adjacent to Jerusalem’s Great Synagogue at the same intersection as Israel’s prime minister’s official residence — a symbolic spot at the heart of Israel’s religious center.
“The fact that it was in Heichal Shlomo is quite significant because it’s a very Orthodox place,” said Ittay Flescher, educational director of an Israeli-Palestinian youth organization who attended the event. “It was chosen intentionally as an iconic Orthodox place, a place where Torah learning happens.”
That’s meaningful because members of the new government have disparaged critics of its policy moves as being anti-religious and opposed to Torah values.
According to haredi activist Pnina Pfeuffer, a member of the steering committee of Smol Emuni, which means faithful left in Hebrew, the conference was driven by the idea that leftwing values are an integral part of being Jewish.
“We’re not left-wing despite being religious, it’s part of how we practice our religious beliefs,” said Pfeuffer, who serves as the CEO of New Haredim, an umbrella organization for haredi education and women’s rights groups.
Organizer Mikhael Manekin, a veteran anti-occupation activist and religious Zionist, referred to it as a “very frum” conference, using the Yiddish word for the religiously devoted. Speakers heavily referenced both Jewish texts and previous generations of rabbis, such as Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who famously ruled it permissible under religious law to surrender land for peace, and the Lithuanian scion, Rabbi Elazar Shach, who likewise supported Jewish withdrawal from the Palestinian territories if it meant preserving Jewish life. (Rabbanit Adina Bar-Shalom, Yosef’s iconoclastic oldest daughter, was among the conference speakers.)
Rabbanit Adina Bar-Shalom, the eldest daughter of former Israeli Sephardic chief rabbi Ovadia Yosef, addresses the conference of religious leftists in Jerusalem, Jan. 25, 2023. (Photo by Gilad Kavalerchik)
“All of us understand there can’t be activism without religious study,” said Manekin, who runs the Alliance Fellowship, a network of Jewish and Arab political and civic leaders.
While Judaism is not a pacifist religion per se, there is a central theme in rabbinic literature of virtue ethics and an emphasis for caring for the weak on the one hand, he said, and a skepticism towards violence and power on the other. “Our role is to second-guess anything with power.”
According to Manekin, the current brand of religious Zionism and ultra-Orthodoxy’s “very recent” move to the right are emulating secular nationalist ethics a lot more than they are Jewish traditions.
“When somebody like [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir says, ‘We’re the landlords’ and ‘I run the show,’ that for me is a very non-traditional Jewish way of looking at the world,” he said.
“The immediacy with which we accept the current militantism of the religious right, when there are such clear rabbinic texts which don’t allow for that kind of behavior is insane,” he said. “The idea that Jews can walk around with guns on Shabbat is much more of a reform than the idea that Jews should support peace.”
The ambition around peace has set the faithful left apart from the wider anti-government protests, which have not focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A week after the conference, a Palestinian terror attack outside a Jerusalem synagogue that took the lives of seven residents after the Shabbat service put these beliefs to a test.
But Manekin said such events — another attack followed this week — would not change his worldview. “Our tradition is [that] the response to death is mourning and repenting. The political response shouldn’t be based on revenge but on what we think is for the betterment of our people,” he said after the Neve Yaakov attack.
Constant applause and cheers for our group of religious protesters, marching to join main event in Tel Aviv. pic.twitter.com/ohFMwpCeGc
— Hannah Katsman | חנה כצמן (@mominisrael) January 28, 2023
Despite hesitations from his co-organizers, Manekin was adamant about labeling the conference “left,” because, he said, among the fringes of the religious community is “a large group of people who are tired of this constant obfuscation of our opinions to appease the right who are never appeased anyway.”
According to Flescher, the left in Israel is no longer relevant “because it can’t speak the Jewish language.” Religious people often feel like the left is “foreign, and alien and even Christian in some regard,” he said.
One of the goals moving forward, Pfeuffer said, is to develop a religious leftwing language.
But as the conference demonstrated, even under the banner of the religious left lies a broad range of opinions. As Flescher put it: “The religious left is much more diverse than the secular left.”
Attias, who wears a headscarf for religious reasons, described herself thus: “I’m very progressive and I live in the settlements.”
Even though she is “very left economically,” Attias said, she refuses to label herself as a leftist because she remains “extremely critical” of the left which she says is often “very removed from Palestinians and poverty” and the issues it purports to champion.
Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger, a coexistence activist who lives in the West Bank settlement of Alon Shvut, described his experience at the conference on Facebook. “I have rarely felt so at home and so comfortable in a sea of kippot in Israel,” he wrote, alluding to the fact that in Israel, the style and presence of one’s head covering is widely seen as indicative of his or her religious orientation and politics alike.
The conference did not shy away from raising hot-button topics that not everyone in the room saw eye to eye on. “Because we tried to include as much of a left-wing range of opinions as we could, everyone at some point felt a little bit uncomfortable,” Pfeuffer said, noting that there was an LGBTQ circle and even references to “apartheid” by one speaker, Orthodox female rabbi Leah Shakdiel.
“If you’re very comfortable then you’re probably not learning something new,” Pfeuffer said.
One thing that made the conference stand out from other leftwing gatherings was the sense of hope and optimism.
“The general mood from punditry on the liberal left is all doom and gloom,” Manekin said.
The atmosphere at the conference, on the other hand, was “emotionally uplifting, energizing, and proactive,” he said. “This feeling of ‘we now have an assignment’ is very indicative of religious communities in general. That feeling that once you congregate, you can actually do quite a lot.”
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Israel Defends Move to Restrict NGOs in Gaza Amid Concerns of Hamas Exploitation
A Palestinian carries aid supplies that entered Gaza, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, in Zawaida in the central Gaza Strip. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Amid international criticism over its latest humanitarian oversight measures in Gaza, the Israeli government is moving forward with its policy requiring NGOs to maintain proper registration in order to operate in the enclave, aiming to ensure aid reaches civilians safely while preventing its exploitation for terrorist purposes.
According to a statement from the Israeli Foreign Ministry on Tuesday, 37 international non-governmental organizations that failed to renew their registration will no longer be allowed to operate in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank starting Jan. 1.
After being notified of the registration requirement in March and given nearly 10 months to comply, the organizations that failed to meet the deadline were informed that their authorization would end on Thursday, with an orderly withdrawal required by March 1, 2026.
While international media has repeatedly accused Israel of unfairly and illegally targeting humanitarian NGOs, Israeli officials have long argued that many of these groups have been infiltrated and manipulated by Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades.
The Israeli government is now moving forward with its latest initiative, defending the policy as officials work to reform a system that has long been exploited for terrorist purposes.
“A hostage was raped by her doctor. Another hostage, Noa Marciano, was murdered by a doctor who injected air into her veins. Both in Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza where International NGOs were operating at the time,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry wrote in a post on X, referring to two of the Israelis who were kidnapped by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists during their Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
“The idea that Israel will not do due diligence on employees of International NGOs is simply unacceptable. Get your act together, submit the application, provide requisite information and do the work you aspire to do,” the statement read.
A hostage was raped by her doctor. Another hostage, Noa Marciano, was murdered by a doctor who injected air into her veins. Both in Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza where International NGOs were operating at the time.
The idea that Israel will not do due diligence on employees of… pic.twitter.com/LkNIeQcfnK
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) December 31, 2025
According to the Israeli body responsible for coordinating aid deliveries to Gaza, the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the suspended organizations provide less than 1 percent of total aid, which will continue through NGOs holding valid permits.
“The message is clear: Humanitarian assistance is welcome – the exploitation of humanitarian frameworks for terrorist purposes is unacceptable,” Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chikli said in a statement. “Israel will continue to protect its sovereignty, its citizens, and the integrity of humanitarian action.”
Among the international organizations reportedly banned are multiple branches of Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam, the Danish and Norwegian Refugee Councils, Caritas Internationalis, the Quaker-founded American Friends Service Committee, and the International Rescue Committee.
As a safety measure to block NGO workers with ties to terror groups, the government’s new rules require nonprofit organizations to submit detailed records of their operations, including the names of all foreign and Palestinian employees and their passport and personal identification numbers.
The resolution also establishes an inter-ministerial team to review NGO applications and deny registration for various reasons, including denying Israel’s right to exist, promoting delegitimization campaigns, calling for boycotts against the Jewish state, or engaging in other disqualifying activities.
NGOs must be transparent about their personnel and funding sources.
23 international NGOs – including organizations from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and France – have been approved and are operating in the Gaza Strip.
Humanitarian assistance to Gaza continues… pic.twitter.com/o0psjCNOVD
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) December 31, 2025
Amid a fierce international campaign against the Israeli government’s latest initiative, the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland issued a joint statement earlier this week warning of a “catastrophic” situation if nonprofits are not allowed to operate in Gaza in a “sustained and predictable” manner.
“As Dec. 31 approaches, many established international NGO partners are at risk of being deregistered because of the government of Israel’s restrictive new requirements,” the statement read.
“As winter draws in, civilians in Gaza are facing appalling conditions with heavy rainfall and temperatures dropping,” it continued.
As world powers outline multi-billion-dollar plans to rebuild Gaza after the war, recently obtained documents reveal that Hamas has long run a coordinated effort to penetrate and influence NGOs in the war-torn enclave — contradicting years of denials from major humanitarian organizations.
Last month, NGO Monitor — an independent Jerusalem-based research institute that tracks anti-Israel bias among nongovernmental organizations — released a new study revealing how Hamas has for years systematically weaponized humanitarian aid in Gaza, tightening its grip over foreign NGOs operating in the territory and exposing patterns of complicity and collaboration that contradict the groups’ persistent denials.
According to dozens of internal Hamas documents, the Islamist group’s officials designated specific points of contact with “highly respected” international NGOs, including Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, Save the Children, and the Norwegian Refugee Council.
Referred to as “guarantors,” these Hamas-approved senior officials at each NGO allowed the terrorist group to closely oversee activities, influence decision-making, and circumvent restrictions imposed by some Western governments on direct engagement with Hamas.
With NGOs in Gaza — both local and international — required to secure Hamas’s approval to provide services and run projects, the report shows the group wields veto power over humanitarian operations, allowing it to control, manipulate, and exploit aid to advance its political and military objectives.
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Mamdani Sworn In as Mayor of New York, City’s Jews Prepare for Uncertain Future
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani delivers a speech during his inauguration ceremony in New York City, US, Jan. 1, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Kylie Cooper
Zohran Mamdani was sworn in just after midnight on New Year’s Day as the next mayor of New York City, ushering in a new era of anti-Zionist leadership in a city home to the world’s largest Jewish community outside of Israel.
Mamdani, 34, took the oath of office early Thursday morning in a private ceremony at the decommissioned Old City Hall subway station, a location selected to highlight his focus on public transit and working-class New Yorkers. New York Attorney General Letitia James administered the oath shortly after midnight, formally ushering in the tenure of Mamdani.
Placing his hand on a Qur’an, Mamdani became the first Muslim mayor in New York City history, as well as the first mayor of South Asian descent and one of the youngest ever to hold the office. Supporters hailed the moment as a watershed moment for the city’s Muslim community, while some Jewish organizations emphasized the need for the new administration to demonstrate a clear commitment to combating antisemitism at a time of heightened concern.
In brief remarks after taking office, Mamdani said his administration would focus on affordability, unity, and delivering for everyday New Yorkers, signaling continuity with the populist economic themes that defined his campaign.
Zohran Mamdani is sworn in as mayor of New York City at Old City Hall Station, New York, US, Jan. 1, 2026. Photo: Amir Hamja/Pool via REUTERS
A larger public swearing-in ceremony took place on Thursday afternoon on the steps of City Hall, with appearances by fellow democratic socialists US Sen. Bernie Sanders, who presided over the ceremony, and US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. During his remarks, Mamdani, a Democrat, doubled down on his progressive agenda, vowing to pursue a range of lofty campaign promises and govern “expansively and audaciously.”
Mamdani’s rise has been closely followed within Jewish and pro-Israel circles, particularly given his fierce criticism of Israel and association with fringe anti-Zionist figures and movements. Jewish communal leaders, wary of the new mayor, have stressed they will judge him by his actions in office, including how he addresses antisemitic incidents, protects Jewish institutions, and engages with the city’s Jewish residents.
Mamdani, a far-left democratic socialist and avowed anti-Zionist, is an avid supporter of boycotting all Israeli-tied entities who has made anti-Israel activism a cornerstone of his political career and been widely accused of promoting antisemitic rhetoric. He has repeatedly accused Israel of “apartheid” and “genocide”; refused to recognize the country’s right to exist as a Jewish state; and refused to explicitly condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which has been associated with calls for violence against Jews and Israelis worldwide.
Mamdani will assume the mayorship amid an alarming surge in antisemitic hate crimes across New York City.
Jews were targeted in the majority (54 percent) of all hate crimes perpetrated in New York City in 2024, according to data issued by the New York City Police Department (NYPD). A new report released on Wednesday by the New York City Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, which was established in May, noted that figure rose to a staggering 62 percent in the first quarter of this year, despite Jewish New Yorkers comprising just 11 percent of the city’s population.
Since securing the election, Mamdani has stressed a commitment to forcefully combatting antisemitism while in office. However, a recent report released by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) revealed that at least 20 percent of Mamdani’s transition and administrative appointees have either a “documented history of making anti-Israel statements” or ties to radical anti-Zionist organizations that “openly promote terror and harass Jewish people.”
Among these groups are Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and Within Our Lifetime (WOL), all of which routinely glorify the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, harass Jewish students on campus, and stage protests outside synagogues.
According to the ADL, Mamdani’s appointees include individuals who have promoted classic antisemitic tropes, vilified supporters of Jewish self-determination, sought to undermine the legitimacy of Israel, expressed sympathy for Hamas, and celebrated the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre carried out by the Iran-backed terrorist group. Several appointees were also flagged for alleged connections to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has compared Jews to termites, described Judaism as a “dirty religion,” called the Jewish people “Satan,” publicly questioned the Holocaust, shared anti-Israel conspiracy theories, and blamed Jews for pedophilia and sex trafficking. Others, according to ADL, dismissed reports of Hamas atrocities as “propaganda” or publicly justified the Oct. 7 atrocities as a form of justified “resistance.”
Leading members of the Jewish community in New York have expressed alarm about Mamdani’s victory, fearing what may come in a city already experiencing a surge in antisemitic hate crimes.
A Sienna Research Institute poll released in early November revealed that a whopping 72 percent of Jewish New Yorkers believe that Mamdani will be “bad” for the city. A mere 18 percent hold a favorable view of Mamdani, according to the results, while 67 percent view him unfavorably.
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Yemen’s Aden Airport Shuts as Saudi-UAE Rift Deepens
Passengers wait for their flights at Aden Airport in Aden, Yemen, Jan. 1, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Fawaz Salman
Flights at Yemen’s Aden international airport were halted on Thursday, the latest sign of a deepening crisis between Gulf powers Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, whose rivalry is reshaping war-torn Yemen.
At the airport — the main international gateway for parts of Yemen outside Houthi control — passengers crowded the terminal, waiting for updates on their flights.
Later on Thursday, Yemeni sources said flights between Aden and all destinations outside the UAE would resume, though Reuters was unable to confirm that immediately.
Air traffic was shut down due to a row over curbs on flights to the UAE, though there were contradictory accounts of exactly what had happened and who was responsible.
Awadh al-Subaihi said he had been waiting at the airport for a flight to Cairo for medical treatment. “We are suffering, and many other patients and elderly people here are waiting in a difficult situation,” he said.
The UAE backs the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) that seized swathes of southern Yemen from the internationally recognized government last month.
Saudi Arabia, which backs the government, regarded that move as a threat, triggering the biggest crisis between it and Gulf neighbor the UAE in decades.
The UAE-backed STC controls the transport ministry in the internationally recognized coalition government, whose main leadership is supported by Saudi Arabia.
The ministry accused Saudi Arabia in a statement of imposing an air blockade, saying Riyadh had instituted measures requiring all flights to go via Saudi Arabia for extra checks.
It added that when it objected to this, Saudi Arabia had clarified that the restriction was only on flights between Aden and the UAE.
DISAGREEMENT OVER WHO IS RESPONSIBLE
A Saudi source denied any involvement in restricting flights, adding that Yemen’s own internationally recognized government had imposed the requirement on flights between Aden and the UAE in order to curb escalating tensions.
The Saudi source added that the southern-controlled ministry had then responded by ordering a full shutdown of air traffic rather than comply with the restrictions on flights to and from the UAE.
An official source at the transport minister’s office denied this, saying the minister had not issued any decisions to close the airport.
Reuters could not immediately reach the leadership of the internationally recognized government, which has been in Saudi Arabia since the STC seized swathes of the south last month, for comment on the airport closure and flight restrictions.
The UAE Foreign Ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the airport closure.
The tussle is the latest in a deepening crisis in Yemen that has exposed a deep rift between the two Gulf oil powers.
Saudi Arabia this week accused the UAE of pressuring Yemen’s STC to push towards the kingdom’s borders and declared its national security a “red line,” prompting the UAE to say it was pulling its remaining forces out of Yemen.
That followed an airstrike by Saudi-led coalition forces on the southern Yemeni port of Mukalla that the coalition said was a dock used to provide foreign military support to the separatists.