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Breaking with tradition, elite NYC school adds a second entrance exam date to accommodate Jewish families
(New York Jewish Week) — Hunter College High School, a prestigious middle and high school in Manhattan, has added a second date for its entrance exam after a Jewish parent complained that the test was scheduled for the eve of Passover.
Hunter spokesperson Vince Dimiceli told the New York Jewish Week that he believes this is the first time the school has offered a second test date.
Hunter College High School, which runs from seventh to 12th grade, is a coveted destination for many New York City students. Because the school is run by Hunter College, an affiliate of the City University of New York, it is free to attend.
Its three-hour entrance exam is invitation-only, and is open only to students whose grades or scores on state tests in English and math exceed a high threshold. The school does not admit anyone after seventh grade, so the exam is students’ only chance to gain acceptance to Hunter.
Erica Rahavy, a Jewish parent, told the Jewish Week before the second test date was announced that her son was invited to take the exam, but was dismayed to see that it fell on April 5, the morning preceding the first Seder night of Passover. Although the test does not fall on the holiday itself, which begins at sundown, Rahavy said the school “has to understand that families travel to be with their families on the holidays.”
Hunter’s decision to add a second date to allow for Passover preparation reflects increasing sensitivity to religious observance at New York City schools, which have begun in recent years to close for a broad range of religious holidays. And it speaks to the particular sensitivities around Jewish practice in a city where Jews still make up more than 10% of the population. At the same time, the incident reflects how religious Jewish parents still contend with making sometimes difficult choices around holiday observance.
“I have no problem missing the day of school for my kids,” Rahavy said. “We’ve done that before to celebrate holidays with our families. It shouldn’t be quite so high-stakes that it’s just this one day or nothing.”
In an email sent to Hunter’s admissions office last week and obtained by the Jewish Week, Rahavy wrote that her family has plans to travel on April 5 and asked if the school offered an “alternate time for students celebrating the holiday.”
The school’s response, sent yesterday, was terse: “The Entrance Exam will only be held on Wednesday, April 5, 2023 in the morning and students have about three hours to complete the exam. HCCS is unable to administer make-up exams.”
Upon receiving Hunter’s response, Rahavy was worried that she would be forced to “decide to have my son take this exam or have a holiday with our family, which isn’t really a choice we should be asked to make.”
Soon afterward, however, the school changed its answer. As of Wednesday, a note on Hunter’s admissions website read, “An alternate test date for religious observance on Tuesday afternoon, April 4, 2023, held at Hunter College, will be made available upon request.”
A day earlier, that line had not appeared on the site. But Dimiceli told the Jewish Week, ‘[W]e always knew we would need to make accommodations. That was not reflected on the Campus School website. It is so now.”
Rahavy did not immediately respond to a request for comment about her reaction to the additional test date. But speaking to the Jewish Week before the date was added, she said accommodating a widely observed Jewish holiday in New York City felt like a clear choice.
“I can’t imagine they would have planned this out on Christmas Eve when families travel to be with each other for the holidays,” she said.
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Iran Celebrates Anniversary of US Embassy Takeover With Chants of ‘Death to America,’ ‘Death to Israel’
Iranians take to the streets during nationwide rallies on Nov. 4, 2025, marking the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the US embassy by waving flags and chanting “death to America” and “death to Israel.” Photo: Screenshot
Nearly half a century after Iranian students stormed and took over the US embassy in Tehran, the Islamic Republic of Iran continues to mark the anniversary with rallies across the capital and hundreds of cities nationwide, celebrating what officials describe as their “resistance against the West.”
On Tuesday, thousands of Iranians took part in demonstrations commemorating the 46th anniversary of the US embassy takeover in 1979.
Framed as a show of “national unity,” participants condemned “US and Israeli aggressions” against the Islamist regime — including the 12-day war with Israel in June, which Washington joined by targeting key Iranian nuclear sites after multiple rounds of negotiations failed to yield any results.
During the demonstrations, people were seen waving Iranian flags and holding posters of those killed in US and Israeli attacks, while chanting slogans including “death to America” and “death to Israel.”
Iran celebrates victory over Western imperialism
Hundreds of thousands took to the streets of Tehran and 900+ cities nationwide to mark the 46th anniversary of the 1979 US Embassy takeover
The 1979 revolution ended both Western and Israeli influence in Iran by deposing… pic.twitter.com/UB03SanUFU
— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) November 4, 2025
Every year, the Iranian regime marks Nov. 4 as the “National Day of Fight Against Global Arrogance,” commemorating the 1979 takeover of the US embassy in Tehran by radical students — followers of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
For 444 days, 52 US embassy staff members were held hostage, subjected to abuse, torture, and mock executions.
On November 4, 1979, followers of the Ayatollah Khomeini seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran; the Iranians held more than 50 Americans hostage for 444 days. Listen to former American hostages tell their story. pic.twitter.com/gaO6tojGzt
— Department of State (@StateDept) November 4, 2020
According to Iranian state media, government officials praised Tuesday’s events as a tribute to the students and youth who led the “revolution,” portraying them as a key symbol of “the Islamic Republic’s opposition to global hegemony.”
They also reaffirmed Iran’s commitment to resisting “US and Israeli dominance,” supporting global movements against “foreign hegemony” and defending Palestinian rights.
During a speech in the legislature, Iranian Deputy Parliament Speaker Ali Nikzad described the US embassy takeover as a reflection “of years of oppression and humiliation inflicted on the Iranian people.”
“Today marks the anniversary of the revolutionary action of students in taking over the Den of Espionage,” Nikzad said, using the regime’s name for the former US embassy compound.
He also said the differences between Washington and Tehran are deep-rooted, fundamental, and cannot be resolved through negotiations — rejecting renewed calls for Iran to resume talks with Western powers over its nuclear program.
Across the country, demonstrators denounced the US and Israel with speeches and religious chants, while symbolic displays of Iranian missiles and centrifuges to enrich uranium for nuclear fuel were showcased along the parade routes.
There were also exhibitions showcasing decades of “Western and Israeli crimes,” along with the burning of US and Israeli flags and a symbolic trial of US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a statement, Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a military force and internationally designated terrorist organization, condemned recent US behavior toward the country, saying it “demonstrated that the pattern of intervention, pressure, deception, and threats remains a persistent strategy against the Iranian nation and its independent political establishment.”
“The National Student Day is a reminder of the criminal nature of the United States, showing that faithful and revolutionary Iranian people will never surrender to domination and deception by global arrogance,” the IRGC continued.
“The takeover of the Den of Espionage embodies a strategic choice between the path of resistance, dignity, and independence versus that of compromise, submission, and surrender,” the IRGC stated.
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Arizona man sentenced to 4 years in prison for antisemitic threats to Jewish NYC hotel owner
An Arizona man who sent hundreds of threatening messages to a Jewish-owned hotel in New York City was sentenced to 49 months in prison on Thursday in federal court.
Donovan Hall, 35, of Mesa, Arizona, pleaded guilty to making interstate threats and interstate stalking of the Jewish owners of the Historic Blue Moon Hotel in Manhattan. He was also sentenced to three years of supervised release.
The Blue Moon Hotel is “dedicated to Jewish community in every way that we can be,” Randy Settenbrino said in an interview last year from his hotel, which includes rooms named for icons of the Jewish Lower East Side, a kosher cafe and a mural depicting 2,000 years of Jewish history.
At the time, Settenbrino and his employees had just begun to get what prosecutors said were nearly 1,000 threatening messages from Hall. Sent between August and November 2024, the messages threatened to “torture, mutilate, rape, and murder them and their families,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
In October, Hall texted photographs of two firearms and a machete to one of his victims, writing, “I’ve got something for you and your inbred children” and “for the Zionist cowards,” according to his federal indictment.
Threatening text messages of firearms sent to the owner of the Blue Moon Hotel by Donovan Hall. (Courtesy Randy Settenbrino)
“Donovan Hall targeted Jewish victims with a sustained campaign of intimidation, terror, and harassment,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton in a statement. “The approximately 1,000 threats he sent to these New Yorkers were alarming and brazen.”
Hall’s messages coincided with a boycott campaign against the hotel launched after Settenbrino’s son, an Israeli soldier, was identified as having posted videos of shooting at destroyed buildings and detonating bombs in homes and a mosque in Gaza.
Hall, who has been held at New York’s Metropolitan Detention Center since his arrest last year, apologized for his actions in a sentencing submission to the court, writing that he “wanted to champion for a cause and hunt down the bullies, not realizing that it was me the whole time.”
In an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency after Hall’s sentencing, Settenbrino said “baby killer” had been spray painted on the windows of his hotel, and flyers were posted around Manhattan calling for its boycott and referring to his son, Bram, as a “war criminal.”
“We’re sitting at a pivotal time in New York City, where we’re feeling the encroachment of hate and antisemitism in the West, like our brethren are feeling it in Europe, and so it’s very scary for everyone concerned,” said Settenbrino. “It’s very important that there are strong sentences handed out to this, not just for us, but for klal yisrael [the Jewish people] in general.”
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US Proposes International Gaza Force to UN as Turkey Pushes for Role Amid Concerns Over Hamas Support
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan poses with his counterparts Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia, Ayman Safadi of Jordan, and Sugiono of Indonesia before their meeting on Gaza, in Istanbul, Turkey, Nov. 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Murad Sezer
The United States has proposed a draft resolution for an international force in Gaza as Turkey seeks a role in post-war reconstruction, raising concerns that Ankara’s growing influence in the enclave could strengthen Hamas.
On Monday, Washington sent a draft resolution to members of the United Nations Security Council, proposing the creation of an International Stabilization Force (ISF) in Gaza that would remain for at least two years, according to several media reports.
Under US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, such a force will oversee the Gaza ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and train local security forces.
Based on the proposed draft resolution, participating countries in the international force would be granted a broad mandate to maintain security and administer the war-torn enclave through the end of 2027, with the possibility of extending the mission. Troop deployments are expected to begin as early as January.
In recent weeks, Washington has been working closely with regional powers to determine the composition of the peacekeeping force, with Turkey seeking to play a central role in the enclave.
However, Israel has repeatedly opposed any involvement of Turkish security forces in post-war Gaza.
Experts have warned that Turkey, a key backer of Hamas, could shield the Islamist group in Gaza or even strengthen its terrorist infrastructure as it seeks a central role in post-war efforts.
According to the draft resolution, the ISF would include troops from multiple participating countries and would be responsible for securing Gaza’s borders with Israel and Egypt, while also protecting civilians and maintaining humanitarian corridors.
The ISF would also “stabilize the security environment in Gaza by ensuring the process of demilitarizing the [enclave], including the destruction and prevention of rebuilding of military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, as well as the permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups,” the draft states.
Under this plan, the international force would seemingly take on the responsibility of disarming Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that violently seized total control of Gaza in 2007 after being elected to power in parliamentary elections the prior year.
As Turkey aims to secure a role in post-war Gaza, the country has been leading efforts, along with six other regional powers, to establish a Palestinian-led self-rule in the enclave after the war.
This week, the foreign ministers of the so-called “guarantor countries” under Trump’s peace plan — Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Pakistan, and Indonesia — met in Istanbul to discuss Gaza’s future and potential steps following the ceasefire.
At the summit, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan called on Muslim nations to wield their influence in shaping Gaza’s reconstruction and future governance.
“Our principle is that Palestinians should govern the Palestinians and ensure their own security,” Fidan said during a press conference. “The international community should support this in the best possible way — diplomatically, institutionally, and economically.”
“Nobody wants to see a new system of tutelage emerge,” the top Turkish diplomat continued. “We’ve now reached an extremely critical stage: We do not want the genocide in Gaza to resume.”
On Saturday, Fidan met with Hamas senior negotiator Khalil al-Hayya and several key members of the group’s political leadership to discuss the current ceasefire and ongoing diplomatic efforts.
Shortly after the meeting, the Turkish diplomat asserted that the Palestinian terrorist group was “ready to hand over Gaza to a committee of Palestinians.”
Hamas has consistently rejected disarmament, insisting on keeping its weapons and controlling security in Gaza during an interim period.
Under phase one of Trump’s ceasefire plan, the Israeli military controls 53 percent of Gaza’s territory. Hamas, meanwhile, controls the other 47 percent, where the vast majority of the Gazan population is located.
Since the ceasefire went into effect, Hamas terrorists have brutally cracked down on all rivals and dissenters, with videos emerging of rampant torture and public executions in the streets. The Algemeiner reported last week that four Israel-backed militias fighting Hamas are moving to fill the power vacuum, pledging to cooperate with most international forces involved in rebuilding the enclave but vowing to resist any presence from Qatar, Turkey, or Iran — all three of which have supported Hamas for years.
At the Istanbul summit, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has maintained an openly hostile stance toward the Jewish state, reiterated that Hamas was “determined to adhere to the [ceasefire] agreement” and called on Muslim states to play “a leading role” in Gaza’s recovery.
According to Trump’s peace plan, Gaza would be governed by a “technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee” after the war, with the supervision of an international body called the “Board of Peace.”
Under the proposed framework, the ISF is designed to maintain security in Gaza during this transition period, as Israel gradually withdraws from additional areas of the enclave.
While the plan specifies that Hamas would be excluded from post-war governance, the Palestinian Authority (PA) could potentially take control of Gaza after undergoing internal reforms.
The PA, which has long been riddled with accusations of corruption, has maintained for years a so-called “pay-for-slay” program, which rewards terrorists and their families for carrying out attacks against Israelis.
Israel has rejected any role for Hamas or the PA in governing Gaza after the war.