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Gov. Hochul unveils new plan to combat antisemitism in New York
(New York Jewish Week) – Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the founding of a new center to combat hate via education — the centerpiece of a larger plan to fight antisemitism in New York, the state with the largest Jewish population in the country.
Hochul unveiled plans for the State Anti-Hate in Education Center during an event Tuesday at the Center for Jewish History in downtown Manhattan, in front of a crowd of about 300 people that included representatives of Jewish organizations across the city. Hochul portrayed the initiative as a response to the Biden administration’s national plan to counter antisemitism, which was presented in May.
An annual survey from the Anti-Defamation League found that antisemitic incidents in New York state had jumped 28% in 2022 from the previous year.
“I will stand here as your governor and tell you, with every fiber of my body, that we will never show indifference to the evil of antisemitism — not now, not ever,” Hochul said at the event.
The State Anti-Hate in Education Center will be part of the governor’s office and will aim to bring together representatives from major educational bodies in the state, including the City University of New York, State University of New York, the state’s Education Department and a group representing the leaders of independent campuses across the state. The center will focus on outlining ways institutions can partner to combat hate, particularly through education, and will host a conference next summer. This year, the center will focus on antisemitism, and will choose a different form of bigotry to study annually in subsequent years.
“Hate cannot be fought in silos. We know what begins with the Jews rarely ever ends with the Jews,” said Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, who spoke after Hochul about the Biden administration’s anti-antisemitism plan. “What we’ve got to understand, and what I believe that our government does understand, is that there is an interconnectedness of hatred, that what begins with one group never ends with that group.”
L-R: Ted Deutch, Deborah Lipstadt and Kathy Hochul at the Center for Jewish History, New York, NY, Sept. 19, 2023.(Darren McGee/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)
Hochul also pledged to implement a program that would educate children about discrimination, and to enforce a law requiring Holocaust education in schools. New York has required schools to teach about the Holocaust since 1994, and last year, Hochul signed a bill directing the state to survey whether schools are complying with that mandate.
Hochul’s plan also includes measures to improve the way law enforcement responds to, investigates and collects data on reported hate crimes. She also pledged to simplify the process by which victims of crimes can apply for financial assistance for lost or damaged property and other crime-related expenses.
Another facet of the plan, Hochul said, focuses on providing culturally sensitive mental health care to help Jewish New Yorkers “handle what they’re going through over the last couple years.”
“I want the word out. We have the resources, we have the commitment, we have the people who will do the right thing,” Hochul said. “I don’t ever want to find any limitations on our ability as a state — or my ability as a governor whose number-one job is to protect people in this state.”
She also announced that $38 million of federal funding has been allocated to help fund security measures at 195 synagogues and other religious and nonprofit institutions in the state. In addition, the state has allocated $500,000 toward a program that would “empower community organizations to help lead other, non-Jewish organizations in systemwide anti-hate efforts.”
Antisemitism was not the only issue that came up at the event. Before her speech, the governor was interrupted by two screaming protesters — including Jonathan David Rinaldi, a Jewish Republican candidate for New York City Council — who demanded that she “close the border” in response to the influx of migrants into the state. The two men also demanded that Hochul stop seeking federal funding to help resettle migrants, that she fight what they termed “Jew hatred at CUNY” and that she lift COVID-19 vaccine requirements (though what they were referring to was unclear). The men were swiftly removed by security.
In addition to Hochul and Lipstadt, American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch spoke to the crowd, praising the governor and quoting the rabbinic adage that “All of Israel are responsible for one another.”
“That responsibility starts very much with us,” Deutch said. “It’s true within the Jewish community, it’s what we say about our own community, but it’s remarkable to see the governor of the state of New York recognize that responsibility the way you have.”
Some attendees hoped the governor would address Jewish concerns beyond antisemitism and hate.
“I believe it’s very good what the governor is doing, but we still need to meet about something positive,” said Alexander Rapaport, the founder of Masbia, a kosher food pantry network, and Masbia relief, a Jewish communal disaster relief team that has been aiding newly arrived migrants to New York City. “If all we can talk about is antisemitism and combating hate and it takes up all the air in the room, the haters are still winning in some way.”
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Swiss Ambassador to Israel Criticizes Fencers for Disrespecting Israeli National Anthem at European Championships
Swiss athletes refuse to face the Israeli flag during the playing of the Israeli national anthem at the European U23 Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, on April 26, 2025. Photo: Team Bizzi
Switzerland’s Ambassador to Israel Simon Geissbühler on Sunday sharply criticized the actions of the Swiss fencing team, which showed disrespect when the Israeli national anthem played at the European U23 Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, this past weekend.
Israel’s under-23 men’s epée team took home the gold medal at the international competition while Switzerland won silver, followed by Italy, which won bronze. The Israeli fencing team included fencers Alon Sarid, Feodor Khapersky, Yehonathan Messika, and Itamar Tavor.
During Saturday’s medal ceremony, Israel’s national anthem “Hatikvah” played, in honor of the gold medal winners. Both the Israeli and Italian teams turned toward the Israeli flag while the song played, but the Swiss team remained facing forward. The Swiss team was comprised of fencers Ian Hauri, Théo Brochard, Jonathan Fuhrimann, and Sven Vineis.
“Personally, but also on behalf of Swiss Fencing, I deplore the behavior of our athletes,” Geissbühler wrote in a letter on Sunday, as cited by several news outlets. “An award ceremony must under no circumstances be misused for political statements – despite every athlete’s right to have their own opinion on political conflicts and wars.” He added that the actions of the Swiss team were “not discussed with anyone in advance,” and said the Swiss Fencing Association will speak to the athletes when they return home “and then decide on the next steps.”
The Swiss Fencing Association said in a statement on Facebook that the Swiss athletes “abused the victory ceremony for a political manifestation.”
“In principle, Swiss Fencing is of the opinion that sporting competitions are not suitable for political opinions, even though athletes are allowed to have their personal opinions on world events,” the association further noted. “Swiss Fencing will discuss with the U23 team after the athletes return from Estonia and then decide on necessary measures. We regret that this behavior hurts the feelings of the Israeli delegation and discredit the sporting achievements of the Swiss team with three medals at this U23 European Championship. We congratulate the Israeli team for winning the gold medal in the team competition.”
The federation pointed out that the Swiss team did congratulate the Israeli winners after the final. The Swiss athletes reportedly shook hands with their Israeli counterparts.
Ambassador of Israel to Switzerland Ifat Reshef also commented on the ordeal that took place at the European U23 Championships. In a post on X, she congratulated Team Israel on their win and added, “We definitely expected from our Swiss friends better sportsmanship (and better knowledge of facts and understanding of the real situation).”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said the Swiss athletes are an “embarrassment” to their home country. He wrote in a post on X: “Shame on the Swiss team for their disrespectful behavior. you [sic] don’t know how to lose and behaved in a manner which is an embarrassment to you and the country you’re supposed to represent.”
Israel Olympic Committee chairwoman and International Olympic Committee member Yael Arad also reportedly condemned their behavior in a Facebook post. She described their actions as a “provocation” that contradict Olympic values and Switzerland’s position on terrorism, after the Swiss parliamentary committee voted to ban Hamas following the deadly Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in 2023.
“The Swiss under-23 team chose to cope with the loss on the podium as the anthem was being played with provocative losing chutzpah that utterly contravenes not only Olympic values, but also the fact that Switzerland declared Hamas an illegal murderous terrorist organization after Oct. 7,” Arad, who is the first Israeli to ever win an Olympic medal with her silver in judo in 1992, reportedly wrote.
“Their failure to respect sportsmanship speaks volumes about them as athletes and young people,” she added. “I would expect them to set aside differences and show mutual respect, especially after such a decisive loss.”
The Israeli fencing team that competed in the European U23 Championships was coached by Alexander Ivanov. The team ranked seventh when they entered the competition, and their win is Israel’s first team gold at the European U-23 Championships since the 2022 win by Dar Hecht in the women’s division.
The Israeli women’s fencing team that competed in the European U23 Championships was also victorious this weekend. The women’s épée fencing team —comprised of Mihal Shukurov, Viki Ossipov, Yuval Yizhaki, and Tamara Lando — won bronze on Sunday.
The post Swiss Ambassador to Israel Criticizes Fencers for Disrespecting Israeli National Anthem at European Championships first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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At Israeli Summit, Gaza Ceasefire Rejection Sparks Broad Support for Continued Pressure on Hamas
A picture released by the Israeli Army says to show Israeli soldiers conducting operations in a location given as Tel Al-Sultan area, Rafah Governorate, Gaza, in this handout image released April 2, 2025. Photo: Israeli Army/Handout via REUTERS
Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer vowed at a policy summit on Monday that Israel would defeat Hamas and bring home the hostages still being held by the Palestinian terrorist group in Gaza.
His remarks came amid reports that Israeli officials had formally rejected an Egyptian-brokered proposal for a five-year truce between Israel and Hamas in exchange for the release of 59 hostages still held in Gaza.
“We are going to dismantle Hamas’s military capabilities and end its rule in Gaza. We will ensure that Gaza can never again pose a threat to the State of Israel. And we are committed to bringing all our hostages home. These are the goals we have set, and we fully intend to achieve them,” Dermer vowed.
An Israeli senior official was cited earlier in the day as saying that Jerusalem had rebuffed a five-year truce that would see Hamas able to “rearm, recover, and continue its war against the State of Israel with greater intensity.”
The sentiment was echoed by several civil society leaders at the Jewish News Syndicate policy summit in Jerusalem, which brought together largely conservative policymakers, diplomats, academics, and journalists.
“There is absolutely no way that Hamas will give over every piece of its leverage. Even if there is a ceasefire, it will look more like [the one with] Hezbollah, which is not actually a ceasefire,” political commentator Meira Kolatch said, referring to the truce repeatedly violated by the Iran-backed terrorist group.
“The soldiers won’t agree to this,” Kolatch told The Algemeiner.
American influencer and PragerU host Xaviaer DuRousseau warned against “over-negotiating” with a terrorist organization such as Hamas. “Five years is far too long for Hamas to exist. Five days is too long. We need to be much more direct and forceful in doing everything to bring the hostages home and make sure Hamas is wiped off the planet.”
Beyond the Gaza war, a major focus of the gathering was Iran.
In his address at the summit a day earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid out a framework for countering Iranian nuclear ambitions. Noting strong US-Israel alignment on preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, Netanyahu called for a deal that would fully dismantle Iran’s enrichment infrastructure and curb its production of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
“A bad deal is worse than no deal,” Netanyahu warned, emphasizing that only the complete dismantling of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure would eliminate the threat.
“The only good deal that works is a deal like the one that was made with Libya that removed all [nuclear] infrastructure,” he said.
Speaking to The Algemeiner, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon expressed skepticism over the Trump administration’s Oman-based talks with the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program, calling the Iranians “masters of deception.”
Dermer was more diplomatic, telling audience members that he was “confident” that US President Donald Trump would “make a good deal.”
In his address to the gathering, Danon vowed the war against Hamas “will not end with hostages [remaining] in Gaza,” referring to those kidnapped during the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Addressing Trump’s decision to nix the nomination of Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) as the American ambassador to the UN, Danon said he was “deeply disappointed” but confident that the president would pick a “strong” candidate for the role and also have a hand in appointing a secretary-general who would be more favorable to Israel than the incumbent, António Guterres.
Danon, who led a delegation of over 30 UN ambassadors to the Hamas-attacked communities of southern Israel as well as to the site of the Nova music festival massacre, said Israel was under “constant attack” at the UN. He pointed to the virulently anti-Israel UN special rapporteur for Palestinian rights, Francesca Albanese, who he said should be barred from entering the US.
Israeli Ambassador the United Nations Danny Danon. Photo: Debbie Weiss / The Algemeiner
The Israeli envoy also Trump’s efforts to weed out antisemitism on US campuses and stop “dangerous outsiders who are not even students but who go on campuses to incite.”
Supporters of Israel should be “as engaged as possible in the fight against antisemitism,” Danon told The Algemeiner.
As for the war against Hamas, some experts in attendance argued that Israel also has to alter its approach to Egypt, with which Jerusalem has maintained a peace treaty for decades.
Jonathan Conricus, former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Israel’s approach toward Egypt needed urgent reassessment.
“They hold the keys to the future of Gaza,” Conricus told the Algemeiner, referring to Egypt’s control of the Rafah border crossing, which connects southern Gaza and Egypt.
He criticized Israel’s reliance on diplomatic incentives with its southern neighbor, urging a tougher stance while preserving the peace treaty.
“We’ve been using way too much carrot, and far less than the necessary stick. They are, in many ways, dictating terms that we should be dictating and that’s very regrettable,” he said.
“Every moment that they continue to keep the gates closed at Rafah really makes it close to impossible for us to actually defeat Hamas,” he added.
As for the status of the US-Israel relationship, Matt Brooks, CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition, warned against what he termed the “woke right” of the Republican party.
“The cancer that has taken over the Democratic Party with the woke progressive left – with Bernie Sanders, AOC, Ilhan Oman, Rashida Talib, and the protesters on college campuses – we’re starting to see the beginning cells of that cancer start to take hold in the Republican Party,” Brooks told the audience.
Speaking later to The Algemeiner, Brooks said the danger came from rising voices within the GOP advocating American disengagement from the world, led by figures like Tucker Carlson.
“There’s not a lot of foreign policy difference and in some ways economic populist difference between, say, Bernie Sanders on one hand and Tucker Carlson on the other,” he said.
Extremes on both the right and the left were converging in a form of “neoisolationism” that seeks to “withdraw America’s role in the world and shrink it to just to our borders” and that views Israel as a liability rather than a strategic ally, Brooks said.
“It’s a very dangerous place for the Republican Party and for the country to go,” Brooks said.
On the international scene, the director of UK Lawyers for Israel, Natasha Hausdorff, who joined a legal panel at the event, urged private individuals to take a more active role in advocating for the rule of law and equal treatment for Israel in the international arena, particularly in legal forums. She emphasized that civil society actors are often able to speak and act more freely than the state itself, which is constrained by diplomatic considerations.
“I fundamentally believe that we as civil society have a great deal more to contribute to the legal debate. There is currently a deficiency of Israel demanding its equal rights and demanding the proper application of international law in the international space,” she told The Algemeiner.
In Israel’s case, Hausdorff said, international law was being weaponized, resulting in “the erosion of legal terminology like apartheid, genocide, ethnic cleansing, colonialism, occupation.”
Marcus Sheff, CEO of curricula watchdog IMPACT-se, focused on the role of education in combating antisemitism. He cited Elie Wiesel’s assertion that fighting antisemitism must begin with books.
“Textbooks are uniquely authoritative: they are a key tool in creating the societies of the future that will keep Jews safe,” Sheff told The Algemeiner. “From Saudi Arabia and the UAE to Morocco and Azerbaijan, antisemitism is being eradicated from national school curricula.” He urged Western countries — and even some school districts in the US — to follow the lead of those Muslim states.
The post At Israeli Summit, Gaza Ceasefire Rejection Sparks Broad Support for Continued Pressure on Hamas first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Wikipedia Nonprofit Status Under Scrutiny From US Justice Department Amid Claims of Systemic Anti-Israel Bias
A woman walks past the US Department of Justice Building, in Washington, DC, Dec. 15, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Al Drago
The US Justice Department under President Donald Trump has launched an investigation into the nonprofit that operates the popular Wikipedia website, amid accusations that the online encyclopedia has spread “propaganda” and allowed “foreign actors to manipulate information” while maintaining a systemic bias against Israel.
Edward Martin, the interim US Attorney for the District of Columbia, sent a letter to the Wikimedia Foundation on Thursday, warning the organization that its nonprofit status could be jeopardized for possibly violating its “legal obligations and fiduciary responsibilities” under US law.
“[T]he public is entitled to rely on a reasonable expectation of neutrality, transparency, and accountability in [Wikimedia’s] operations and publications,” Martin wrote.
“It has come to my attention that the Wikimedia Foundation, through its wholly owned subsidiary Wikipedia, is allowing foreign actors to manipulate information and spread propaganda to the American public,” Trump’s top prosecutor in the US capital continued. “Wikipedia is permitting information manipulation on its platform, including the rewriting of key, historical events and biographical information of current and previous American leaders, as well as other matters implicating the national security and the interests of the United States. Masking propaganda that influences public opinion under the guise of providing informational material is antithetical to Wikimedia’s ‘educational’ mission.”
Martin noted that top search engines such as Google prioritize Wikipedia results and that artificial intelligence (AI) platforms receive Wikipedia data to train large-language models, arguing that anti-American misinformation pushed by the website could have a widespread insidious effect on large populations.
Wikipedia has been embroiled in controversy over allegations that its editors have spearheaded campaigns to defame Israel, casting doubt over the site’s commitment to providing information on controversial subjects in a factual and neutral manner. A group of high-ranking Wikipedia editors has engaged in an elaborate and systematic effort to depict the Jewish state’s history in an overtly negative light, according to investigative reports by Pirate Wires and Jewish Journal.
The cohort of Wikipedia editors has softened the image of Islamist terrorist groups such as Hamas through removing any mention of their 1988 charter, which calls for the complete massacre of Jews and elimination of Israel. The editors also edited an article on Zionism, describing the movement for Jewish self-determination as “an ethnocultural nationalist movement” which was “pursued through the colonization of Palestine.”
“Zionists wanted to create a Jewish state in Palestine with as much land, as many Jews, and as few Palestinian Arabs as possible,” the Wikipedia article on Zionism read.
Though the editors have steadily embedded an anti-Israel bias for years, efforts ramped up shortly after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, according to researchers and investigative journalists. The group, for example, added an article titled “Gaza Genocide” in November 2024, heavily implying that Israel has waged a campaign of ethnic extermination in the Gaza enclave.
“According to a United Nations special committee, Amnesty International, and other experts and human rights organizations, Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people during its ongoing invasion and bombing of the Gaza Strip as part of the Gaza war,” the article read.
The site has also published an article titled Israeli Apartheid, which claims that the Jewish state has built “a system of institutionalized segregation and discrimination in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and to a lesser extent in Israel proper.”
Several of the most controversial articles regarding Israel have been placed under “extended confirmed protection” which prohibits anyone, outside of high-ranking Wikipedia editors, from making edits.
Last month, the Anti-Defamation League published a report titled “Editing for Hate: How Anti-Israel and Anti-Jewish Bias Undermines Wikipedia’s Neutrality,” which argued that a group of “malicious” Wikipedia editors have inserted anti-Israel bias onto the site, oftentimes violating the organization’s neutrality policies in the process.
“Most readers assume Wikipedia is a reliable online encyclopedia, but in reality, it has become a biased platform manipulated by agenda-driven editors on many topics,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement.
The Wikimedia Foundation disputed the findings of the report. “Though our preliminary review of this report finds troubling and flawed conclusions that are not supported by the Anti-Defamation League’s data, we are currently undertaking a more thorough and detailed analysis,” a Wikimedia spokesperson said of the findings.
In his letter, Martin requested documents and information to answer several questions about the foundation’s conduct.
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