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Orthodox activist Heshy Tischler makes peace with the Jewish reporter who was caught in his riot
(New York Jewish Week) — Not quite two years ago, the Orthodox provocateur Heshy Tischler pled guilty to riling up rioters against the Jewish journalist Jacob Kornbluh during protests against pandemic restrictions in Brooklyn. On Wednesday night, the duo were locked in a more genial altercation — on Tishler’s radio show, where Kornbluh was a guest.
For more than an hour, Kornbluh, senior political reporter at the Forward, batted down a litany of far-right talking points offered up by Tischler and his co-hosts: about election denial and supporting the Jan. 6 insurrection, questioning vaccines and warning against sex education in schools.
In one representative exchange, Tischler praised the ex-president he wishes still occupied the White House: “We all think Trump did a good job,” he said.
Kornbluh responded quickly: “Yeah, he also dined with antisemites and Holocaust deniers,” referring to Trump’s recent dinner with Kanye West and white supremacist Nick Fuentes that drew widespread condemnation, including a resolution by the Republican National Committee this week.
In the course of their conversation, both men offered apologies.
“I apologize if I didn’t satisfy everyone on this radio show, but the opinions that I expressed are not necessarily my own opinions,” said Kornbluh, one of the few haredi Orthodox journalists to cover the community for a non-Orthodox news outlet. “It’s backed by facts.”
Tischler’s expression of regret was more personal. “As a fellow brother and a fellow Jew, I’m going to fight with you,” he told Kornbluh. “We are allowed to fight with each other. We are allowed to disagree. Maybe sometimes we go a little overboard. I’m sorry about that, but both of us do it.”
It was a notable public detente for two men whose conflict came to represent a moment of painful polarization in the Brooklyn Orthodox community they share. Back in 2020, Tischler burst into public view after he agitated against pandemic restrictions, cutting the locks on a closed playground and organizing protests against required masking and other public health measures.
Kornbluh, who then worked at Jewish Insider, was reporting on how the Orthodox community bucked the rules and continued to hold large gatherings. The pair clashed.
Their conflict came to a head in October 2020 during a pro-Trump, anti-mask rally that Tischler organized in Borough Park. There, dozens of Orthodox men surrounded Kornbluh after Tischler directed the crowd to attack the journalist. Kornbluh said he was punched and kicked.
Tischler was arrested and charged with incitement. After his arrest, dozens of his supporters waving Trump flags gathered outside of Kornbluh’s home. As part of his plea agreement, Tischler had to perform 10 days of community service.
Nearly two and a half years later, Tischler says that painful moment is in the past.
“Our wounds have been healed,” he told the New York Jewish Week. About Kornbluh, he said, “He’s very knowledgeable and he was a very good and interesting guest.”
Tischler added that while “everybody in the Orthodox community has seen that we have made peace,” the radio show appearance was the first time the two were seen talking publicly in the media.
“We bumped into each other many times in the last year, at synagogues, kiddushes, and weddings,” Tischler said.
Kornbluh declined to comment about his appearance on Tischler’s show, which the host opened by alluding to their past tension.
Their community “went through a tough time during Covid,” Tischler told Kornbluh.
“Maybe both of us didn’t really understand what was going on,” he added. “Maybe now we understand.”
Tischler has sought to springboard into politics now that he is a household name in his community. He ran for City Council in 2021 and last year sought a state senate seat — losing soundly each time. (He had also lost a City Council race in 2017.) But he plans to run City Council again this year — and said in an interview that he is working on himself in preparation.
“I’d like to be able to make better judgments in the future on how to control myself,” Tischler said. “I’ll make sure to control and keep myself intact and make sure that I never ever create something where my words incite anybody ever. I’m going to try to do better.”
Amber Adler, a Brooklyn Orthodox activist who ran against Tischler in the 2021 City Council Race, told the New York Jewish Week that if Tischler’s apology is sincere and Kornbluh is accepting of it, then “that’s a unique milestone.”
“What I hope it is for the community is an example of two people trying to work something out and come into some type of agreement to move past it in a productive matter,” Adler said, who is also running for City Council again this year. “I really do genuinely hope that it inspires people to apologize to those people that they’ve hurt.”
Adler also said that a public apology — just as much a public conflict — fits into the antics that have made Tischler famous in his community and beyond.
“With Heshy, you never know what you’re going to get,” she said. “That’s why he’s very watched in general. People listen to what he says, but I think everyone is just hoping for the best with the apology that just happened.”
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Iran appoints AMIA bombing suspect to National Security Council
(JTA) —
For the second time this year, Iran has named a wanted suspect in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires to a top security role.
A spokesman for the Islamic Republic’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said Monday that Mohsen Rezaei had resigned as an adviser to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, and would assume the role of secretary of Iran’s powerful Supreme National Security Council. Rezaei is a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Rezaei is wanted by Argentina and is subject to an Interpol Red Notice issued at Argentina’s request over his alleged role in the 1994 attack, which killed 85 people and remains the deadliest terrorist attack in Argentina’s history.
Earlier this year, Ahmad Vahidi, another suspect in the AMIA case and also the subject of an Interpol Red Notice, was appointed IRGC commander.
In a landmark ruling in 2024, an Argentine court held Iran and its proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah, responsible for the bombing, setting the stage for international legal action.
In June 2025, Argentina’s federal judiciary ordered that 10 Iranian and Lebanese suspects accused in connection with the deadly 1994 AMIA bombing be tried in absentia. Rezaei and Vahidi are among them.
The eight other suspects accused by the late AMIA special prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, are: former Iranian Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahijan, former Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati, former Iranian ambassador Hadi Soleimanpour, former Iranian cultural attache in Buenos Aires Mohsen Rabbani and former Iranian diplomat Ahmad Reza Asghari, as well as suspected Hezbollah operatives Salman Raouf Salman, Abdallah Salman and Hussein Mounir Mouzannar.
The post Iran appoints AMIA bombing suspect to National Security Council appeared first on The Forward.
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Israel and AIPAC on the ballot in the Minnesota Senate and U.S. House races
(JTA) — A pair of Democratic primaries in Minnesota on Tuesday are among a string of high-profile battles between progressive and moderate candidates, where Israel and the pro-Israel lobby serve as key wedge issues.
The state’s highest-profile race is the U.S. Senate primary between Rep. Angie Craig, who has been endorsed by the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC, and Lieutenant Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who says she would reject AIPAC’s money and accuses Israel of committing a genocide.
The most recent data gathered in late July through early August has Craig with a 2-percentage point lead, within the 5.3% margin of error. Another poll, conducted in late July by a group supporting Flanagan, shows her with a 14-point lead. The Democratic nominee, whether it be Flanagan or Craig, is expected to win the general election in November.
The race, and the candidates’ sparring over AIPAC, comes as the lobby and Israel under the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have become increasingly unpopular among Democratic voters. Israel is also an issue in the Democratic gubernatorial primary in neighboring Wisconsin taking place on Tuesday.
Flanagan has referred to Craig as “AIPAC’s candidate” in the Senate race, which prompted Craig to distance herself from the group’s spending during a TV debate in June.
“AIPAC has not contributed at all, the PAC, to my Senate campaign,” said Craig, whose wife, Cheryl Greene, is Jewish. “Not one penny.”
Flanagan countered that, while AIPAC itself has not donated to Craig’s campaign, it has held fundraisers for the four-term congresswoman. AIPAC did not respond to a request for comment.
Just last week in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, progressive Abdul El-Sayed defeated the moderate Rep. Haley Stevens, whose AIPAC endorsement was the frequent target of opposition attacks.
Flanagan has drawn the support of American Priorities, a pro-Palestinian super PAC that aims to counter AIPAC. The group spent about $54,000 on ads boosting her candidacy, according to FEC filings.
Flanagan’s platform includes blocking offensive weapons sales to Israel — a position that all but seven Senate Democrats voted for in April — and advancing a two-state solution that “allows for a secure Israel and Palestinian self-determination.”
Craig, who also backs a two-state outcome, voted against the recent amendment proposed by Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie that would have halted $3.3 billion in military aid to Israel.
In a statement explaining her vote, Craig panned Netanyahu and the war in Iran, but wrote that the amendment would endanger Israelis and American troops and allies in the region. After the vote, Flanagan wrote, “A vote to send $3.3 billion of taxpayer money to fund additional weapons of war to Benjamin Netanyahu is unconscionable. Enough.”
Craig has the endorsement of a number of Democrats in Congress and the Senate, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. She is also endorsed by lobbying group Democratic Majority for Israel, former Democratic presidential contender Pete Buttigieg, and Minneapolis’ Jewish mayor, Jacob Frey, who rose to national prominence for his response to the deadly results of the deployment of immigrant enforcement officials in his city.
Flanagan has drawn endorsements from a swath of major progressive figures including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and outspoken pro-Palestinian Reps. Ro Khanna of California and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. Flanagan is also endorsed by the state’s Democratic Party affiliate, the Democratic Farmer Labor Party.
On Sunday Sanders posted on X,”There is a reason why the super PACs and billionaires are flooding Minnesota with $20 million to defeat Peggy Flanagan. Same thing as Michigan. They do not want somebody in the Senate who will stand up for the working class.”
Spending by political action committees affiliated with AIPAC has also come to the fore in the Democratic primary race for the House seat that Craig is vacating.
The most moderate of the three leading candidates is State Sen. Matt Klein, who has expressed support for the U.S.-Israel relationship and is endorsed by DMFI. Last-minute spending by outside groups has sparked accusations that AIPAC is indirectly involved.
“AIPAC is coming after me,” said former Lakeville mayor Matt Little, one of Klein’s opponents, in a video.
Klein’s two opponents — Little and state Rep. Kaela Berg — both accuse Israel of committing a genocide, and have both speculated that AIPAC is behind some of the Klein spending.
Berg supports placing conditions on U.S. aid to Israel and halting weapons sales, and Little says the U.S. must end all military aid and weapons sales to the country. On the policy page of his campaign website, Little refers to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack as “an act of wanton slaughter against innocent civilians” and says that people should condemn “the anti-Semitism that followed.”
Berg is listed as “primary approved” by the liberal Jewish Middle East advocacy group J Street, while Little has been boosted by American Priorities, which has spent about $64,000 in his favor. He is also endorsed by the DFL and Congressional Progressive Caucus leader Rep. Pramila Jayapal.
The latest polling in the district — conducted at the end of May by a group that favors Klein — found Little leading Klein with a 7-percentage point lead, and Berg trailing by another 3 points. 39 percent of voters were undecided, and Little and Klein were about even after voters received more information about the three candidates.
Craig has declined to endorse any of the candidates to replace her.
The post Israel and AIPAC on the ballot in the Minnesota Senate and U.S. House races appeared first on The Forward.
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Sister of pro-Israel stalwart Lindsey Graham wins runoff slot
(JTA) — South Carolina Sen. Darline Graham and a second Republican candidate will advance to a special primary runoff in two weeks, when voters will decide which GOP candidate might take the vacant seat of her late brother Lindsey Graham.
Just over an hour after polls closed, at about 8:15 pm, the Associated Press declared that Darline Graham would advance to a runoff election, noting that “one additional candidate will also advance.” At that point Graham had secured 32.6% of the vote, with 39% of ballots counted.
Graham was up against nine fellow Republicans, with her biggest competition including U.S. House Reps. Ralph Norman and Russell Fry, who were closely vying for the second spot in the runoff at the time of the AP’s call. In South Carolina, the top contender would have needed to win a majority of votes in order to avoid the two-candidate runoff, scheduled for August 25.
In the November general election, the winner will face Democrat Annie Andrews, a pediatrician who is unlikely to prevail in this solidly Republican state.
Tuesday’s race marked the second time in two months that GOP voters came to the polls to select a Senate candidate, and now they will need to do so a third time. Longstanding Sen. Lindsey Graham, a top ally of Israel in the U.S. Senate and supporter of military action against Iran. won the original primary in June but died suddenly from an aortic dissection on July 11.
Graham, who was 71 years old, served 23 years in the Senate and eight in the U.S. House. He was a member of the Senate’s Armed Services and Budget committees and had traveled to Israel about a dozen times since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Heading into Tuesday’s primary, analysts expressed no doubt that the winner would be pro-Israel. They stressed, however, that matching Graham’s level of foreign policy experience and focus on Israel, a place he often visited, would be a formidable task.
“Whoever wins this is going to be an ally of Israel,” Christopher Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in the lead-up to the race. “The question is whether they will be the champion for Israel that Lindsey Graham was.”
A few days after Graham’s death, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, appointed Darline Graham to complete the late senator’s term. Despite having minimal policy experience, such as a past role on the South Carolina Commission for the Blind, she earned President Trump’s support and soon declared her candidacy in the full race.
While 10 candidates were running in the Tuesday primary, only about two others were considered serious competition for Graham, Norman and Fry: businessman Mark Lynch and Mark Sanford, whose governorship was plagued with scandals and who briefly ran against Trump in the 2020 presidential primaries.
The post Sister of pro-Israel stalwart Lindsey Graham wins runoff slot appeared first on The Forward.
