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Queer yeshiva to publish first-ever collection of Jewish legal opinions written by and for trans Jews
(JTA) — In the midst of writing a 13-page analysis of a complex area of Jewish law, Rabbi Xava De Cordova found something she wasn’t expecting to see in the medieval-era sources: flexibility.
De Cordova is transgender and had long wondered whether she could feel a sense of belonging while studying reams of rabbinic writings on halacha, or Jewish law, which stretch back thousands of years and often prescribe different practices for men and women.
The laws of ritual purity, for example, prescribe specific behaviors for women on the assumption that they all menstruate. Trans women do not. De Cordova said that gap and others had her thinking, “I don’t really know if I can find a place for myself in this literature.”
But after digging into Jewish texts on the topic, De Cordova realized she’d sold the sages short: Medieval European rabbis were asking many of the same questions she was — and their answers reflected real-world complexity.
“I just found that the rabbis and the early halachic authorities’ understanding of niddah was so much more conceptual and vague and fluctuating than I ever realized before I started this particular work,” De Cordova said, using the Hebrew term for purity laws. Her conclusion: “Wow, there’s so much space for me within this literature.”
De Cordova’s realization is one of many that a dozen Jewish scholars and rabbis have had over the last year as they have scoured Jewish texts for guidance on how transgender Jews can adapt traditional rituals to their lived experience. Now, the group is preparing to release a batch of their essays, analyses of Jewish law called teshuvot, in hopes that they can inform the experiences of trans Jews who seek to live in accordance with traditional Jewish law.
The release of the essays comes at a time when lawmakers in dozens of states are targeting trans people and their rights, in some cases instigating fights that have heavily involved rabbis and their families.
In that climate, writing trans Jews into Jewish tradition “becomes an act of resistance because it’s about celebrating lives that are being demeaned and celebrating people who are being dehumanized in the public sphere,” said Rabbi Becky Silverstein, co-director of the Trans Halakha Project at Svara, the yeshiva founded in Chicago two decades ago to serve the queer community. The dozen rabbis and scholars are based at Svara and collectively form the Teshuva Writing Project.
Among the questions they have tackled: How could a trans man converting to Judaism have a bris, required for male converts? Is the removal of body tissue after gender-affirming surgery a ritual matter, given Jewish legal requirements for burying body parts? And is there a Jewish obligation, in certain cases, to undergo gender transition?
Just how widely their answers will be consumed and taken into account is a question. Most Jews who consciously adhere to halacha throughout their daily lives are Orthodox, and live in communities that either reject trans Jews or are reckoning with whether and how to accept them. Non-Orthodox Jewish denominations have made efforts to embrace trans Jews, but halacha is less often the starting point for most of their members. The Reform movement, the largest in the United States, expressly rejects halacha as binding.
Still, a growing number of Jews and Jewish communities strive to be inclusive while staying rooted in Jewish law and tradition. There are also a growing number of trans Jews who are connected to traditional communities, or who want to live in accordance with Jewish law.
“I think individual trans Jews who are not part of communities could use these teshuvot to guide their own decision-making,” said Silverstein, who was ordained at the pluralistic Hebrew College seminary. “We live in a time of religious autonomy in Jewish life, and where trans Jews actually are hungry for connection to tradition. And so they could use these teshuvot to help inform their own conversations.”
Organizations and initiatives such as the Jewish LGBTQ group Keshet; Torah Queeries, a collection of queer commentaries on the Bible; and TransTorah.org have created rituals, readings, blessings and customs for trans Jews, and Svara runs a Queer Talmud Camp as well as intensive Jewish study programs throughout the year. But until now, no collection of Jewish legal opinions has been published by and for trans people.
“Halacha has to be informed by the real lived experiences of the people about whom it is legislating,” said Laynie Soloman, who helps lead Svara and holds the title of associate rosh yeshiva, in an approach that they said the group had adopted from the disability advocacy community. “That is a fundamental truth about halacha that we are holding as a collective and taking seriously in the way we are authoring these teshuvot.”
The teshuvot will be published later this month, and follow a long tradition of rabbis setting halachic precedent by answering questions from their followers. Those answers are traditionally based on an analysis of rabbinic texts throughout history. They can address questions ranging from whether smoking cigarettes is permissible to the particulars of making a kitchen kosher for Passover.
Some Jewish legal questions tackled by the group at Svara had not previously been answered, such as how to mark conversion for someone who is male but does not have a penis. In other cases, accepted Jewish law pertaining to gender can be painful for those who are nonbinary or trans, either because the answer is not clear or because the law does not match up with contemporary understandings that gender and sex are distinct.
“[Those are] areas where trans people are sort of most likely to either feel lost themselves or be interrogated by their community. … And so they’re sort of these urgent halachic needs,” said De Cordova, who was privately ordained by a rabbi from the Renewal Judaism movement. “And 99.9% of the literature about them so far has been written by cis people, about us.”
De Cordova concluded that trans women are obligated in niddah, the ritual purity laws. In her teshuva, she provides several approaches to emulate the complicated counting cycle that tallies the days a woman is considered ritually impure following menstruation. She suggests using a seven- and 11-day cycle originally proposed by Maimonides, the 12th-century scholar and philosopher. De Cordova also suggests that the imposition of a cycle not based in biology means ancient and medieval rabbis had some understanding of womanhood as a social construct.
“There’s many cases in which the rabbis sort of choose to orient niddah around their understanding of women, which I would call the social construction of womanhood by rabbis, rather than observable physical phenomenon or actual women’s experience,” she said.
For De Cordova, the experience of writing about niddah provided her with new insights about some of the oldest Jewish legal texts on the subject.
“They’re flexible enough and sort of responsive enough that I can really find a lot of freedom and space in working with them,” she said of the ancient sources. “And that was just a really sort of wonderful and freeing transition to go through.”
Last year, the Conservative Movement approved new language for calling up a nonbinary person to various Torah honors. The rabbis behind the opinion consulted with groups serving LGBTQ Jews and synagogues centered on them, but acknowledged that they were imperfect authors.
“When my coauthors and I published the teshuva, we wrote in it that we are all cisgender rabbis and that we hope that, increasingly, halachic work dealing with nonbinary and trans and queer Jewish life and identity and practice will… come from queer rabbis and scholars themselves,” said Guy Austrian, the rabbi of the Fort Tryon Jewish Center, a synagogue in upper Manhattan. “And I think the publication of the first batch of teshuvot from the Trans Halakha Project shows that that process is underway, and I think that that can only be a good thing for the Jewish world.”
Scholars at Svara, the queer yeshiva based in Chicago, have served the Jewish LGBTQ community for two decades and are now creating the first written set of Jewish law by and for trans Jews. (Jess Benjamin)
Adding to the question-and-answer tradition of Jewish legal opinions means trans Jews will now have new texts to guide their religious practice, Silverstein said. Trans Jews, the writers of the opinions acknowledge, already have their own ways of performing Jewish ritual that accords with their lived experience. But they say that when it comes to Jewish law, informal custom without a sourced legal opinion is not enough.
“I want cis[gender] clergy to realize that there are resources written by and for trans people that they can turn to when they’re trying to help a member of their congregation,” De Cordova said.
The authors of the legal opinions applied to be part of the collective and come from a religiously pluralistic group, ranging in affiliation from Orthodox to Conservative to Jewish Renewal. They have varying expectations for how far-reaching the impact of the new legal opinions will be.
Mike Moskowitz, an Orthodox rabbi and the scholar-in-residence for trans and queer Jewish studies at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, which serves the LGBTQ community, said the teshuvot could provide a model for observant Jews who are also trans.
“I think it’s significant in modeling what an informed conversation can look like, which hasn’t really happened in Orthodox publications,” said Moskowitz, who was not part of the collective that composed the teshuvot on trans Jews’ practice. “I hope this models what can be done in other movements. What’s been tricky is that every movement has a different understanding of what halacha means.”
Even within Orthodoxy, conflicting opinions already exist, in a reflection of how halacha has always operated. For example, Talia Avrahami, a transgender Orthodox woman, follows the opinion of the late Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg, known as the Tzitz Eliezer, who ruled that a trans woman who undergoes gender affirmation surgery is a woman according to Jewish law. But Avrahami was told she could not sit in the women’s section of her synagogue, because the rabbi who the synagogue follows does not accept Waldenberg’s opinion. Months earlier, Avrahami had also been asked to leave her teaching job at an Orthodox day school after students and parents learned that she was transgender.
Avrahami declined to comment on the new teshuvot, citing restrictions set by her current employer.
Silverstein says some Conservative rabbis have expressed interest in using the opinions to guide practice in their own congregations. But he is less sure if they will be adopted in the Orthodox community, which is the target audience for most traditional literature on Jewish law.
“When it comes to the Orthodox community, I’m not sure I am bold enough to dream that these teshuvot specifically are going to be adopted,” Silverstein said. “I’m not even sure I know what that means. But it is my hope that they will permeate throughout the Jewish community, at least through the Modern Orthodox community.”
The scope of the opinions written by the collective extends beyond the trans community. The first batch of answers, for example, includes an opinion about how to increase physical accessibility to a mikvah, ritual baths used to fulfill some requirements of Jewish law.
“Judaism thrives and Torah thrives when people are bringing their life experiences to the text and asking their questions of the text,” Silverstein said. “That’s how new Torah is uncovered in the world. And that’s how Judaism and Torah has stayed alive through so much of Jewish history.”
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The post Queer yeshiva to publish first-ever collection of Jewish legal opinions written by and for trans Jews appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Feds charge man with organizing synagogue attacks in Europe and NYC on behalf of Iran
(JTA) — An Iraqi man who was recently arrested in Turkey has been charged with plotting an array of attacks against Jewish targets, including on a synagogue in New York City, in response to the U.S.-Israel war with Iran.
A criminal complaint that was unsealed on Friday claims that Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, 32, is a commander in the Iraq-based Kataib Hezbollah that functions as a proxy for Iran. The complaint was unsealed when al-Saadi appeared in federal court in Manhattan.
The complaint alleges that al-Saadi is responsible in part for organizing the attacks in Europe that have been claimed by a new group, Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya. It marks the first major disclosure of intelligence information tying the group directly to the Quds Force, the overseas arm of the Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and includes multiple photographs of al-Saadi meeting in person with IRGC leaders.
Attacks that al-Saadi organized include 18 in Europe that Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya publicly claimed, as well as the stabbing of two Jews in London last month, the complaint alleges. He also organized multiple attacks in Canada that were carried out and plotted others that did not take place, the complaint alleged.
Al-Saadi is charged with six crimes, including conspiracy to provide support for acts of terror and conspiracy to provide support for a foreign terrorist organization. (The Trump administration declared the IRGC a terrorist organization in 2019.) He did not speak during his first court appearance on Friday, according to The New York Times, which reported that his attorney called him “a political prisoner and prisoner of war.”
“As alleged in the complaint, Al-Saadi directed and urged others to attack U.S. and Israeli interests and to kill Americans and Jews in the U.S. and abroad, and in doing so advance the terrorist goals of Kata’ib Hizballah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement on Friday. “These charges show American law enforcement will never let such evil go unchecked and will use all tools to disrupt and dismantle foreign terrorist organizations and their leaders.”
The incidents targeting Jews came amid warnings that Iran, which has a long record of organizing terror attacks abroad, would retaliate against the United States, Israel and Jews around the world.
The complaint, reflecting a sworn affidavit from Kathryn McDonald, an FBI special agent, says al-Saadi offered to pay online contacts $10,000 to stage attacks on U.S. Jewish targets.
According to the criminal complaint, al-Saadi sent a $3,000 down payment in cryptocurrency to an agent who was posing as someone willing to stage attacks on Jewish targets in New York, Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Arizona, in April.
Al-Saadi allegedly told the agent that “things are working for us here” in Europe but that he was looking for more assistance in the United States and Canada. He shared a picture of what the complaint says is a “prominent Jewish synagogue” in New York and said he had selected it as a target because it supported “the right for Israel to exist.” The agent initially agreed to stage an attack but stopped communicating with al-Saadi after sending a picture showing that the synagogue was guarded by police officers.
The Community Security Initiative, a group coordinating security for Jews in New York, sent a “community security bulletin” on Friday after al-Saadi appeared in federal court in Manhattan, saying that the arrest did not come as a surprise.
“CSI has been in contact with FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York since April 2026 regarding this plot, and they have been keeping us apprised as events have evolved,” CEO Mitchell Silber said in the bulletin. He added, “At this time, we are not at liberty to disclose the targeted location.”
Kataib Hezbollah is the group that abducted and held a Russian-Israeli Princeton University researcher, Elizabeth Tsurkov, for more than two years until September. Following the revelation of al-Saadi’s arrest, she praised the FBI agents who worked the case, including one who also investigated her kidnapping.
“This ginger angel kept doggedly working my case because she knew I needed her and she knew that solving the case would help US national security interests. Indeed, owing to the incredible stupidity of my torturers, they provided me with a plethora of information about their operations, which I happily provided to the FBI after my release,” Tsurkov tweeted. “The American people are lucky to have such dedicated agents helping to keep them safe.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Feds charge man with organizing synagogue attacks in Europe and NYC on behalf of Iran appeared first on The Forward.
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A floating wooden synagogue at the 2026 Venice Biennale
דאָס איז איינער פֿון אַ סעריע קורצע אַרטיקלען אָנגעשריבן אױף אַ רעלאַטיװ גרינגן ייִדיש און געצילעװעט אױף סטודענטן. די מחברטע איז אַלײן אַ ייִדיש־סטודענטקע. דאָ קען מען לײענען די פֿריִערדיקע אַרטיקלען אין דער סעריע.
הײַיאָר צום דריטן מאָל לאָזט זיך ייִדיש באַמערקן בײַ דער באַרימטער אױסשטעלונג אין ווענעציע, איטאַליע — „װענעציער ביענאַלײ“, װאָס האָט זיך אָנגעהויבן דעם 9סטן מײַ און װעט זיך ענדיקן דעם 22סטן נאָװעמבער. ייִדיש שפּילט נישט קײן אָפֿיציעלע ראָלע אין דער אױסשטעלונג, און דאָס איז טאַקע דער עיקר. די אױסשטעלונג ווערט אָרגאַניזירט לויט לענדער, און אַװדאי איז ייִדיש קײן מאָל נישט געװען די הויפּטשפּראַך פֿון קײן לאַנד.
ייִדיש מאַכט אַ רושם בײַם ביענאַלײ אַ דאַנק דעם „ייִדישלאַנד פּאַװיליאָן“, װאָס איז אױסגעטראַכט געװאָרן אין 2022 פֿון דער קוראַטאָרשע מאַריע װײַץ און דעם קינסטלער יעװגעני פֿיקס. דער „פּאַװיליאָן“ איז אַ סעריע אױסשטעלונגען און אױפֿטריטן װאָס קומען פֿאָר אין עטלעכע ערטער איבער װענעציע, אַרום די ראַנדן פֿון דער אָפֿיציעלער ביענאַלײ.
דאָס װאָרט „פּאַװיליאָן“ אין „ייִדישלאַנד פּאַװיליאָן“ איז אַן איראָנישער קאָמענטאַר אױף די פֿיזישע פּאַװיליאָנען װאָס דער ביענאַלײ גיט צו 100 לענדער אין 2026, כּדי אױסצושטעלן אַ גאַמע קונסטװערק. אין קאָנטראַסט איז דער ייִדישלאַנד פּאַװיליאָן „געבױט“ אין גאַנצן פֿון אידעען.
אין זומער 2025 האָב איך אינטערװיויִרט װײַץ און פֿיקס װעגן דעם ייִדישלאַנד פּאַװיליאָן, װאָס איז דעמאָלט בײַגעװען בײַם ביענאַלײ. אין אונדזער אינטערװיו האָבן װײַץ און פֿיקס דערקלערט די צילן פֿונעם פּאַװיליאָן: בקיצור װילן זײ זײַן אין סתּירה מיטן ביענאַלײס טראָפּ אױף לענדער און נאַציאָנאַליזם, װאָס שליסט אױס די ייִדישע קולטור און אַנדערע מינאָריטעט־קולטורן װאָס זענען באַזירט אױף שפּראַכן.
װײַץ און פֿיקס, און די קינסטלער װאָס אַרבעטן מיט זײ, זאָגן אױך אָפּ די באַגריפֿן װאָס באַגלײטן אַ פֿאָקוס אױף לענדער. אַנשטאָט גרענעצן, פֿאַראינטערעסירן זײ זיך מיטן קולטורעלן קאָנטאַקט און צונױפֿשמעלץ. דערמיט שפּיגלען זײ אָפּ די דערפֿאַרונגען פֿון דורות ייִדיש־רעדערס, װאָס האָבן אָפֿט געװױנט װי דרױסנדיקע אין דער גלאָבאַלער סיסטעם פֿון לענדער. די קולטור װאָס די דאָזיקע ייִדיש־רעדערס האָבן געשאַפֿן, ספּעציעל אינעם ערשטן העלפֿט פֿונעם 20סטן יאָרהונדערט, איז געװען טיף פֿאַרװאָרצלט אין ייִדישע טראַדיציעס — אָבער אױך היבריד און צופּאַסיק. זי האָט בכּיוון אַרײַנגעמישט השפּעות פֿון פֿאַרשײדענע שפּראַכן, אידענטיטעטן און קולטורעלע באַװעגונגען.
אָט דער דאָזיקער גײַסט פֿון אָפֿנקײט און צופּאַסיקײט — פֿון די מעגלעכקײטן פֿון פֿליסיקע גרענעצן — האָט אינספּירירט די ייִדישלאַנד־פּאַװיליאָנען פֿון 2022 און 2025, און נאָך אַ מאָל אין 2026.
פֿון איצט ביזן 16טן סעפּטעמבער װעט דער ייִדיש־פּאַװיליאָן אױסשטעלן „די װערטער װאָס פּאַסן זיך צו מײַן מױל“. ער געפֿינט זיך אין דרײַ ערטער אַרום װענעציע, אַרײַננעמדיק אין דער אַלטער ייִדישער געטאָ. זי באַשטײט פֿון פֿיר טײלן, װאָס פֿאַרנעמען זיך אַלע מיט דער „איבערזעצונג“, סײַ צװישן שפּראַכן סײַ צװישן קולטורן און קאָנטעקסטן:
- „איך בין נישט מסכּים“, פֿון אַרנדט בעק. דער פּראָיעקט פֿאָרשט אױס, דורך צײכענונגען און קאָלאַזש־פּאָסטקאַרטלעך, דאָס לעבן פֿון דער ייִדיש־רעדנדיקער אַנאַרכיסטקע מילי װיטקאָפּ (1877־1955), װאָס איז געבױרן געװאָרן אין אוקראַיִנע און האָט געאַרבעט מערסטנס אין לאָנדאָן. בעק באַזינגט אױף ייִדיש און אַנדערע שפּראַכן װיטקאָפּס איבערגעגעבנקײט צו אַרבעטער־ און מענטשנרעכט.
- „לידער פֿאַר טײַכן“, פֿון ליליאַנאַ פֿאַרבער. דאָס קונסטװערק איז באַזירט אױף ייִדישע לידער װעגן טײַכן, װאָס שטאַמען פֿון יזכּור־ביכער — די בענד געשאַפֿן נאָכן חורבן צו פֿאַראײביקן דעם אָנדענק פֿון די פֿאַרטיליקטע ייִדישע שטעט און שטעטלעך. אין אַ סעריע גראַפֿישע װערק האָט פֿאַרבער אַראַנזשירט די װערטער פֿון יעדן ליד כּדי נאָכצופֿאָלגן די קאָנטורן פֿונעם טײַך, װאָס דאָס ליד באַשרײַבט.
- ליולינקע, מײַן פֿײגעלע, פֿון מאַשאַ שפּרײַזער. דער פּראָיעקט באַשטײט פֿון פֿאַרשײדענע אַלטע שטוב־טעקסטילן אַזױ װי ציכלעך און טיכלעך, מיט װערטער פֿון ייִדישע לידער געמאָלט אױף זײ. די טעקסטילן האָט מען פֿריִער געצירעװעט. מסתּמא האָבן דאָס פֿרױען געטאָן. דער טיטל פֿונעם װערק פֿאַררופֿט זיך אױף אַ ייִדיש װיגליד. בײַנאַנד מיט די טעקסטילן געפֿינען זיך בײַשפּילן פֿון װענעציער שפּיצן (דאָס שאַפֿן פּרעכטיקע שפּיצן איז אַ שטאָט־טראַדיציע). צוזאַמען דערמאָנען די אָביעקטן אין װײַבערשער אַרבעט, און אין װײַבערשע לעבנס און מעשׂיות.
- „אַלטמאָדיש“, פֿון לײלאַ אַבדעלראַזאַק. די דאָזיקע װידעאָ־קונסט פֿאַרנעמט זיך מיט דער צוקונפֿט פֿון אַראַביש אין פּאַלעסטינע און ישׂראל. יעװגעני פֿיקס האָט דערקלערט׃ „פֿילשפּראַכיקײט איז געװען כאַראַקטעריסטיש פֿאַרן ייִדישן לעבן אין מיזרח־אײראָפּע, װוּ אַ סך געבױרענע ייִדיש־רעדערס האָבן פֿליסיק גערעדט אַנדערע שפּראַכן. אַבדעלראַזאַק װױנט אױך צװישן שפּראַכן — אַראַביש, העברעיִש און ענגליש — װאָס זענען אַלע אַ טײל פֿון איר פֿילזײַטיקער אידענטיטעט. איר קונסט פֿאָרשט אױס װי אַזױ די פּאָליטיק פֿון שפּראַך אין אַ פֿאַרשײדנאַרטיקער קולטור.“
דעם 16טן יולי װעט זיך עפֿענען „נבטעלע“ פֿון אַנאַ קאַמײַשאַן. בײַ דער דאָזיקער דרױסנדיקער אינסטאַלירונג (װאָס װערט פּרעזענטירט צוזאַמען מיטן ייִדישן מוזײ אין מאָנטרעאָל) װעט מען אױפֿהײבן אין דער לופֿט אַ גרױסן מאָדעל פֿון אַ הילצערנער שיל פֿון מיזרח־אײראָפּע. דער מאָדעל איז פֿול מיט העליום, און נאָר אַ דאַנק שטריק שװעבט ער נישט אַװעק. די שיל אינעם מאָדעל זיצט אױף אַ באַזע פֿון ריזיקע פֿעלדזן. אין דער שיל שײַנט אַ ליכט װאָס גײט קײן מאָל נישט אױס.
דער טיטל „נבטעלע“ שטאַמט פֿון אַ סלאַװיש װאָרט װאָס דערמאָנט אין סכּנה אָדער באַאומרויִקן זיך. ער פֿאַררופֿט זיך אױך אױף תּנכיש העברעיִש, װוּ „נבט“ מײנט „נאָענט אָנקוקן“. אַ „נבטעלע“, מיטן ייִדישן דימינוטיװ „-עלע“, איז עפּעס װײכער װי בײדע װערטער — אָבער אױך צװײטײַטשיק.
אין „נבטעלע“ זעט מען אַ סך סתּירות, אַזױ װי דעם קאָנטראַסט צװישן דעם װאָג פֿון אַ בנין װאָס זיצט אױף פֿעלדזן, און דער אָנװאָגיקײט פֿונעם מאָדעל אַלײן; און אױך צװישן דעם צער צוליב דער פֿאַרטיליקונג פֿון אַלע הילצערנע שילן פֿון די נאַציס, און דער האָפֿענונג סימבאָליזירט פֿונעם אײביקן ליכט אין דער שיל. צי איז די שיל אַרױסגעריסן געװאָרן פֿון דער אַלטער הײם, אָדער טראָגט זי די הײם מיט איר?
מען דאַרף אױך דערמאָנען אַ טײל פֿונעם ייִדישלאַנד־פּאַװיליאָן װאָס האָט זיך שױן געענדיקט. בעת די ערשטע טעג פֿונעם ביענאַלײ האָט עליאַנאַ פּליסקין דזשײקאָבס אױסגעפֿירט אין עפֿנטלעכע ערטער אַרום װענעציע איר „טאַנצן צװישן נאַ און נאַד“. זי האָט געאַנצט און געזונגען ייִדישע לידער װעגן װאָגלעניש און גלות — טײלװײַז אױפֿן אָריגינעל ייִדיש און טײלװײַז איבערגעזעצט אױף אַנדערע שפּראַכן.
דאָס פּרעזענטירן דעם ייִדישלאַנד פּאַװיליאָן בײַ דער װענעציער ביענאַלײ איז גאָר אַ כּדאַייִקע אונטערנעמונג, װאָס ציט דעם אױפֿמערק אױף ייִדיש און ייִדישער קולטור בעת זײער אַ װיכטיקער אינטערנאַציאָנאַלער אױסשטעלונג. דער ייִדישלאַנד פּאַװיליאָן איז אָבער אױך טײַער. אַלע צושטײַערס זענען קריטיש, סײַ הײַיאָר סײַ פֿאַר דער צוקונפֿט. אױב איר קענט העלפֿן מיט אַ צושטײַער קענט איר קװעטשן דאָ.
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Mamdani Nakba Day video prompts pushback from Jewish leaders amid rising tensions
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani once again angered many Jewish New Yorkers, already uneasy about his criticism of Israel, after posting a video on Friday made by his City Hall team marking Nakba Day, which remembers the displacement of thousands of Palestinians during the creation of Israel in 1948. “Nakba” means “catastrophe” in Arabic.
Mamdani, who rose to power aligned with pro-Palestinian activism, has been unapologetic about his anti-Zionist views and signaled they would shape his tenure. The Jewish community overwhelmingly did not support his election. Mamdani has supported efforts to divest from Israel Bonds and has refused to recognize Israel as a Jewish state — all this reversing years of steadfast support of Israel by mayors of New York City, which has about 1 million Jewish residents. While people who identify as Palestinians number just a few thousand in official records, about 150,000 New Yorkers told the last Census that they hailed from the Mideast, excluding Israel.
The post drew fierce backlash from Jewish leaders, who accused Mamdani of promoting a one-sided view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while ignoring Israel’s history and alienating the many New Yorkers who have connections to Israel.
The four-minute video featured New Yorker Inea Bushnaq, who recounted her experience as her family fled their home in East Jerusalem because “the Zionists were coming into Jerusalem,” and moved to Nablus. It had 10 million views on the social media platform X by Sunday evening, one of multiple platforms where it was posted on the official NYC Mayor’s Office accounts.
Today marks Nakba Day, an annual day of remembrance to commemorate the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians between 1947 and 1949 during the creation of the State of Israel and the year that followed.
Inea is a New Yorker and a Nakba survivor. She shared her story with us… pic.twitter.com/z2PBOaJq5Z
— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) May 15, 2026
Olivia Becker, Mamdani’s video director, who filmed the interview, reposted supportive messages on X from allies of the mayor, highlighting the significance of his becoming the first New York City mayor to publicly commemorate Nakba Day.
Many Israelis argue that the displacement of Palestinians occurred in the context of the war launched by neighboring Arab states and Palestinian groups against the newly declared State of Israel, while some progressive Jewish groups and pro-Palestinian advocates say the Palestinian experience and the continued statelessness of millions of Palestinians should also be publicly acknowledged. Jewish leaders also noted that Mamdani’s video ignored the massacre of Jews pre-state and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Jews from Middle Eastern countries. Many New Yorkers and Israelis are themselves descendants of Jews who were expelled or forced to flee Arab countries such as Egypt, Syria and Yemen.
Yaacov Behrman, a Chabad-Lubavitch activist in Brooklyn — who has appeared with Mamdani and attended a roundtable discussion with Orthodox leaders at City Hall — harshly criticized the mayor for platforming a “dishonest characterization” of history. “The tweet’s one sided narrative deepens division instead of advancing peace, coexistence, and understanding, and it should never have been posted by the mayor of New York City,” Behrman said.
Tony Award-winning actor Ari’el Stachel, whose father immigrated to Israel from Yemen, mocked Mamdani’s muddled response to rising antisemitism in an Instagram satire in which he struggles to say “I am outraged by antisemitism” — but eagerly looks forward to releasing the Nakba Day video.
A City Hall spokesperson did not respond to an inquiry asking what civic purpose was served by using city resources and the mayor’s official account to post the video.
The video prompted the latest clash between Mamdani and major Jewish and Zionist organizations over Israel-related issues. Last month, Mamdani vetoed a City Council bill requiring safety plans for protests near schools, while allowing a separate measure protecting houses of worship to become law without his signature. In January, Jewish leaders criticized his delayed response to a protest in which demonstrators chanted pro-Hamas slogans. Mamdani also faced backlash from Zionist Jewish organizations on his first day in office after revoking executive orders tied to antisemitism and campus protests.
Mamdani came under fire during the mayoral race last year for defending the slogan “globalize the intifada,” used by some at the pro-Palestinian protests and perceived by many as a call for violence against Jews.
Mamdani’s Jewish Heritage reception
Mamdani is set to host Jewish leaders and activists at Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence, on Monday to mark Jewish American Heritage Month. The annual event has been programmed by Mamdani’s team as a celebration in honor of the Shavuot holiday, with a dairy menu.
Former Assemblyman Dov Hikind had urged Jewish leaders to boycott the event before Friday’s video was released. “You don’t have to go for cheese blintzes to Gracie Mansion,” Hikind said in an interview Sunday, arguing that attendance would legitimize Mamdani’s anti-Zionist posture. “I have no doubt that Mamdani is laughing all the way to the bank,” said Hikind, who now runs Americans Against Antisemitism. “I can tell these Jews that he would have greater respect for you if you started to believe in something.”
Hikind said he had been told that photographers from the New York Post planned to stage outside the mayoral residence on the East River to photograph attendees entering the event and that activists intend to circulate the images on social media to publicly shame participants.
For observers, the repeated episodes underscore the widening divide between a mayor who sees outspoken advocacy for Palestinians as part of his political identity and the largest Jewish community outside Israel, which increasingly views his approach to Israel and antisemitism as dismissive of its concerns despite his repeated promises to protect and engage with Jewish New Yorkers.
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