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Rabbi arrested, banned from Cleveland universities over his anti-Palestinian activism
(JTA) – For days, students and police at Cleveland State University had been trying to figure out who stole a banner belonging to a campus Palestinian rights group.
The banner, which belonged to the student group Palestinian Human Rights Organization, read “CSU Solidarity for Palestinian Rights” and was illustrated with an outline of Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip collectively emblazoned in the Palestinian flag. A dove holding an olive branch appeared on top of the image.
Then, on Jan. 19, police charged their top suspect: a local Orthodox rabbi, whose presence on campus had become all too familiar. A few days later the man confessed to the theft on Instagram, announcing that he had stolen the banner from the school’s student center “as an act of civil disobedience.”
“This incitement to annihilation of Israel should have never been permitted at CSU,” Rabbi Alexander Popivker, a 46-year-old Cleveland Heights resident whose neighborhood is six miles from the school, wrote on social media accompanied by a picture of the flag he stole.
It was far from Popivker’s only recent run-in with local university students.
A former Chabad-Lubavitch emissary in Naples, Italy, who now works in the Cleveland area as a handyman and part-time rabbi for a Russian-speaking Jewish community, Popivker has become known around town as a vigilant and omnipresent pro-Israel advocate. He can often be spotted counter-protesting at local pro-Palestinian demonstrations, or putting on displays of his own, with his wife Sarah on hand filming every contentious encounter.
One major theme of his protests, and his worldview, as he explained to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency: “Palestinians and Nazis are the same thing.”
For the last year, Popivker had been making weekly trips to Cleveland State, occasionally accompanied by other students or community members, to give public demonstrations that elaborate on that idea — sometimes with the aid of swastika-emblazoned props. In the early going, the university provided him with police protection and said his visits to campus were protected by free speech laws.
But he also sought out students online and in-person whom he deemed to be “brainwashed” by anti-Zionist messaging. One such online campaign against a law student prompted the student to file an order of protection against Popivker last fall, an order supported by a prominent Jewish dean at the university. Popivker promptly violated the order by returning to campus.
Cleveland State University main campus, Cleveland, Ohio. (Getty Images)
In late January, university authorities had enough. They arrested Popivker and, following a hearing, declared him persona non grata on campus, banning him from the university grounds for at least two years. Popivker has also been banned from nearby Case Western Reserve University, where he had advocated before focusing on Cleveland State.
In the midst of a nationwide university climate in which pro-Israel advocates claim Jewish students face regular antisemitic harassment for their real or perceived Zionist beliefs, here was a documented case of the opposite: a Jew and outspoken Zionist, who has no affiliation with the schools at which he advocates, accused of harassing anyone he perceived as a threat to Israel, including students who had never sought him out directly.
The Ohio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has spoken out numerous times against Popivker and praised university police for arresting him; a petition the group backed, labeled “Stop harassment on campus” and mentioning Popivker by name, has garnered close to 700 signatures.
Jewish groups, including civil rights groups, have been less forthcoming about situation. Hillel International declined to comment for this story, and the directors of Cleveland’s regional American Jewish Committee and Jewish Community Relations Council offices did not return requests for comment. Jewish on Campus, a nationwide university antisemitism watchdog group that tracks what it defines as anti-Zionist social media harassment of Jewish students, also did not return a request for comment.
Jared Isaacson, the executive director of Cleveland Hillel, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the center was “not very familiar with this story.” Cleveland Hillel coordinates Jewish student life at a consortium of Jewish universities including Cleveland State and Case Western, where its student center is located, as well as at least one other school where Popivker has made his presence on campus known in some form.
But, Isaacson said, “Cleveland Hillel is deeply committed to countering antisemitism and hate in all forms, and we believe that no student — Jewish or otherwise — should ever feel threatened or intimidated because of their identity.”
Popivker says he has support from the New York-based Lawfare Project, which bills itself as an “international pro-Israel litigation fund.” He told JTA that the organization “is watching over my cases and providing guidance.”
In a statement, the Lawfare Project called Popivker “a Jewish civil rights activist” but did not confirm that it is backing him, saying only that the group is “currently reviewing the matter.”
The group, which frequently files lawsuits on behalf of students who allege antisemitism on their campuses, said in a statement to JTA that the order of protection was a “double standard” that “should be alarming to anyone who cares about the fight against Jew-hatred.”
Lawfar recently settled a multi-year lawsuit with San Francisco State University over student reports of antisemitic harassment on campus stemming from anti-Zionist activists disrupting an event featuring the mayor of Jerusalem. The settlement compelled the university to hire a coordinator of Jewish student life.
Popivker will have his work cut out for him if he fights the charges. He had exhibited “behavior detrimental to the university community” by stealing the Palestinian banner and separately affixing an Israeli flag to university property, Matthew Kibbon, Cleveland State’s associate vice president of facility services, wrote in the university’s decision declaring him persona non grata.
The rabbi “was not banned for the content of his speech, but how he chose to exercise it,” a Cleveland State spokesperson told JTA in a statement. The university also provided JTA a list of recent campus police interactions with him, including the initial Jan. 11 report of the banner’s theft; Popivker’s visit to campus on Jan. 18, during which police advised him that the student’s order of protection did not permit him to be there; and his return visit on Jan. 25, during which he was arrested.
From Popivker’s perspective, he is simply speaking out on Israel’s behalf for a campus that has a large pro-Palestinian activist presence but few Jewish students. (There are fewer than 200 Jewish undergraduates on Cleveland State’s campus out of 11,784 students, according to Hillel International.) His goal is to educate, he says, informed by his status as a Jewish refugee from the Soviet Union. And he believes he is being targeted by local pro-Palestinian activists, who, he said, have gone after his kippah and Israeli flags.
“I never attacked anyone. I never raised my hand up to anyone,” he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, saying that he was motivated by civil rights icons Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis. “I’m going to a public university. I’m staying in the free speech zone. And I raise awareness about what’s going on. There’s a bunch of students that have become my friends that come to study with me regularly.”
One of those students, senior Tyler Jarosz, told JTA he became friends with Popivker after seeing him visiting campus to advocate for Israel. Not knowing much about Jews or Israel himself — “I thought Israel was a very peaceful state,” Jarosz said — the student was taken with Popivker’s demonstrations and said he learned a great deal from them.
“He didn’t just lecture me like a teacher would,” Jarosz said. “He was actually very engaging. He asked questions.”
Jarosz said he never witnessed the rabbi harassing anyone on campus, and said he always tried to engage people in peaceful dialogue, despite what he described as harassment directed at him by some Muslim students. He recalled one Popivker visit to campus for Israel’s independence day, when the rabbi was offering falafel to students, and said he witnessed one student throw the falafel back at him and threaten to “rape” him.
Other students tell a different story. One campus paper, the Cauldron, reported that the rabbi has targeted visibly Muslim and Arab students on campus, demanding to know their views on Israel. Popivker “makes me wary of coming into campus,” a student member of the Palestinian Human Rights Organization group told the Cauldron. “I’m forced to be on constant edge and take the longer way to class in order to avoid him.” Another student told a different campus newspaper, “It’s almost as though he deliberately looks for Palestinian individuals just to target them.”
The chair of the law school’s National Lawyers Guild student chapter told the Cleveland Jewish News that their group’s efforts to engage Popivker in reasonable dialogue failed when he began using “racial slurs and insulting language.”
A swastika Alexander Popivker drew on a Palestinian scarf (alleged by some students to be a keffiyeh, or ritual Muslim prayer scarf) while mounting a pro-Israel demonstration on the campus of Cleveland State University. Popivker then shared the image to his Instagram, Feb. 3, 2023. (Screenshot)
In images from one Popivker demonstration, the rabbi can be seen drawing a swastika with a Sharpie marker on what the Cauldron reported was a keffiyeh, a scarf worn by Arabic men, but which Popivker told JTA was a Palestinian scarf with no spiritual significance. He has also yelled phrases including “Palestinians are Nazis” and “Palestinians are the KKK,” and constructed a stage with images further linking Palestinians to Naziism, according to reports. Popivker’s own Instagram videos show him approaching groups of students to argue about Israel as he films them, calling some of them “terrorists” when they go after his flags. One of his video captions mentions “a Middle Eastern looking student.”
Cleveland State increased its safety protocols as a result of Popivker’s activities, locking some additional entrances around campus. But much of his activities have been online, too.
Last fall Popivker trained his attention on a law student who was involved with campus Palestinian rights groups and had made some anti-Israel posts online, including sharing an image of a child whom pro-Palestinian groups claimed had been a victim of an Israeli bombing, and sharing a socialist group’s post quoting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
Documents show that Popivker emailed and called the student’s employer and law school seeking to have her disciplined for her beliefs, writing among other things that she was a “mouthpiece of terrorism and racism against Jews.” He also made Instagram posts targeting her. In response, the student filed for and received the order of protection against him, which Popivker later claimed was unwarranted because he had never met the student in person.
In its statement to JTA, the Lawfare Project homed in on this sequence of events, saying that Popivker’s decision to email the student’s school and employer about what he believed to be antisemitic social media posts was “a tool routinely used by civil rights activists to fight discrimination.”
Popivker asked Jarosz to send a letter attesting to his character for the order of protection hearing, which he did. “Alex understands and respects everyone of every background that he comes across,” the student wrote in his letter. “I have personally witnessed the demonization they have done of him.” Speaking to JTA weeks later, Jarosz said the court case was “bogus,” but said he was unaware of the emails, social media records and phone transcripts reviewed by JTA showing that Popivker had contacted the student’s employer and school.
At the order of protection hearing, a transcript of which Popivker sent to JTA, a key witness who advocated for the restriction was law school dean Lee Fisher, a former attorney general and lieutenant governor of Ohio. Fisher is Jewish.
“We share a hatred of antisemitism,” Fisher told Popivker during the hearing, according to the transcript. The dean also identified himself as “pro-Israel, very much so.” But Fisher made clear he was critical of Popivker’s activities on campus. Asked by Popivker about a specific social media post the student had made, Fisher responded, “Even if she made a mistake by posting it, it did not warrant the kind of reaction I believe that you had.”
Fisher had also met with Popivker previously, in a session mediated by a local rabbi who was a friend of Popivker. “I told him that I was concerned for the health and safety of our students,” the dean said during the hearing. He had implored Popivker to stop his campus activities, but the rabbi refused.
It’s the initial order of protection, which Popivker said had already effectively banned him from campus, that the rabbi says he truly opposes. He saw it as evidence that “they were basically working together with Palestinians” to “cover up the fact that they have an antisemitic group that openly propagates a destruction of Israel.” Popivker visited campus several times after receiving the order of protection but was permitted to stay with only a warning from campus police, Jarosz recalled.
This state of affairs lasted until the rabbi stole the Palestinian student group banner to, he said, “shine a light on this antisemitism.” Popivker described to JTA how he entered the student building, walked up to the third floor where he knew the banner was, and used scissors to remove it and take it with him: “Clip, clip, clip.” He was subsequently thrown in jail — his second such stint in Cleveland for pro-Israel activities, he said, criticizing local law enforcement for not providing him with kosher food while he was behind bars.
Outside of campus, Popivker is active in other areas. Last year, he organized a GoFundMe to support the family of a former classmate of his who was killed by an Islamic State supporter in a terrorist attack in Beersheba, Israel. He also applied to fill a January vacancy on the Cleveland Heights city council, but later withdrew his application.
After being barred from Cleveland State University, Rabbi Alex Popivker took to holding his anti-Palestinian protests on a street outside a local casino. (Courtesy Popivker)
While Popivker may preach nonviolence, his social media activity points to more radical ideologies, as well. On Instagram, he has shared an image of the flag of the Jewish Defense League, an extremist Jewish group that advocates violence against enemies of Jews, founded by convicted terrorist Rabbi Meir Kahane, as well as an image with a logo of Im Tirtzu, a right-wing Israeli group that has in the past been accused of inciting violence against Israeli human rights groups. Popivker told JTA he is not a member of either group, but that “if I think it’s aligned with what I believe in, I’ll share it.”
Popivker says that, for now, he’s done with his brand of “civil disobedience” and won’t be making his weekly visits to Cleveland State’s campus. “I do have five wonderful boys and a loving wife, and as much as Cuyahoga [County’s] jail is an educational experience in life in many ways, I do not want to go there every week,” he said.
Instead, days after his arrest and campus ban, Popivker posted a photo of himself with an Israeli flag to social media — this time outside a casino a mile away from campus.
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The post Rabbi arrested, banned from Cleveland universities over his anti-Palestinian activism appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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US Captures Venezuela’s Maduro, Trump Says US Will Run the Country
Smoke rises near Fort Tiuna during a full blackout, following explosions and loud noises, after U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. has struck Venezuela and captured its President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas, Venezuela, January 3, 2026. REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria
The US attacked Venezuela and deposed its long-serving President Nicolas Maduro in an overnight operation on Saturday, President Donald Trump said, in Washington’s most direct intervention in Latin America since the 1989 invasion of Panama.
“This was one of the most stunning, effective and powerful displays of American might and competence in American history,” Trump said at a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he was flanked by senior officials, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Trump said Maduro was in custody and that American officials would take control of Venezuela.
“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” he said. “We can’t take a chance that someone else takes over Venezuela who doesn’t have the interests of Venezuelans in mind.”
POTENTIAL POWER VACUUM
It is unclear how Trump plans to oversee Venezuela. Despite a dramatic overnight operation that knocked out electricity in part of Caracas and captured Maduro in or near one of his safe houses, US forces have no control over the country itself, and Maduro’s government appears to still be in charge.
The removal of Maduro, who led Venezuela with a heavy hand for more than 12 years, potentially opens a power vacuum in the Latin American country. Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez — Maduro’s presumptive successor — is in Russia, four sources familiar with her movements said, stoking confusion about who is next in line to govern the South American country.
Russia’s foreign ministry said the report that Rodriguez is in Russia was “fake.”
Any serious destabilization in the nation of 28 million people threatens to hand Trump the type of quagmire that has marked US foreign policy for much of the 21st century, including the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq – which were also premised on regime change.
The US has not made such a direct intervention in its backyard region since the invasion of Panama 37 years ago to depose military leader Manuel Noriega over allegations that he led a drug-running operation. The United States has leveled similar charges against Maduro, accusing him of running a “narco-state” and rigging the 2024 election.
Maduro, a 63-year-old former bus driver handpicked by the dying Hugo Chavez to succeed him in 2013, has denied those claims and said Washington was intent on taking control of his nation’s oil reserves, the largest in the world.
VENEZUELAN OFFICIALS DECRY U.S. ACTION
The streets of Venezuela appeared calm as the sun rose. Soldiers patrolled some parts and some small pro-Maduro crowds began gathering in Caracas.
Others, however, expressed relief.
“I’m happy, I doubted for a moment that it was happening because it’s like a movie,” said merchant Carolina Pimentel, 37, in the city of Maracay. “It’s all calm now but I feel like at any moment everyone will be out celebrating.”
Venezuelan officials condemned Saturday’s intervention. “In the unity of the people we will find the strength to resist and to triumph,” Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said in a video message.
While various Latin American governments oppose Maduro and say he stole the 2024 vote, direct US action revives painful memories of past interventions and is generally strongly opposed by governments and populations in the region.
Trump’s action recalls the Monroe Doctrine, laid out in 1823 by President James Monroe, laying US claim to influence in the region, as well as the “gunboat diplomacy” seen under Theodore Roosevelt in the early 1900s.
Venezuelan allies Russia, Cuba and Iran were quick to condemn the strikes as a violation of sovereignty. Tehran urged the UN Security Council to stop the “unlawful aggression.”
Among major Latin American nations, Argentina’s President Javier Milei lauded Venezuela’s new “freedom” while Mexico condemned the intervention and Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said it crossed “an unacceptable line.”
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Michele Weiss and Justin Brasch mark milestones as first Orthodox Jewish mayors in their cities
(JTA) — This week, as New York City inaugurated its first Muslim mayor, two cities in the United States also made history with the swearing-in of their first Orthodox Jewish mayors.
While Orthodox mayors have been elected in cities and suburbs across the county, including New Jersey, New York State and Florida, the inaugurations of Michele Weiss in University Heights, Ohio, and Justin Brasch in White Plains, New York, this week marked a milestone for Orthodox representation in local politics.
In November, Bal Harbour, Florida, also swore in an Orthodox Jewish mayor, Seth Salver, making him the third Orthodox mayor currently serving in a municipality of Miami Dade.
Here is what you need to know about the United State’s newest Orthodox mayors:
Michele Weiss, first female Orthodox Jewish mayor in the United States
Michele Weiss was sworn in on Wednesday as mayor of University Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, making her one of the first Orthodox Jewish women to lead a city in the United States.
(Meyera Oberndorf, who served as mayor of Virginia Beach, Virginia from 1988-2008, was described as having an Orthodox Jewish upbringing.)
“I want to make a kiddush hashem,” Weiss told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, using a Hebrew term that can mean a positive Jewish role model. “I want to make sure that the Jewish community is seen in a good light, and that’s what I want to portray as a Jewish woman, as an Orthodox Jewish woman, and just make sure that that permeates.”
Weiss said that the Jewish community in University Heights had grown “a tremendous amount” in recent years, driven in part by the low cost of living compared to Cleveland and the fact that the city offers non-public school vouchers.
“It is the largest Orthodox contingency of residents in the state of Ohio, at this point it’s about 20-25%” said Weiss. “They definitely need to be represented, but of course, I represent everyone in the city, not just the Jewish residents.”
Growing up in a Conservative home in another suburb of Cleveland, Richmond Heights, Weiss said that she first became more observant in high school while participating in NCSY, the youth division of the Orthodox Union.
Weiss moved to University Heights in 1997, and worked as the controller and later the CFO of the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland, the largest Jewish day school in Ohio. She is married to her husband, Marcelo, and has three children and multiple grandchildren.
In 2013, Weiss said a coworker inspired her to volunteer as an observer for the League of Women Voters.
“I always was doing quiet good deeds,” said Weiss. “I was at the point, though, where I kept thinking, well, what could I do more for the community? So I had a colleague that said, ‘you know, why don’t you get involved with the city?’”
In 2016, Weiss won a seat on the University Heights city council, and was later appointed by the council as the city’s vice mayor for six years. Weiss said that she felt inspired to run for city council as a voice for the city’s Orthodox.
“I really feel that we’re put on this world to make a difference, and I felt that there needed to be a voice for a lot of reasons,” said Weiss. “I can relate to the secular world and the Jewish world and the Orthodox world, so I can fill that void and that spectrum knowing how to speak to certain people appropriately. I don’t think every religious leader can do that, so I have that ability, and I thought that I would be able to bridge that gap effectively.”
The same year, Weiss also founded the AMATZ initiative, a nonprofit that trains Jewish educators and principals on how to better serve their female students. Weiss also holds board positions on YACHAD, a Jewish disability nonprofit, and the Community Relations Committee at the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.
During her tenure on the city council, Weiss often struggled to work with the city’s former mayor, Michael Dylan Brennan, who was censured twice by the council for “inappropriate language.”
During her campaign, Weiss said that she ran on unifying the city, building new municipal facilities and sharing resources with neighboring communities. While Weiss said the mayoral election in University Heights is nonpartisan, she is a Republican. She won the mayoral election with 56% of the vote.
To help bring together the city’s communities following the discord of Brennan’s tenure, Weiss said she planned on hosting programs and educational forums to “show the diversity of our residents.”
“I’m not focusing just on the Orthodox community, I have to focus on everybody, because we want to be a cohesive unit,” said Weiss. “But one of the things is, I think we need to do some healing and unify the community.”
While Weiss said her religious identity had not been a big factor on the campaign trail, during one debate she was asked about her Sabbath observance. Weiss said she had consulted her rabbi and the police chief to develop a plan for situations that would need her attention during Shabbat or Jewish holidays.
Looking ahead to her mayoral tenure, Weiss said she felt a responsibility to serve as a role model amid rising antisemitism.
“There’s hope for the Jewish community going forward in America, and because it’s scary times with with antisemitism right now, I want to be an example, not just to the religious community, but to women and girls that are Jewish that maybe don’t see themselves in that type of leadership position,” said Weiss.
Justin Brasch, first Orthodox mayor of White Plains
Justin Brasch, a career public servant and lawyer, was inaugurated Friday as the first Orthodox mayor of White Plains, a city just north of New York City in Westchester County and a hub of Jewish life.
Brasch, a Democrat, won the mayor’s seat in November with 72% of the vote against Republican opponent Lenny Lolis, becoming the city’s first new mayor since 2011.
Speaking with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about his upcoming mayoral tenure, Brasch said that he looked forward to setting an example as the county’s only Orthodox mayor, a distinction he said he had earned by building bridges across the city’s diverse communities.
“I love what I do, and everybody knows that I care, and of course I have to set an example, I have no choice, and I like that,” said Brasch. “I have to be accessible to everybody, help everybody, and I do. I go into all the communities, I go to Iftar and break the fast at the mosque, regularly attend the black churches, you name it. I’m there trying to be helpful and build bridges and make things better for people.”
Brasch, now 60, was just 17 when he made his first foray into politics, serving as an intern for then-congressman Ted Weiss on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. There, Brasch said he first “saw how much good government could do.”
“He and his office were in there helping people with housing insecurity and food insecurity and problems with Medicare and Medicaid, and supporting immigrants and helping immigrants get their proper paperwork, etc.,” said Brasch. “I was very inspired by that. I loved how much the people in that office and Congressman Weiss cared and how much good they could do through government.”
As a student at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, Brasch founded the school’s Young Democrats chapter. After moving back to the Upper West Side, he served on the political committee of the New York City Sierra Club and the board of the Mid-Manhattan NAACP.
Brasch said that he had grown up “confusidox,” with Orthodox grandparents on one side and Reform grandparents on the other.
For several years after graduating college, Brasch lived with his Orthodox grandfather on the Upper West Side, an experience he said helped set him on a path for public service and toward becoming an Orthodox Jew.
“He had a real love for people, and felt that Jews need to be helping the Jewish community and the broader community, and he was always very inspiring to me, very down to earth,” said Brasch.
Brasch moved to White Plains with his wife, Juli Smith, in 2003 in search of more space, drawn by the city’s diversity, “down-to-earth” spirit and, at the time, small Jewish community. He is a member of the Modern Orthodox synagogues Young Israel of White Plains and Hebrew Institute of White Plains. Brasch and his wife, who is a commissioner in the White Plains Housing Authority, have three children.
“I joke that I have made a lot of mistakes in life, moving to White Plains was not one of them,” said Brasch. “It’s a very diverse place. People get along. People help one another. People are very supportive. We don’t have any of that hate and intolerance and anger that exist in other places.”
Since moving to White Plains, Brasch said that he had seen the local Jewish community grow at a steady pace. According to the UJA-Federation of New York’s 2023 population study, Westchester County is home to approximately 89,000 Jewish adults and 16,000 Jewish children.
“Our community is growing. People know that this is a great place to raise a family,” said Brasch. “We’re a very safe city and a great place. We have five synagogues, as I said, they all get along, everybody works together, and there’s a lot of harmony in our community.”
Beyond his work at his small legal firm in New York City, Brasch has served in myriad leadership roles in White Plains’ government, including on its planning board, school board budget advisory committee, youth bureau and a transportation task force.
He also served for 12 years on the county’s budget committee.
“That was an incredible opportunity to help and to review things and discover things, and to make connections, and certainly to show as a Jewish person, that we care and we’re involved,” said Brasch.
Before announcing his campaign for mayor, Brasch said that he believed his involvement in different communities in White Plains demonstrated to the local Democratic Party leadership that he was well suited for the role.
“We’re an extremely diverse city, and everybody sees that I go to all the different communities,” said Brasch. “I show up at the black churches, I go to the mosque, I go to the black community, the Latin community. I’m completely involved, and they felt that I have the leadership skills and abilities to keep our city moving in the right direction.”
Brasch said that his involvement in White Plains’ diverse communities also served another purpose: combatting antisemitism.
“I believe that we need to be more involved in the broader community to fight anti semitism,” said Brasch. “Unfortunately, the propaganda these days is that Jews are a selfish community that only cares about themselves. And actually, when people get to know us, they see that we’re good people, we care, we want to help all communities and help the world.”
Brasch said that he also expected some people to leave New York City for White Plains following the election of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose election sparked concern among some of the city’s Jewish residents over his harsh criticism of Israel and avowed socialist politics.
“I do have a different vision from him, except with regard to our desire to help people who have less,” said Brasch of Mamdani. “I do think that there will be somewhat of a migration to White Plains from the city, because we’re a safe city that takes care of our people and builds a nice community.”
During his mayoral campaign, Brasch ran on several key issues, including expanding affordable housing, creating new green spaces and building an intergenerational community center that would put programming for the city’s youth and elderly under one roof.
“I’ve always believed that Judaism is about being the best person you can be helping the world,” said Brasch. “Whether we want to say it’s bringing kedushah or holiness to the world, whether it’s tikkun olam, we are supposed to be a light unto the nation, there’s, quote after quote and teaching after teaching, that we’re supposed to be doing a great job being decent and honest people.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Michele Weiss and Justin Brasch mark milestones as first Orthodox Jewish mayors in their cities appeared first on The Forward.
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Israel, Leading Jewish Groups Blast Mamdani for Scrapping Executive Orders Created to Fight Antisemitism
New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani holds a press conference at the Unisphere in the Queens borough of New York City, US, Nov. 5, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kylie Cooper
The Israeli government and leading US Jewish groups sharply criticized newly inaugurated New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani after he used his first day in office on Thursday to revoke a series of executive orders enacted by his predecessor to combat antisemitism, arguing the moves have weakened protections for Jews.
Among the most controversial actions was Mamdani’s decision to revoke New York City’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, a framework widely used by governments and law enforcement to identify contemporary antisemitic behavior, including some forms of anti-Zionist rhetoric.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry lambasted the move as an invitation for intensified bigotry against Jewish New Yorkers.
“On his very first day as New York City mayor, Mamdani shows his true face: He scraps the IHRA definition of antisemitism and lifts restrictions on boycotting Israel. This isn’t leadership. It’s antisemitic gasoline on an open fire,” the ministry posted on social media on Friday.
IHRA — an intergovernmental organization comprising dozens of countries including the US and Israel — adopted the “working definition” of antisemitism in 2016. Since then, the definition has been widely accepted by Jewish groups and lawmakers across the political spectrum, and it is now used by hundreds of governing institutions, including the US State Department, European Union, and United Nations,
According to the definition, antisemitism “is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” It provides 11 specific, contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere. Beyond classic antisemitic behavior associated with the likes of the medieval period and Nazi Germany, the examples include denial of the Holocaust and newer forms of antisemitism targeting Israel such as demonizing the Jewish state, denying its right to exist, and holding it to standards not expected of any other democratic state.
The definition could have been problematic for Mamdani, a far-left democratic socialist and avowed anti-Zionist who has made anti-Israel activism a cornerstone of his political career and been widely accused of promoting antisemitic rhetoric. A supporter of boycotting all entities tied to Israel, he has repeatedly refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state; routinely accused Israel of “apartheid” and “genocide”; and refused to clearly condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which has been used to call for violence against Jews and Israelis worldwide.
Leading members of the Jewish community in New York have expressed alarm about Mamdani’s electoral victory, fearing what may come in a city already experiencing a surge in antisemitic hate crimes.
Beyond the IHRA definition, Mamdani also nullified an order that opposed the campaign to boycott Israel. The boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which Mamdani openly supports, seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward its eventual elimination. Leaders of the movement have repeatedly stated their goal is to destroy the world’s only Jewish state.
Mamdani further revoked a directive for the New York City Police Department (NYPD) to review protests near synagogues following contentious demonstrations outside Jewish institutions last year. However, a subsequent executive order from Mamdani included similar instructions to police. The new mayor also committed to continuing the work of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, which was established last year.
In November, hundreds of people amassed outside a prominent New York City synagogue and clamored for violence against Jews. Mamdani issued a statement which “discouraged” the extreme rhetoric used by the protesters but did not unequivocally condemn the harassment of Jews outside their own house of worship. Mamdani’s office notably also criticized the synagogue, with his team describing the event inside as a “violation of international law.” The protesters were harassing those attending an event being held by Nefesh B’Nefesh, a Zionist organization that helps Jews immigrate to Israel, at Park East Synagogue in Manhattan.
The rollbacks were part of a broader action by Mamdani to revoke all executive orders issued by his predecessor, former Mayor Eric Adams, since Sept. 26, 2024, when Adams was indicted for corruption, charges of which have since been dismissed. Mamdani’s office has framed the move as an administrative reset rather than a targeted policy shift, saying the new mayor sought to begin his term with a clean slate.
Leading Jewish groups, including the two main community organizations in New York, rebuked Mamdani for his first steps as mayor.
“Mayor Mamdani pledged to build an inclusive New York and combat all forms of hate, including antisemitism. But when the new administration hit reset on many of Mayor Adams’ executive orders, it reversed two significant protections against antisemitism: the city’s adoption of IHRA and critical protections against the [BDS] movement against the State of Israel,” the statement read.
“While we welcome Mayor Mamdani’s executive order seeking to better protect houses of worship, and his continuation of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, our community will be looking for clear and sustained leadership that demonstrates a serious commitment to confronting antisemitism and ensures that the powers of the mayor’s office are used to promote safety and unity, not to advance divisive efforts such as BDS,” the statement continued. “Singling out Israel for sanctions is not the way to make Jewish New Yorkers feel included and safe, and will undermine any words to that effect. Bringing New Yorkers together and building broad coalitions will be foundational to the mayor’s ability to advance a more inclusive New York. ”
The statement was signed by the UJA-Federation of New York, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, the Anti-Defamation League’s office covering New York and New Jersey, the American Jewish Committee’s New York office, the New York Board of Rabbis, Agudath Israel of America, and the Orthodox Union.
Adams also criticized Mamdani’s reversals, saying they dismantle safeguards put in place following a surge in antisemitic incidents.
“@NYCMayor promised a New Era and unity today. This isn’t new. And it isn’t unity,” Adams posted on social media. “I’ve been clear: I will be vocal in defending our Jewish brothers and sisters, just as they stood up for African Americans during the civil rights era.”
New York City is home to the world’s largest Jewish population outside Israel, and its mayor traditionally plays an influential role in US–Israel relations and global Jewish affairs.
Mamdani assumed office amid an alarming surge in antisemitic hate crimes across New York City over the last two years, following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel.
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 NYPD. A new report released on Wednesday by the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism 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.
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. Conversely, 67 percent view him unfavorably.