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Zak Malamed is the latest Jewish Democrat running to unseat George Santos
(New York Jewish Week) — The founder of a Democratic fundraising group is the latest Jewish candidate to run for the seat held by Rep. George Santos, the Republican congressman arrested on federal criminal charges last week.
Zak Malamed, 29, said he was spurred to run by Santos’ election last year and, in particular, bristled at revelations that Santos had falsely claimed to be Jewish.
“He is an extreme MAGA Republican who doesn’t take antisemitism seriously, makes a mockery of our Jewish faith,” Malamed told the New York Jewish Week. He added that the way Santos “uses the history that many of us carry, with relatives who are victims or escaped the Holocaust, is astounding.”
Malamed announced Monday that he will run for the Democratic nomination in Santos’ New York district, which covers parts of Queens and Long Island. He is the third Jewish Democratic candidate to declare candidacy for the seat held by Santos, following former Democratic state senator Anna Kaplan, an Iranian-American who has long championed Holocaust education, and Josh Lafazan, a Jewish Nassau County legislator. Democratic attorney Will Murphy is also running, as is one Republican, former J.P. Morgan executive Kellen Curry.
Malamed, who grew up in Great Neck, a Long Island town in the district, cofounded a Democratic fundraising organization called “The Next 50″ that according to its website focuses on “building a leadership pipeline of justice and equity-minded leaders that will counter conservatives’ massive 50-year investment in young leaders.” One of its endorsees in next year’s races is Elissa Slotkin, the Jewish centrist Democratic congresswoman from Michigan who is now running for Senate.
Malamed said he hopes to bring integrity back to the district, particularly after Santos was charged last week with illicitly collecting unemployment assistance while earning a six-figure salary. The congressman — whom Malamed called “an international embarrassment” — has pleaded not guilty.
In addition to falsely claiming to be Jewish, Santos has spread a series of other falsehoods about his background. He has largely rejected fact-checking by news organizations from around the world, in the case of his ancestry saying he never claimed to be Jewish, calling himself “Jew-ish.” In a recording of the congressman posted to Twitter last week by MSNBC host Ari Melber, Santos can be heard saying, “If you sit in a room with a lot of Jews, you’re f—ed.”
Malamed grew up in Santos’ district and identifies as a Conservative Jew. He said his family has belonged to Temple Israel in Great Neck for more than 60 years.
“It’s where I went to preschool,” Malamed said. “It’s where I went to Hebrew school, and of course, I was bar mitzvahed here. … I maintain this deep connection and care for not just the community that raised me, but the Jewish community that raised me.”
As a high schooler, Malamed launched a group focused on elevating student voices in education policy making. He subsequently graduated from the University of Maryland and worked for the 2020 presidential campaign of Michael Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor and billionaire media mogul, according to his LinkedIn profile. He previously worked at Facebook and at XQ, an education policy initiative founded by philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs.
Malamed said he maintains “a commitment toward investing in others and elevating others’ leadership” and emphasized that the idea of running for office “didn’t even enter my mind [until] after Santos won.”
“It’s when I took stock of the field and realized that Democrats up and down the ballots have been rejected over the past couple of years, and have not found a way to break through and defeat MAGA Republicans,” he said.
Malamed said if elected, he would support Israel, a stance he attributed to the influence of his grandmother, who emigrated from Russia to Israel before moving to Great Neck in the late 1960s.
“My grandmother was in Israel the day its independence was declared by the United Nations,” Malamed said, referring to the 1947 U.N. vote approving a partition of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states. “I think it’s important to bring next-generation leadership that’s committed to being proudly Jewish, unabashedly supportive of the state of Israel, and also committed to peace.”
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The post Zak Malamed is the latest Jewish Democrat running to unseat George Santos appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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IDF Soldier from Connecticut Killed in Southern Lebanon Combat
Sgt. Moshe Yitzhak Hacohen Katz. Photo: courtesy.
i24 News – The Israel Defense Forces announced on Sunday morning the death of Sgt. Moshe Yitzhak Hacohen Katz, 22, originally from New Haven, Connecticut, who was killed during combat operations in southern Lebanon on Saturday.
According to the military, Katz was killed in a rocket attack targeting Israeli forces operating during efforts to expand a security zone in southern Lebanon. The IDF said the strike occurred overnight between Friday and Saturday, during a large-scale barrage aimed at units deployed in the area.
An initial military investigation found that one rocket directly hit an infantry unit from the 890th Battalion of the Paratroopers Brigade, killing Katz instantly. Three additional soldiers were wounded and are listed in moderate condition.
The IDF said the announcement of Katz’s death was delayed to ensure that all family members, including those in the United States, were properly notified.
The army also said that recent attacks have largely focused on the four IDF divisions operating in Lebanon. In the past 24 hours alone, approximately 250 rockets were launched toward Israeli positions, with 23 crossing into Israeli territory, according to military figures.
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AI-Generated Antisemitic Rabbi Racks Up Millions of Followers with Questionable Financial Advice
i24 News – An AI-generated character known as Rabbi Goldman has attracted millions of followers online by combining old antisemitic tropes with digital-age conspiracy theories. The avatar, presented as a caricature of a New York rabbi, plays off stereotypes of Jewish power and wealth while dispensing unsolicited “financial advice” and conspiracy-laden commentary about global elites.
In his videos, Rabbi Goldman claims that Jews have “known every secret for thousands of years,” weaving age-old prejudice into modern misinformation. Among his assertions: that the moon landing was faked, the US government will soon exert total control over its citizens, and billionaires stage yacht sinkings for insurance fraud—all allegedly foreknown by “the Jews.”
Before being removed on Sunday night, his Instagram account had racked up over 1.5 million followers. Yet the same page remains active on Facebook, which shares an owner with Instagram, with roughly 180,000 followers and thousands of interactions per post. The comments reveal an audience that is genuinely engaged with, and emboldened by, his vitriolic rhetoric.
Rabbi Goldman’s videos follow a simple formula designed to thrive in algorithm-driven ecosystems. They begin with a cryptic slogan implying secret knowledge or hidden wealth — invoking Jews as the keepers of these secrets — to draw viewers in and extend watch time, thus being featured on more people’s feeds. What follows is a cascade of AI-generated, factually dubious monologues, all culminating in a pitch: he can show you how to acquire the same “Jewish wisdom.”
That pitch leads to his website, where a manual titled How to Make and Invest Money sells for $9, and he claims it has been purchased by over 4,000 people. The real product, however, carries a fuller title — How to Make and Invest Money Like the Jews. The 62-page PDF amounts to generic, AI-spun financial advice labeled as “the Jewish method,” occasionally interspersed with random references to the Talmud. Just like the videos, it references how Jews have managed to be successful for thousands of years but offers little backup as to how that can translate to a real-world scenario.
Most of it plays off the stereotype of Jews being financially astute. But some lines, such as “Jews do not day trade… We buy the market — the entire market — and we hold it indefinitely,” remove the mask entirely.
Whether we like it or not, antisemitism thrives online—and platforms’ recent loosening of content restrictions under the banner of “free speech” has only amplified it. Social media has become an ideal environment for grifters to blend prejudice with profit. And that is, to their credit, what the creators of Rabbi Goldman have done.
They have clearly borrowed from the “manosphere” playbook—a cluster of influencers promoting hyper-masculine, materialistic lifestyles infused with misogyny and antisemitism. Like Andrew Tate and similar figures, Rabbi Goldman appeals to disaffected young men who feel alienated by the economy and society in which they live, eager to locate a scapegoat.
In Goldman’s case, the scapegoats are the elites and billionaires. But the framing of the Jews alongside the elites has, by proxy, made them the scapegoat too. By merging coded hatred with generic Instagram-style self-help language, the character transforms antisemitism into a marketable aesthetic.
So essentially, the creator of Rabbi Goldman has found a niche in an emerging market, playing off of antisemitism to sell cheaply produced slop to teenagers. Which is both entrepreneurial and morally awful. But the issue is that social media has bred the ground for this by rewarding shock content and letting antisemitism often go untouched. Even when they deleted his Instagram account, dozens of copycats popped up, including an absurdly ironic German-language version that uses the likeness of British politician Jeremy Corbyn.
And this is what happens when social media companies are reactive rather than proactive. They were chasing shadows after the account became so big. Instead, they need to cut it out at its source, be tougher on antisemitism, and be more vigilant with AI content.
And for social media users, it is hard to tell what’s real and what isn’t anymore. Just try not to get financial advice from an AI rabbi who thinks the moon landing was fake.
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Pezeshkian Clashes with IRGC Over Iran’s War Strategy and Economy
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit 2025, in Tianjin, China, September 1, 2025. Iran’s Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Deep divisions have reportedly emerged within Iran’s leadership as the war enters its fifth week, with tensions growing between President Masoud Pezeshkian and senior figures in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to a report by Iran International.
The report by Iran International claims Pezeshkian has sharply criticized the military escalation strategy led by IRGC commanders, warning of severe economic consequences if the conflict continues.
He is said to have cautioned that without a ceasefire, Iran’s economy could “completely collapse within three weeks to a month.”
According to the same report, Pezeshkian has called for the restoration of executive and administrative authority to the civilian government, a demand reportedly rejected by IRGC leadership, including Ahmad Vahidi.
Vahidi is said to have pushed back, blaming the current crisis on the government’s failure to implement structural reforms prior to the war and recent protest movements.
Meanwhile, signs of economic strain are becoming increasingly visible across Iran. Reports from several major cities describe ATMs that are empty, out of service, or inaccessible, alongside repeated disruptions to online banking systems.
Public sector employees have also reported delays in salaries and benefits over the past three months.