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2 of NYC’s 5 public pension funds are vulnerable to a mayor-backed Israel divestment push
The man who is likely to be New York City’s top finance watchdog under Zohran Mamdani — assuming they both win their races on Tuesday — has said he does not believe Mamdani could divest the city’s pension funds of their investments in Israel.
“Just doesn’t have the votes for that,” Mark Levine, the likely next comptroller, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in September.
But in fact, Mamdani would be able to stack the boards of two of the city’s five pension funds such that divestment from Israel could be on the table, according to a JTA analysis — and some of Mamdani’s supporters say they are optimistic.
“We have hope in a Mamdani administration,” said Leah Plasse, a school-based social worker who has been lobbying for two years for the Teachers’ Retirement System to divest from Israeli assets.
As the election draws close and Mamdani maintains his lead in the polls, Jewish New Yorkers are wondering about how a mayor who is a longstanding supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel could enact his vision in New York City.
Mamdani has stated his intention not to invest city funds in Israel bonds, in keeping with the current comptroller’s decision not to reinvest when $39 million in bonds matured in 2023.
But the city’s pension funds hold Israel investments beyond Israel bonds, which are issued by the Israeli government. The BDS movement calls for divesting from “all Israeli and international companies that sustain Israeli apartheid” — expanding targets to include most Israeli companies as well as non-Israeli companies that do business with the Israeli government.
The Teachers’ Retirement System’s Israeli investments include military technology companies — which Plasse and the group NYC Educators for Palestine have honed in on — as well as a variety of businesses like energy companies, food manufacturers and fuel companies.
Altogether, the city’s five public pension funds contain approximately $315 million in Israeli assets, according to the comptroller’s office. Mamdani has not indicated an intention to push for full divestment, but he also has not denied the possibility when asked.
Asked about doing so in a JTA questionnaire last week, Mamdani responded, “I support the approach of the current comptroller, Brad Lander, to end the practice of purchasing Israel bonds in our pension funds, which we do not do for any other nation.” He also did not specifically respond to part of that question which asked how else he might advance the cause of BDS as mayor.
What’s clear is that if Mamdani chose to make divestment a priority, pathways exist within the city’s pension fund management where headway could be possible.
For each of the city’s five pension funds to make any investment decisions, its board of trustees must vote in favor. Those boards vary in size, but typically consist of the comptroller, an appointee by the mayor and a number of labor representatives. Recommendations are made to those boards by the comptroller’s in-house Bureau of Asset Management.
Levine emphasized that a mayor could not “singlehandedly” overrule the comptroller’s recommendations to divest from Israel. But on boards where the mayor has more influence over the makeup of the trustees, the mayor could do so with the help of his or her appointees.
The Board of Education Retirement System, for example, has a 28-person board of trustees — a 15-person majority of whom are appointed by the mayor. Of those 15 mayoral appointees, one is the schools chancellor, one is an independent appointee, and the other 13 are the mayoral appointees on the city’s Panel for Educational Policy. (Mamdani has said he wants to reduce the influence of the mayor on the PEP.) The number of votes required to pass a resolution in the BERS is 15, though that figure must include one of the board’s two employee-elected members.
The board of the Teachers’ Retirement System, meanwhile, consists of seven members, and requires four votes to pass a resolution. Three of the members are mayoral appointees, one represents the city comptroller, and the other three are elected by the teachers on staggered three-year terms.
The three teacher members on the board now are all drawn from the teachers union’s leadership caucus. The union, the United Federation of Teachers, endorsed Mamdani.
The other three pension funds — for police, firefighters and city employees — are less susceptible to mayoral influence because the mayor appoints a smaller proportion of members.
While the movement to boycott Israel has called for divestment since 2005, advocacy has ramped up in many places in the last two years during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. In New York City, pro-Palestinian advocacy groups have gained little traction under an Eric Adams mayoral administration that is not sympathetic to their activism.
In fact, the Teachers’ Retirement System board has been resistant to advocacy for divestment, according to Plasse, who noted that the board “voted to close the public comment period after 1.5 years of us coming to speak about divesting our pension.”
Plasse said she was told this change was made for the sake of consistency, as no other pension funds’ board meetings include public comment periods. But she said it felt “quite clear” the real reasoning was to stifle her and her group’s “continued advocacy.”
Indeed, groups such as NYC Educators for Palestine and Workers for Palestine have regularly sent representatives to the public meetings of the pension boards. In public comments, the activists have pointed to examples like the city’s divestment from South African businesses in the 1980s, and more recently, the funds’ unilateral decision to divest from Russian securities in 2022, to show a precedent.
“And just on a personal note, before the holidays, as a Jew, before Hanukkah begins, I truly believe in tikkun olam, which is the repairing of the world,” Plasse said in the public comment period of a December 2024 board meeting of the Teachers’ Retirement System, according to meeting minutes. “We are funding genocide. That is against my faith.”
Any effort to divest from Israel would likely butt up against Levine, who is expected to win the race for comptroller. Levine, who is Jewish, endorsed Mamdani but has said he wants the city to resume investing in Israel bonds. NYC Educators for Palestine joined the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace outside Levine’s office last week for a protest they named “Break the Bonds,” calling his intention to invest in Israel bonds one that puts “deadly politics over the interests of working New Yorkers.”
Levine, however, says he isn’t motivated by pro-Israel sentiment. The investments, he notes, have always been sound for the city. (Levine’s campaign did not respond to requests for a follow-up interview.)
That means the issue of Israeli investments — which, according to Levine, are a sturdy piece of an investment portfolio that serves more than 750,000 New Yorkers — could bring some of Mamdani’s deeply held values into conflict. In response to JTA’s question on divestment, he emphasized the central promises of his campaign.
“My priority as mayor will be to deliver on the affordability agenda I ran on: freezing the rent, universal childcare, and fast and free buses,” Mamdani answered. “That will always be the core of my administration.”
And advocates for divestment say they won’t stop pushing the case before the pension boards. At October’s Teachers’ Retirement System board meeting, Plasse handed out a written statement calling for an investment analysis and declaring that her group would be undeterred by the board’s repeated denials.
“I am more than open to meet with anyone about anything that has been discussed here today,” the statement read. “But please know, we are only becoming more embolden [sic] to demand this change. This is our money and the time will come.”
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Staunch Israel critic and Gaza trauma surgeon Adam Hamawy wins NJ-12 primary
(JTA) — Adam Hamawy, the staunch Israel critic who served as a trauma surgeon in Gaza, is expected to join Congress after winning the Democratic primary in New Jersey’s 12th district on Tuesday.
The political novice held a 12-point margin ahead of second-place candidate Brad Cohen with 86% of the vote in, even as he faced questions over his past ties to Omar Abdel-Rahman, the “Blind Sheikh” convicted on terrorism charges in 1995. Hamawy’s camp had called the questions “gross and bigoted” and said the attacks against him were “getting more desperate than ever.”
At a time when Israel is becoming increasingly unpopular among Democratic voters, Hamawy’s victory makes him the latest in a string of vocally pro-Palestinian progressives to win Democratic elections in blue districts in this year’s midterms, following fellow New Jersey candidate Analilia Mejia and Chris Rabb in Pennsylvania.
“The Democratic establishment just got a wake-up call!” wrote PAL PAC, a pro-Palestinian group that had endorsed Hamawy, on X. “This victory proves what we have known all along: Standing firmly and unapologetically for Palestinian freedom is a WINNING platform.”
Hamawy, who is credited with having saved Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s life during the Iraq War, was also boosted by $2 million in spending by American Priorities, a super PAC that aims to counterweight the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC by installing pro-Palestinian progressives in Congress. He was endorsed by a slew of left-wing politicians and campaigned alongside the streamer Hasan Piker, who’s been accused of antisemitic rhetoric. He is set to succeed Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, who is retiring at the end of her term.
As an opponent of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system and a supporter of a complete arms embargo and the right of return for Palestinian refugees, Hamawy will become one of Congress’ sharpest Israel critics if he wins November’s general election, which he is expected to do in the deep-blue district.
Hamawy said that he finds antisemitism “abhorrent” and that he is “deeply worried about its continued rise” in a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency last week.
“As a Muslim, I understand what it feels like to face bigotry, to feel unsafe in your community and to have your loyalty to this country questioned,” Hamawy said. “In this country, we have seen recent attacks at both synagogues and mosques. I see our safety as intertwined.”
Asked about Jewish constituents who disagree with his stance on Israel, Hamawy told JTA, “I hope we can still connect on shared values and goals, including peace, justice, safety and dignity.” He added that his door “will always be open.”
Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, did not mention Hamawy’s pro-Palestinian advocacy in a statement congratulating him on his win.
“As a veteran, combat surgeon, and small business owner, Adam Hamawy has continually served his community and our country. He is a proven fighter for working families,” Martin said. “We look forward to welcoming him to Congress, where he will continue the fight to lower costs, expand access to healthcare, and make life more affordable for New Jersey families.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
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Scott Wiener wins spot in general election for San Francisco House seat as a Jewish critic of Israel
California State Sen. Scott Wiener advanced Tuesday as the frontrunner to succeed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Congress, in a contest closely watched in Jewish politics after Wiener called Israel’s actions in the Gaza War a genocide and called for a halt to arms sales to Israel.
Wiener, a 55-year-old progressive Democrat who is Jewish, advanced with the most votes, with 42% of the ballots with about half counted as of Wednesday morning in California’s top-two primary for the deep-blue San Francisco district Pelosi has represented for nearly four decades. In November’s general election he will face the runner-up Democrat, San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, who is backed by Pelosi.
In his victory speech, Wiener promised to fight the Trump administration’s “disaster of a regime” that has “commandeered this country, that is tearing down our democracy and the rule of law, that is getting us into disastrous wars.”
“I’m polite but not quiet,” he added. “I’m not going to wait my turn.”
Wiener’s possible arrival in Congress comes amid a broader reshaping of Jewish Democratic politics, as a more progressive and younger generation of Jewish candidates increasingly embraces a more critical approach toward Israel.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict became a key issue that defined his congressional campaign. In an interview with the Forward last year, after announcing his bid, Wiener said his approach reflects that of the “large majority of Democrats in Congress” who don’t want to sever ties with Israel but are critical of the policies of the right-wing government.
Wiener’s declaration in January accusing Israel of genocide caused an uproar among Jewish leaders and voters nationally and prompted his resignation as co-chair of the California Jewish Caucus.
For years, I’ve condemned Netanyahu and his extremist government and the devastation they’ve inflicted on Gaza. It’s why I’ve been clear I won’t support U.S. funding for the destruction of Palestinian communities. I’ve stopped short of calling it genocide, but I can’t anymore. pic.twitter.com/71nIt6K527
— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) January 11, 2026
Wiener had already positioned himself as a progressive on Israel. He was an early supporter of a bilateral ceasefire, called the war “indefensible” and said he would back congressional measures to halt the sale of offensive weapons to Israel. But his declaration of genocide came under duress, after he faced widespread backlash from progressive voters when he refused during a candidate debate to say whether or not he believed Israel was committing genocide.
The episode reflected both the political pressures facing Jewish members of Congress and the changing landscape of Democratic leadership.
Wiener is running in the company of Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, who is challenging incumbent Sen. Ed Markey in Massachusetts; Brad Lander, running against Rep. Dan Goldman in New York; and Daniel Biss, the Democratic nominee for the Illinois seat represented by retiring Rep. Jan Schakowsky, all of whom promised not to take contributions from the Israeli government-allied American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
These Jewish candidates remain supportive of Israel’s existence and reject efforts to isolate the Jewish state. But they are now more willing to embrace language that would have been politically unthinkable for mainstream Jewish elected officials just a decade ago, when figures such as retiring congressman Jerry Nadler and the late Reps. Nita Lowey and Eliot Engel, all of New York, were the faces of progressive Jewish politics. Pelosi, who often spoke of her pride in her Jewish grandchildren and her father’s early support for Israel’s founding, led a generation of Democrats for whom unwavering pro-Israel support was a given.
Wiener’s election would signal the start of a new era. Notably absent from Wiener’s remarks on Tuesday were references to Israel, antisemitism or his Jewish identity.
Other California races
Other high-profile California races saw progressive candidates outside the bubble as centrist and conservative candidates advanced in open primaries where the top two vote-getters advance to the general election.
In Los Angeles, with about half of votes counted, Republican ex-reality TV star Spencer Pratt (29.5% of the vote) appears poised to advance to the general election, along with incumbent Democratic Mayor Karen Bass (36.5%). Nithya Raman — a democratic socialist who once won a pro-Israel endorsement — lags well behind them with about half the votes counted. Billionaire Democrat (and former synagogue president) Adam Miller was a distant fourth, with 4% of the vote.
And with a slew of Democrats splitting votes in the governor’s race, Republican talk show host Steve Hilton led all candidates with 27% of the vote, closely trailed by Xavier Becerra (26%), who was the health and human services secretary under President Joe Biden. Billionaire progressive Tom Steyer had just under 20% of the vote with about half of the votes counted.
Rep. Brad Sherman of Los Angeles will advance to the general election, staving off a challenge from fellow Democrat Jake Levine, a former Biden administration official.
Rep. Ro Khanna had 57% of the vote in his Silicon Valley district, meaning he will most likely win the office without a runoff. Khanna is one of the most outspoken critics of Israel in Congress.
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At the Vatican with Chicago’s mayor, a rabbi gave Pope Leo a White Sox kippah
(JTA) — Lizzi Heydemann didn’t plan what she was going to say to Pope Leo XIV.
But when the Chicago rabbi found herself face-to-face with the new pontiff during a Vatican visit alongside a delegation of Chicago leaders, she thanked him for the way he has spoken about the war in Gaza.
“I said, you know, it’s been a hard time over these past two years to be a rabbi, but I want to thank you for, in the midst of conflict, holding the humanity of everyone involved in the conflict,” Heydemann recounted.
Leo, the first American pope and a native of Chicago’s South Side, repeatedly advocated after his election last year for the release of the Israeli hostages as well as a ceasefire in the war in Gaza, which he has referred to as “vengeance” and “barbarity.” The comments angered some Jewish leaders who have interpreted them as unfairly targeting Israel, but for others including Heydemann, they have offered a template for how to criticize the war.
“You may be anti-war, but I do not hear you denouncing or degrading people,” Heydemann said she told Leo. “Thank you for holding the humanity of Israelis and Palestinians in the same breath and the same thought. It’s not something that is modeled very often.”
She added, “He seemed grateful, and like he knew exactly what I was talking about.”
Heydemann, the founder and leader of Mishkan Chicago, an independent Jewish spiritual community, had been invited by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to join a delegation of civic, business and faith leaders traveling to Rome last week. (Johnson has been a vocal critic of Israel who has drawn criticism himself from some Jewish leaders in Chicago.) She said she was the only rabbi to take part in the trip.
As she waited for the pope to enter a room where the delegation was assembled on Thursday, Heydemann said she began weeping.
“What I reflected on is that he, maybe more than anyone in the world, is a religious leader with the world’s eyes on him,” Heydemann said. “He is beloved and critiqued constantly, and every rabbi in America has had a little taste over the last few years of that weight.”
While the interaction carried an unexpected emotional weight for Heydemann, it also came with a distinctive Jewish Chicago touch: a White Sox-themed kippah.
She said she included the kippah, which featured the Chicago White Sox logo on the exterior as well as a pomegranate on the inside, in a chest of Chicago-themed gifts presented to the pope on Thursday during the visit as a nod to his lifelong devotion to the baseball team.
“We thought that would be a sweet point connection between me and the pope,” Heydemann said, adding that the pontiff’s typical white zucchetto looks “awfully like a kippah.”
“It brings us all joy to imagine that after a long day at work wearing the cream-colored one that matches his robes, maybe at the end of the day he’ll switch it out for a jersey material, White Sox kippah, and thinks fondly of sweet home Chicago, and the Jewish spiritual community gave it to him,” Heydemann added.
A list of gifts that circulated in local media included another piece of Jewish paraphernalia: a tote bag with the words “Resisting tyrants since Pharaoh.” That’s a catchphrase from T’ruah, the rabbinic human rights group where Heydemann has been on the board. But the rabbi said the inclusion was an error: She was carrying the bag, not giving it to Leo.
Looking back on the meeting with the pope, Heydemann said her experience reflected a broader conviction about “building bridges, even in the presence of difference.”
“There’s too much at stake in our world for us to not be continuing to be in relationship with one another in the presence of differences,” Heydemann said.
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