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A Jewish reporter goes inside Rikers for a new book on a notorious jail

(New York Jewish Week) — Reuven Blau, son of a Holocaust survivor, suggests his father may have inspired him to strive for change within New York City’s notorious Rikers Island jail.

“There’s this subconscious drive to change things, or to help people in a way that you don’t understand,” said Blau. “Inside Rikers, you realize how difficult it is, and how terrible the circumstances are for everyone involved.” 

A reporter for The City who studied at a yeshiva in Brooklyn, Blau is the co-author, with Graham Rayman, of “Rikers: An Oral History,” a new book on a jail that makes frequent headlines for the violence and despair trapped within its walls. The book seeks to humanize the people inside the jail — both inmates and the people who work there — and tell their stories.  

Its aim, Blau told the New York Jewish Week, is to amplify the voices of “people who are rarely seen as people,” he said.  

The jail complex, which opened in 1932, has long been criticized for its harsh conditions, which include horror stories of inmates caged in tiny showers, sleeping on excrement-smeared floors, suicides, beatings and more. Many have called for its closure since the 1970s. As of Dec. 14, 19 people died at Rikers in 2022 — the highest death rate since 2013. 

Rikers Island, the jail complex located in the East River that has been open since 1932, is the site of a constant stream of violent news and headlines over the past few decades. (The City/Ben Fractenberg)

The reporters spent close to three years interviewing about 130 people, with most of the conversations taking place over the phone or in person with people already out of jail. They also made several trips to the jail complex.

One of the people they spoke with was Rabbi Gabriel Kretzmer Seed, a Jewish chaplain on Rikers. Seed spoke about singing Shabbat songs with an inmate who suddenly got up and punched him.  

“He was a pretty strong person, but I only ended up with a bloody lip. He might have been mumbling something, but I don’t remember what he said specifically. I was quite shocked. Everything happened so quickly,” Seed said. “I was totally in shock because I had known him for a while and he was the last person I thought would hurt me.”

Seed then remarked that he was able to work with mental health staff and ultimately managed to have a good relationship with the inmate after the incident.

“It was such a revealing story, how there are people who are there to help others,” Blau said. “And they become aware of how people are misplaced there.”

Prior to joining The City, Blau had worked at the New York Daily News and the New York Post. Despite his deep reporting experience, Blau, 43, noted that it’s been “the weirdest thing” to become the “voice” of Rikers. “I’m this whole yeshiva guy,” Blau said. “I’d never been to jail. It wasn’t an issue I was familiar with at all in any way.”

Blau, who grew up in Denver and went to a yeshiva high school in Chicago, said that he remains observant. “Big cholent fan,” said Blau, who lives in New Jersey with his wife, Sara, who had a baby girl in May. “My favorite part of the culture is the social service network that exists in many communities.” 

He fell into reporting after majoring in English at Brooklyn College. Before working for the tabloids, Blau wrote for The Chief, a newspaper dedicated to labor and local politics, where he covered the union that represents New York’s corrections officers, among other things.  

In 2011, he landed a scoop with the Post about a “jailhouse bar mitzvah” which revealed that correction officers and supervisors attended a lavish Jewish coming-of-age cermony behind bars at a downtown Manhattan jail whose costs were carried by taxpayers.

“I always had some foot in the jail coverage,” Blau said of his time working in the news industry. 

His co-writer, Rayman, covers criminal justice for the Daily News. Rayman told the New York Jewish Week that he doesn’t think people can read the book and “come away with a feeling that anything other than that particular jail system is deeply flawed and in need of major changes.” 

The city is required by law to close Rikers Island by 2027, yet many are casting doubt over whether that will be possible. 

“I really hope that there’s not a journalist behind me in 20 or 30 years that is writing about the same issues, because I think that means the coverage we’ve been doing hasn’t made an effect,” Blau said. “I look at it through that lens. I try to come up with ways that are going to change things for the better in a real meaningful way.” 


The post A Jewish reporter goes inside Rikers for a new book on a notorious jail appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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UN Nuclear Watchdog Believes Iran’s Enriched Uranium Survived War With Israel as Tehran Rebuffs Trump

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, May 20, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, confirmed that most of Iran’s enriched uranium survived the 12-day war with Israel in June and remains stored in damaged nuclear facilities, contradicting earlier reports of the strikes’ impact.

In an interview last week with the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung, IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi said the agency’s new findings indicate that “the majority” of Iran’s enriched uranium “remains in the nuclear facilities in Isfahan and Fordow, and some in Natanz.”

Earlier this year, Israel, with support from the United States, carried out a large-scale military strike against the Islamist regime in Tehran, targeting three critical nuclear enrichment sites, including the heavily fortified Fordow facility.

According to Grossi, the three facilities were “massively damaged” in the strikes, restricting the IAEA’s access to them — and the enriched uranium inside — without “Iran’s full cooperation.”

“This will only happen if Iran sees it as a national interest,” he told NZZ.

However, Grossi’s latest assessment appears to somewhat contradict earlier reports from the White House, which claimed Iran’s nuclear facilities were “totally obliterated” and its nuclear program set back by years. US and Israeli intelligence reports have indicated the Iranian program could be set back anywhere from one or two to “several” years.

After the 12-day war with Israel, Iran halted its cooperation with the IAEA, accusing the agency of failing to firmly condemn the Israeli and US strikes.

On Monday, Tehran confirmed it ended the cooperation deal signed with the IAEA in September — which had allowed the agency to resume inspections of its nuclear sites — after Western powers reinstated UN sanctions last month.

This past weekend, Iranian officials also announced that the country is no longer party to the 2015 nuclear deal, under which economic sanctions were lifted in exchange for limits on Tehran’s nuclear program, following the deal’s expiration on Saturday.

According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry, “all provisions [of the 2015 nuclear deal], including the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program and the related mechanisms, are now considered terminated.”

Still, the regime emphasized that the country “firmly expresses its commitment to diplomacy.”

After several rounds of nuclear talks failed to yield any results, Britain, Germany, and France activated the so-called “snapback” mechanism, leading to the reimposition of UN sanctions.

However, the three European powers — all parties to the 2015 nuclear deal — announced last week that they would still pursue efforts to restart talks aimed at finding a “comprehensive, durable, and verifiable agreement.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi rejected such efforts, saying that Tehran did “not see any reason to negotiate” with Western powers once sanctions were reimposed

Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei mocked US President Donald Trump for claiming that he had destroyed the country’s nuclear facilities with his airstrike campaign in June.

“The US president proudly says they bombed and destroyed Iran’s nuclear industry. Very well, keep dreaming!” the Iranian leader said on Monday.

Khamenei also dismissed Trump’s proposal to resume nuclear negotiations, insisting that Iran had no interest in engaging under such conditions.

“Trump says he is a dealmaker, but if a deal is accompanied by coercion and its outcome is predetermined, it is not a deal but rather an imposition and bullying,” Khamenei said.

“What does it have to do with America whether Iran has nuclear facilities or not? These interventions are inappropriate, wrong, and coercive,” he continued.

Despite Iran’s claims that its nuclear program is solely for civilian purposes rather than weapons development, Western powers have said there is no “credible civilian justification” for the country’s nuclear activity, arguing it “gives Iran the capability to rapidly produce sufficient fissile material for multiple nuclear weapons.”

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Islamic Group CAIR’s Lawsuit Against University to Block Antisemitism Course Prompts Derision

People walk on the campus of Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois, US, April 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Vincent Alban

Northwestern University in Illinois is being sued for teaching its students and staff not to indulge or promote antisemitism, according to a new lawsuit filed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization that has been scrutinized by US authorities over alleged ties to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

The action comes several weeks after the university paused course enrollment for an unspecified number of students who refused to participate in anti-discrimination seminars which emphasized antisemitism prevention. In a statement to The Algemeiner, Northwestern said the students had advanced notice that their declining to complete the course, as well as other “mandatory student trainings,” in a manner consistent with “the policy on Discrimination, Harassment, and Sexual Misconduct,” would precipitate “action, including a registration hold.”

CAIR, acting on behalf of the Northwestern Graduate Workers for Palestine (GW4P) group, argues that the course violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and accuses Northwestern University of holding it as a “pretense” for censoring “expressions of Palestinian identity, culture, and advocacy for self-determination.”

The argument castigates a training video featured in the course while appearing to suggest that the behavior perpetrated by anti-Israel activists that Jewish civil rights groups have aimed to stop — such as beating up Jewish students, calling for their deaths, and advocating the destruction of their ancient homeland by terrorists — is inherent to both Palestinian and Arab culture.

“Northwestern coerced many of its students into … watching the JUF video by placing a hold on the registration of students who did not,” the suit states, disparaging the group which produced the video, Jewish United Fund, as being founded to promote censorship. “These policies and practices discriminate against the university’s Palestinian and other Arab students by branding their ethnic and religious identities, cultures, and advocacy for the rights of their national group as antisemitic and subject to discipline.”

On Monday Jewish civil rights advocates said that CAIR’s lawsuit is meritless, arguing it undermines the spirit of the Civil Rights Act.

“CAIR’s lawsuit is not a civil rights case. On the contrary, it’s an attack on civil rights enforcement,” said Lisa Fields, national chair of Coalition Against Antisemitism at Northwestern (CAAN) and parent of a Northwestern student. “Northwestern’s antisemitism training was developed to protect Jewish students after years of escalating harassment. The complaint – which argues that teaching students about antisemitism violates the Civil Rights Act – illustrates how litigation is being used to intimidate universities into silence.”

She added, “This is precisely why Northwestern needs independent federal oversight. Jewish students deserve safety and equal protection, not legal challenges that undermine the fight against antisemitism.”

“The Council on American-Islamic Relations has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the Graduate Workers for Palestine at Northwestern University, which alleges that mandatory antisemitism training constitutes a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” said StopAntisemitism, a civil rights nonprofit. “We wish we were kidding.”

CAIR’s activity in the US has prompted a storm of controversy, as previously reported by The Algemeiner. In September, US Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) exposed materials which CAIR distributes in its local activism — notably its “American Jews and Political Power” course — to spread its beliefs. Some of it attempts to revise the history of Sharia law, which severely restricts the rights of women and is opposed to other core features of liberal societies.

Additionally, since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, CAIR’s chapter in Philadelphia has lobbied the state government to enact anti-Israel policies and accused Gov. Josh Shapiro of ignoring the plight of Palestinians. In a 2023 speech following Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities, CAIR’s national executive director, Nihad Awad, said he was “happy to see” Palestinians “breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land.”

Northwestern University’s handling of antisemitism after Hamas’s Oct. 7 invasion of Israel continues to be investigated by the federal government, which recently impounded $790 million worth of taxpayer funds previously appropriated to it, for potential civil rights violations. In response to public concern, Northwestern earlier this year issued a report detailing its enactment of a checklist of policies it said has meaningfully addressed campus antisemitism.

“The university administration took this criticism to heart and spent much of last summer revising our rules and policies to make our university safe for all of our students, regardless of their religion, race, national origin, sexual orientation, or political viewpoint,” the university said. “Among the updated policies is our Demonstration Policy, which includes new requirements and guidance on how, when, and where members of the community may protest or otherwise engage in expressive activity.”

Northwestern added that it adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, a reference tool which aids officials in determining what constitutes antisemitism, and instituted the “mandatory antisemitism training” sessions for “all students, faculty, and staff” that CAIR aims to abolish.

Jewish Northwestern students continue to report experiencing antisemitism at alarming rates. According to a Spring Campus Poll conducted by The Daily Northwestern, the school’s official campus newspaper, 58 percent of Jewish students reported being subjected to antisemitism or knowing someone who has. An even higher 63.1 percent said antisemitism remains a “somewhat or very serious problem.”

At the time, Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), a coalition of hundreds of organizations that fight anti-Jewish bigotry around the world, charged that the results show that the university has more to do to establish equality for all students.

“Yes, the university has reformed policies, implemented trainings, and adopted new definitions. It has pledged transparency and accountability — and some of those measures are meaningful,” the organization said. “But the reality remains: Jewish students continue to feel unsafe, and a majority still see antisemitism as a serious, unresolved issue.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

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Muslim Groups Call on US Lawmakers to Condemn Jewish Rep. Randy Fine for ‘Islamophobic Attack’ on Mamdani

Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) leaves the US Capitol after the last votes of the week on Sept. 4, 2025. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect

A coalition of Muslim organizations across New York has called on the state’s congressional delegation to take a public stand against what it described as “rising Islamophobia” in the US Congress, focusing on comments made by Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) against New York city mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.

In a letter sent on Oct. 16 to all 28 members of New York’s congressional delegation, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the groups accused Fine of a “racist and Islamophobic attack” on Mamdani, who currently serves in the New York State Assembly. Fine, a Jewish Republican who represents a district in Florida, referred to Mamdani on X as “little more than a Muslim terrorist” and said he should be “deported to the Ugandan s–thole he came from.”

The letter, signed by organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Emgage Action NY Metro, and Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM), called for Fine’s condemnation, censure, and removal from committee assignments.

In the 2000s, CAIR was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case. Politico noted in 2010 that “US District Court Judge Jorge Solis found that the government presented ‘ample evidence to establish the association’” of CAIR with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

The groups urged both political parties to reaffirm that “anti-Muslim, anti-African hate has no place in Congress.”

“This rhetoric is not only Islamophobic and xenophobic but unmistakably anti-Black,” the letter said, arguing that Fine’s comments echoed “colonial language once used to dehumanize African and immigrant communities.”

Mamdani, who has made anti-Israel activism a cornerstone of his political career, has alarmed the Jewish community in New York City by falsely accusing Israel of “genocide” in Gaza, refusing to recognize the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state, and defending the phrase “globalize the intifada” — which has been widely interpreted as a call for terrorism against Jews and Israelis around the world — before walking back his defense of the controversial slogan. The Democratic mayoral nominee has maintained a comfortable lead in the race, according to recent polling, and is expected to win the general election next month.

The Muslim groups tied Fine’s statements against Mamdani, who was born in Uganda, to what they described as a broader pattern of Islamophobic hate on Capitol Hill. The letter cited comments by several lawmakers, including Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN), who said, “I think we should kill them … Everybody in Hamas” when asked about the deaths of Palestinian children in Gaza, referring to the terrorist group that has ruled the enclave for nearly two decades. The letter also cited Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who recently called to “ban Sharia law” in the US. The organizations compared such proposals to banning Catholic canon law or Jewish Halacha, framing them as a form of religious discrimination. Critics counter that Sharia, or Islamic law, is incompatible with Western values and that Islamist extremists ultimately aim for the system to supersede the US Constitution.

According to the letter, New York’s Muslims make up about roughly 10 percent of the state’s population and are integral to its economy, public services, and schools. “We will not be silenced or scapegoated,” the groups wrote, warning that legislative measures conflating Palestinian advocacy with antisemitism “threaten civil rights and free speech.”

The coalition concluded by appealing to New York lawmakers to “meet this moment with moral clarity,” defending Muslim leaders under attack and rejecting the “weaponization of Islamophobia.”

“For generations,” they wrote, “New York’s congressional delegation has served as a moral compass for the nation. That tradition must continue.”

Since entering Congress, Fine has established himself as an outspoken advocate for Israel and critic of Islam. Earlier this month, Fine posted online that “Fear of Islam is rational. Islamophobia is a lie.” He also wrote that Islam is not “compatible with American values.” He has argued that radical Islam poses an existential threat to the United States and Jewish Americans in particular.

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