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Asaf Zamir and Maya Wertheimer, prominent Israelis heading home after years in NYC, are wed by NYC mayor Eric Adams
(JTA) — With just a few weeks before his planned return to Tel Aviv after resigning in March as Israel’s consul general in New York City, Asaf Zamir set out Friday for an iconic Israeli experience: getting married abroad.
Zamir and his wife Maya Wertheimer, the Israeli actress and model, had a Reform Jewish wedding in 2017 in Israel. But Israel does not recognize non-Orthodox Jewish weddings and does not have the option of civil marriage, so their union had never carried legal weight.
That changed after the couple’s ceremony on Friday at the New York Public Library, which was officiated by New York City Mayor Eric Adams and witnessed by two Jewish friends, comedian Alex Edelman and artist Rebecca Moses. Now, when the couple returns to Israel after nearly two years in New York, their marriage can be recognized by their native country following some paperwork.
The couple’s choice was a common one among young Israelis — many of whom choose to wed abroad. Some couples travel to tie the knot because their marriage is not allowed under Orthodox Jewish law, as in the case of same-sex marriages or interfaith marriage. Others do so because of an aversion to getting married under Israel’s haredi Orthodox Chief Rabbinate, which has a monopoly on legal Jewish weddings in Israel. A recent study found that about a third of Jewish Israelis who got married abroad could have qualified to be wed in Israel, but chose not to.
But the entire enterprise was something of a surprise to Wertheimer, who documented the day for her 535,000 followers on Instagram.
“He suggests to me in a taxi: ‘What do you say we’ll get married?’ I didn’t get it … here in the taxi?! Like this and without prior preparation?!?!!” she wrote. In fact, Zamir — whom Wertheimer called “the most romantic man in the world” — had worked with Moses and the designer Vera Wang to produce a two-piece gown for Wertheimer, and the couple תalong with their toddler daughter Asiaת were soon in front of Adams exchanging vows. They emerged onto the library’s wide steps alongside Bryant Park for photographs.
“A dreamy day, a dreamy couple, a dreamy ceremony and love reigns!” wrote Moses, who said her job had been to conscript Wang, one of the most well-known wedding dress designers, to make a bespoke gown for Wertheimer with just two days’ notice.
The wedding is a splashy capstone for an eventful two years in New York City for the couple. Zamir moved ahead of Wertheimer in 2021 after being appointed to the consul general role, Israel’s top diplomatic position in the city with the biggest Jewish population, by the short-lived centrist government that had unseated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Wertheimer, a model and actress, joined him with Asia several months later.
Their time in New York overlapped with the pandemic; the death of Wertheimer’s father, one of Israel’s most prominent businessmen, of cancer at age 70; and Netanyahu’s return to power. Although Zamir’s appointment was for a three-year term, he was summoned to Israel after criticizing the proposed judicial reforms of Netanyahu’s right-wing government and resigned in protest soon after. Wertheimer had just appeared in a Tel Aviv fashion show and protest, carrying an oversized plane ticket showing a return flight from New York to Israel.
In recent months, the pair has embraced spring in New York City, with Wertheimer chronicling their adventures in New York, including frequent meals out with Israeli and American friends. (The pair decided to stay to finish out Asia’s preschool year.) She wrote recently that she had fallen in love with New York after initially being apprehensive.
“I did not understand New York. Winter here was so harsh. There’s no sun, there are no friends, there is no family,” she wrote in Hebrew. But then, she went on, “As soon as the end began, I lifted my head and realized that this city is actually really amazing.”
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The post Asaf Zamir and Maya Wertheimer, prominent Israelis heading home after years in NYC, are wed by NYC mayor Eric Adams appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Israeli man indicted in attack on Catholic nun in Jerusalem’s Old City
(JTA) — An Israeli man was indicted on Thursday in connection to the violent assault of a Catholic nun in Jerusalem last month, after prosecutors said he targeted her over her Christian identity.
Yona Schreiber, 36, from the West Bank settlement of Peduel, was arrested last week and has since been indicted on charges of “assault causing actual injury motivated by hostility toward the public on the grounds of religion, as well as simple assault,” the state attorney’s office said in a statement.
According to the indictment, Schreiber, who is Jewish, attacked the nun just outside of the Old City in Jerusalem because he identified her as a Catholic nun. Schreiber allegedly pushed and then kicked the nun as she was lying on the ground and also attacked a passerby who attempted to intervene.
תקיפת הנזירה אתמול באזור קבר דוד בירושלים – שוטרי מרחב דוד איתרו את החשוד (36) ועצרו אותו בחשד לתקיפה ממניע גזעני >>> pic.twitter.com/agRpznR84X
— משטרת ישראל (@IL_police) April 30, 2026
The nun, a researcher at the French School of Biblical and Archeological Research, suffered bruises on her face and leg due to the attack, the state attorney’s office said.
The attack, which drew condemnation from Catholic leaders as well as faculty at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, comes amid mounting concern over hostility toward Christian clergy and holy sites in Israel.
Cases of Jews harassing Christians have risen sharply in recent years. Last month, the IDF punished a soldier who was filmed bludgeoning a statue of Jesus in southern Lebanon. This week, the IDF also announced that it would discipline a different soldier who was seen placing a cigarette into the mouth of a statue of the Virgin Mary in a photo posted on social media.
Israel’s attorney general asked the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, where the indictment was filed, to hold Schreiber in detention for the duration of the legal proceeding.
The assault carries a maximum prison sentence of three years, which could increase to six years if prosecutors prove the attack was motivated by religious bias.
The post Israeli man indicted in attack on Catholic nun in Jerusalem’s Old City appeared first on The Forward.
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Jewish real estate magnate Steven Roth likens Mamdani’s ‘tax the rich’ rhetoric to ‘from the river to the sea’
(New York Jewish Week) — Jewish real estate mogul Steven Roth compared New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s “tax the rich” rhetoric this week to racial slurs and pro-Palestinian rhetoric on an earnings call for his company, Vornado Realty Trust.
“I consider the phrase ‘tax the rich’ when spit out with anger and contempt by politicians both here and across the country, to be just as hateful as some disgusting racial slurs and even the phrase, ‘from the river to the sea,’” Roth said, referring to the phrase commonly used at pro-Palestinian protests that many Jewish groups consider antisemitic.
The remark by Roth, who has long been a notable philanthropist to Jewish causes, adds to mounting tensions between New York business leaders and Mamdani over his recently announced “pied-à-terre” tax on second homes valued at more than $5 million.
During the call Tuesday, Roth also expressed support for Ken Griffin, the CEO of Citadel, whose $238 million dollar penthouse was featured in a video by Mamdani announcing plans for the tax last month.
“We are all shocked that our young mayor would pull this stunt in front of Ken’s home and single him out for ridicule,” Roth said. “The ugly, unnecessary video stunt is personal for Ken and sort of personal for me.”
Roth’s comments touched on a longstanding source of friction between Mamdani and some New York Jewish leaders, who have criticized the mayor over his views on Israel and his previous defense of the phrase “globalize the intifada,” another common pro-Palestinian slogan viewed by some as a call to violence against Jews.
In the wake of Mamdani’s election, some Jewish business leaders, including Dave Portnoy, the Jewish founder of Barstool Sports, said that they planned to leave the city altogether, citing the mayor’s fiscal policies and concerns about antisemitism under his leadership.
In a statement responding to Roth’s comments, Mamdani’s office said that he wanted all New Yorkers to succeed, including “business owners and entrepreneurs who create good-paying jobs and make this city the economic engine of America.”
“That does not negate the fact, however, that our tax system is fundamentally broken. It rewards extreme wealth while working people are pushed to the brink,” the statement continued. “The status quo is unsustainable and unjust. If we want this city to become a place that working people can afford, we need meaningful tax reform that includes the wealthiest New Yorkers contributing their fair share.”
The post Jewish real estate magnate Steven Roth likens Mamdani’s ‘tax the rich’ rhetoric to ‘from the river to the sea’ appeared first on The Forward.
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Man who firebombed Boulder Israeli hostage march sentenced to life in prison
(JTA) — The man charged with carrying out a deadly firebombing attack on a march for Israeli hostages in Boulder, Colorado, last year was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Thursday after pleading guilty to muder and dozens of other charges.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian national who was arrested at the scene of the attack on the demonstrators last June, pleaded guilty to 101 charges, including 52 counts of attempted murder and one count of murder for the death of Karen Diamond, an 82-year-old victim of the attack who later died of her wounds.
During the June attack, Soliman shouted “free Palestine” and threw two molotov cocktails at the group, Run for Their Lives, injuring over a dozen people. According to an earlier court filing, Soliman said that he had staged the attack, which prosecutors said he planned for a year, because he “wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead.”
Soliman has separately pleaded not guilty to federal hate crime charges, for which prosecutors could potentially seek the death penalty.
“If I went back, I would not have done this as this is not according to the teaching of Islam,” Soliman said during the sentencing hearing, adding that he wanted federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty. “What I did came out of myself and only myself.”
During his remarks, Soliman argued that he had not been driven by anti-Jewish animus. He later said that Zionism was “the enemy” and that it was his “right” to be against Israel.
Chief District Judge Nancy W. Salomone rejected Mr. Soliman’s arguments, telling him that his “choices were acts of terror, and they victimized an entire community,” according to the New York Times.
“You chose to victimize these people because they were members of the Jewish community,” she said.
In a statement read earlier in court by a prosecutor, Diamond’s sons, Andrew and Ethan Diamond, asked that Soliman not be allowed to see his family again “since he is responsible for our mother never seeing her family again,” according to the Associated Press.
They said that Diamond had suffered “indescribable pain” for over three weeks before her death, adding that “in those weeks, we learned the full meaning of the expressions ‘living hell’ and ‘fate worse than death.’”
The post Man who firebombed Boulder Israeli hostage march sentenced to life in prison appeared first on The Forward.