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Exclusive: In bid for Nadler’s seat, Jack Schlossberg makes Jewish security his first priority
Jack Schlossberg, the online influencer turned political candidate running to succeed Rep. Jerry Nadler, is making Jewish security a central pillar of his campaign in one of the nation’s largest Jewish districts. In an interview on Tuesday, Schlossberg, the grandson of former President John F. Kennedy, said that if elected next year, he would immediately introduce legislation to nearly double federal funding for security upgrades at synagogues and other Jewish institutions.
He dubbed it the “Jack-fast-track” plan — a strategy that would involve introducing the bill while simultaneously collecting the 218 signatures needed for a discharge petition, allowing him to force a floor vote and bypass any potential delays in committee. “I don’t think we have any time to waste here because of how important this is,” said Schlossberg, who identifies as Jewish. “So no matter who’s in leadership in the House, this bill will see a floor vote.”
The Nonprofit Security Grant Program, established by Congress in 2005 and administered by FEMA under the Department of Homeland Security, provides funding to nonprofit organizations, including houses of worship, to bolster protection against potential attacks. Congress began significantly increasing its appropriations in 2018, in bipartisan fashion, following a wave of synagogue attacks nationwide.
The program currently stands at $270 million. Major Jewish groups have been pushing to raise it to $500 million amid rising antisemitic threats. Earlier this year, the Trump administration briefly froze the program as part of broader federal agency cuts, and some organizations have been hesitant to apply because of requirements that grantees affirm cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Schlossberg said there are at least 10 prominent institutions in New York’s 12th District that would benefit from this increase, including the Park East Synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where his grandfather, Alfred Schlossberg, was president. The measure is a “big deal for NY12 because it’s a critical funding stream that these institutions really need and rely on to strengthen their security,” he said. “Here is something the federal government can do immediately for this district, and something that I will put my energy behind.”
Raised Catholic by his mother, Caroline Kennedy, the 32-year-old Schlossberg said he also identifies as Jewish and “occasionally” goes for services at Temple Shaaray Tefila with his aunt on his father’s side. He also attends Church services on Sundays.
Schlossberg is one of several candidates vying for the seat. Other candidates include Micah Lasher, Liam Elkind, and Cameron Kasky, who are Jewish; Assemblymember Alex Bores, whose wife, Darya Moldavskaya, is Jewish; and Councilmember Erik Bottcher. Jews account for about 30% of the vote in the Democratic primary.
In the last Democratic primary for New York City mayor, Schlossberg endorsed Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who is critical of Israel. In an interview with The New York Times after Mamdani’s victory in the general election, Schlossberg said it served as an encouraging sign for his own campaign. Mamdani has pledged to increase funding for hate crime prevention and to provide protection to Jewish institutions.
Addressing that Nazi salute, the first controversy of his campaign
Schlossberg, who announced his candidacy last week, has come under fire for performing a Nazi salute in a since-deleted Instagram video, after Elon Musk, the powerful billionaire, appeared to do a Sieg Heil salute at a celebration rally following President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January. The Anti-Defamation League excused Musk’s move as an “awkward gesture,” but other Jewish organizations called it a dog whistle. Musk, the Tesla CEO whose relationship with Trump has since soured, has a history of endorsing antisemitic conspiracies online and allowing antisemitism on his platform, X.
In Tuesday’s phone interview, Schlossberg said that the video published by the Washington Free Beacon takes his motion out of context. “What I was trying to do is be like, ‘Okay, well, he just did it and claimed that that wasn’t it. And so that’s the world we’re living in now. How ridiculous is that?’” Schlossberg explained, saying his act was an attempt to draw attention to Musk. The Washington Free Beacon said that he was referencing Musk’s motion as well.
Schlossberg said that the hateful rhetoric and antisemitic attacks “have, in large part, been driven by the hard-right silo in American politics, especially Elon Musk.”
The post Exclusive: In bid for Nadler’s seat, Jack Schlossberg makes Jewish security his first priority appeared first on The Forward.
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UK PM Starmer Says There Could Be New Powers to Ban Pro-Palestinian Marches
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer gives a media statement at Downing Street in London, Britain, April 30, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Jack Taylor/File photo
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the government could ban pro-Palestinian marches in some circumstances because of the “cumulative effect” the demonstrations had on the Jewish community after two Jewish men were stabbed in London on Wednesday.
Starmer told the BBC that he would always defend freedom of expression and peaceful protest, but chants like “Globalize the Intifada” during demonstrations were “completely off limits” and those voicing them should be prosecuted.
Pro-Palestinian marches have become a regular feature in London since the October 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel that triggered the Gaza war. Critics say the demonstrations have generated hostility and become a focus for antisemitism.
Protesters have argued they are exercising their democratic right to spotlight ongoing human rights and political issues related to the situation in Gaza.
Starmer said he was not denying there were “very strong legitimate views about the Middle East, about Gaza,” but many people in the Jewish community had told him they were concerned about the repeat nature of the marches.
Asked if the tougher response should focus on chants and banners, or whether the protests should be stopped altogether, Starmer said: “I think certainly the first, and I think there are instances for the latter.”
“I think it’s time to look across the board at protests and the cumulative effect,” he said, adding that the government needed to look at what further powers it could take.
Britain raised its terrorism threat level to “severe” on Thursday amid mounting security concerns that foreign states were helping fuel violence, including against the Jewish community.
“We are seeing an elevated threat to Jewish and Israeli individuals and institutions in the UK,” the head of counter-terrorism policing, Laurence Taylor, said in a statement, adding that police were also working “against an unpredictable global situation that has consequences closer to home, including physical threats by state-linked actors.”
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War Likely to Resume After Trump’s Rejection of Latest Proposal, Says IRGC General
Iranians carry a model of a missile during a celebration following an IRGC attack on Israel, in Tehran, Iran, April 15, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
i24 News – A senior Iranian military figure said that fighting with the US was “likely” to resume after President Donald Trump stated he was dissatisfied with Tehran’s latest proposal, regime media reported on Saturday.
The comments of General Mohammad Jafar Asadi, one of the top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders, were relayed by the Fars news agency, considered as a mouthpiece of the the powerful paramilitary body.
“Evidence has shown that the Americans do not not adhere to any commitments,” Asadi was quoted as saying.
He further added that Washington’s decision-making was “primarily media-driven aimed first at preventing a drop in oil prices and second at extricating themselves from the mess they have created.”
Iranian armed forces are ready “for any new adventures or foolishness from the Americans,” he said, going to assert that the Iran war would prove for the US a tragedy comparable with what was for Israel the October 7 massacre.
“Just as our martyred Leader said that the Zionist regime will never be the same as before the Al‑Aqsa Storm operation [the name chosen by Hamas leadership for the October 7, 2023 massacre in southern Israel], the United States will also never return to what it was before its attack on Iran,” he said. “The world has understood the true nature of America, and no matter how much malice it shows now, it is no longer the America that many once feared.”
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Trump Says US Navy Acting ‘Like Pirates’ to Carry Out Naval Blockade of Iranian Ports
A view of Iranian-flagged cargo ship M/V Touska as the US Navy Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided missile destroyer USS Spruance conducts its interception in a location given as the north Arabian Sea, in this screen capture from a video released April 19, 2026. Photo: CENTCOM/Handout via REUTERS
President Donald Trump said on Friday the US Navy was acting “like pirates” in carrying out Washington’s naval blockade of Iranian ports during the US and Israel’s war against Iran.
Trump made the comments while describing the seizure by US forces of a ship a few days ago.
“We took over the ship, we took over the cargo, we took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business,” Trump said in remarks on Friday evening. “We’re like pirates. We’re sort of like pirates but we are not playing games.”
Some of Tehran’s vessels have been seized by the US after leaving Iranian ports, along with sanctioned container ships and Iranian tankers in Asian waters.
Iran has blocked nearly all ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz apart from its own since the start of the war. Trump has imposed a separate blockade of Iranian ports.
The US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. Iran responded with its own strikes on Israel and Gulf states that host US bases. US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed thousands and displaced millions.
The war has raised oil prices and led to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for about 20 percent of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.
Trump, who has offered shifting timelines and goals for the war that remains unpopular in the US, has faced widespread condemnation over his comments on the conflict, including when he threatened to destroy Iran’s entire civilization last month.
Many US experts said last month that American strikes on Iran may amount to war crimes after Trump threatened to target civilian infrastructure.