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Is Mamdani bad or good for Jews? Here’s how not to tell
What will Zohran Mamdani’s mayoralty mean for New York City’s Jews?
Much ink was spilled on that question during Mamdani’s campaign. But now that he is actually in office, there are two approaches we can use in assessing his performance in tackling antisemitism.
The first involves focusing on signals. We saw this method used extensively in expressions of concern during Mamdani’s campaign. His refusal to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada” on a podcast, for example, was taken as a signal that he would not be serious about fighting antisemitism.
The second involves looking at how the new mayor actually shows up for Jews — a tactic that means taking a longer view of his ability to navigate the complicated and painful issues facing Jewish communities.
The first approach has already been used widely in Mamdani’s first days in office.
On Jan. 1, Mamdani overturned a host of executive orders that his predecessor, former Mayor Eric Adams, had put into place, some of which were relevant to antisemitism and Israel. This included revoking the city’s use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism.
Critics of that definition say that it threatens to chill legitimate criticism of Israel. (The IHRA definition includes, among possible examples of antisemitism, actions like “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.”) And some Jews argue that it insists on a limited understanding of Jewish identity for political purposes.
But to some, Mamdani’s revocation of the Adams order enshrining that definition was an important signal — one that cemented a sense that he does not take Jewish safety or wellbeing seriously.
“Removing protections is a dangerous move, especially on day one. Jewish New Yorkers deserve security, not a delete button,” ADL chief Jonathan Greenblatt posted. “Despite the eloquent rhetoric, actions like this speak far, far louder than words.”
Israel’s foreign ministry wrote, “This isn’t leadership. It’s antisemitic gasoline on an open fire.” And William Daroff, head of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish organizations, said Mamdani’s move was “a troubling indicator of the direction in which he is leading the city, just one day at the helm.”
But there is little evidence that adopting the IHRA definition of antisemitism has done anything to actually quell antisemitism, despite a broad push to have it embraced by universities, states and the federal government.
Which raises the question: When we broadly interpret individual acts as symbols of a deeper intention, what do we miss?
At the same time Mamdani overturned every executive order signed by Adams since late September 2024, when Adams was indicted on corruption charges, he announced that he will keep the Office to Combat Antisemitism — which Adams founded — open. That office liaises between the city and its Jews on safety and security, and will make recommendations to Mamdani on public education efforts around antisemitism.
What if we asked practical, rather than symbolic, questions in response to those day one actions?
Not “how outraged should we be by the revocation of the IHRA definition?” but “will that revocation actually change how safe Jews are?” Or: What will the functions of the Office to Combat Antisemitism actually look like under Mamdani? How will the office track antisemitism? What will it do differently under Mamdani than under Adams? What will public education on antisemitism in Mamdani’s New York look like?
Mamdani revoked an Adams order that gave the police commissioner — currently Jessica Tisch — the responsibility to evaluate proposals for regulating protests outside houses of worship. (Mamdani was criticized for his response to a November protest outside Park East Synagogue.) But he put in place a new order that authorized the Police Department and Law Department to conduct similar reviews.
Concerned Jews could ask how those departments will handle this role differently, and what the new mayor will do with their proposals.
And beyond that: Which Jewish communities will Mamdani engage with, and what will he offer them in terms of practical action? How will he demonstrate a commitment to Jewish New Yorkers, in all their pluralism and diversity? If other officials in New York engage in antisemitic conspiracy theories, how will he react to them?
What will it look like when he celebrates holidays with Jewish New Yorkers? When he inevitably disagrees with various Jewish New Yorkers, how will his administration try to communicate across differences?
Taking this second approach could come with downsides. Polling shows that New York Jews continue to be deeply anxious about their future under Mamdani, and are eager for quick answers on what they can expect for the next four years. Evaluating the real impact of his performance does not offer concise opportunities for a headline or a statement offering those responses. It’s a slower and more boring kind of proof to collect.
But it has upsides, too. The answers would be slower to come, but they would reflect not just strong feelings around what could happen, but what is actually happening. They would be nuanced. And maybe they would lead to a stronger sense of safety and security, too.
The post Is Mamdani bad or good for Jews? Here’s how not to tell appeared first on The Forward.
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Nick Fuentes says his problem with Trump ‘is that he is not Hitler’
(JTA) — In the fall, a video of Nick Fuentes criticizing Donald Trump drew the praise of progressive ex-Congressman Jamaal Bowman.
“Finally getting it Nick,” Bowman commented, apparently recognizing some common ground between himself on the left and Fuentes, on the far right, who said in the video that Trump was “better than the Democrats for Israel, for the oil and gas industry, for Silicon Valley, for Wall Street,” but said he wasn’t “better for us.”
Now, Fuentes says there is actually no common ground between him and those on the left.
“My problem with Trump isn’t that he’s Hitler — my problem with Trump is that he is not Hitler,” Fuentes said during his streaming show on Tuesday, which focused mostly on the potential for an American attack on Iran.
He continued, “You have all these left-wing people saying, ‘Why do I agree with Nick Fuentes?’ It’s like, I’m criticizing Trump because there’s not enough deportations, there’s not enough ICE brutality, there’s not enough National Guard. Sort of a big difference!”
Fuentes, the streamer and avowed antisemite who has previously said Hitler was “very f–king cool,” has been gaining more traction as a voice on the right. His interview with Tucker Carlson in October plunged Republicans into an ongoing debate over antisemitism within their ranks, inflaming the divide between a pro-Israel wing of the party and an emerging, isolationist “America First” wing that’s against U.S. military assistance to Israel.
Once a pro-Trump MAGA Republican, Fuentes has become the leader of the “groyper” movement advocating for farther-right positions. The set of Fuentes’ show includes both a hat and a mug with the words “America First” on his desk.
In a New York Times interview, Trump recently weighed in on rising tensions within the Republican Party, saying Republican leaders should “absolutely” condemn figures who promote antisemitism, and that he does not approve of antisemites in the party.
“No, I don’t. I think we don’t need them. I think we don’t like them,” replied Trump when asked by a reporter whether there was room within the Republican coalition for antisemitic figures.
Asked if he would condemn Fuentes, Trump initially claimed that he didn’t know the antisemitic streamer, before acknowledging that he had had dinner with him alongside Kanye West in 2022.
“I had dinner with him, one time, where he came as a guest of Kanye West. I didn’t know who he was bringing,” Trump said. “He said, ‘Do you mind if I bring a friend?’ I said, ‘I don’t care.’ And it was Nick Fuentes? I don’t know Nick Fuentes.”
Trump flaunted his pro-Israel bona fides in the interview, mentioning the recent announcement that he was nominated for Israel’s top civilian honor and calling himself the “best president of the United States in the history of this country toward Israel.”
Fuentes, meanwhile, spent the bulk of his show on Tuesday speculating that Trump will order the U.S. to attack Iran, and concluded that “Israel is holding our hand walking us down the road toward an inevitable war.”
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Larry Ellison once renamed a superyacht because its name spelled backwards was ‘I’m a Nazi’
(JTA) — Larry Ellison, the Jewish founder of Oracle and a major pro-Israel donor, has recently been in the headlines for his media acquisition ventures with his son.
The new scrutiny on the family has surfaced a decades-old detail about Ellison: that he once rechristened a superyacht after realizing that its original name carried an antisemitic tinge.
In 1999, Ellison — then No. 23 on Forbes’ billionaires list, well on his way to his No. 4 ranking today — purchased a boat called Izanami.
Originally built for a Japanese businessman, the 191-foot superyacht was named for a Shinto deity. But Ellison soon realized what the name read backwards: “I’m a Nazi.”
“Izanami and Izanagi are the names of the two Shinto deities that gave birth to the Japanese islands, or so legend has it,” Ellison said in “Softwar,” a 2013 biography. “When the local newspapers started pointing out that Izanami was ‘I’m a Nazi’ spelled backward, I had the choice of explaining Shintoism to the reporters at the San Francisco Chronicle or changing the name of the boat.” He renamed the boat Ronin and later sold it.
The decades-old factoid resurfaced this week because of a New York Magazine profile of Ellison’s son, David Ellison, the chair and CEO of Paramount-Skydance Corporation.
Skydance Corporation, which David Ellison founded in 2006, completed an $8 billion merger last year with Paramount Global. Larry Ellison, meanwhile, joined an investor consortium that signed a deal to purchase TikTok, the social media juggernaut accused of spreading antisemitism. Together, father and son also staged a hostile bid to purchase Warner Bros. but were outmatched by Netflix.
After acquiring Paramount, David Ellison appointed The Free Press founder Bari Weiss as the editor-in-chief of CBS News, in an endorsement of Weiss’ contrarian and pro-Israel outlook that has been challenged as overly friendly to the Trump administration.
Larry Ellison, who was raised in a Reform Jewish home by his adoptive Jewish parents, has long been a donor to pro-Israel and Jewish causes, including to Friends of the Israel Defense Forces. In September, he briefly topped the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as the world’s richest man.
In December, Oracle struck a deal to provide cloud services for TikTok, with some advocates hoping for tougher safeguards against antisemitism on the social media platform
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Alex Bregman, who drew a Jewish star on his cap after Oct. 7, inks $175M deal with the Cubs
(JTA) — For the second year in a row, Jewish star third baseman Alex Bregman has signed a lucrative free-agent contract with a team that is run by a Jewish executive and plays in a historic ballpark in a city with a significant Jewish community.
Last year, it was the Boston Red Sox. Now, Bregman is headed to the Chicago Cubs — a team whose Jewish fans possess almost religious devotion.
Bregman, who had opted out of a three-year, $120 million deal with Boston, has signed a five-year, $175 million pact with the Cubs. It is the second-largest contract ever signed by a Jewish ballplayer, behind Max Fried’s $218 million contract in 2024. Bregman previously signed a five-year, $100 million extension with the Houston Astros in 2019.
Bregman, who played the first nine years of his career in Houston, has been one of baseball’s premier third basemen over the past decade, with three All-Star selections, a Gold Glove, a Silver Slugger and two World Series rings. He’s also heralded for his leadership on and off the field.
Bregman grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he played baseball in high school and also, according to his mother, was once teased while leaving school for a bar mitzvah lesson. His grandfather, the onetime attorney for the Washington Senators whom she said Bregman called “zeyde,” gave him a collection of baseball cards featuring Jewish players.
His great-grandfather fled antisemitism in Belarus and fell in love with sports in the United States, The Athletic reported in 2017, as Bregman hurtled toward his World Series win.
“It’s the fulfillment of four generations of short Jewish Bregmans who dreamed of playing in the major leagues,” his father Sam, now the district attorney in Albuquerque’s county as well as a Democratic candidate for New Mexico governor, said at the time. “The big leagues and the World Series. One hundred twenty years in America fulfilled by Alex in this World Series.”
Bregman has also been vocal about his Jewish pride. He celebrated Hanukkah with a local synagogue in Houston, and following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that launched the Gaza War, Bregman drew a Star of David on his hat during a playoff game and participated in a video of Jewish players calling on fans to support Israel.
Some Jewish fans hoped Bregman’s shows of solidarity with Israel would lead him to suit up for another new squad this spring, Team Israel at the upcoming World Baseball Classic. But Bregman announced this week that he will play for Team USA again. Another Jewish ballplayer, Rowdy Tellez, will rejoin team Mexico, taking two big names off the recruitment board for Israel.
Back in 2018, as Bregman was first emerging as a major star, he said he regretted taking a pass on Team Israel the previous year, when it made it to the second round of play. Suiting up for the U.S. team, Bregman had just four at-bats as a backup player.
Now, he has selected a jersey number for his Cubs era that reflects his aspirations.
“I wore No. 3 because I want a third championship,” Bregman said during his first press conference with his new club on Thursday.
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