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Mattie Kahn, 31, writer
Mattie Kahn, 31, is a writer whose work has been published in the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, Vogue, Elle, Glamour and more. She’s won two Front Page Awards from the Newswomen’s Club of New York, most recently for her feature in the Atlantic on Arthur Kahn, the first Jewish person killed in the Holocaust, who was also her great-uncle. Kahn’s first book, “Young and Restless: The Girls Who Sparked America’s Revolutions” will be out in June; recently, the Upper West Sider generated a lot of buzz for her Vogue piece on what she’s dubbed the “Torah-teacher aesthetic.”
For the full list of this year’s “36ers” — which honors leaders, entrepreneurs and changemakers who are making a difference in New York’s Jewish community — click here.
Was there a formative Jewish experience that influenced your life path?
I was educated at Ramaz in New York for over a decade. It doesn’t get much more formative than that. But also: I am the daughter of a mother and father who have hosted between 15 and 30 people for Shabbat lunch each week for their entire adult lives. South of The Kosher Marketplace [at 90th Street and Broadway] and north of the train station on 72nd, it feels safe to estimate that around 30% of residents have attended one at some point or another. That culture of hosting and eating together and spending long hours talking about art and literature and the contents of People magazine (our other Torah) shaped me.
How does your Jewish identity or experience influence your work?
The two are inseparable. Jews are natural reporters: We love asking questions, pestering, never taking no for an answer. I don’t think all Jews love gossip (we’re not supposed to, I know), but I do, and being a yenta has served me well as a writer and a chronicler of ideas and movements. I have increasingly written about my own Jewish identity, from exploring the divergent memory cultures in America and Germany for Vox, to writing about my great-uncle Arthur Kahn and the Holocaust for the Atlantic, to setting the world of Jewish educators aflutter with my ode to what I call “Torah-teacher aesthetic” for Vogue.
Who is your New York Jewish hero?
She died in 1998, but Bella Abzug forever. A pioneering New Yorker, Jew and feminist, with a great sense of humor and powerful accessories collection.
What is your favorite place to eat Jewish food in New York?
Barney Greengrass on the Upper West Side, but nothing will ever replace the Ratner’s-sized hole in my heart.
What is your favorite book about New York?
Vivian Gornick’s “Fierce Attachments.” A top-five book of all time.
In one sentence, what was your best experience as a Jewish New Yorker?
Once, at a restaurant downtown, I saw Maggie Gyllenhaal finishing her meal with a friend when Jake Gyllenhaal, her brother, happened to walk in for his own dinner. When the two saw each other and hugged, the entire restaurant clapped. He was wearing a Russ & Daughters shirt. Jewish parents the world over were kvelling.
How can people follow you online?
mattiekahn.com has all the book links. I’m also @matkahn on Instagram and @mattiekahn on Twitter.
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The post Mattie Kahn, 31, writer appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Israel’s Netanyahu Hopes to ‘Taper’ Israel Off US Military Aid in Next Decade
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview published on Friday that he hopes to “taper off” Israeli dependence on US military aid in the next decade.
Netanyahu has said Israel should not be reliant on foreign military aid but has stopped short of declaring a firm timeline for when Israel would be fully independent from Washington.
“I want to taper off the military within the next 10 years,” Netanyahu told The Economist. Asked if that meant a tapering “down to zero,” he said: “Yes.”
Netanyahu said he told President Donald Trump during a recent visit that Israel “very deeply” appreciates “the military aid that America has given us over the years, but here too we’ve come of age and we’ve developed incredible capacities.”
In December, Netanyahu said Israel would spend 350 billion shekels ($110 billion) on developing an independent arms industry to reduce dependency on other countries.
In 2016, the US and Israeli governments signed a memorandum of understanding for the 10 years through September 2028 that provides $38 billion in military aid, $33 billion in grants to buy military equipment and $5 billion for missile defense systems.
Israeli defense exports rose 13 percent last year, with major contracts signed for Israeli defense technology including its advanced multi-layered aerial defense systems.
US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch Israel supporter and close ally of Trump, said on X that “we need not wait ten years” to begin scaling back military aid to Israel.
“The billions in taxpayer dollars that would be saved by expediting the termination of military aid to Israel will and should be plowed back into the US military,” Graham said. “I will be presenting a proposal to Israel and the Trump administration to dramatically expedite the timetable.”
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In Rare Messages from Iran, Protesters ask West for Help, Speak of ‘Very High’ Death Toll
Protests in Tehran. Photo: Iran Photo from social media used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law, via i24 News
i24 News – Speaking to Western media from beyond the nationwide internet blackout imposed by the Islamic regime, Iranian protesters said they needed support amid a brutal crackdown.
“We’re standing up for a revolution, but we need help. Snipers have been stationed behind the Tajrish Arg area [a neighborhood in Tehran],” said a protester in Tehran speaking to the Guardian on the condition of anonymity. He added that “We saw hundreds of bodies.”
Another activist in Tehran spoke of witnessing security forces firing live ammunition at protesters resulting in a “very high” number killed.
On Friday, TIME magazine cited a Tehran doctor speaking on condition of anonymity that just six hospitals in the capital recorded at least 217 killed protesters, “most by live ammunition.”
Speaking to Reuters on Saturday, Setare Ghorbani, a French-Iranian national living in the suburbs of Paris, said that she became ill from worry for her friends inside Iran. She read out one of her friends’ last messages before losing contact: “I saw two government agents and they grabbed people, they fought so much, and I don’t know if they died or not.”
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Report: US Increasingly Regards Iran Protests as Having Potential to Overthrow Regime
United States President Donald J Trump in White House in Washington, DC, USA, on Thursday, December 18, 2025. Photo: Aaron Schwartz via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – The assessment in Washington of the strength and scope of the Iran protests has shifted after Thursday’s turnout, with US officials now inclined to grant the possibility that this could be a game changer, Axios reported on Friday.
“The protests are serious, and we will continue to monitor them,” an unnamed senior US official was quoted as saying in the report.
Iran was largely cut off from the outside world on Friday after the Islamic regime blacked out the internet to curb growing unrest, as videos circulating on social media showed buildings ablaze in anti-government protests raging across the country.
US President Donald Trump warned the Ayatollahs of a strong response if security forces escalate violence against protesters.
“We’re watching it very closely. If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re going to get hit very hard by the United States,” Trump told reporters when asked about the unrest in Iran.
The latest reported death toll is at 51 protesters, including nine children.