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Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum joins Mamdani rally with progressive leaders in Queens

This piece first ran as part of The Countdown, our daily newsletter rounding up all the developments in the New York City mayor’s race. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. There are 8 days to the election.

🎤 A rally in Queens

  • Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, a longtime advocate of LGBTQ rights and anti-Trump activist, campaigned with Zohran Mamdani for the first time at a huge rally on Sunday.

  • Mamdani also stood with Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — a trifecta of the country’s Muslim, Jewish and Christian progressive stars — at the Queens Forest Hills Stadium, where nearly all 13,000 seats were filled.

  • The generational torch of democratic socialism was on show, with 34-year-old Mamdani crediting 84-year-old Sanders for his meteoric rise. He told the crowd, “I stand before you tonight only because the senator dared to stand alone for so long. I speak the language of democratic socialism only because he spoke it first.”

  • Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez also demonstrated a united progressive front around Mamdani’s pro-Palestinian platform, which has been as core to his campaign as affordability.

  • “They want us to think we are crazy,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “We are sane to demand affordable and decent housing, a decent wage, the right to health care, that we pay to care for our people instead of the flattening of Palestinians and oppressed people abroad.”

  • Gov. Kathy Hochul also appeared in her first time campaigning with Mamdani since she endorsed him in September, showing the support Mamdani has amassed among moderate Democratic leaders.

  • Hochul was heckled with a “tax the rich” chant, referencing a key proposal of Mamdani’s that Hochul has opposed. Mamdani joined her on stage and clasped her hand to throw their arms up together, softening the crowd’s reaction.

  • Kleinbaum, who retired from the LGBTQ synagogue Congregation Beth Simchat Torah last year, admitted in her speech, “I don’t agree with our leader Zohran Mamdani in everything that he says,” an apparent reference to Mamdani’s pointed rhetoric about Israel. She added, “I don’t agree with anyone on everything.”

  • Kleinbaum also said, “One thing I know for sure: that Muslims and Jews must work together for a shared future of all of us, where the humanity of Palestinians and Israelis have a future of shared security, freedom, dignity and justice.” She said she strongly rejected attacks on Mamdani’s faith from his critics and opponents. (Kleinbaum’s wife, Randi Weingarten, helms the American Federation of Teachers, the union whose New York chapter endorsed Mamdani, to some Jewish educators’ chagrin.)

  • Brad Lander, who ran against Mamdani in the primary and now campaigns with him, also spoke about a shared future for Israelis and Palestinians and Jews and Muslims in New York City. Citing his own Jewish values, Lander also said that “10s of 1000s of Jewish New Yorkers” were supporting Mamdani and that he was committed to all Jews’ safety.

  • “On primary night, Zohran made a commitment to reach out to people who disagree with him, and since then, I have seen him keep that promise in dozens of meetings with rabbis and Jewish leaders, in house parties, in synagogues, at town halls, at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services,” Lander said.

  • Jewish comedian Sarah Sherman, who has parodied Islamophobic Mamdani critics on SNL, emceed the event. She targeted Cuomo, for whom Hochul was a deputy, in her jokes, saying, “Imagine how bad you have to be if all your former coworkers get together to complain about you to a stadium full of people?”

🏆 A late endorsement and a reversal

  • Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader from Brooklyn, gave Mamdani a last-minute endorsement on Friday.

  • Jeffries, like Hochul and other moderate Democratic leaders who have lined up behind Mamdani, acknowledged “areas of principled disagreement” with the candidate in a statement to The New York Times.

  • Among those is his longstanding pro-Israel stance, including close ties with the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC.

  • Jeffries cited Mamdani’s pledge to invite Jewish police commissioner Jessica Tisch to stay on along with conversations about protecting Jewish New Yorkers in his decision.

  • “Assemblyman Mamdani has promised to focus on keeping every New Yorker safe, including the Jewish community that has confronted a startling rise in antisemitic incidents as well as Black and Latino neighborhoods that have battled deadly gun violence for years,” said Jeffries.

  • Meanwhile, Dov Hikind — one of Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa’s most ardent Jewish supporters and an impassioned Cuomo critic — switched his endorsement to Cuomo on Saturday.

  • “Four months ago, I endorsed Curtis Sliwa for mayor,” Hikind said in a video. “But today I am asking you, pleading with you, to vote for Andrew Cuomo. Here’s why: New York City is in a critical moment. If Mamdani wins, the future of our city is on the line.”

🗳 Early voting surges

  • About 164,000 New Yorkers went to the polls this weekend for the first two days of early voting. That turnout is close to the entire early voting count from 2021.

  • The early record-breaking turnout represents voters mobilizing both for and against Mamdani, according to The City. He has appealed aggressively to new voters, while his democratic socialist platform and views on Israel have animated many moderate, conservative and Jewish voters to vote for Cuomo.

🔯 Pushing for Jewish voters

  • Cuomo is centering his pitch to Jewish New Yorkers in the last days of the campaign. On Sunday, he stumped at a “Stand With Israel” rally in Kew Gardens Hills.

  • “New York is not New York without the Jewish community,” said Cuomo, before going on to say he would best address affordable housing, public safety and boosting business in New York City.

  • The event was hosted by the Bukharian Action Council. Queens is home to some 70,000 Bukharian Jews, who hail from Central Asia. The crowd chanted messages including, “We will not be erased” and “We will stand for our Jewish community.”

  • On Friday, Cuomo also met with Orthodox leaders in Flatbush and won an endorsement from the Flatbush Jewish Community Coalition.

  • Meanwhile on the Upper West Side, left-wing Jewish groups including Jewish Voice for Peace, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and Bend the Arc gathered to canvas for Mamdani over the weekend.

🕌 Islamophobia takes the stage

  • Mamdani posted a speech decrying attacks on his Muslim identity on Friday in a video that has amassed over 22 million views.

  • He argued that Islamophobia is not treated with the same condemnation as other forms of hatred. “For as long as we have lived, we have known that no matter what anyone says, there are still certain forms of hate acceptable in this city today,” he said. “Islamophobia is not seen as inexcusable.”

  • Cuomo accused Mamdani of “theatrics” in his own press conference. “Today, he’s playing the victim, but in reality he is the offender. What he has done has so offended the Jewish community in this city,” said Cuomo, according to Politico.

  • Vice President JD Vance attacked Mamdani for an emotional recounting of the way his family was affected by Islamophobia, including an aunt who “stopped taking the subway after September 11th because she did not feel safe in her hijab.” Vance said on X, “According to Zohran the real victim of 9/11 was his auntie who got some (allegedly) bad looks.”


The post Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum joins Mamdani rally with progressive leaders in Queens appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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A course on the Yiddish proverbs collected through the An-Ski expeditions

אינעם קומעדיקן ווינטער־זמן פֿון די ייִדיש־קלאַסן בײַם „אַרבעטער רינג“ וועט מען הײַיאָר פֿירן דורך „זום“ אַן אייגנאַרטיקן מיני־קורס אויף ייִדיש: וועגן די אידיאָמען און שפּריכווערטער, וואָס דער סאָוועטישער פֿאָלקלאָריסט אַבא לעוו האָט געזאַמלט בעת זײַנע עקספּעדיציעס מיט ש. אַנ־סקין איבער מערבֿ־אוקראַיִנע פֿון 1912 ביז 1914.

דעם קורס וועט לערנען דער ייִדישער שרײַבער און רעדאַקטאָר פֿונעם אָנלײַן־זשורנאַל „ייִדיש בראַנזשע“ — באָריס סאַנדלער, און וועט זײַן געבויט אויפֿן יסוד פֿון יענע וועלטסווערטלעך און סאַנדלערס קאָמענטאַרן וועגן זיי.

דער קלאַס וועט זיך טרעפֿן יעדן דינסטיק פֿון 2:30 ביז 4:00, ניו־יאָרקער צײַט, אָנהייבנדיק פֿונעם 24סטן פֿעברואַר.

דאָס וועט זײַן צום ערשטן מאָל וואָס דער ברייטער עולם וועט האָבן צוטריט צו אַבא לעווס מאַטעריאַלן. דורך בליצפּאָסט האָט סאַנדלער דערציילט ווי אַזוי ער האָט באַקומען די זאַמלונג: נאָך דעם ווי אבא לעוו איז געשטאָרבן אין 1959 האָבן די העפֿטן מיט די ייִדישע אידיאָמען און ווערטלעך זיך געפֿונען אין דער רעדאַקציע פֿון „סאָוועטיש היימלאַנד“, און שפּעטער — אינעם אַרכיוו פֿונעם ייִדישן פּאָעט און פֿאָרשער חיים ביידער. נאָך ביידערס טויט אין 2003 האָט זײַן אַלמנה, יעווע ביידער, איבערגעגעבן די העפֿטן סאַנדלערן אין אַ קאָנווערט, וווּ ס׳איז מיט ביידערס האַנט געווען אָנגעשריבן „פֿאַר באָריס סאַנדלערן“.

ווי אַ צאָל אַנדערע זאַמלער אין אייראָפּע און אַמעריקע, איז אַנ־סקיס און אַבא לעווס אינטערעס צום ייִדישן פֿאָלקלאָר געווען פֿאַרבונדן מיט זייער איבערגעגעבנקייט צום „פֿאָלקיזם‟: זיי האָבן באַטראַכט די ייִדיש־רעדנדיקע פֿאָלקסמענטשן אין די שטעטלעך און דערפֿער ווי אַ שליסל צו שאַפֿן אַ נײַע וועלטלעכע אידענטיטעט, צוגעמאָסטן צו די שטאָטישע רוסישע ייִדן, אַזוי ווי זיי זענען אַליין געווען.

כּדי זיך צו פֿאַרשרײַבן אויפֿן קורס גיט אַ קוועטש דאָ.

דער אַרבעטער רינג וועט אויך פֿירן לענגערע קורסן אויף ייִדיש אינעם ווינטער־זמן. אָט איז דער אויסקלײַב:

• די ייִדישע קולטור־אינפֿראַסטרוקטור פֿונעם אַמעריקאַנער קאָמוניזם
• אונגעריש־ייִדיש צווישן די וועלט־מלחמות
• דער לשון־קודש־קאָמפּאָנענט אין מרדכי שעכטערס לערנבוך „ייִדיש צוויי“
• די דערציילונגען פֿון יצחק באַשעוויס
• דער אָנהייב פֿון מאָדערנעם ייִדישן טעאַטער: אַבֿרהם גאָלדפֿאַדען און די ערשטע אַקטריסעס אויף דער בינע
• שלום אַשעס ראָמאַן „אויף קידוש השם“
• מאַני לייבס סאָנעטן
• ש. אַנ־סקי, דער „בעל־תּשובֿה“ וואָס האָט פּראָוואָצירט אַ רעוואָלוציע אין פֿאָלקלאָר
• דאָס קול פֿונעם ייִדישן שרײַבער — רעקאָרדירונגען פֿון דערציילונגען און לידער פֿאָרגעלייענט פֿון די שרײַבער אַליין
• די קולטור־ירושה פֿון די ייִדישע שרײַבער אין אוקראַיִנע (1950ער ביז די 1980ער)

נאָך מער פּרטים אָדער זיך צו פֿאַרשרײַבן אויף איינעם אָדער מער פֿון די קורסן, גיט אַ קוועטש דאָ.

The post A course on the Yiddish proverbs collected through the An-Ski expeditions appeared first on The Forward.

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White House Religious Liberty Panel Member Decries ‘Zionist Supremacy,’ Vows Not to Resign Despite Backlash

Carrie Prejean Boller speaks during the White House Religious Liberty commission hearing(Source: Infolibnews)

Carrie Prejean Boller speaks during a White House Religious Liberty Commission hearing on Feb. 9, 2026. Photo: Screenshot

Carrie Prejean Boller, a member of the White House Religious Liberty Commission, has vowed to combat so-called “Zionist supremacy” in the United States, sparking fresh outrage amid ongoing furor over her recent comments condemning the Jewish state and defending antisemitic podcaster Candace Owens.

“I will continue to stand against Zionist supremacy in America. I’m a proud Catholic. I, in no way will be forced to embrace Zionism as a fulfillment of biblical prophesy [sic]. I am a free American. Not a slave to a foreign nation,” Prejean Boller posted on the social media platform X on Tuesday.

The comments came on the heels of furor over Prejean Boller’s conduct during Monday’s hearing of the 13-member White House Religious Liberty Commission, which descended into a tense back-and-forth after she asked pointed questions about Israel’s policies and whether rejection of the Jewish state’s legitimacy should itself be labeled antisemitic.

The council was established by US President Donald Trump to examine religious freedom issues and was intended to focus on concrete challenges facing Jewish communities, including bias and harassment. Prejean Boller’s conduct, which included an impassioned defense of antisemitic personalities Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson, and her peddling of unsubstantiated claims that Israel has intentionally starved and murdered Palestinian civilians, raised alarm bells among pro-Israel advocates.

“I would really appreciate it if you would stop calling Candace Owens an antisemite,” Prejean Boller said to Seth Dillon, CEO of the political satire site Babylon Bee, during the hearing. “She’s not an antisemite. She just doesn’t support Zionism, and that really has to stop. I don’t know why you keep bringing her up, and Tucker.”

Owens, one of the country’s most popular podcasters, has spent the past two years spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories on her platform. She has called Jews “pedophilic,” argued that they oppress and murder Christians, and asserted that they are responsible for the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Prejean Boller, a conservative activist and former Miss California, repeatedly pressed witnesses about Israel’s actions in Gaza and religious leaders on their views of Zionism, drawing audible boos from the audience and confusion from her colleagues. At one point she asked a Jewish activist if he would condemn Israel’s military response to Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, despite the hearing’s official focus on domestic antisemitism. Prejean Boller also donned a Palestinian flag pin on the lapel of her suit, telegraphing her support for the anti-Israel ideological cause.

“Since we’ve mentioned Israel a total of 17 times, are you willing to condemn what Israel has done in Gaza?” Boller asked Jewish activist Shabbos Kestenbaum.

During the hearing, she also accused Rabbi Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University, of Islamophobia after he declared that anti-Zionism — the belief that Israel does not have a right to exist —is an antisemitic ideology. Berman argued that attempts to delegitimize the existence of the world’s sole Jewish state, while showing ambivalence toward the existence of dozens of Muslim states, indicates anti-Jewish sentiment.

Panel members repeatedly stressed that American universities and communities must do more to confront bias and ensure Jewish students can live without fear of harassment.

Members of the commission expressed visible surprise at Prejean Boller’s line of questioning and repeated downplaying of antisemitism. Kestenbaum took aim at Prejean Boller after she asserted that the young activist had conflated antisemitism with harboring anti-Israel sentiment.

“She decided that this should be a debate on Israel’s conduct in Gaza, which I’m not entirely sure how that affects American students being discriminated against,” Kestenbaum said, “given that there are hundreds of millions of Catholics, including some who are on this commission, speaking at this commission today, who would vehemently disagree with such a grandiose assertion.”

Spectators suggested that the hearing also spotlighted deeper fissures within the conservative movement. Prejean Boller’s impassioned defense of Owens and Carlson, who have spent the past few years peddling anti-Israel conspiracies, suggest that their narratives may be penetrating deeper into the Republican base. The hearing also raised questions about the White House’s vetting process for the commission.

A recent analysis by the Jewish People Policy Institute found that both Carlson and Owens dramatically increased the volume and intensity of negative content about Israel in 2025, with Owens also incorporating explicit antisemitic language and conspiracy narratives, including accusations of disproportionate violence and undue influence over US policy into her commentary.

Carlson, the former Fox News host whose podcast remains influential among conservative audiences, has in recent years amplified fringe voices, including figures such as white nationalist streamer Nick Fuentes. Carlson’s interviews have featured conspiratorial depictions of “Christian Zionists” as afflicted by a “brain virus,” and his platforming of extremists and Holocaust minimizers has drawn widespread condemnation from lawmakers and civil rights advocates across the ideological spectrum.

Some prominent conservative voices have demanded for Prejean Boller to resign or be removed from the commission, arguing that her views are counter to the mission of the initiative. Prejean Boller has repeatedly refused to relinquish her position, arguing that her Catholic faith does not allow for support of Israel and doing so would signal a surrender to “Zionist supremacy.”

However, conservative reporter and podcaster Laura Loomer stated that sources at the US State Department are pressing for the Trump administration to remove Prejean Boller from the panel.

“Carrie’s behavior is unacceptable and is not representative of the Trump administration’s values. We have asked the White House to take action,” Loomer posted on social media, attributing the quote to an unnamed State Department official.

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13-Year-Old Boy Brutally Assaulted in Paris in Second Antisemitic Attack in Less Than a Week

Tens of thousands of French people march in Paris to protest against antisemitism. Photo: Screenshot

In a shocking second antisemitic attack in less than a week, a 13-year-old boy in Paris was brutally beaten Monday by a knife-wielding assailant, prompting authorities to open a criminal investigation and step up security amid a rising tide of antisemitism.

On his way to a synagogue in Paris’s 18th arrondissement, the schoolboy was physically attacked by a group of five assailants who beat him, pressed a knife to his throat, called him a “dirty Jew,” and stole his belongings, the French news outlet Le Parisien reported. 

According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, the victim was walking to a synagogue, clutching his kippah in his hand rather than wearing it for fear of being recognized, when five attackers confronted him; stole his AirPods, sneakers, and coat; and forced him to empty his pockets.

The boy also told authorities that he was shoved, punched in the face, and threatened with a knife to his throat before his attackers stole his belongings, shouting antisemitic remarks throughout the assault.

Local police have arrested and taken an 18-year-old suspect into custody after he was recognized during the assault by someone on a video call with the victim. The four other attackers remain at large as of this writing.

The prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into armed robbery and armed violence, committed as a group and aggravated by discrimination, as authorities continue to work to identify and apprehend the remaining suspects.

This latest antisemitic attack marks the second such incident in less than a week, underscoring a growing climate of hostility as Jews and Israelis face a surge of targeted assaults.

Over the weekend, three Jewish men wearing kippahs were physically threatened with a knife and forced to flee after leaving their Shabbat services near the Trocadéro in southwest Paris’s 16th arrondissement, European Jewish Press reported.

As the victims were leaving a nearby synagogue and walking through the neighborhood, they noticed a man staring at them. The assailant then approached the group and repeatedly asked, “Are you Jews? Are you Israelis?”

When one of them replied “yes,” the man pulled a knife from his pocket and began threatening the group. The victims immediately ran and found police officers nearby. None of the victims were injured.

Like most countries across Europe and the broader Western world, France has seen a rise in antisemitic incidents over the last two years, in the wake of the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

According to the French Interior Ministry, the first six months of 2025 saw more than 640 antisemitic incidents, a 27.5 percent decline from the same period in 2024, but a 112.5 percent increase compared to the first half of 2023, before the Oct. 7 atrocities.

Last week, a Jewish primary school in eastern Paris was vandalized, with windows smashed and security equipment damaged, prompting a criminal investigation and renewed outrage among local Jewish leaders as targeted antisemitic attacks continued to escalate.

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