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This Jewish New York City Council candidate has a prolific passion: serial sperm donation
(New York Jewish Week) — Jonathan David Rinaldi, 44, is a Republican who is running to represent New York’s District 24, which encompasses the Queens neighborhoods of Kew Gardens, Fresh Meadows, Briarwood and Jamaica. This week, he made headlines for protesting outside a motel in his district that, he claimed, was housing newly arrived migrants.
But last November, he gained local fame for a different reason. Rinaldi was featured in a post on Humans of New York, the viral social media project in which photographer Brandon Stanton posts portraits of New Yorkers he meets on the street, along with stories they relate in their own voices.
Rinaldi’s story was particularly eyebrow-raising: He said he had fathered at least 12 children over the course of two years through sperm donation — but not via sperm banks that pay donors, vet their health and limit their offspring. And he said he planned to keep going, in part because of his Jewish identity.
He said he was driven in part by his Jewish identity. “I explain to each [woman]: ‘This child will be born into a larger family. I have eighteen other children.’” Rinaldi said in the caption. “I’d like as many as God will give me. Why put your entire bloodline into one child when you can spread it out? Eighteen is a holy number in Judaism. And the next one is 36, so I’ll reassess then.”
In the Humans of New York post, Rinaldi detailed the process (“Fresh is better than frozen”) and said that he’s had sex with some of the women and wants to remain involved in their lives. “I’m what they call a ‘known donor,’” he said. “Everything is kinda handshake. I don’t charge the mothers. And they don’t expect any financial support.”
The post garnered a string of negative reactions from social media users. In response, Stanton wrote on Instagram that “stories from people you may not identify with, or even like, were a common part of HONY pre-pandemic. And will be again now that I’m back on the street.”
The post did not identify Rinaldi, but he confirmed to the New York Jewish Week over the phone that he was the person in the portrait and post. “I was interviewed once,” Rinaldi said. “It was taken out of context. I had a long conversation, a random conversation with somebody on the street.”
Rinaldi also confirmed that he donates his sperm — and has attempted to square that practice with Jewish tradition. He said that he has spoken with a rabbi to “try and figure out how to be as kosher as I possibly can and have as many children as the Bible commands,” and gave the name of a local Chabad rabbi. The rabbi declined to comment about Rinaldi but confirmed their relationship.
“It’s our responsibility as Jews blessed by God to have children,” said Rinaldi, who also has three children from a previous marriage. “Some of us are doing it extremely kosher, the way it’s supposed to be, you have a nice Jewish wife, you go to temple every day. For me, it didn’t work out that way.”
The Torah contains the commandment to “be fruitful and multiply,” which rabbis have traditionally interpreted as an imperative to have children. Rabbis have prohibited sperm donation, however, in part due to prohibitions on masturbation and on having children with an unknown father. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, a leading 20th-century authority, wrote that it’s preferable for Jewish women who cannot use their husband’s sperm to use non-Jewish sperm for artificial insemination in order to avoid accidental incest in future generations.
Rinaldi said that he began donating sperm when the city was locked down due to the spread of COVID-19, and that he first donated to a friend. From there, he said, word spread of his donations. Rinaldi is what is called a “known donor,” or someone whose identity is known to the recipient and, potentially, their children. Known donors are legal in the United States, but serial sperm donation is discouraged by many countries, in large part because of the risk of biologically related offspring procreating together in the future. The Netherlands set up systems to curb a serial donor who fathered at least 100 children, while Israel barred an American Jewish man dubbed “the Sperminator” because of his extensive efforts to procreate from impregnating more women there. Ari Nagel’s own progeny tally neared 100 after a prolific pandemic, he revealed in 2021.
Rinaldi, too, said the pandemic had spurred his donations.
“At no point did I ever go to a sperm bank,” Rinaldi said. “At no point did I ever intend to do this. We were all at home, shut down. A lot of people desired families. This is not your typical sperm donor situation. … I was just blessed to even have the opportunity. I didn’t do it for money. I didn’t ask for anything. I just wanted to help families.”
He wouldn’t confirm how many children he has through sperm donation, though in the Humans of New York caption, he’s quoted as saying he had fathered 12 over the previous two years — and, at the time, three more were on the way. In an interview Wednesday with the New York Jewish Week, he responded to a question about how many children he has by repeating an idea he had alluded to in the caption: that according to Jewish tradition, the number 18 represents life.
“Eighteen is a holy number,” Rinaldi said in the interview. “It’s just what God has blessed me with. I’m doing this because I don’t believe in abortion. I am pro-life.”
Opposing abortion isn’t the only right-wing position Rinaldi holds. In an interview, he railed against the COVID-19 vaccine and compared vaccine requirements to the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust, a common line of criticism at the time. “You could have just worn a yellow unvaccinated star on your shirt,” he said, adding, “We were literally one thing away from them coming up to rounding up the unvaccinated.” He also said transgender people are “against Torah principles” and said schools are “not teaching kids God.”
On Tuesday, he and a group of Republican activists showed up at a Kew Gardens motel to protest migrants coming to the city, even though a lawyer for the motel said the owner is “not interested in signing a contract” to house migrants.
In District 24, Rinaldi will run against Democratic Council member Jim Gennaro, who has represented the district for more than a decade.
Rinaldi, who grew up in New York City, said his grandmother escaped Poland to Argentina during World War II. His grandfather also left Moldova at the time. Although both countries were occupied by the Nazis or their allies, Rinaldi said his grandparents were “against the tyranny of the left at that time.”
Rinaldi said he studied for his bar mitzvah at Yeshivas Ohr HaChaim, an Orthodox institution in Kew Gardens, and attended City College of New York in uptown Manhattan where he studied architecture, which is also reflected on a LinkedIn page that appears to belong to him.
He later worked in construction and design for over a decade and appeared on the HGTV reality television show “Million Dollar Contractor.”
When it comes to his sperm donation, however, Rinaldi is less comfortable being in the public eye, despite the Humans of New York post. “My lifestyle is nobody’s business,” he said.
“I am what it looks like when you don’t abort children,” Rinaldi said. “Let’s just focus on the issues if we can. I’m going to do the right thing for the community. My personal business is my personal business.”
Back in the Humans of New York post, Rinaldi suggested that he hoped to expand his personal business. He mused about practices that Jewish tradition has, for the past millennium, frowned upon: “My ultimate goal is to find two or three of the mothers who will be sister wives, because I’m gonna need help with all this,” he said. “But I know one thing: It will never be boring.”
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The post This Jewish New York City Council candidate has a prolific passion: serial sperm donation appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Hezbollah Plotting to Attack Israel From Syria, Report Says, as Fears Grow of Wider Middle East War
Smoke billows after an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs, following an escalation between Hezbollah and Israel amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, Lebanon, March 2, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Hezbollah is reportedly seeking to launch attacks against the Jewish state from Syrian territory in support of Iran while continuing operations along the Lebanese border, fueling fears the Middle East war is escalating and expanding across multiple fronts.
According to Israeli broadcaster Kan News, which cited Arab intelligence sources, the Syrian government has instructed its military forces to prevent any terrorist cells operating in Syria from launching attacks against Israel, amid Iran’s broader regional confrontation with Israel and the United States.
As Hezbollah vowed to support Iran in its broader confrontation with Israeli and American forces by targeting the Jewish state, Damascus has reportedly strengthened security controls in southern Syria, setting up checkpoints in an effort to prevent any cross-border attacks or terrorist operations from taking shape.
Although Iran and its terrorist proxies were expelled from Syria after the fall of long-time Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, the new Syrian government under President Ahmed al‑Sharaa has continued to focus on dismantling the infrastructure that Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies built on the Syrian side of the border.
According to media reports, Damascus is also preparing to potentially target the positions of Hezbollah along the border in the Bekaa Valley, a region in eastern Lebanon near the Syrian border, in an effort to weaken the group’s operational infrastructure.
However, Syrian leadership has said it has no plans to conduct military operations against any neighboring country, reiterating that its military deployments are aimed strictly at securing borders and maintaining internal stability.
“But Syria is prepared to deal with any security threat to itself or its partners,” a security official told the Times of Israel.
As the war continues to escalate across the region, Syria has further strengthened its border with Lebanon by deploying thousands of troops, including infantry units, armored vehicles, and short-range rocket launchers, in an effort to curb arms and drug smuggling while preventing infiltration by Hezbollah or other terrorist groups.
After Hezbollah fired multiple rockets into Israeli territory in support of Iran earlier this week, the Jewish state launched a wave of airstrikes across southern and central Lebanon, striking sites linked to the group’s military infrastructure.
On Monday, the Israeli military said it killed the commander of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Lebanon, calling the operation a major blow to the Iran-backed terrorist group’s capabilities.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced that he had authorized the military to advance and take control of additional positions in Lebanon, where Israeli troops have held several hilltops since a war with Hezbollah in 2024.
With dozens of people killed in retaliatory Israeli strikes, Hezbollah’s move to enter the conflict has sharpened long-standing divisions in Lebanon over its status as an armed group – the only Lebanese faction to keep its weapons after the 1975-90 civil war.
The Lebanese government has even taken the unprecedented step of banning the military activities of Hezbollah. The pro-Hezbollah newspaper Al-Akhbar condemned the decision as a “capitulation to dictates,” warning that it could potentially spark the outbreak of civil war.
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Florida International University College Republicans Denounce Antisemitic, Racist WhatsApp Group
Conservative youth at Turning Point USA event in October 2025. Photo: Cheney Orr via Reuters Connect
The Florida International University (FIU) chapter of College Republicans, one of the largest conservative student groups in the US, has condemned antisemitism and other forms of bigotry following the revelation of a virulently racist group chat in which conservative youth exchanged antisemitic slurs while calling for the of murder African Americans.
“As the first female Jewish president of FIU College Republicans, I can personally attest that the recent reports regarding an external chat have no place in our society,” Gabriela Burstein said in a blistering statement condemning the chat, which reportedly included members of her College Republicans chapter.
“There is simply no place for antisemitism, racism, or violence of any kind and in no way reflect our conservative community within Florida,” she continued. “Our executive board, chapter members, community supporters, and I are absolutely appalled by the rhetoric that has surfaced.
As first reported by The Miami Herald, the group chat, created on WhatsApp, was described by its members as “Nazi heaven” for the daily barrage of extremist comments contributed to it. Individuals affiliated with the Miami Dade Country Republicans, Turning Point USA, and College Republicans casually said “ni—er,” denounced women as “whores,” and spoke rapturously about Adolf Hitler.
Dariel Gonzalez, according to the Herald, was one of the chat’s most prolific contributors, bandying about comments regarding “color professors” and telling members that “You can f—k all the k—kes you want. Just don’t marry them and procreate.” Gonzalez, a former board member of FIU’s College Republicans, also reportedly promoted belief in “Agartha,” a Nazi utopia confected by Heinrich Himmler, while fantasizing about the possibility of engaging in onanism there. Some vile remarks drew the approbation of other chat members, many of whom are connected to Republican Party organizations across the state.
The Herald added that the chat was founded by Abel Alexander Carvajal, secretary of the Miami-Dade County Republican Party. On Thursday, the organization denounced him and the chat, adding that it has demanded his resignation.
“His words and actions are reprehensible and are completely inconsistent with the values of the Republican Party of Miami-Dade County. The words and actions of this individual do not speak for our party,” chairman Kevin Cooper said in a statement. “We are the party that fought to end slavery, the party that welcomed Cuban refugees fleeing communism to freedom in Miami, and the party that continues to welcome Americans of every race, faith, gender, and nationality who believe in liberty and opportunity.”
FIU president Jeanette Nuñez described the content of the group chat as “abhorrent and extremely disturbing language” in her own statement.
“FIU does not and will not tolerate violence, hate, discrimination, harassment, racism or antisemitism. This is not who we are. This is not what FIU stands for,” she added. “We take these allegations very seriously. The alleged conduct continues to be investigated by FIU Police Department in coordination with local, state, and federal law enforcement. In addition, the FIU Office of Civil Rights and the Office of Student Conduct and Academic Integrity are actively investigating the matter.”
The group chat’s exposure comes at a time when, according to recent polling, young Republicans have increasingly embraced antisemitism and conspiracy theories.
Last month, for example, survey by Irwin Mansdorf, a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, and Charles Jacobs, president of the Jewish Leadership Project, found that 45 percent of Republicans under the age of 44 said Jews pose a threat to the “American way of life.”
In December, the Manhattan Institute, a prominent US-based think tank, released a major poll showing that younger Republican voters are much less supportive of Israel and more likely to express antisemitic views than their older cohorts.
According to the data, 25 percent of Republicans under 50 openly express antisemitic views as opposed to just 4 percent over the age of 50.
Startlingly, a substantial amount, 37 percent, of GOP voters indicate belief in Holocaust denialism. These figures are more pronounced among young men under 50, with a majority, 54 percent, agreeing that the Holocaust “was greatly exaggerated or did not happen as historians describe.” Among men over 50, 41 percent agree with the sentiment.
This dynamic has played out on college and university campuses across the US, where antisemitism has surged in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel.
The Algemeiner has reported daily on campus antisemitism incidents which involved identity-based physical assaults, verbal abuse, and others acts of discrimination. These included anti-Zionists spitting on Jewish students at the University of California, Berkeley while calling them “Jew”; gang assaults at Columbia University’s Butler Library; swastika graffiti; the desecration of Jewish religious symbols; and the expulsion of a sexual assault survivor from a victim support group over her support for Zionism.
Other incidents include a faculty group’s sharing an antisemitic political cartoon which marked Jews and Israel as enemies of people of color; a Cornell University student threatening to murder Jewish men, whom he called pigs, and to rape Jewish women, and perpetrate a mass shooting at the campus’ kosher dining hall; and professors praising Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities, which included mass murder, sexual assault, and kidnapping as legitimate modes of “resistance.”
Many such incidents preceded the Oct. 7 massacre by several years and received little to no coverage in the mainstream press.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Jewish Chef Eitan Bernath Sets New Guinness World Record for Making Largest Matzah Ball Soup
Eitan Bernath set a new Guinness World Record for making the largest serving of matzah ball soup on Feb. 27, 2026. Photo: Eric Vitale
Jewish chef and cookbook author Eitan Bernath recently set a new Guinness World Record for making the largest serving of matzah ball soup.
The matzah ball soup weighed in at 1,356.9 pounds and was verified by Guinness World Records in Brooklyn, New York, on Feb. 27. The soup contained 847 hand-rolled matzah balls, and it took 10 chefs about 11 hours to prepare the soup, according to the Guinness World Records. All the soup was donated to City Harvest, New York City’s largest food rescue organization, which will serve it to thousands of hungry New Yorkers in food pantries and soup kitchens.
“There’s no food that brings back more memories of being surrounded by family than matzo ball soup,” Bernath, 23, told The Algemeiner in a statement. “So, when I set out to make the world’s largest version of a dish, choosing matzo ball soup was a no-brainer. Every bowl is a bowl of comfort. Being able to create a giant version was both an incredible challenge and a thrill. It meant even more to me that after setting the record, we were able to donate all the soup to New Yorkers in need — sharing the comfort of matzo ball soup even further.”
Bernath — who is also a social media content creator and the principal culinary contributor for “The Drew Barrymore Show” — said the matzah ball soup was comprised of 120 chickens, 300 carrots, and 250 bunches of herbs. The soup also included parsnip, turnip, celery root, onions, parsley, dill, paprika, and salt. Bernath used ChatGPT to scale up his grandmother’s matzo ball soup recipe to a 200-gallon version, and to help him also find the right vessels needed to make such a large portion. To hold more than 160 gallons of hot liquid, he ended up using a water trough, typically used for horses, which was lined with a food-grade liner.
On Instagram, Bernath shared behind-the-scenes photos that show the making of the massive matzah ball soup. In the caption, he explained that creating the record-breaking dish “was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done.”
“As a proud Jew, creating a record-setting giant version of such an important Jewish dish meant the world to me,” he added. “I couldn’t be prouder of my team and I for pulling this off. I will never look at a bowl of matzo ball soup the same again!!”