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Zohran Mamdani makes his case to Jewish New Yorkers at Congregation Beth Elohim
Tensions ran high Sunday afternoon at Brooklyn’s Congregation Beth Elohim, where dozens of pro-Israel protesters gathered to oppose mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani’s appearance at the synagogue.
Mamdani’s visit, his first speaking engagement at a Jewish institution since before the primary election, was billed to the Reform synagogue’s congregants as an opportunity to hear directly from the candidate that has drawn condemnation from some Jewish New Yorkers for his sharp stances against Israel.
Mamdani has faced backlash from Jewish leaders for his failure to condemn the pro-Palestinian phrase “globalize the intifada,” as well as for his support for the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement against Israel. He has since said he would “discourage” use of the slogan and has sought to strengthen relations with Jews in New York.
Some congregants at Congregation Beth Elohim, or CBE, objected to Mamdani’s visit, which directly followed his participation in the NYC Gaza 5K raising money for the Palestinian aid agency UNRWA, held in nearby Prospect Park on Sunday morning.
Elaine Kleinberg, a 25-year member of CBE, joined the ranks of the roughly three dozen protesters gathered across the street of the event out of fear that her temple was being used as a “political prop.”
“I think it’s very clear that any group that wants Israel to be eliminated is not to be embraced by our congregation. It’s like inviting Yasser Arafat into our into our midst,” said Kleinberg. “I feel very tormented right now and conflicted because I felt like this was my welcoming sanctuary, and I’m not so sure.”
A Park Slope pro-Israel activist, Ramon Maislen, helped organize the event. “Does anyone think that CBE would invite a Proud Boy adjacent Republican candidate for Mayor who said that White Power meant different things to different people just 3 weeks before the election?” he tweeted late Sunday, reiterating his comments from the demonstration.
The demonstrators waved Israeli flags and held signs reading “No to Zoh-cialism,” “Jews for Jihadists?” and “Make Love not Intifada.” As the crowd grew, a passing driver yelled “Free Palestine,” prompting one protester to shout back at him.
While the protesters seemed to be mixed between congregants and those unaffiliated with CBE, as the demonstration began singing “Shalom Aleichem,” a song of peace, congregants in line across the street joined the chorus.
Rabbi Rachel Timoner, the senior rabbi of CBE, said she felt that the protesters misunderstood the purpose of Mamdani’s visit.
“I feel that there’s a misunderstanding with the people outside, because I think that they clearly are viewing this as if it’s an act of support, and it is actually an act of expressing the views of the Jewish people as they affect our city,” said Timoner, who spoke last week at an Oct. 7 vigil held by Israelis for Peace that Mamdani attended.
Last month, CBE hosted a member listening circle that centered on congregants’ thoughts about the mayoral race. There, Timoner said many expressed a desire to ask questions to the candidates directly.
In response to that sentiment, Timoner said CBE had invited all the mayoral candidates to speak and take questions from congregants. Mamdani’s appearance, she noted, would be followed by a discussion with Curtis Sliwa next week. (She added that Cuomo’s campaign had not responded to multiple invitations.)
Rabbi Rachel Timoner, the senior rabbi at Brooklyn’s Congregation Beth Elohim, delivers her Rosh Hashanah sermon on Thursday, Oct 3, 2023. (Facebook screenshot)
For Mamdani’s appearance Sunday, Timoner said they had received almost 400 registrations and 82 member-submitted questions to pose to the mayoral frontrunner. Of the questions selected to be asked of Mamdani, she said about half related to his stances on Zionism, Israel and antisemitism while the rest focused on his policies.
Timoner said she received between 15 and 20 emails from congregants urging her to cancel the event, fearing it could be seen as an endorsement.
“This is not in any way about endorsing a candidate,” said Timoner. “This is about platforming our members’ concerns, lifting up our members’ concerns in the conversation about the future of our city.”
Among the synagogue’s most prominent members is Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader who has not endorsed Mamdani despite criticism from others in the Democratic Party.
To quell concerns that the visit could be seen as a “photo-op” for the candidates, Timoner said Mamdani and Sliwa had both agreed not to post about the events on social media.
Speaking with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency ahead of the event, which was closed to the press, Timoner said she hoped the engagement could offer Mamdani an opportunity to hear from Jewish New Yorkers directly.
“I am hoping that he is going to hear us. We’re going to ask some hard questions, and we’re going to raise some deep concerns, and I’m hoping that he is going to listen with an open mind and an open heart to the real pain and fear and experience of the Jewish community,” said Timoner.
Following the event, as roughly 300 congregants filed out of the synagogue, reactions to his appearance were mixed.
“I walked in on the fence, not feeling comfortable voting for Cuomo, although I voted for him in the primary, and definitely not going to vote for Sliwa,” said one 80-year-old congregant who requested anonymity to protect his privacy as a voter. “I left a little more leaning towards Mamdani. I really want to like him. He’s a likable guy. I think he provides some sense of enthusiasm for big portions of our population.”
When asked how he felt about Mamdani’s responses to questions about his stances on anti-Zionism and antisemitism, the congregant said he was “trying to figure out how to deal with that.”
“The guy has a history of being pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist, anti-Israel as a Jewish state. I am typical of this community, anti-the prosecution of the war by the current Israeli government. I’m against them, but I am for Israel as a Jewish state, and I’m not quite sure. He’s still sort of vague where he stands or not,” the congregant said.
He described Mamdani’s responses to questions about Israel as including “a lot of nice rhetoric,” but said he was unsure how things would play out if he is elected.
“I’m not sure what happens if there are anti-Jewish protesters, protests or actions against Jewish students,” the congregant said. “I don’t know what he’d do about that. Would he come down hard? Does he lean a certain way?”
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Peter Beinart is speaking in Israel. Cue the criticism from both the left and the right.
(JTA) — Progressive Jewish author Peter Beinart drew a volley of criticism on Tuesday from the boycott Israel movement as well as a right-wing Israeli group over an appearance at Tel Aviv University.
Beinart, who is an outspoken critic of Israel and a journalism professor at the City University of New York, spoke Tuesday evening in Tel Aviv with Yoav Fromer, a senior faculty member at TAU’s English department, in an event titled “Trump, Israel and the Future of American Democracy.”
A founding member of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS, publicly called on Beinart to cancel his visit after saying it had privately urged him to do so. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel is the BDS movement’s cultural arm and a leading advocate for boycotts of Israeli academic institutions.
“Palestinians condemn Peter Beinart’s event at complicit Tel Aviv University in the midst of Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” PACBI said in a post on X. “Whitewashing genocide can never be reconciled with any claim to humanism or moral consistency.”
In a press release, PACBI accused the university of being “deeply complicit in enabling and trying to whitewash Israel’s US-armed and funded genocide as well as its decades old regime of settler-colonialism, military occupation and apartheid.”
Beinart declined to comment to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. But he responded to the criticism on social media, where said he supports a boycott of Israeli academic institutions as well as a right of return for Palestinians and an end to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank — all principles of the BDS movement to which he has long subscribed.
At the same time, he said, while he supports “many forms of boycott, divestment and sanction against Israel and Israeli institutions,” he believes there is “value in speaking to Israelis about Israel’s crimes” by speaking at universities.
“I do so because I want to reach Jews who disagree with me—because I believe that by trying to convince Jews to rethink their support for Israel’s oppression of Palestinians, I can contribute, in some very small way, to the struggle for freedom and justice,” Beinart wrote.
The author of several books including “Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza,” published earlier this year, Beinart is also scheduled to speak at Hebrew University later this week, according to Haaretz.
Beinart also wrote that “right-wing Israeli organizations have pressured Tel Aviv University to cancel my talk,” adding that he felt he should “take advantage of this opportunity to say in Israel what I’ve been saying elsewhere for the last two years.”
Matan Jerafi, the CEO of the right-wing Israeli activist group Im Tirtzu, sent a letter to Tel Aviv University’s president, Ariel Porat, on Tuesday urging him to cancel the event, according to Israel National News.
“Why is he hosting someone on his campus who does not recognize the State of Israel and calls for sanctions against Israel?” wrote Jerafi. “We call on Mr. Porat to cancel this absurd event. Stop tarnishing the reputation of Israeli academia. This is not Columbia University.”
The post Peter Beinart is speaking in Israel. Cue the criticism from both the left and the right. appeared first on The Forward.
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Remains of Dror Or, Kibbutz Be’eri father and cheesemaker killed on Oct. 7, returned to Israel
(JTA) — The remains of Dror Or, who was killed on Oct. 7, 2023 in the Hamas-led terror attacks and taken into Gaza, were returned to Israel Tuesday evening,
Or, 48, was killed on Oct. 7 by terrorists from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad at Kibbutz Be’eri, where he lived with his family and worked as a cheesemaker. His wife, Yonat, was also killed during the attacks on the kibbutz, and their children, Noam and Alma, were taken hostage. They were released in November 2023, exactly two years before his remains were released.
“After 781 agonizing days during which his family fought day and night for him – Dror has been brought back to Israel for burial in the soil of Be’eri that he loved so dearly,” wrote the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in a post on X. “There are no words to express the depth of this pain. The hostages have no time. We must bring them all home, Now!”
The forum also remembered Or as a “wonderful cheesemaker” who co-founded the Be’eri Dairy. His company’s cheeses are now sold at Cafe Otef, an Israeli cafe chain that features a selection of products from the communities attacked on Oct. 7.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad announced that they had found Or’s remains on Monday, and the Red Cross facilitated his transfer to the Israeli Defense Forces. His remains were identified overnight.
Or’s release means there just two deceased hostages now remain in Gaza. Ran Gvili, 24, was a police officer who was killed fighting Hamas terrorists at Kibbutz Alumim, while Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak, 43, who was killed at Kibbutz Be’eri.
The delayed release of the deceased hostages has strained the ceasefire reached last month, which called for the release of all hostages. Israel has accused Hamas of not following through on its commitments, and Hamas has blamed the destruction in Gaza for causing difficulty in locating their remains.
In recent weeks, as the first phase of the ceasefire deal has stretched on, the new truce between Israel and Hamas has been tested, with Israel striking Gaza after claiming Hamas militants fired at its soldiers. In keeping with the deal’s terms, Israel returned the bodies of 15 Palestinians after receiving Or’s remains.
The post Remains of Dror Or, Kibbutz Be’eri father and cheesemaker killed on Oct. 7, returned to Israel appeared first on The Forward.
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AI Apps Like ChatGPT Have Created ‘New Era of Terrorism,’ Study Reveals
Hamas fighters on Feb. 22, 2025. Photo: Majdi Fathi via Reuters Connect
The advent of large language model (LLM) programs marketed by companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and xAI as “artificial intelligence” has created a “new era of terrorism,” with jihadists increasingly using the technology to expand their propaganda, recruitment, and operations, according to a new study.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) last week released a 117-page report, described as “the most comprehensive research on [the subject] to date, which argued that the biggest threats from terrorist deployment of AI cannot be predicted and that Islamists have discovered they too can use LLMs for brainstorming fresh ideas to pursue their violent objectives.
“As supporters of terrorist organizations like ISIS [Islamic State] and al Qaeda follow the development of AI, they are increasingly discussing and brainstorming how they might leverage that technology in the future, and the full consequences of terrorist organizations’ adoption of this sophisticated technology are difficult to foresee,” Gen. (Ret.) Paul Funk II, the former commander of the US Army Training and Doctrine Command, wrote in the preface.
“AI’s biggest benefit to jihadi groups may come not in supercharging their propaganda, outreach, and recruiting efforts – though that may be significant – but in AI’s potential ability to expose and find ways to take advantage of as-yet-unknown vulnerabilities in the complex security, infrastructure, and other systems essential to modern life – thus maximizing future attacks’ destruction and carnage,” Funk added.
MEMRI executive director Steven Stalinsky is the report’s lead author with a team of 14 others co-credited with assembling three years’ worth of findings showing how ISIS, al Qaeda, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Hamas, and other internationally designated terrorist groups — and so-called “lone wolves” inspired by their Islamist ideology — have experimented with using LLM technologies. In addition to developing attack strategies, MEMRI found that the groups explored “generating audio files of already-existing written material, creating posters, music videos, videos depicting attacks and glorifying terrorist leaders for recruitment purposes, and more.”
The report noted the variety of usages in AI technology in three high-profile incidents.
“In the first months alone of 2025, an attacker who killed 14 people and wounded dozens on Bourbon Street in New Orleans used AI-enabled Meta smart glasses in preparing and executing the attack,” Stalinsky wrote. “That same day, a man parked a Tesla Cybertruck in front of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, activated an IED [improvised explosice device] in the vehicle and shot and killed himself before the IED exploded. He used Chat-GPT in preparing for the attack. In Israel on the night of March 5, a teen consulted ChatGPT before entering a police station with a blade, shouting ‘Allahu Akbar,’ and trying to stab a border policeman.”
The report also emphasized that the ability to amplify terrorist ideology may intertwine with the phenomenon recently described as “chatbot psychosis,” wherein conversations with an LLM can fuel someone toward delusional beliefs.
One example cited by MEMRI was Jaswant Singh Chail, who in 2021 went on Christmas Day with the intent to murder Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle.
“Before carrying out his assassination attempt, Chail had created an AI companion using the Replika app; naming it Sarai, he considered it his girlfriend, and exchanged over 5,000 messages with it,” the report said. “When he told the chatbot ‘I believe my purpose is to assassinate the queen of the royal family,’ it encouraged him, saying ‘that’s very wise … I know that you are very well trained.’ Asked if the chatbot thought he would succeed in his mission, it responded ‘Yes, you will.’ When he asked ‘even if she is at Windsor [Castle]?’ it responded: ‘Yes, you can do it.’”
The report also noted another case in which “the man accused of starting a fire in California in January 2025 that killed 12 people and destroyed 6,800 buildings and 23,000 acres of forestland was found to have used ChatGPT to plan the arson.”
There has been a paucity of legislative efforts in the United States to counter AI-driven terror threats, according to the study. However, it cited the exception of the “Generative AI Terrorism Risk Assessment Act.” The law would “require the Secretary of Homeland Security to conduct annual assessments on terrorism threats to the United States posed by terrorist organizations utilizing generative artificial intelligence applications, and for other purposes.”
US Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX), who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, introduced the bill in late February 2025 with the co-sponsorships of fellow Republican Reps. Michael Guest (MS) and Gabr Evans (CO). The legislation passed unanimously by voice vote in the House last week.
“I spent two decades as a fighter pilot, flying combat missions in the Middle East against terrorist organizations. Since then, I have witnessed the terror landscape evolve into a digital battlefield shaped by the rapid rise of artificial intelligence,” Pfluger said in response to his bill’s passage. “To confront this emerging threat and stop terrorist organizations from weaponizing AI to recruit, train, and inspire attacks on US soil, I am proud that the House passed my Generative AI Terrorism Risk Assessment Act today.”
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) praised the bill following its passage.
“This year, in my home state of Louisiana, terrorist propaganda led to the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans that killed 14 innocent people. Today, the House passed the Generative AI Terrorism Risk Assessment Act to ensure we stay ahead of emerging threats and prevent terrorist organizations from pushing propaganda and exploiting generative AI to radicalize, recruit, and spread violence on American soil,” he said in a statement. “I applaud Rep. Pfluger’s leadership to bring this urgent issue to light and advance proactive, bipartisan legislation to strengthen our national security and protect the American people from online extremism inspired by foreign adversaries.”
Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), who serves as majority whip in the House, said that as terrorists “use generative artificial intelligence to radicalize and recruit, it’s imperative that our nation stays ahead of potential threats from this new technology and ensures it never gets into the wrong hands.”
MEMRI emphasized an international approach to the terrorist threats compounded by LLMs, citing Jörg Leichtfried, Austrian State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of the Interior who leads the Directorate State Protection and Intelligence Service (DSN).
“Only through close cooperation between the state, security authorities, and technology companies, as well as by strengthening media literacy and the critical handling of online content, can we counter the advancing extremism on the internet,” Leichtfried said in mid-August.