US Holocaust Memorial Council chair invites Mamdani to museum over Gaza genocide claims

By World Israel News Staff

The chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council has invited New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to tour the US Holocaust Memorial Museum after the mayor repeatedly accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.

Jeffrey Miller, who leads the museum’s governing board, said he would personally arrange the Washington, DC, visit and accompany Mamdani through the museum.

“My invitation is sincere. Come to the Museum. Learn what genocide actually means,” Miller wrote in a social media post.

Miller said elected officials have a responsibility to consider how their language affects the public, arguing that rhetoric portraying Israel as uniquely malevolent can contribute to hostility toward Jews.

The invitation came after the UJA-Federation of New York expressed concern over the stabbing of two men on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. One of the victims was Jewish, and authorities were investigating that portion of the attack as a possible hate crime.

Miller said the incident reinforced his concern about inflammatory rhetoric directed at Israel and the Jewish community.

He later told Fox News that he wanted Mamdani to confront the Holocaust’s “systematic attempt to annihilate an entire people.” Miller said the mayor could also visit Rwanda or speak with survivors of other recognized genocides.

Mamdani had not publicly responded to the invitation as of Wednesday morning.

The dispute follows Mamdani’s renewed attacks on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he recently described as “a war criminal, the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people.”

Mamdani accused Netanyahu of responsibility for civilian deaths, restrictions on humanitarian assistance and attacks on medical facilities, journalists and aid workers during the Gaza war.

The mayor also reiterated his support for the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against Netanyahu, although he acknowledged that his administration lacks the legal authority to execute it.

“It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant,” Mamdani said, while urging the federal government to join the court and act against Netanyahu.

Neither the US nor Israel is a member of the ICC. The Trump administration has rejected the court’s jurisdiction over Israeli officials and said Netanyahu would not be arrested if he traveled to the US.

Mamdani has repeatedly accused Israel of genocide in Gaza. During an appearance on ABC’s “The View” in October 2025, he said his support for international law led him to apply the term to the war.

The latest dispute is not Mamdani’s first confrontation with the Holocaust museum.

During his 2025 mayoral campaign, Mamdani resisted calls to condemn the slogan “Globalize the Intifada.” He noted that the museum had used the Arabic word “intifada,” meaning uprising, in Arabic-language material about the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

The museum rejected that comparison, calling the use of the Jewish resistance against the Nazis to defend the modern slogan “outrageous and especially offensive to survivors.”

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2025 was deadliest year for antisemitic attacks in diaspora in more than three decades, ADL report finds.

By World Israel News Staff

Twenty people were killed in antisemitic attacks across several countries in 2025, making it the deadliest year for antisemitic violence in the Jewish diaspora since the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Argentina, according to a report released Wednesday.

The second annual J7 Report on Antisemitism documented more than 23,000 antisemitic incidents during 2025 in Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the UK and the US. Those countries are home to more than 90% of the Jewish population outside Israel.

The report found that the total number of antisemitic incidents across the seven countries was 136% higher than in 2022, the year before Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Violent antisemitic incidents were up 97% over the same period.

“Antisemitism in our seven countries is no longer a surge; it is our new normal. Governments must stop reacting after Jews are attacked and start acting before, with real security funding, stronger laws and social media platforms that enforce their own rules,” the J7 Large Communities’ Task Force Against Antisemitism said in a joint statement.

Fifteen people were murdered during a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, two were killed at the Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur, two were killed at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, and one person was killed in Boulder, Colorado.

Although the overall number of incidents declined in several countries during 2025, the report said antisemitism remained significantly above levels recorded before October 7.

Incidents fell by 33% in the US, 20% in Australia and 16% in both Canada and France compared with the previous year. They increased by 5% in the UK, 4% in Argentina and less than 1% in Germany.

Compared with 2021, Australia recorded the sharpest increase in antisemitic incidents, rising 270%. Germany experienced a 215% increase, followed by the US at 131% and France at 124%.

Germany had the highest number of reported incidents relative to the size of its Jewish population, with nearly 70 incidents for every 1,000 Jewish residents. That rate was almost five times the rate in Australia, six times the rate in the UK and nearly 70 times the US rate.

The report identified anti-Zionism as a major motivation behind many of the incidents, accounting for 48% of reported cases in the UK, 45% in the US and 23% in Germany.

“ADL helped found the J7 in 2023 because no country can fight antisemitism alone, and this report shows exactly why,” Anti-Defamation League CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt said.

“2025 was one of the most violent years for American Jews on record: we were targeted an average of 17 times a day. This isn’t just an American crisis; every single J7 country remains dramatically above pre-October 7 levels. Antisemitism transcends borders, and our response must do so too,” he added.

This year’s report also examined antisemitism in Ireland, which is not a member of the J7 group. Ireland’s Jewish community, estimated at about 2,200 people, reported 143 antisemitic incidents over a six-month period, equivalent to 65 incidents for every 1,000 Jewish residents.

The report said Ireland currently has neither a national strategy for combating antisemitism nor dedicated security funding for its Jewish community.

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France recorded 1,320 antisemitic incidents in 2023, accounting for 53% of anti-religious acts, according to the Ministry of the Interior.

By Shira Li Bartov, JTA

Over a dozen Torah scrolls have been stolen from a French synagogue in an attack the local rabbi called “antisemitic.”

The burglary hit the Grand Synagogue of Levallois-Perret, a wealthy suburb of Paris, between Sunday night and Monday morning. Rabbi Chalom Lellouche said the Jewish community was “violated” by the theft.

“It is, of course, a criminal act, but it is also an antisemitic act that specifically targeted the Torah,” Lellouche said in a joint video statement on Monday with Philippe Cohen, the president of the local Jewish community association.

Levallois Mayor Agnès Pottier-Dumas said on Instagram that she learned with “shock and anger” of the attack, adding that “the antisemitic nature of this vile act must be condemned.”

She confirmed that municipal and national police were investigating.

The des Hauts-de-Seine prefecture, which handles local state administration, said on X that the stolen scrolls represented not just a “simple theft,” but “an entire community of believers that was wounded to the depths of its soul.”

Prefect Alexandre Brugère and elected officials met with Jewish communal leaders in Levallois on Monday evening, promising to identify the thieves and secure the return of the scrolls.

Cohen said the burglary was the work of a “professional team” that bypassed security systems and the synagogue’s security was being reassessed.

He called the incident “a profound spiritual trauma for the entire Jewish community in France and around the world.”

“It was the Torah — and only the Torah — that was targeted,” said Cohen. “No property was damaged, and nothing else was stolen apart from Torah items of immeasurable value.”

France recorded 1,320 antisemitic incidents in 2023, accounting for 53% of anti-religious acts, according to the Ministry of the Interior. Jews make up less than 1% of the French population.

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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney vows action against antisemitism after Jewish-owned Toronto bakeries targeted.

By World Israel News Staff

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney pledged federal support for efforts to combat antisemitism after two locations of a prominent Jewish-owned Toronto bakery chain were targeted in apparently coordinated overnight attacks.

Police are investigating incidents at two Kiva’s Bagel Bar locations after a dark-colored SUV was seen outside both businesses about an hour apart late Saturday and early Sunday. Both restaurants were closed, and no injuries were reported.

Carney said Monday that he was “appalled” by the attacks on businesses he described as longstanding gathering places for Toronto’s Jewish community.

“Jewish Canadians should be able to live, work, and worship free from fear, intimidation, and hate,” Carney said.

He added that the federal government was “absolute in our commitment to combatting the scourge of antisemitism” and expressed support for the police investigation.

The first incident occurred at approximately 11:15 p.m. Saturday at the Kiva’s location near Bathurst Street and Steeles Avenue West, according to the Toronto Police Service.

Police said a dark-colored SUV stopped in front of the restaurant before its front glass shattered. The vehicle then fled south on Carpenter Road.

About an hour later, at approximately 12:15 a.m. Sunday, a vehicle matching the same general description pulled up outside the Kiva’s branch near Yonge Street and St. Clair Avenue West.

A firearm was discharged from inside the vehicle, striking the restaurant’s front windows, police said. Investigators found evidence of gunfire at the scene.

Police are handling the incidents as two firearm-discharge investigations and believe the same SUV may have been involved in both. Authorities released an image of the vehicle Monday and began canvassing the surrounding areas for security, cellphone and dashboard-camera footage.

No suspects had been identified publicly, and police had not established a motive. The investigations are being led by Toronto’s Integrated Gun and Gang Task Force with assistance from the Hate Crime Unit.

Duty Inspector Scott Bradbury acknowledged that the attacks were particularly alarming for “members of the Jewish community,” while cautioning during the initial stages of the investigation that police had not yet determined the full connection between the incidents.

The fact that two branches of the same Jewish-owned chain were targeted within roughly an hour led political and Jewish community leaders to describe the attacks as deliberate.

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow called the incidents “vile and unacceptable.”

“We all have a responsibility to stand against hate,” Chow said. “I will always stand with Toronto’s Jewish community against antisemitism.”

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he was “totally disgusted” by the attacks and demanded that those responsible be prosecuted.

“I expect all those responsible to be found, prosecuted and punished to the fullest extent of the law,” Ford said.

Ford issued his statement after a separate shooting was reported near the US Consulate in Toronto on Monday. Police had not connected that incident to the attacks on Kiva’s.

Jewish organizations said the bakery attacks were the latest in a continuing series of shootings, vandalism and intimidation directed at Jewish institutions and businesses in Canada.

B’nai Brith Canada described the incidents as part of a “relentless and escalating campaign of antisemitic intimidation.” The organization said it had documented 27 violent incidents targeting Canada’s Jewish community during the first seven months of 2026.

“These attacks are evidence of a systemic national crisis that governments can no longer address through statements of concern, temporary security measures and responses issued only after another Jewish institution has been targeted,” B’nai Brith said.

Noah Shack, chief executive of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said repeated attacks had destroyed the Jewish community’s sense of normalcy and security.

He said Canadians should be able to have breakfast with their families at a neighborhood restaurant without encountering police tape and another investigation into gunfire.

“Enough is enough,” Shack said.

The attacks occurred less than two months after Carney delivered a major address at Toronto’s Holy Blossom Temple in which he said antisemitism had reached levels not seen in Canada since World War II.

“Canada’s civic compact is failing Jewish Canadians,” Carney said during the June speech.

According to figures cited by the federal government, more than two-thirds of Canada’s religion-motivated hate crimes in 2024 were directed at Jews, although Jewish Canadians account for approximately 1% of the country’s population.

Carney’s government has proposed legislation strengthening criminal penalties for hate-motivated offenses and intimidation near religious and community institutions. It has also committed an additional $75 million to a federal program that helps vulnerable institutions pay for security personnel, protective infrastructure and emergency training.

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The Community Security Trust, which monitors antisemitism and provides protection to Britain’s Jewish community, recorded 3,700 antisemitic incidents across the United Kingdom in 2025.

By Ailin Vilches Arguello, The Algemeiner

Britain’s Jewish community is confronting another series of suspected antisemitic attacks after several vehicles belonging to Haredi residents in Greater Manchester were vandalized, just days after three Jewish people were injured in a drive-by BB gun shooting nearby.

The vehicles were targeted at around 3 a.m. on Saturday during Shabbat. Residents of Leicester and Middleton streets discovered later that morning that the windows of several cars had been smashed.

Manchester Shomrim, a volunteer security organization serving the area’s Orthodox Jewish community, said it was assisting police by collecting surveillance footage and information from residents as investigators worked to identify those responsible.

The vandalism occurred days after three Jewish adults were injured in an apparent antisemitic attack in Salford, a city within Greater Manchester that is home to a large Haredi population.

At around 10 p.m. on July 20, a BB gun was fired from a passing vehicle at members of the Jewish community on Leicester Road, according to Greater Manchester Police.

All three victims suffered minor injuries.

Following an examination of surveillance footage, police arrested two suspects on suspicion of religiously aggravated common assault. The investigation remains ongoing.

“Threats to our communities will not be tolerated, and we’re continuing to enhance our security in Jewish communities across Greater Manchester to help keep them safe on our streets,” police said.

The incidents have added to concerns over the security of British Jews, who have faced persistently elevated levels of antisemitism since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The Community Security Trust, which monitors antisemitism and provides protection to Britain’s Jewish community, recorded 3,700 antisemitic incidents across the United Kingdom in 2023.

That was the second-highest annual total in the organization’s history and a 4 percent increase from 2024.

The number was more than double the 1,662 incidents recorded in 2022, the final full year before the Oct. 7 atrocities and subsequent war in Gaza.

The group recorded an average of 308 incidents per month in 2025, exactly twice the monthly average during the year preceding the Hamas attack.

Greater London accounted for 1,844 incidents, while Greater Manchester recorded 425. Physical attacks included 170 assaults and four incidents involving grievous bodily harm or a threat to life.

The latest incidents follow a string of violent attacks and acts of harassment directed at visibly Jewish residents in London.

Two men were recently given six-week prison sentences, suspended for 12 months, after traveling to the heavily Jewish Stamford Hill area to film antisemitic content for TikTok.

Adam Bedoui and Abdelkader Amir Bousloub, both 21, targeted a Jewish man with abuse while filming the encounter.

Bousloub later told police that he had brought a fishing rod to the neighborhood to imitate social media videos in which participants claimed to be “fishing for Jews.”

The pair pleaded guilty to religiously aggravated intentional harassment. In addition to the suspended sentences, both were ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and 20 days of rehabilitation activity.

In another Stamford Hill incident in May, a man allegedly attacked several Orthodox Jewish women at a bus stop with a belt while shouting racist abuse.

The suspect, Francis Achile, was charged with aggravated assault, two counts of assault by beating, racially aggravated harassment, and racially aggravated assault. Shomrim volunteers who responded to the attack said the suspect also spat at them.

On the same day, Syeda Khatun, 39, approached children waiting outside a Jewish school and began shouting antisemitic abuse, according to prosecutors. She then struck a father in the face and pulled his beard after he confronted her over her treatment of the children.

Khatun was convicted earlier this month of multiple racially aggravated offenses.

The attacks came shortly after two Orthodox Jewish men were stabbed in Golders Green, north London, on April 29 in an incident police classified as an antisemitic terrorist attack.

The following day, Britain’s Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre raised the national terrorism threat level from “substantial” to “severe,” meaning an attack was considered highly likely within the following six months.

Government officials said the decision followed the Golders Green stabbing but was not based solely on that attack.

They also cited the rising threat posed by Islamist and extreme-right terrorism, as well as concerns that foreign states were encouraging violence against targets including the Jewish community.

The British government subsequently announced an additional 25 million pounds in funding to protect Jewish schools, synagogues, and community centers, bringing total security spending for the Jewish community this year to a record 58 million pounds.

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The editorial said Carlson had embraced what it called an “eccentric, toxic agenda.”

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

President Donald Trump shared a social media post criticizing media personality Tucker Carlson over what it described as his reported antisemitism, using the phrase “Jew derangement syndrome,” after Carlson announced he was leaving the Republican Party.

The post, written by American media personality Wayne Allyn Root, cited a New York Post editorial criticizing Carlson and argued that the former Fox News host had “caught a case of ‘Jew Derangement Syndrome.'”

Root wrote that it “led him down a dark, destructive path. A conservative patriot hero who destroyed his life and committed career suicide. Never seen this before. Tragic.”

Root’s post followed Carlson’s announcement that he was leaving the Republican Party.

The New York Post editorial also sharply criticized Carlson’s departure, stating that the “only sensible response is, ‘Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.'”

The editorial said Carlson had embraced what it called an “eccentric, toxic agenda,” describing him as “mysteriously pro-Vladimir Putin,” “obsessively anti-Israel,” and “weirdly ashamed of America.”

It also argued that Republicans should welcome Carlson’s decision to leave the party.

Carlson, a former Fox News host, has been a vocal critic of Israel. Alongside Candace Owens, he has frequently criticized the country and has often made statements conveying the view that Israel exerts shadow control over the United States.

Critics of Carlson have argued that he has helped mainstream and amplify antisemitic rhetoric by giving a platform to white supremacists, invoking coded references to shadowy elites and promoting conspiracy theories alleging that Israel manipulates U.S. foreign policy and controls American politicians.

The exchange drew further attention to Carlson’s break with the Republican Party as debate continued over his positions on Israel, U.S. foreign policy and antisemitism, following the criticism amplified by Trump on social media.

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Benjamin Netanyahu rips New York’s mayor over his push to have the Israeli premier arrested, accuses Mamdani of fueling anti-Jewish bigotry.

By World Israel News Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani of encouraging hostility toward Jews and Israel after the mayor called for federal authorities to arrest the Israeli leader if he visits New York for the United Nations General Assembly.

“He’s fomenting hate,” Netanyahu said Sunday during an interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo.

“He’s supposed to be the mayor of all New Yorkers — Jews, Christians, Muslims, everyone,” Netanyahu added. “But he’s trying to turn one group against the other.”

Netanyahu confirmed that he intends to travel to New York in September to address the annual gathering of world leaders, despite Mamdani’s declaration that the Israeli prime minister is unwelcome in the city.

The prime minister said he would use his UN address to defend Israel, the Jewish people and the US-Israel alliance.

Mamdani said last week that New York City does not possess the independent legal authority to enforce the arrest warrant issued against Netanyahu by the International Criminal Court. He instead urged the Trump administration and federal law enforcement agencies to carry out the warrant.

In a video statement, Mamdani said Netanyahu was “not welcome in New York City” and repeated his position that the Israeli leader should face trial in The Hague.

Mamdani had pledged during his mayoral campaign to have Netanyahu arrested if the prime minister entered the city. His administration subsequently reviewed the city’s legal powers and concluded that municipal authorities could not independently execute an ICC warrant.

During a separate City Hall press conference, Mamdani described Netanyahu as “the architect of the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,” while saying, “My administration will follow all applicable local laws.”

The ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and then-defense minister Yoav Gallant on November 21, 2024, over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity connected to the Gaza war. The accusations have not been tested at trial, and Netanyahu has rejected both the court’s jurisdiction and its findings.

Neither Israel nor the US is a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty establishing the ICC.

President Donald Trump has also assured Netanyahu that he “will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America.”

Netanyahu on Sunday called the allegations against him “bogus” and sought to connect the warrant to the misconduct scandal surrounding former ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan, who originally requested the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant.

ICC member states voted Friday to remove Khan from office after concluding that he had committed serious misconduct and a serious breach of duty. Khan, who has denied wrongdoing, has said he plans to challenge the decision.

Khan’s removal does not automatically invalidate arrest warrants previously approved by ICC judges, including the warrant against Netanyahu.

Netanyahu also warned that longstanding bipartisan support for Israel in the US was weakening as progressive Democrats adopted increasingly hostile positions toward the Jewish state. He said Jewish residents of New York were feeling increasingly uncomfortable amid rising antisemitism.

The confrontation underscored the widening political divide between Israel’s government and Mamdani, one of the most prominent anti-Israel elected officials in the US.

Mamdani’s office did not immediately issue a new response to Netanyahu’s remarks Sunday.

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The US Department of Education has said it is investigating dozens of other colleges and universities accused of failing to address campus antisemitism following the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner

Reed College in Portland, Oregon, will adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism as part of a settlement resolving a federal civil rights complaint that alleged school officials allowed antisemitic harassment to escalate into an assault involving a potentially deadly object.

As first reported by The Free Press, the liberal arts college, founded in 1908, agreed to adopt the widely used IHRA definition following discussions with the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

The complaint stemmed from a harrowing May 2024 incident in which members of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) allegedly threw rocks through the dormitory window of a Jewish female student, striking her in the head.

The assault followed months of harassment and abuse, including the desecration of her mezuzah.

In a statement announcing the settlement, Reed said it was committed to ensuring that such failures are not repeated. The Brandeis Center, however, credited the Trump administration with pressing the college to act.

“This is one of the most significant OCR campus antisemitism settlements under the current administration, building on our prior settlements with Harvard University and the University of California at Berkeley,” Brandeis Center chairman and co-founder Kenneth L. Marcus said in a statement.

“Reed College allowed antisemitism to fester, leading to a student being struck in the head with a rock. No institution should be the scene of that kind of violence.”

The IHRA — an intergovernmental organization comprising dozens of countries, including the United States and Israel — adopted its working definition of antisemitism in 2016.

Since then, the definition has been endorsed by numerous Jewish organizations and lawmakers across the political spectrum and adopted by hundreds of governments and public institutions, including the US State Department.

According to the definition, antisemitism “is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.”

It adds that rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism may be directed against Jewish or non-Jewish individuals, their property, Jewish communal institutions, or religious facilities.

The definition also provides contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, workplaces, and religious settings.

Alongside traditional forms of anti-Jewish hatred and Holocaust denial, the examples include demonizing Israel, denying the Jewish people’s right to self-determination, and applying standards to Israel that are not expected of other democratic countries.

“This settlement is what accountability looks like, and it should not be the exception. It should be the standard every school holds itself to before, rather than after, a student is hurt,” [ATTRIBUTION] said.

“Reed College is now bound to real reforms that demonstrate what it means for a college to combat antisemitism forcefully. In particular, it is crucial that Reed’s policies acknowledge that anti-Zionist harassment can constitute a violation of civil rights.”

The US Department of Education has said it is investigating dozens of other colleges and universities accused of failing to address campus antisemitism following the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

During the turbulent 2023-2024 academic year, Jewish students across the country reported being spat on, assaulted, threatened, and excluded from areas of their own campuses.

The Trump administration has also frozen or withdrawn billions of dollars in federal funding from higher education institutions, demanding that they address antisemitism and adopt other reforms supported by conservatives.

Some institutions, including Harvard University, have challenged the administration in court. Others have reached settlements or announced their own antisemitism initiatives, often while avoiding admissions of wrongdoing that could expose them to further federal scrutiny.

Despite these actions, campus antisemitism remains a politically fraught issue for the Trump administration.

Some Jewish students and advocates welcome the administration’s willingness to impose substantial consequences on universities accused of tolerating anti-Jewish discrimination.

Others are uncomfortable with Jewish civil rights becoming entangled with a broader conservative campaign against higher education.

Critics also argue that sweeping funding cuts can damage medical research, academic programs, and Jewish students themselves without directly addressing the conduct that created hostile campus environments.

These tensions have at times led Jewish academics and advocacy groups to criticize the administration, including over federal efforts to collect information about Jewish faculty members who reported experiencing antisemitism.

On Wednesday, the ADL said the administration had, in this case, pursued a time-tested civil rights process capable of producing lasting institutional change.

“We are pleased that Reed College has committed to meaningful, immediate, and long-term action to ensure that the civil rights of Jewish students on campus are protected and affirmed that antisemitism has no place on campus,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said.

“This outcome demonstrates how the Title VI process can work to effectively protect Jewish students. We are deeply grateful for the Office for Civil Rights’ dedication and assistance in resolving this case.”

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It’s laughable that Harvard is billing these particular “changes” as leaps of progress against Jewish discrimination.

By Ira Stoll, The Washington Free Beacon

Adding a course taught by a professor who accuses Israel of genocide. Hiring another professor who describes his own work as “counter-Zionist.” Launching a student journal of erotic poetry and “support for Palestinian Liberation.”

Appointing another scholar to a visiting professorship that already existed and has been refilled annually for nearly a decade.

Adding a course on antisemitism taught by a professor who backs a definition of antisemitism embraced by boycott-Israel advocates.

Harvard and ten of the nation’s biggest-name appellate lawyers are brazenly trying to pass all these steps off to federal judges as proof that the university is moving to address what even the university itself concedes in its latest court filing has been “disturbing, offensive, and vile treatment of Jewish students.”

Harvard’s legal, political, and public relations strategy in its faceoff with the Trump administration over billions in federal research funding became clearer this week with court filings in a case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, President and Fellows of Harvard College v. US Department of Health and Human Services.

The federal government also filed a memorandum of law this week in a similar case, United States v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, which is before Judge Richard Stearns in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

What Harvard has not done is survey Jewish students or the campus as a whole to see whether what it found in 2024—that Jewish students get an inferior campus experience—has changed.

The government’s federal filing notes Harvard’s own past findings:

“Substantial numbers of Jewish students indicated experiencing discomfort and alienation at Harvard … 26% felt physically unsafe and 44% felt mentally unsafe. Nearly half (49%) felt their well-being was not supported at Harvard … Almost 60% of Jewish students indicated they had experienced some form of discrimination, stereotyping, or negative bias on campus due to their views on current events.”

Harvard hasn’t collected or disclosed new or updated data on that, either.

Instead, Harvard’s ten outside lawyers, led by former George W. Bush administration solicitor general Paul Clement and including former Scalia clerk Scott Lehotsky, former Trump Organization lawyer and current Fox Corp. director William Burck, and former U.S. attorney for Massachusetts Joshua Levy, tell the court in its latest filing that “Harvard implemented many changes aimed at ensuring its campus is safe, fair, and welcoming to Jewish and Israeli students.”

An 11th-hour outside Harvard lawyer, Scott Keller, recently withdrew from the case to take the job of general counsel of Chevron.

Harvard’s filing says, “The University’s deans have implemented changes concerning appointments and curriculum (including bolstered course offerings and faculty focused on Jewish history and antisemitism).”

The court filing footnotes this claim to a Harvard “academic life” web page that really has to be seen to be believed. It’s one thing, in court or in the court of public opinion, to put your best foot forward.

It’s another thing to offer an account so selective and full of half-truths and spin that it winds up being misleading, a deception that is the opposite of Veritas.

I’m not saying that Harvard hasn’t improved from the nightmare it was or that it hasn’t put effort and resources into improving. But that Harvard is billing these particular “changes” as leaps of progress against discrimination is laughable.

Among the “changes” touted on the Harvard web page that is footnoted in the court filing, many reference the Harvard Divinity School:

— “In spring 2026, HDS added a new course on Jewish Ecology. ” That course was taught by Rabbi David Mevorach Seidenberg, who accuses Israel of genocide.

— “a new student journal on Jewish liturgy.” That’s Ashera, a journal of Palestinian liberation and erotic poetry that was actually “created” not by a student but by a professor, Shaul Magid, who advocates what he describes as “counter-Zionism.”

— “In June 2025, HDS hired for the position of the Professor of Modern Jewish Studies in Residence.”

That was Magid. In his 2023 book, The Necessity of Exile, Magid declared that “Israel is mired in an increasingly chauvinistic ethnonational project” and said that he doesn’t think “that liberalism and Zionism can be seen as compatible in any easy way. ”

The book, he writes, is “in some sense, anti-Zionist” or “more precisely … counter-Zionist.”

— “New faculty at Harvard Law School. In fall 2026, Harvard Law School will welcome a new faculty member as the Caroline Zelaznik Gruss and Joseph S. Gruss Visiting Professor in Talmudic Civil Law.”

This visiting professorship has existed since at least 2017, through the most vile periods of Harvard antisemitism. The person who will hold the position in the fall of 2026, Moshe Halbertal, was also there in 2018-2019.

And while Harvard may be bringing in traveling Talmud professors, it is also giving $90,000-a-year fellowships to four anti-Israel activists.

Harvard’s English and history departments also paid a $35,000 honorarium and $7,500 in travel expenses “for a 5-star hotel” to have Ta-Nehisi Coates appear on campus on September 24, 2025, the second day of Rosh Hashanah, and “read from his chapter on Palestine,” according to documents released by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

Enumerating the changes with such specificity also risks contradicting Harvard’s other legal arguments.

Harvard is claiming a First Amendment right to teach whatever it wants without government interference and simultaneously telling the court to look favorably at all the new stuff it’s doing and faculty it’s hiring.

In addition to the filings from Harvard and the government, several “friend of the court” briefs were filed in the cases this week by other parties.

Hillel International filed a brief siding with Harvard against the Trump administration, signed by a lawyer, David Zimmer, who is a lecturer at Harvard Law School.

After a Harvard student who successfully sued, then settled with Harvard, Alexander “Shabbos” Kestenbaum, called Hillel out on the matter, Hillel moved to withdraw its brief, explaining that “authorization to file the brief was provided to counsel without the brief having gone through a required internal review process within Hillel.”

Another brief backing Harvard was filed by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, and the National Council of Jewish Women.

Their lawyer is Naomi Shatz. Shatz was also the lawyer for Elom Tettey-Tamaklo, a Harvard Divinity student from Ghana, charged with misdemeanor criminal charges of assault and battery and of interfering with the civil rights of a fellow student in what prosecutors said was an attack on Yoav Segev, an Israeli student at Harvard Business School.

Shatz’s defense strategy included telling a Boston judge that Segev “had no bruises. ” The civil rights charge was dismissed and the assault charge was dealt with by pretrial diversion to community service.

Shatz’s brief claims “identifying Jewish People as the Reason for Funding Cuts Will Create Backlash and Scapegoating of Jewish Students and Faculty,” which seems like circular logic—don’t crack down on campus antisemitism, because the antisemites might discriminate against the Jews even more fiercely in response to the enforcement.

A brief in the district court case from the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Equal Rights Under the Law highlights a subtle legal issue that helps explain why Harvard is so eager to emphasize what it has done.

The Brandeis Center argues that the government does not need to prove “deliberate indifference.”

It says, “intentional discrimination may be proven by a number of different methods; all that is required is proof that persons were treated worse because of their protected category.”

As the court cases work their way through the system and Harvard works on its slow academic timeline to hire professors (a search is under way for a tenured full Yiddish professor to begin in July 2027 to replace Ruth Wisse, who retired in 2014), many talented Jewish students who might in past years have chosen Harvard are looking elsewhere.

The Hillel college guide lists the top 60 schools by Jewish population percentage. Brown, Cornell, Vanderbilt, Columbia, Duke, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania all make the list. Harvard is absent.

The post Harvard touts ‘counter-Zionist’ professor and other anti-Israel appointees as evidence of progress against Jew-hate appeared first on World Israel News.

More than two-thirds of American Jews say New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is both anti-Israel and antisemitic; just 14% believe claims that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, while nearly four in five reject those accusations.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

A large majority of American Jews surveyed by the Jewish People Policy Institute reject accusations that Israel committed genocide in the Gaza Strip, while more than two-thirds view New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as both anti-Israel and antisemitic, according to the institute’s July 2026 Voice of the Jewish People index.

The survey, which focused on Jews who are connected to Jewish communal life, found that 78% of US respondents said Israel had not committed genocide during the war in Gaza.

Fourteen percent said Israel had committed genocide, while 8% said they did not have enough information to form an opinion.

Rejection of the genocide accusation was even higher among respondents in Canada, at 87%, and Britain, at 81%.

JPPI said the results differed significantly from recent surveys of the broader American public, which found higher levels of support for the accusation or uncertainty over whether it was justified.

The institute’s index regularly surveys Jews in the US, Canada and Britain about issues involving Israel, Jewish communities and international affairs. The panel is intended to represent Jews who are actively connected to Jewish communal institutions or to Israel, rather than the entire Jewish population.

The survey also found that 69% of American Jews consider Mamdani to be both anti-Israel and antisemitic, an increase from the institute’s findings the previous year.

Another 20% said Mamdani was anti-Israel but not antisemitic. Just 7% said he was neither anti-Israel nor antisemitic.

The share of respondents who said they were unfamiliar with Mamdani or unable to assess him declined substantially over the past year, suggesting that he has become a more prominent and divisive figure among American Jews.

The survey also found a sharp decline in confidence that the military campaign against Iran had achieved its objectives.

In March, during Operation Roaring Lion, 66% of US respondents described the campaign as successful. By July, that figure had fallen to 36%, while 61% said the campaign had failed to accomplish its goals.

A similar decline was recorded in Canada, where the share describing the campaign as successful fell from 70% in March to 40% in July. Among British respondents, it dropped from 75% to 47%.

Despite their disappointment with the campaign’s results, most respondents did not believe the US had used excessive force against Iran.

Fifty-six percent of US respondents said the American military campaign had not gone far enough, compared with 28% who said it had gone too far. The view that insufficient force was used was shared by 73% of respondents in Canada and 67% in Britain.

The findings suggest that criticism of the campaign was directed primarily at its scope and effectiveness, rather than at the decision to use military force.

The survey found strong support for Israel coordinating its policies with the US government while retaining the ability to act independently.

Eighty-three percent of US respondents said Israel should seek to coordinate with Washington but should follow what it considers to be its own interests when disagreements arise.

That position was supported by 84% of Canadian respondents and 92% of those in Britain. Only small minorities said Israel should almost always follow the US government’s position or disregard it entirely.

Views of the US as an ally were more divided.

Eighteen percent of US respondents said the US was a truer friend of Israel than it had been in the past, while 17% said the relationship was unchanged.

Twenty-eight percent said the US was less friendly toward Israel than before, 27% said they were uncertain whether it could still be considered a friend, and 7% said it was clearly not a friend.

Taken together, 35% placed the US in the negative or strongly skeptical categories.

President Donald Trump’s ratings on his handling of Iran recovered slightly in July but remained substantially below their March level.

The share of US respondents describing Trump as a good leader on Iran fell from 46% in March to 40% in May and 21% in June. It rose to 32% in July, while 62% continued to rate his leadership negatively.

Political affiliation was the strongest predictor of respondents’ views.

Among those identifying as very conservative, 87% rated Trump positively, as did 68% of respondents who leaned conservative.

Among those identifying as very liberal, 87% described him as a “very bad” leader on the Iran issue, with another 6% rating him somewhat negatively.

Centrist respondents were almost evenly divided, with 40% rating Trump positively and 49% negatively.

The partisan split was also evident when respondents were grouped according to their vote in the 2024 presidential election. Eighty percent of Trump voters rated him positively, while 77% of Kamala Harris voters described him as a very bad leader.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ratings on Iran also declined, though more gradually.

The share of respondents describing Netanyahu as a good leader on the issue fell from 53% in March to 41% in July. Forty-nine percent rated his leadership negatively.

Among very conservative respondents, 67% described Netanyahu as a very good leader, with 95% rating him positively overall. Among very liberal respondents, 69% rated him very negatively.

JPPI CEO Dr. Shuki Friedman said the findings showed that Jews who remain connected to the US Jewish community and to Israel have largely rejected international accusations against the Jewish state.

“The findings illustrate the extent to which American Jews connected to the community and to Israel refuse to adopt the international narrative against Israel,” Friedman said.

“An overwhelming majority rejects the ‘genocide’ accusation and clearly recognizes the problems presented by figures such as Mamdani.”

Friedman added that respondents in the US, Canada and Britain broadly supported Israel’s right to act according to its own interests, even when those interests conflict with Washington’s position.

“These figures illustrate the challenge facing connected American Jews, caught between antisemitism on the one hand and an administration that does not always take Israel into account, even when it is Republican,” he said.

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Sa’ar: “Months of incitement against the Jewish state from Mamdani have helped create a climate in which Jews are targeted.”

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani drew criticism after delaying his public response to the stabbing of two men, including one who was visibly Jewish, outside an Orthodox synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side during Tisha b’Av on Thursday, while other elected officials and community leaders quickly condemned the attack.

Fox News noted that Mamdani posted about a new tax initiative targeting millionaires in the hours after the attack as officials expressed shock and wished the victims a speedy recovery.

Mamdani later issued a statement saying: “I have been briefed on today’s horrifying stabbings on the Upper West Side, where an Asian man and a Jewish man were attacked. According to witness and victim statements, the perpetrator yelled ‘Allahu Akbar’ during both attacks. I am relieved that both victims are in stable condition.”

“The NYPD responded immediately and arrested Raul Morales in connection with both assaults—and I am grateful to the officers for their swift response.”

The New York Police Department said both victims were taken to a hospital in stable condition. One victim was initially listed in critical condition, but both are now expected to survive, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.

Tisch identified the suspect as Raul Morales, 51, and said no additional suspects were being sought.

“Detectives continue to investigate the case and determine the motive, but according to statements from the victims and eyewitnesses, Morales shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ during both attacks. The NYPD (New York Police Department) is examining whether this was a hate crime,” she said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar blamed Mamdani’s rhetoric on Israel for contributing to antisemitic violence.

“I am appalled by the horrific antisemitic stabbing attack in New York. Appalled but sadly not surprised,” Sa’ar wrote on X.

“This violence did not happen in a vacuum. Months of incitement against the Jewish state from Mamdani have helped create a climate in which Jews are targeted.”

“Words have consequences. Mamdani must end the incitement, confront antisemitism with resolve, and act now to protect the city’s Jewish community,” he added.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also posted on X that the attack appeared to be antisemitic, writing, “Disgusted by what appears to be another senseless attack on New Yorkers simply because they’re Jewish.”

“The strength of New York has always been our ability to live together across every faith and background. Anyone who tries to tear that apart will be met with the full force of the law. New York will stand with our Jewish community today, tomorrow, and always.”

The post Mamdani slow to condemn ‘Allahu Akbar’ attacker who stabbed Jew outside NYC synagogue appeared first on World Israel News.

Some critics of Mamdani have tied the attack to the New York City mayor’s sharp criticism of Israel and its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

By Joseph Strauss, JTA

An assailant on Thursday stabbed two victims, one of whom was visibly Jewish, in an area of Manhattan’s Upper West Side known for its Jewish institutions.

Police said two male victims, aged 57 and 50, were in stable condition and being treated for stab wounds to the torso. One was Jewish and one was Asian, police said.

New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced Thursday evening that the force had arrested 51-year-old Raul Morales in connection with both assaults and that he had yelled “Allahu Akbar” during both attacks, according to multiple witnesses and a victim.

“The NYPD is currently evaluating whether this is a potential hate crime,” Tisch said, noting, “Detectives are continuing to work the case and determine motive.” No other assailants are being sought.

Rabbi Allen Schwartz of the neighborhood’s Congregation Ohab Zedek told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that one of the victims was a congregant who is visibly Jewish and wears a kippah.

Schwartz, who is in Israel, said he spoke to the congregant on the phone and that he is “alert.”

“He may go home before Shabbos,” Schwartz said. He said the victim, who was traumatized, did not remember the assailant yelling “Allahu Akbar.”

Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the stabbings “horrifying” in a statement on Thursday evening, noting that the perpetrator allegedly yelled “Allahu akbar” during both attacks.

Nava Silton told JTA she was with the victim Schwartz had spoken to at the Jewish Center, an Orthodox synagogue on 86th street, for afternoon prayers.

Minutes after the victim left the synagogue, Silton said she heard there was an attack, but by the time she got to the scene, the victims had been taken to hospital.

She said the victim did not want his name published.

Silton visited the victim in the hospital. He told her that a screwdriver had been plunged into the right side of his chest and he pulled it out himself, afraid that he’d keel over and fall onto it.

“He’s just praying that his medical condition does not get worse,” Silton said.

Though police have not determined a motive, Gov. Kathy Hochul wrote that the stabbing “appears to be another senseless attack on New Yorkers simply because they’re Jewish.”

City Council Speaker Julie Menin wrote that she is “absolutely sickened and furious by what appears to be an antisemitic stabbing” on Thursday.

In her statement, Tisch wrote that “the initial investigation suggests that mental health may have been a factor,” though the alleged perpetrator “has no known mental health history with the NYPD.”

Meanwhile, some critics of Mamdani have tied the attack to the New York City mayor’s sharp criticism of Israel and its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

“This comes a day after Mamdani incited more violence against NYC’s Jews,” wrote Republican City Council member Inna Vernikov, who is Jewish.

“@NYCMayor you got blood on your hands!” Vernikov initially wrote to the mayor, “F– YOU!” She deleted the expletive in a since-edited version of the post.

Gideon Sa’ar, Israel’s minister of foreign affairs, wrote that the attacks “did not happen in a vacuum.”

“Months of incitement against the Jewish state from Mamdani have helped create a climate in which Jews are targeted,” Sa’ar said.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, charged Mamdani with “putting Jewish lives in danger in New York.”

Meanwhile, UJA-Federation of New York also explicitly called out Mamdani, whom it said “used his official platform to viciously attack Israel, the only Jewish state.” (UJA is a funder of 70 Faces Media, the parent company of New York Jewish Week.)

“We cannot ignore the dangerous climate created when elected leaders relentlessly portray Israel — and, by extension, the many Jewish New Yorkers who feel a deep connection to it — as uniquely evil and illegitimate,” the group wrote.

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In 2021, 492 anti-Jewish hate crimes were reported in Canada, or about 56% of all religion-based hate crimes (886) and about 14.7% of all hate crimes (3,355).

By Dave Gordon, JNS

In 2025, Jews were targets of 788 hate crimes in Canada—70.7% of the 1,115 such attacks based on religion, according to newly released data from the national Canadian statistical office.

“We remain among the most targeted minority groups in Canada,” Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, senior director of policy and advocacy at the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, told JNS.

There have been instances where Jews “have not had their complaints taken seriously or not dealt with appropriately,” Kirzner-Roberts said.

“We need to continue to encourage community members to report,” she told JNS. “Obviously, we cannot allow hate criminals to act with impunity.”

Noah Shack, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, the advocacy arm of the Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA, told JNS that “unless these incidents are reported, we’re missing a crucial step to ensure that every time a hate crime is perpetrated, the perpetrator is held to account.”

Statistics Canada, a state agency, released new data on Wednesday. The country recorded 4,708 hate crimes last year, meaning that Jews were targets of 16.7% of all hate crimes in Canada.

Some 1% of Canadians are Jewish.

Pat Johnson, founder of the charity Upstanders Canada Antiracism Society, told JNS that the country’s data reflects a “crisis.”

“We are not taking this crisis seriously,” he said.

In 2021, 492 anti-Jewish hate crimes were reported in Canada, or about 56% of all religion-based hate crimes (886) and about 14.7% of all hate crimes (3,355).

The next largest religious group to be targeted was Muslims, and the 142 anti-Muslim hate crimes were 16% of all religion-based hate crimes and about 4% of all hate crimes.

In 2022, Jews were targets of 527 hate crimes, which was about 69% of all religion-based hate crimes and about 14.6% of all hate crimes.

In 2023, the year in which Hamas led the Oct. 7 attacks against Israel, anti-Jewish hate crimes surged about 82%—to 959 incidents, which was 71% of all religion-based hate crimes and about 20% of all hate crimes.

Hate crimes targeting Muslims dropped by about 23% from 2021 to 2022, and then rose by 102% in 2023, when the 220 anti-Muslim incidents represented about 16% of religion-based hate crimes and about 5% of all hate crimes.

In 2021, Muslims represented about 4.9% of Canadians, per official national data.

Hate crimes targeting Jews dropped slightly, by 2%, from 2023 to 2024, when the 943 anti-Jewish incidents were about 69% of religion-based hate crimes and about 19% of all hate crimes.

From 2023 to 2024, anti-Muslim hate crimes rose 5%, before dropping 11% in 2025.

Between 2021 and 2024, anti-Jewish hate crimes rose by about 92%.

Johnson, of Upstanders, told JNS that many see Jew-hatred as “a disordered political commentary and not racist behavior, because we hear very often that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism.”

“A lot of people look at some of the things that are happening today and put it down to ‘anti-Zionism,’ which they see as a political statement even though if it turns violent, it is obviously a statement of a very disordered nature,” he said.

The difference between anti-Zionism and antisemitism “is irrelevant to the Jew with the boot to their head,” he told JNS.

Kirzner-Roberts, of Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, told JNS that “we are continuing to see a level of hate crime aimed at Jews that is dramatically higher than anything that we experienced before Oct. 7, 2023.”

Michael Teper, president of the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation, a charity, told JNS the police data is “hardly surprising.”

“My reaction is we have to keep fighting even harder,” he said. “The gloves are off, and we are informing the police about every crime that comes to our attention, and we’re demanding results.”

“We’re now seeing the police cracking down and issuing serious terrorist offenses,” he told JNS.

But the reported statistics are “the tip of the iceberg,” according to Teper, who said that it can take a long time for police to respond, and many don’t want to wait around to report a hate crime.

“Most people don’t have that degree of dogged determination,” he told JNS. “This is from personal experience.”

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The victim was taken to a local hospital, where he was treated for a fractured vertebra and remains in intensive care with serious injuries.

By Ailin Vilches Arguello, The Algemeiner

German authorities have launched an investigation into an alleged attempted murder after a 65-year-old man wearing an Israeli flag pin was brutally beaten in southern Germany in what prosecutors suspect was an anti-Israel attack — the latest in a string of antisemitic incidents underscoring an increasingly hostile climate for Jews and Israelis across the country.

According to local police, the victim — a member of the Germany-Israel Friendship Association — was waiting at a traffic light on Monday in Höchberg, a market town near Würzburg in the southern German state of Bavaria, when he found himself next to a young Syrian man.

This man allegedly noticed an Israeli flag pin on the victim’s clothing and initiated a conversation about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the war in Gaza before the encounter escalated into violence.

The victim had no opportunity to respond before the assailant allegedly started punching him in the face, knocking him to the ground, and repeatedly kicking him in the head and upper body.

Even though the victim managed to get back on his feet and attempted to escape, the attacker allegedly chased him and continued the assault, which came to an end only after police officers arrived at the scene.

Shortly afterward, the victim was taken to a local hospital, where he was treated for a fractured vertebra and remains in intensive care with serious injuries.

Volker Beck, president of the Germany-Israel Friendship Association, strongly condemned the attack, warning that a surge in anti-Israel hostility has contributed to an atmosphere where Jews and those openly showing support for Israel are increasingly becoming targets of violence.

“Enough is enough. Anyone who demonizes Israel through accusations of genocide and apartheid creates the climate for attacks like this,” Beck said in a statement.

“No one in Germany fears for their personal safety when displaying Palestinian symbols, but anyone wearing an Israeli symbol is no longer safe in public.”

Local prosecutors confirmed the assailant—who had reportedly been detained the previous evening after harassing shoppers at a market in Höchberg—has since been arrested and remains in pretrial custody as the investigation continues.

Authorities are now treating the case as an attempted murder with indications of anti-Israeli violence motivated by Islamist ideology.

Martin Heilig, the mayor of Würzburg, condemned the assault as a deeply troubling act of violence, warning that attacks targeting people because of their connection to Israel threaten the principles of tolerance, respect, and coexistence at the heart of German society.

“When a citizen is attacked simply for wearing an Israeli pin, it is an unacceptable attack on the foundations of our democratic values,” Heilig said in a statement.

“For our city, this is a clear and unequivocal case of antisemitism, hatred, and violence that has no place in Würzburg or our district.”

Israel’s Embassy in Germany also condemned the attack, warning that the violence represented a trhatred,g escalation in which hostility toward Israel is no longer confined to rhetoric but is increasingly manifesting in attacks against people in everyday public spaces.

“How many Palestinian flags do you see on an average day in any city? Dozens. You can display them openly everywhere. And that despite the fact that all the antisemites, despots, and terror sympathizers of the world gather behind it,” the embassy wrote in a post on X.

“But a single, tiny Israeli flag puts one in mortal danger. In the year 2026. In Germany. The perpetrators are not interested in any kind of peace. It’s not about ‘Palestine,’ let alone about ‘Palestinians.’ For the perpetrators, it’s about hate. It was an attack on all three: Germany, Israel, and our democratic society,” the statement reads.

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

According to the latest annual report by Germany’s Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism (RIAS), a record 8,725 antisemitic incidents were documented nationwide in 2025, representing a slight increase from the previous year and the highest number ever recorded.

While last year’s total reflects only a modest rise of 98 incidents compared with 2024, this latest figure represents a roughly 248 percent surge from 2022, before the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, when 2,480 incidents were documented.

With an average of roughly 24 incidents per day, the report recorded 178 physical assaults and 257 threats, alongside widespread harassment, property damage, and intimidation targeting Jewish individuals and institutions.

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Rep. Summer Lee appeared to confuse Rep. Josh Gottheimer with Gov. Josh Shapiro during an online exchange.

By World Israel News Staff

Reps. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) mistakenly attacked a fellow Democrat on social media — apparently confusing him with another Jewish Democratic politician who shares the same first name — and then refused to back down after the error was pointed out.

The exchange began Monday after Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) criticized the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), arguing that the group’s increasingly radical positions, including its anti-Israel activism, have alienated many mainstream Democrats.

“The DSA are not Democrats. They’re socialists, who want to hijack the Democratic Party,” Gottheimer wrote on X. “The Democrats have a big tent. That’s our strength. We embrace a range of ideas — but there’s no room for anti-American bomb-throwers who oppose our ideas, values, & leaders.”

Rep. Summer Lee responded by accusing Gottheimer of being among the Democrats who “sign bombs and vote to drop them.”

The remark appeared to reference Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who signed an artillery shell during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s September 2024 visit to Pennsylvania. The shell was intended for use in Ukraine’s war against Russia.

Gottheimer quickly corrected Lee.

“You know that’s the other Jewish guy named Josh, right?” he wrote.

Rather than acknowledging the mistake, Rep. Ilhan Omar stepped in to defend Lee, arguing that Gottheimer had voted in favor of military assistance to Ukraine.

“Shapiro signed the bombs you voted to be dropped,” Omar wrote, adding sarcastically, “Hope this helps!”

Gottheimer responded by pointing out that Omar herself had supported the very same legislation.

“Ilhan, you know who else voted for it? You,” Gottheimer responded.

Neither Lee nor Omar publicly acknowledged confusing the two politicians or apologized following the exchange. Their offices also did not respond to media requests for comment.

The incident attracted attention because several prominent Jewish Democratic elected officials share the first name Josh. In addition to Gottheimer and Shapiro, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein and Hawaii Gov. Josh Green are currently in office.

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NYC’s anti-Israel mayor conceded city officials cannot enforce the ICC warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

By World Israel News Staff

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani acknowledged on Tuesday that he does not have the legal authority to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if the premier were to visit New York City — despite previously pledging that he would seek to have Netanyahu detained under an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court.

In a video posted to his X account, Mamdani nevertheless reiterated his support for the ICC warrant and urged President Donald Trump to take action against the Israeli leader.

“Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal, the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people,” Mamdani said.

“He belongs before a court of law. As I’ve said, I agree that Benjamin Netanyahu should be arrested and tried for his crimes,” he added.

“My administration has reviewed every avenue available under applicable law to determine whether New York City could execute the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant,” he said. “It is clear we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant.”

The mayor emphasized that, in his view, the federal government possesses the authority to decide whether to cooperate with the ICC, even though the United States is not a party to the Rome Statute that established the court and does not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction over U.S. citizens or officials.

“I call on them to join the ICC and execute this” warrant, Mamdani said.

“I want to be equally clear: Benjamin Netanyahu is not welcome in New York City, nor is any other war criminal at large.”

Mamdani’s latest remarks represent a shift from earlier campaign rhetoric, in which he suggested that New York City itself could play a role in enforcing the ICC warrant. His clarification follows legal scrutiny over whether any municipal government in the United States has the authority to execute warrants issued by an international tribunal that the federal government does not recognize.

President Donald Trump also appeared to weigh in on the controversy, posting a message on his Truth Social platform defending Netanyahu’s ability to travel to the United States.

“Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested, in any way, shape or form, while in the United States of America,” Trump wrote, though he did not explicitly reference Mamdani’s video.

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