This is a developing story.

At least two are dead after a man rammed his car into a group of Jewish worshipers outside of an Orthodox synagogue in Manchester, England, on Thursday morning before getting out and stabbing people in what police are calling a terrorist incident.

Three others were left in serious condition, English police announced soon after the attack on the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation, which took place on the morning of Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.

The assailant was killed by police officers, who say they have identified the attacker. Police arrested two other people suspected of being somehow involved in the attack.

English Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose wife is Jewish, left a European Summit meeting in Copenhagen to return to London for an emergency response meeting.

“The fact that this has taken place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, makes it all the more horrific,” Starmer wrote on X. “My thoughts are with the loved ones of all those affected, and my thanks go to the emergency services and all the first responders.”

He also announced that extra police officers were being deployed to synagogues across England.

Police noted that Thursday’s attacker had “suspicious items” strapped to his body that were dealt with by bomb disposal officers. A synagogue member’s quick response to lock the house of worship’s doors and call police helped prevent the attacker from entering the building, police said.

“We are grateful to the member of the public whose quick response to what they witnessed allowed our swift action,” Greater Manchester Police wrote in a statement.

The attack occurred roughly 30 minutes into morning Yom Kippur services, according to reports.

Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation is located in Crumpsall, a northern suburb in Greater Manchester. The bordering town of Prestwich boasts several synagogues. A study from 2021 found that close to 30,000 Jews live throughout Greater Manchester.

The Trump administration has filed a lawsuit against pro-Palestinian protesters who demonstrated at a New Jersey synagogue last year, citing a federal law originally designed to protect abortion clinics.

The complaint, filed by the U.S. Justice Department on Monday, appears to mark the first time that the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which was enacted in 1994 to protect abortion clinics from violent protests, has been applied to protesters at a house of worship.

“No American should be harassed, targeted, or discriminated against for peacefully practicing their religion,” U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement Monday. “Today’s lawsuit underscores this Department of Justice’s commitment to defending Jewish Americans — and all Americans of faith — from those who would threaten their right to worship.”

While the Trump administration ordered in January that prosecutors only invoke the FACE Act under “extraordinary circumstances,” the federal government’s latest application of the law uses a section of it that prohibits the use of physical force or intimidation to prevent people from exercising their religious freedom at a place of religious worship.

The lawsuit alleges that two pro-Palestinian groups and some demonstrators engaged in “threats of force, intimidation, and violent conduct” against the congregants of Congregation Ohr Torah, a Modern Orthodox synagogue in West Orange, New Jersey, in November.

The protest was organized to counter an event to promote the sale of property in Israel and the West Bank being held at the synagogue, which also was hosting a memorial event for a rabbi, according to the 21-page complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Protests at synagogues hosting Israeli events have not been uncommon in recent years. In Teaneck, New Jersey, in March 2024, hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated against an Israeli real estate fair at  Congregation Keter Torah. A month later, protesters also came to picket a fundraiser for the Israeli nonprofit ZAKA at Congregation Bnai Yeshurun in Teaneck.

During the November protest, several congregants and protesters became involved in a physical confrontation, and while two two pro-Israel counterprotesters were charged with aggravated assault and other offenses against the pro-Palestinian demonstrators, those charges were not cited in the federal government’s complaint.

The lawsuit asks the court to fine the protesters over $30,000 for their first violation of the FACE Act, and over $50,000 for each subsequent violation.

Rapper Azaelia Banks has announced that she will perform in Israel the week of the two-year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks — and embark on a wide-ranging tour that includes a trip to a museum honoring an early Zionist leader who preached Jewish self-defense.

“✨🇮🇱 Okay so listen… The Jewcy Diva is touching down in ISRAEL on October 4th — I’m coming back to get a real experience without the drama and the bs,” Banks wrote in a post on X Sunday announcing the visit.

Banks’ performance, set for Oct. 9 in Tel Aviv, marks the artist’s first return to Israel since 2018, when she vowed never to come back following a series of racist encounters during her visit. The artist appeared to have a change of heart about Israel in June when she declared “I’m a Zionist” on X.

In the performance announcement, Banks also said that Oct. 7 would be a day of “deep remembrance — honoring every life taken, every family touched.” She outlined an extensive itinerary for her visit, including stops at the Dead Sea, Israel’s Holocaust memorial museum Yad Vashem and the site of the Nova music festival.

She said she would also be meeting with Israeli soldiers and visiting the Jabotinsky Institute, a research center honoring Zeev Jabotinsky, the founder of revisionist Zionism who is a hero to some contemporary activists who believe Jews should fight antisemitism with force. The group Betar USA, which sees itself as reviving Jabotinsky’s mantle, shared Banks’ announcement and tweeted, “can’t wait to welcome her with Zionist love in Israel on october 3rd.”

The visit comes as over 400 artists and labels, including Bjork, Massive Attack and Paramore, have signed a petition titled “No Music for Genocide” calling for their music to be blocked from streaming in Israel.

In a post on Instagram, Banks decried her fellow musicians for the boycott effort, accusing them of “using Palestinian suffering to refurbish their back catalogues.”

“Why didn’t anyone boycott America when black people were going through it recently in the aftermath of Obamas tenure???,” wrote Banks. “Before you boycott Spotify in Israel Why haven’t artists collectively boycotted streaming services for paying us dirt???”

True to Banks’ pattern of making provocative statements about the Israel-Hamas conflict on her X account, she also used the moment to unleash a volley of posts on X over the past week that swung from pro-Israel to anti-Arab.

“The lore of Israel & Zionism and the Jews is charming and relatable as hell,” Banks posted on Saturday. “Israel is like wakanda for jews they really ate that. Zionism is iconic Zionism is punk.”

On Monday, the artist wrote that conservative Jewish political commentator Ben Shapiro is a “sex symbol” and also posted “g’mar chatimah tova 🛌 ⭐️🕯️,” the traditional greeting for Yom Kippur.

The week prior, Banks denounced the “protesting and fake support” for Palestinians, writing, “I really truly wholeheartedly am against Palestine and everything it’s trying to stand for” and calling on protesters to “pressure them to just quit.”

The artist also posted early Monday morning that “Maybe Gazans should stop breeding in a war zone?,” adding that she believed “it’s irresponsible to be giving birth in gaza to stateless children.”

Banks, who was once engaged to a Jewish man, has said that her refusal to support the Palestinians has cost her fan support and required her to cancel some concert appearances.

The audience of the popular daytime talk show “The View” applauded Zohran Mamdani after the New York City mayoral candidate said that he would “describe what is happening in Gaza as a genocide.”

The Democratic candidate, appearing on the ABC show Wednesday, said his “belief in a universality in international law” led him to make the declaration.

Mamdani was being questioned on his Israel beliefs by “The View” co-host Sara Haines, who has a Jewish husband. Haines, wearing a yellow pin for the Israeli hostages, told Mamdani he has “made inflammatory statements, like calling Israel an apartheid state and questioning its right to exist as a Jewish state.”

In response, the nominee reiterated what he said were his beliefs about Israel and its war in Gaza. “Millions of New Yorkers, myself included, care deeply about what’s happening in Israel and Palestine,” he said. “And so to be very, very clear, of course I condemn Hamas. Of course I’ve called Oct. 7 what it was, which is a horrific war crime.”

He then used the term “genocide” to describe conditions in Gaza, a definition he has used before and that Israel and its allies have rejected. But the crowd at “The View” gave the statement a warm reception.

The home audience of the top-rated daytime talk show is dominated by middle-aged women, according to industry data. It is one of several demographics where support for Israel has declined sharply in the two years since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and during the subsequent war in Gaza. A poll released this week found that Americans now sympathize more with Palestinians than Israelis, in a reversal of the historic dynamic, and that the shift has been starkest among older Democrats who are college-educated.

After the audience applauded, Mamdani continued, “What we see is a war crime being answered with war crimes. And what we see is, every single hour, the Israeli military killing a Palestinian child for close to two years.”

He added, “I can’t stop that as the mayor of this city. I can make clear my own values, my own commitments.”

Jewish fears about Mamdani’s fierce criticisms of Israel have emerged as a major focal point of the mayoral campaign. A growing number of Jewish groups are lining up behind the candidate’s main challenger, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has said his pro-Israel bona fides are unmatched even as he, too, has recently distanced himself from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

On “The View,” Haines pushed back against Mamdani. “You recognize that people do disagree with you. I am one of those people on some of these points,” she said, without offering specifics.

In response, Mamdani said, “Absolutely, and your disagreeing with me doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be in this city or that you shouldn’t be celebrated.” He added, “If a New Yorker disagrees with me about Israel, I’m still fighting for them to make sure that they can afford this city, be safe in this city and see this city as their own.”

Andrew Cuomo apologized Wednesday for having “caused pain in the Jewish community” during his term as governor, citing decisions he made regarding COVID-era public health restrictions.

The apology came on the eve of Yom Kippur and in the form of a video shared with Orthodox rabbis who soured on Cuomo when he was governor and now may be considering endorsing him in his mayoral run.

“We could have done better, and for that, I am truly sorry,” Cuomo said in the video. “My intentions don’t change the impact, and I sincerely ask for your understanding. On this holy Day of Atonement, I am committed to learning these lessons.”

Cuomo’s relationship with Orthodox Jews had dimmed when he sought to enforce pandemic restrictions on gatherings in neighborhoods like Borough Park and Midwood — singling out haredi Orthodox communities, critics said. That October, the haredi umbrella body Agudath Israel of America sued him for discrimination.

In the video, which was shared with Orthodox rabbis, Cuomo said he’d “made decisions with the best of intentions to protect health and save lives.” But he said he understood why they had not always landed well.

“I recognize that some of those decisions caused pain in the Jewish community because we did not always fully consider the sensitivities and traditions that are so deeply important,” Cuomo said.

The video marked Cuomo’s first public apology for his handling of COVID-19 restrictions in Orthodox neighborhoods, where Cuomo imposed heavier restrictions due to high positivity rates that limited synagogue attendance seen as essential to religious and cultural practices. He has reportedly done so previously in meetings with Orthodox leaders and also said in an interview with VIN News before the primary that he “absolutely could have done more to meet with and talk to community leaders and rabbis” to ensure “their concerns were addressed.”

The apology comes days after Eric Adams, whose support from Orthodox Jews helped him win the 2021 mayoral election, ended his campaign for reelection. Cuomo has nabbed endorsements from an array of Orthodox organizations and community activists in the days since Adams dropped out, though many others have yet to endorse a candidate. 

Cuomo is now in a three-man race against democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, who is polling third. 

Sliwa and his supporters have pointed to Cuomo’s COVID controversy — including on social media on Tuesday — in hopes of steering Orthodox voters away from Cuomo. (Sliwa also called attention to Cuomo’s pandemic executive order requiring nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients, seen as a contributor to high death rates in the facilities.) Both men are positioning themselves as the right challenger to take on Mamdani, the frontrunner and Democratic nominee.

“Cuomo’s team must’ve forgot Cuomo labeled the Jewish community as Dirty Disease Spreaders and barred them from religious gatherings, while going on the news each day and lighting fires of Antisemitism,” wrote one Sliwa supporter, who is a retired NYPD lieutenant, Wednesday morning before Cuomo’s video was shared publicly.

“Cuomo targeted Jewish communities during COVID and his deadly executive order led to the deaths of 15,000 seniors,” Sliwa wrote Tuesday, adding that “New York is moving forward.”

Some Orthodox Jews have responded positively to the apology.

“Finally Andrew Cuomo is saying what we were waiting for,” one user wrote. “A real apology. Thank you.”

For others, like X user Eli Steinberg, the video was too little too late:

“Cuomo’s ‘apology’ would perhaps mean more if he didn’t wait until his political career was about to end and he wasn’t reciting it straight off a script,” Steinberg wrote.

This piece first ran as part of The Countdown, our daily newsletter rounding up all the developments in the New York City mayor’s race. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. There are 34 days to the election.

🕍 Cuomo racks up more Jewish endorsements

• More Jewish communal leaders are backing Cuomo following Adams’ exit from the race, signaling a push among some Jewish institutions to coalesce behind the remaining moderate candidate and fight Zohran Mamdani’s momentum.

• A range of Jewish groups and leaders from across New York City, largely representing Orthodox communities, endorsed Cuomo in a joint statement yesterday.

• “We are deeply concerned about the direction that mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani would take our city,” they said. “We are troubled by his statements regarding the role of police in maintaining law and order, his past support for those calling to ‘globalize the intifada,’ and his socialist policies that we believe would create chaos for all New Yorkers and put our Jewish communities at risk.”

• The announcement was signed by groups including the Far Rockaway Jewish Alliance, the Association of Crown Heights Shuls, the Staten Island Jewish Coalition and the Queens Jewish Alliance. Landau was also among the signatories.

• Another rabbi who backed Adams, Yossi Garelik, signed a letter from the Crown Heights United PAC endorsing Cuomo on Monday.

• Mamdani has scored endorsements from two left-wing Jewish groups, Jews for Economic and Racial Justice and Bend the Arc: Jewish Action.

🗣 Sliwa won’t let it slide

• Sliwa jumped on a weak point in Cuomo’s relationship with Jewish communities yesterday. He posted a clip from a 2020 press conference during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Cuomo was governor, in which Cuomo criticized Orthodox Jewish groups for holding mass religious gatherings.

• “Cuomo targeted Jewish communities during COVID and his deadly executive order led to the deaths of 15,000 seniors,” said Sliwa.

👀 Trump watch

• Trump has doubled down on threats to withhold federal funding from New York City under a Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

• “Remember, he needs the money from me, as President, in order to fulfill all of his FAKE Communist premises,” Trump said on Truth Social. “He won’t be getting any of it, so what’s the point of voting for him?” He also said that Mamdani “will prove to be one of the best things to ever happen to our great Republican Party.”

• Mamdani responded to the comments by telling reporters, “I think that Donald Trump is going through the stages of grief.” He said Trump had moved past denial that Mamdani could be elected and was “coming to terms with the fact that we’re going to win this race.”

• Later on Wednesday, the Trump administration said it would not pay out $18 billion previously allocated to New York City infrastructure projects, including to advance the Second Avenue subway, to penalize what it said were discriminatory state policies.

⏳ Adams endorsement watch

• Now that Adams is out, will he make an endorsement?

• The mayor told The New York Post that he was committed to seeing Mamdani defeated, but would not answer definitively if he’d back Cuomo or Sliwa.

• “I’m more inclined to Cuomo,” he said, adding, “Let’s not underestimate Sliwa as a fighter, but the problem is that he can’t govern.”

The U.S. federal government will last at least into Friday after the Senate paused budget talks to accommodate Yom Kippur.

The government shut down at midnight Wednesday night amid a standoff between Democratic and Republican senators over competing spending bills. Talks to end the shutdown, the first since the record-breaking 35-day freeze in 2018, immediately paused for two days for the Jewish holiday, which begins Wednesday evening and ends Thursday evening.

The break has made senators — not to mention the 750,000 federal employees whose paychecks are in limbo — acutely aware of the Jewish calendar. Yom Kippur is Judaism’s holiest day.

“We’re not going to be working Thursday because it’s a Jewish holiday, but we’re planning on, right now, having votes on Friday and maybe Saturday, probably Saturday, maybe Sunday,” Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, told NBC News. “A lot of that is determined by how many people we have here.”

“The idea is to not vote over Yom Kippur and then come back in,” said Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming. “We’ll continue to vote.”

The shutdown hinges on Democrats’ demands to include health care funding in the spending bill, which President Donald Trump and Republican senators have said they are open to negotiating only at a later date.

“IT’S MIDNIGHT. That means the Republican shutdown has just begun because they wouldn’t protect Americans’ health care,” wrote Jewish New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer in a post on X. ‘We’re going to keep fighting for the American people.”

Federal institutions do not immediately close when the government shuts down. But they can close if a shutdown extends for a significant period. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., announced on Wednesday that it would remain open through at least Sunday.

For some watching the Senate’s budget jousting, the meaning of Yom Kippur, Judaism’s day of atonement, is resonant in the current moment.

“Yom Kippur reminds us that renewal begins with teshuvah — owning our failures and choosing a better path,” wrote one user on X. “A government shutdown on this sacred day might just be a call for our leaders to learn the same lesson.”

Julius Jay Tanenbaum, a World War II veteran who rose from Depression-era Brooklyn to become a pioneer in Long Island and regional real estate development, died on July 1, 2025. He was six months away from celebrating his 100th birthday.

Born on January 2, 1926, to Jewish immigrants David and Rose Tanenbaum, Mr. Tanenbaum grew up on the streets of New York City at a time when discipline, grit, and resolve were the currencies of survival. He graduated from James Madison High School at just 16 and entered the University of Maryland as a student-athlete playing varsity football with the intent to become a doctor, but history had other plans.

In the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack, Jay enlisted in the U.S. Navy at the age of 17. As a Quartermaster Third Class in the Pacific Theatre, he helped navigate destroyers across the Pacific, assisting officers on the bridge and helping transport troops to the beaches in amphibious assault ships (LST 729) through and into some rough and perilous seas and some of WWII’s most furious battles. “My father was a good sailor,” his son John said. “Not just on the water, but in life.”

Returning from war, he completed his education and played for the Terrapins. To pay his way through college, Mr. Tanenbaum began building homes in Maryland — first for others and then for himself when he moved back to New York. He moved to Long Island and started his own residential development business, before eventually expanding into medical and office buildings, and later, shopping centers within the tristate area and beyond.

Jay’s business instincts were sharp, but his work ethic was sharper. He remained an active participant in his company into his late 90s, still evaluating real estate deals and acquisitions, even as many of his peers had long since retired. “He did not really stop working,” said John Tanenbaum, who had a business meeting planned with him the week after July 4.

Mr. Tanenbaum will be remembered for the man he was: principled, exacting, charming and fiercely loyal. He believed that a person’s character and name was their greatest asset should not be sullied, and that what you build in this world is measured more in relationships, than in square footage.

To his grandchildren, he was not just a patriarch, but a partner, discussing current events, teaching business, cheering them on at tennis matches, and always encouraging them to further their education. He was known for giving unsolicited advice and unsparing feedback, but also unconditional love. He loved sports and competing on the tennis court against all who would play with him. Up until his last day, he was active and sharp; still telling stories, having a drink, and playing bridge and gin.

Jay Tanenbaum’s worldview was deeply shaped by his Jewish heritage, his war service, and the decades of economic and social change he lived through. He remained tethered to Jewish traditions and passed down a quiet but steadfast belief in responsibility — to family, to community, to Jewish causes and to the next generations.

Mr. Tanenbaum’s life spanned 10 decades and some of the most defining moments in American history, but Jay’s love left a lasting imprint on all who knew him, and on the physical and moral landscapes he helped shape.

He leaves behind his children Ellen, Cindy, and John, eight grandchildren (Elizabeth, Jeff, Daniel, Sam, Josh, Ben, Hannah, and Rebecca), and a legacy as enduring as the buildings he developed.

This is a Paid Life Tribute from the Tanenbaum family. JTA’s editorial team had no role in its production.

I last appeared before a judge 40 years ago when I tried fighting an “unjust” speeding ticket. That didn’t go so well. As they say, “He who represents himself has a fool for a client.” My takeaway: pay the fine and don’t add insult to injury by paying court costs.

But this year, in the waning days of Elul, when Jews began reflecting about the upcoming High Holiday season, I stood before three different judges — not in traffic court but in immigration court. And not as an attorney nor, thankfully, as a respondent — a foreign-born person charged by the Department of Homeland Security with violating immigration law and facing deportation proceedings.

No, I stood as a privileged white American naturalized citizen. I stood as an online-trained ABA court observer to monitor and document immigration court hearings, as a way of holding America’s court system accountable. I stood as a rabbi spiritually tormented by today’s troubling headlines and disturbing images regarding our government’s treatment of immigrants, the very strangers the Torah commands us 36 times to welcome. And I stood as a fellow human filled with empathy for those who bravely traversed perilous terrains, with children in tow, to reach the fabled, promised land of freedom, safety and opportunity. 

Some respondents have bounced around the courts since 2013. Each appearance is fraught with fear, trembling, and angst about their fate. After all, a courtroom setting can be daunting and foreboding. I sat just 10 feet — or a virtual connection away — from these modestly dressed respondents who stare nervously at the judge. And I thought about the coming Yom Kippur holiday, when I would ponder God’s decree about me in the Book of Life. Would it be a decree of life or death, prosperity or hardship? 

I quietly imagined these frightened immigrants reciting their own personalized version of our millennium-old Unetanah Tokef prayer:

Who shall live freely in America AND who shall be forcibly (or by self removal) shipped to countries rife with political persecution? Who shall remain united with loved ones AND who shall fester in a rat-infested jail cell? Who shall realize their fondest dreams AND who shall return to a land where opportunity is harvested only by the elite? Who shall have access to Costco’s abundances AND who shall barely survive on crumbs? Who shall leave the courtroom with renewed hope AND who shall leave hopeless? Who shall be lucky to get another deportation delay AND who shall be unlucky to receive notice of final removal from the United States?

A 50-ish woman from Central America appeared without counsel, because she couldn’t afford one. U.S. law stipulates that she’s entitled to one, but at her own expense. ICE agents came to her door looking for someone who did not live in the house. Perhaps seeing opportunity to meet a quota of arrests, they asked for papers she did not have. They hauled her away. Now, wearing an ankle monitor as a flight risk, she told the judge in broken English, in a barely audible, trembling voice: “I have lived here for 20 years. I have a family, a job. I’m not a terrorist.” The judge gave her another 60 days to find a lawyer, pro-bono or not. Or else.

A young woman said she wanted to self-deport. The judge, surprised, offered her more time to file papers attesting to her marriage to a U.S. citizen (possible grounds for relief from removal). She replied: “I already have tickets to fly back next week. I fear ICE agents may apprehend me outside this courtroom.” 

The stories are heartbreaking.  Only those with a hardened heart of Pharoah would be dismissive of the human tragedies revealed in their chilling stories.  

Each day I listen intently while feverishly recording the courtroom’s verbal exchanges.  I remind myself I’m here to assure a transparent and fair justice system. But will my modest contribution matter?

Suddenly, on that first day in court, a thought struck me. The ABA strictly forbids observers from interacting with anyone in the courtroom during hearings. What about after the last case is heard?

I slowly stood up behind the railing as the room emptied. Seeing me, the judge asked, “Do you wish to say something, sir?” “Yes, your honor. May I first compliment your Honor on today’s hearings?” Appearing a little stunned by this uncommon question, she replied, “Go ahead.” I proceeded to compliment her integrity, empathic exchange with the respondents and fair-minded decisions.

I paused and told a story of my own. “With your honor’s permission, I’d like to give personal context to my appearance today,” I said. “I am in my 80s, a child of Holocaust survivors. In the late 1930s, my grandparents applied for a U.S. visa for asylum. They were denied. They were subsequently murdered by the Nazis.”

Silence. You could hear a pin drop. The judge, placing her hand over her heart, then replied: “I am truly sorry for your loss. Now I understand why you are here.”

Fleetingly, I felt as if I had spoken truth to power. Will that judge remember my words? I can only hope so, for the sake of future respondents who stand before her. 

On this Yom Kippur, I pray that the Almighty above judge us mercifully, both individually and collectively as Jews, and renew us for another year in the Book of Life. May God’s abounding mercy soften the hearts of immigration judges across this land, and compassionately answer the fervent prayers of the strangers in our midst.

President Trump has withdrawn his nomination for right-wing economist E.J. Antoni, who had called a Nazi warship “hard not to love,” to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The White House did not give a reason for Antoni’s withdrawal this week, which came shortly before the federal government shut down. Antoni has not commented about either his nomination or his withdrawal on social media.

Other economists had criticized the Heritage Foundation staffer for what was seen as a desire to politicize the monthly U.S. jobs report, which the nominated position would oversee. He was also present at the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riots as a “bystander” who did not enter the Capitol, according to the White House. The position would have required Senate confirmation.

During his regular appearances on conservative TV news, Antoni also prominently displayed artwork of the Bismarck, a technologically advanced World War II battleship built by the Nazis. The ship sank in 1941 after sustaining extensive damage from the British fleet.

On social media Antoni has praised the Bismarck as “hard not to love.” One historian of the Bismarck told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that such a view was similar to how other military enthusiasts have viewed the ship, though others are careful to distinguish its craftsmanship from its Nazi aims. 

When asked about Antoni’s love for the ship, the Heritage Foundation said that he also had affection for American-made warships.

According to the Heritage Foundation, Antoni will return to work for the conservative think tank rather than join the Trump administration in another capacity. The group’s president Kevin Roberts continued to praise Antoni on social media, writing that he “was the right man for the job.”

The BLS position became vacant after Trump fired its previous commissioner, claiming without evidence that the jobs report had been “rigged” to reflect badly on him.