This piece first ran as part of the New York Jewish Week’s daily newsletter, rounding up the latest on politics, culture, food and what’s new with Jews in the city. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.
🚨 2 attacks on Jewish men
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The NYPD is investigating two separate attacks on Jewish men within 24 hours in Brooklyn, spreading fear on the fourth day of Hanukkah.
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On Monday night, video showed two people grabbing and shoving two Orthodox Jews on the subway. Last night, police said they did not believe this was an antisemitic attack and the dispute appeared to start over seats on the subway.
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But another attack on Tuesday is being investigated as a hate crime. In the same Crown Heights neighborhood, police said a suspect stabbed a Jewish man after making antisemitic remarks. The victim was rushed to a local hospital.
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Rabbi Yaacov Behrman, a liaison for Chabad Headquarters, said the stabbing shortly after the Sydney attack made it “painfully clear that the world is once again dangerous for Jews.”
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Separately, a menorah in a Jackson Heights park was vandalized with spray foam on Saturday, reported the New York Post.
🗽 The mayoral transition
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Zohran Mamdani went to the Ohel, the gravesite of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, one day after the terror attack that killed 15 people during a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney. Here’s how his visit fits into a trend of pilgrimages by Jewish and non-Jewish politicians.
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Julie Menin, recently elected the first Jewish speaker of the City Council, positioned herself as a moderate, pro-Israel counterweight to Mamdani. But Politico reports that she sees a “real alignment” with the mayor-elect on universal childcare.
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Mamdani sought unsuccessfully to influence the speaker race, according to Politico.
🐘 Young Republicans gather in NYC
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The New York Young Republican Club’s gala this weekend included white nationalists and antisemitic conspiracy theorists.
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Jewish City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov did not attend despite being promoted as an “honored guest,” and suggested on social media that her absence was connected to antisemitism on the right.
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Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance said on Monday that “the single most significant thing you could do to eliminate anti-semitism” is reducing immigration to the United States. He dismissed the growing debate about antisemitism in his party.
📚 Culture corner
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Yo La Tengo, the indie rock band that plays eight nights of Hanukkah concerts every year at the Bowery Ballroom, paid tribute to beloved Jewish film director Rob Reiner on Monday night. Reiner and his wife Michele Signer Reiner were both found dead in their home on Sunday.
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The band’s singer and guitarist Ira Kaplan, who is Jewish, told the crowd, “We’re gonna salute a Jewish songwriter we were not expecting to be saluting this Hanukkah, and we certainly weren’t expecting to be memorializing him.”
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Yo La Tengo performed “Gimme Some Money,” made famous by Reiner’s 1984 hit mockumentary “This is Spinal Tap.”
🥯 Jewish food report
Staten Island leaders led a sufganiyot crawl across the borough on Monday. “This event takes on a deeper meaning as our hearts are still heavy after the news in Sydney, Australia,” said Mark Treyger, the head of JCRC-NY.
