Top NY Democrats vow to fund synagogue security, criticize ICE spending at Jewish policy event

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🕍 Dem leaders pledge Jewish security

• National Democratic leaders vowed to champion security funding for Jewish institutions while slamming federal spending on immigration enforcement at an annual congressional event held by JCRC-NY.

• The breakfast meeting convened on Sunday at Park East Synagogue, the site of a pro-Palestinian protest in November that drew allegations of antisemitism and spurred a slew of policy proposals.

• House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries criticized the Republican-led One Big Beautiful Bill Act for granting $191 billion to the Department of Homeland Security, including $75 billion for ICE, reported The Forward.

• “If that can happen, then the least that we can do is ensure that this vital security grant program is funded by hundreds of millions of dollars more to keep the Jewish community and every other community safe,” said Jeffries.

• The Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which funds security at houses of worship, has recently experienced turmoil amid federal budget freezes and new terms requiring grantees to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.

• Major Jewish organizations want to boost their security funding from $270 million to $500 million annually amid rising antisemitic threats. Jeffries said House Democrats supported that increase.

• Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer added, “As long as I’m in the Senate, this program will continue to grow from strength to strength, and we won’t let anyone attack it or undo it.” He called the program his “baby.”

• Schumer also said he would continue to “fight for aid to Israel — all the aid that Israel needs.”

• Israel’s prime minister, meanwhile, has said he wants to see U.S. military aid tapered to zero over the next decade, a timeline that Sen. Lindsey Graham, a pro-Israel Republican, has said should be sped up.

🇮🇱 Last hostage rally

• Dozens of Israeli hostage advocates held their final rally in Central Park on Sunday, days after the body of Ran Gvili, the last hostage in Gaza, was returned to Israel.

• The rallies started shortly after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and sometimes drew thousands of people, including hostage families, former hostages and elected officials.

🗣 Sid Rosenberg reviews Mamdani — positively?

• Sid Rosenberg, a Jewish conservative radio host who blasted Mamdani during the campaign, had approving words for the mayor’s team on Monday.

• “There’s no question that they’re focused and the team is in place,” Rosenberg said to Politico.

• Rosenberg supported Mamdani’s rival, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. During an on-air interview with Cuomo, he suggested that Mamdani would “be cheering” another 9/11-style attack on New York.

• Four weeks into the new administration, Rosenberg said he saw parallels between Mamdani and Cuomo, specifically in their public relations prowess. “I certainly saw a lot of that with Andrew Cuomo in the COVID era,” he said.

• Rosenberg is a friend of NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who is Jewish and disagrees with Mamdani on issues from Israel to law enforcement policies.

✍ The Hasidic journalist on Mamdani’s tail

• Jacob Kornbluh, a 44-year-old grandfather and Hasidic reporter in Borough Park, has trailed Mamdani daily for The Forward.

• Mamdani has also kept a close eye on Kornbluh, who was born in London and spent five years cutting lox behind a deli counter in Williamsburg, becoming a journalist with no high school diploma or degrees.

• Mamdani’s team hopes that Kornbluh’s platform will help clarify his positions to Jewish voters, including many who are skeptical of him, according to The New York Times.

🪧 Anti-Zionist protesters target Ezra Klein

• New York Times journalist Ezra Klein was interrupted by protesters who called him a “Nazi normalizer” while he spoke at Sarah Lawrence College last week, reported The Times of Israel.

• Klein, a Jewish critic of Israel, has hosted prominent pro-Palestinian advocates including Mahmoud Khalil and Ta-Nehisi Coates on his show.

• At the event called “Building Bridges,” Klein reportedly asked the protesters, “Why do you think I deny what’s going on in Gaza? I think it’s destruction, apartheid, subjugation.”

• A protester with their back to Klein accused him of supporting “genocidal ideology,” shouting, “Ezra Klein, you’re a liar, you set Palestine on fire.”

🎙 Tom Suozzi protested at Long Island synagogue

• Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi was targeted in another disruption at Temple Beth Sholom last week, with activists protesting his vote in favor of a bill that increased funding for ICE.

• The protest during a town hall at the synagogue on Long Island appeared to be coordinated by the group Climate Defiance, according to News12.

• One person shouted, “As a Jewish man, I have never felt safer than when there is a mass gestapo in the street. So, thank you Congressman Tom Suozzi for funding ICE.”

• Suozzi expressed regret about his vote, telling the congregation, “I failed to view the DHS funding vote as a referendum on the illegal and immoral conduct of ICE in Minneapolis.”