Man who rammed car into Chabad headquarters ‘identifies as a Jewish person,’ lawyer says

A version of 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.

🎭 Mamdani marks Purim

• Mayor Zohran Mamdani broke his Ramadan fast on Monday with a plate of hamantaschen, posting a photo of the Purim-themed iftar on Instagram.

• “Chag Purim Sameach and a freilichen Purim,” Mamdani said on X, using both Hebrew and Yiddish. “To Jewish New Yorkers, may you have a joyful Purim, celebrating the courage, bravery and resilience at the heart of the holiday.”

• Mamdani also said the NYPD was “deploying additional resources to synagogues and cultural institutions across the five boroughs to help ensure a joyful and safe holiday.”

• The NYPD has already said it is on high alert, responding to both Purim and fallout from the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran. Experts believe that Iran will continue to hit back at targets around the world.

🚨 Man who rammed car into Chabad headquarters ‘identifies as a Jewish person’

• Dan Sohail, accused of driving a car into the Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters in January, has been charged with damaging religious property. The new charge in Brooklyn federal court adds to four charges Sohail already faces, which are being considered hate crimes.

• Sohail’s family and Chabad rabbis have said that he did not hate Jewish people and had shown interest in converting to Judaism. Sohail claims he had recently learned he had Jewish heritage and was invited to Chabad on the night of the incident, according to a federal complaint unsealed on Monday.

• Sohail, who has been held at Rikers Island, wore a black velvet kippah to court on Monday. His lawyer, Mia Eisner Grynberg, asked for him to remain at Rikers so that he could observe Purim at sundown. Judge Clay H. Kaminsky ordered his detainment at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn over her objections.

• “He identifies as a Jewish person,” Eisner-Grynberg said in court.

• Kaminksy said a mental health evaluation would be appropriate for Sohail, who prosecutors said was dealing with significant mental health concerns. The federal detention hearing will continue on Wednesday.

🗣 Mamdani’s culture czar once said she wants ‘a Palestinian for president’

• Diya Vij, who was appointed Mamdani’s new cultural affairs commissioner on Saturday, wrote a poem in 2016 about wanting marginalized people to become president of the United States, including Palestinians.

• “I want a Palestinian for president, someone who is living through apartheid and surviving the ethnic cleansing of their people — someone who will finally sever ties with Israeli occupiers of land that is not theirs, has never been theirs, and should never be theirs,” said Vij’s piece published on Tumblr.

• Vij was also among about 8,000 people who signed an open letter from the art community, published by Artforum on Oct. 19, 2023, that criticized Israel for “the unfolding of a genocide” and called for Palestinian liberation and “an end to the killing and harming of all civilians, an immediate ceasefire, the passage of humanitarian aid into Gaza.”

• Vij worked most recently as the vice president of curatorial and art programs at Powerhouse Arts, Inc. in Brooklyn. Speaking to The New York Times about her new appointment, Vij said, “I’m excited to apply my political lens to strengthening the systems that makes open, accessible and sometimes radical cultural activities possible.”

⚖ Court rulings on Columbia protesters

• State courts have delivered two verdicts on protesters who took part in the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that roiled Columbia University in 2024.

• James Carlson, an attorney who burned an Israeli flag during a protest in April 2024, pleaded guilty to criminal mischief and trespassing in a Manhattan state court on Monday. He is expected to pay $25 to the flag owner and do 100 hours of community service as part of the plea deal.

• In a separate decision, a state Supreme Court judge vacated disciplinary sanctions that Columbia imposed against 22 students who occupied Hamilton Hall in April 2024. The judge ruled on Friday that the school improperly relied on sealed arrest records. The students could be reinstated as a result.

🗳 Supreme Court blocks Democratic redistricting push

• The Supreme Court decided on Monday to freeze a Democratic effort to redraw Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis’ district in Staten Island and southern Brooklyn before this year’s midterms.

• If the redistricting had succeeded, Rep. Dan Goldman could have run against Malliotakis instead of fending off Brad Lander in his neighboring district.

• But now the race is set between Goldman and Lander. Lander reemphasized his commitment to unseating Goldman on X, saying, “We’re up against an AIPAC-aligned multi-millionaire who bought his seat and we’re building a people’s movement to take it back.”

🥯 ‘New Absolute Bagels’ is no more

• Say goodbye to the “Absolute Bagels” title. The New Absolute Bagels, which replaced the old Absolute Bagels a year after it unexpectedly shut down, has changed its name to 2788 Bagels.

• The owners of the original Absolute Bagels threatened legal action against the new shop if it didn’t change its name, according to West Side Rag editor Gus Saltonstall.