After chatting with his rabbi, Sid Rosenberg apologizes for calling Mamdani a ‘cockroach’

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🎙 Rosenberg apologizes to Mamdani after chatting with his rabbi

• Sid Rosenberg, the Jewish right-wing radio host, apologized on Wednesday for calling Mamdani an “America hating, Jew hating, Radical Islam cockroach.”

• “To the mayor, and anyone else that I offended with my tweet on Saturday, I send out a heartfelt apology,” Rosenberg said in a statement. The message followed a volley of criticism from New York politicians and officials, including NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, whom Rosenberg has previously described as a “friend.”

• Rosenberg added on his popular radio show that his outburst stemmed from Iran’s retaliatory attacks on Israel, saying he took out his anger on Mamdani because of “my support and my love with the Jewish people.” He also told The New York Times that he objected to the way Mamdani “treats certain people, including mine, the Jewish people.”

• Rosenberg told Politico that his apology came after conversations with his rabbi, family members and boss, WABC owner John Catsimatidis, though he said there were “no ultimatums” from Catsimatidis.

• President Donald Trump tapped Rosenberg for the board of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council. Critics of Rosenberg’s comments noted that the Nazis likened Jews to vermin as part of their dehumanization campaign leading up to the Holocaust.

• One day earlier, Rosenberg reacted angrily to Mamdani saying his comments were “painfully familiar” to Muslim New Yorkers. Speaking with Politico, Rosenberg said, “Is he f–king kidding me? F–k him … He hasn’t gone through half of what the Jews have gone through in this city.”

• Mamdani said to WABC on Wednesday, “Time will tell how sincere of an apology it is.”

🗣 Mamdani questioned about his Iran views

• Mamdani was asked on Tuesday about his message to Jewish New Yorkers and Iranian dissidents who pushed back on his condemnation of the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran. On Saturday, Mamdani called the attacks “a catastrophic escalation in an illegal war of aggression.”

• “What I would say to Jewish New Yorkers, to Iranian American New Yorkers, to any New Yorker, frankly, is that my primary responsibility is to keep you safe,” Mamdani said at the press briefing.

• He added that his criticism of the United States and Israel did not interfere with his leadership of the city. “As much as I have shared my thoughts when I’ve been asked about the federal government’s actions as well as the actions of the Israeli military, I’ve also focused my time and efforts on being in constant communication with our police commissioner, as well as emergency management officials,” he said.

• Mamdani was also asked about whether Iran is better off without Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader who was assassinated on the war’s first day. He dodged the question, but acknowledged the Iranian government’s “systematic repression of its own people” while saying he remembered “the devastating consequences of our country pursuing a war with the intent of regime change in that very same region not that many years ago.”

🚨 NYPD reports slight drop in antisemitic hate crimes, plus new methodology

• Antisemitic hate crimes dropped slightly last month, from 31 in January to 21 in February, according to the NYPD. Antisemitic incidents still made up 55% of the total 38 hate crimes reported in the city.

• The NYPD also announced a change in its reporting of hate crime data. “Previously, the department reported alleged hate crimes that were still under review,” it said. “The NYPD will now report hate crimes that have been investigated and officially confirmed as such by the Hate Crimes Task Force.”

💬 Ezra Klein wrestles with what Iran war means for American Jews

• Journalist Ezra Klein, speaking on his show Tuesday with political commentator Ben Rhodes, said that Israel’s role in the Iran war made him concerned about “what this is going to mean for antisemitism.”

• Klein pointed to the discussion in MAGA circles about Israel’s leverage over Trump and theories about an “Israeli plot.” He questioned if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was gambling with “the long-term sustainability of both Israel’s political position in America but also just the generalized worldview at a time of very, very sharply rising antisemitism.”

• “It has me nervous, too,” said Rhodes, who, like Klein, is Jewish. He added, “The U.S. used to be very careful not to do joint military operations with Israel. And partly for this reason.”

• Read our dive into how the assault on Iran is reviving conspiratorial tropes about Jewish and Israeli influence, and resurfacing controversies that shadowed the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

🎨 Israeli artist’s exhibition shaped by ‘violence in Gaza’

• Doron Langberg, an Israeli-born painter who lives in Ridgewood, will debut an exhibition at Jeffrey Deitch gallery on Friday.

• The show, titled “Landscapes,” is partly inspired by trips to their hometown in Israel and to Ukraine’s Bronica Forest, where thousands of Jews — including members of Langberg’s family — were killed in the Holocaust.

• In an announcement of the exhibition, Langberg said their work was shaped by “the unrelenting violence in Gaza” that “disintegrated ideas I had about my home and history.”