Mamdani hosts Mahmoud Khalil to break Ramadan fast

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🍴 Mamdani hosts Mahmoud Khalil to break Ramandan fast

• Mayor Zohran Mamdani hosted Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia graduate and protest leader who became the face of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism, to break the Ramadan fast at Gracie Mansion on Sunday night.

• Mamdani posted a photo of their shared iftar, together with first lady Rama Duwaji and Khalil’s wife and son, saying that Khalil’s detention — during which he missed the birth of his first child — was the cost of “exercising his First Amendment rights in protesting the ongoing genocide in Palestine.”

• The occasion marked exactly one year since Khalil, a Syrian-born Palestinian and legal permanent resident of the United States, was arrested at his Columbia-owned apartment. Though he was released in June from a months-long detention in Louisiana, his case remains in limbo before the Board of Immigration Appeals.

• Khalil was accused of spreading antisemitism on Columbia’s campus by the federal government, which later also accused him of committing fraud on his green card application.

• Mamdani is one of the most powerful Israel critics in New York and a vocal supporter of Khalil, who attended his inauguration. The mayor asked President Trump last month to dismiss Khalil’s case along with those of four other New York-area immigrants who have been detained by ICE.

• “Mahmoud is a New Yorker, and he belongs in New York City,” Mamdani said in his post.

🗣 Jake Lang returns to Gracie Mansion

• Jake Lang, the anti-Muslim and antisemitic provocateur who led a protest outside Gracie Mansion on Saturday, returned to Mamdani’s residence on Monday while the mayor addressed the violence that followed the demonstration.

• During Mamdani’s remarks, Lang shouted outside the gates of Gracie Mansion, wearing a pin that read “I’m still alive.” Lang, a Jan. 6 rioter pardoned by Trump, also staged an antisemitic demonstration outside AIPAC headquarters last month.

• Sunday’s protest, which Lang called “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City,” was outnumbered by counter-protesters calling to “Run the Nazis out of New York City.” Two counter-protesters tried to bomb the event with homemade explosives. They have been charged with attempting to support ISIS and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.

• Mamdani called Lang and his supporters “appalling,” but said they had a right to protest during his news conference with NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. He condemned in stronger terms the violent response by “a few” counter-protesters.

🥂 The Algemeiner’s gala honors Charlie Kirk, Benjamin Netanyahu

• Our reporter Grace Gilson was at the annual J100 gala hosted by the Algemeiner, a Jewish publication with a conservative bent, which honored people who “positively influenced Jewish life” in 2025.

• On the list were slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Florida Republican Jewish Rep. Randy Fine, former New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, conservative pundit Ben Shapiro, President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

• David Draiman, the Jewish frontman for the heavy metal band Disturbed, said in a speech, “The cancer of antisemitism has been metastasizing.” He urged uniting against antisemitism across the political spectrum, adding, “The cancer doesn’t care whether you’re the left side of the body or the right side.”

• Another address was delivered by Argentina’s President Javier Milei, a staunch defender of Israel, who was spotted dancing to Hebrew songs. During his trip to New York, Milei also visited the gravesite of the Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe and Yeshiva University, where he called himself “the most Zionist president in the world.”

🫓 Orthodox teachers lose dispute over Passover observance day

• 20 Orthodox teachers in NYC have lost a dispute with the Department of Education to secure a religious observance day in order to prepare for Passover, reported The New York Post.

• Last year, the department ended a practice of granting teachers the day for customary pre-Passover preparations, including cleaning the home and removing leavened food.

• The teachers filed a grievance last May after their requests were denied, but they were notified in February that it was unsuccessful.

📚 The Shefa School hosts inclusion conference

• The Shefa School, a pluralistic Jewish day school on the Upper West Side that specializes in learning disabilities, hosted over 100 educators from across the country on Monday for its first-ever conference on advancing inclusion for students with diverse learning needs in Jewish day schools.

• “It’s sort of like the dirty secret of every school is that, in fact, they have a lot of kids who are struggling and they don’t know how to serve them, or they know how, but they just don’t have the capacity,” Ilana Ruskay-Kidd, founder and head of The Shefa School, said to our reporter Grace Gilson. “I think that these people can make change.”