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- Mamdani is testing a Netanyahu arrest with city lawyers. Mayor Zohran Mamdani told The New York Times he was in “an active conversation” with New York City’s Law Department about whether to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his expected visit for the U.N. General Assembly in September. Mamdani said his administration would do “whatever the law allows me to do,” but “we won’t be writing our own laws to that end.” He vowed during his mayoral campaign to arrest Netanyahu, citing a warrant for war crimes issued against Netanyahu by the International Criminal Court, but the United States is not a party to the court and does not recognize its authority.
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Two Queens synagogues were vandalized with feces and motor oil. Bags of the mixture were thrown at Young Israel of Jamaica Estates and Young Israel of Holliswood on Thursday night, The New York Post and PIX11 reported. The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating both incidents.
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Rahm Emanuel accused Morris Katz and other Platner advisers of “malpractice.” One of the most prominent Jewish figures in U.S. politics slammed Katz and other strategists behind former Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s campaign, which was plagued by scandals including a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol and ended after a sexual assault allegation. “What they have done is professional malpractice at the expense of the party’s interests,” Emanuel told Politico about Platner’s team. Katz, who is also Jewish, was key to both Mamdani’s rise and Platner’s bid, which ultimately ended in controversy.
- Rachel Simons, the Australian-born co-founder of Seed + Mill, criticized the Park Slope Food Coop’s boycott of her tahini and halva brand, saying that she hoped their products could be a “vehicle for dialogue.” Simons lives in New York and has a shop in Chelsea Market. “Their stated goal is ending apartheid in Israel, but that framework simply doesn’t hold up applied to our brand,” Simons told the Australian Jewish News. “Our products are made in a factory owned by a Muslim Arab Israeli.”
- Jerry Wartski, a 96-year-old Holocaust survivor who starred in a 2024 political ad for President Donald Trump, took aim at what he described as antisemitism within the Democratic Party and the democratic socialist movement in an interview with the New York Post. “You have to keep your eyes open to what’s going on,” Wartski, who lives in Manhattan, told The Post. “I cover up my Star of David chain under my shirt when I walk outside now.”
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Tal Bagels on the Upper West Side was closed by the New York City Department of Health after receiving 157 violation points during its most recent health inspection, the West Side Rag reports.
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A Brooklyn public school teacher is facing an investigation by the Department of Education after the New York Post identified him as the host of a YouTube channel featuring antisemitic conspiracy theories, including claims that Israel was behind the JFK assassination.
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