Boy injured after intruder chases woman into Queens Jewish school

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• An 8-year-old boy was injured after an intruder entered the front yard of the Jewish Institute of Queens while chasing a woman with a hammer Tuesday morning, the NYPD said. The woman who was chased by the suspect was not Jewish, the NYPD confirmed, and the school said in a letter to parents that the incident appeared “completely random,” adding that there was no indication that the school was “specifically targeted.” Still, Sydney Altfield, the CEO of Teach Coalition, said in a statement that “incidents like this are a sobering reminder that protecting our communities requires constant vigilance and continued investment in security. While the motive has not been confirmed, the fear felt by Jewish families is real.” The coalition is part of the Orthodox Union, which has joined dozens of other Jewish groups in pressing for federal legislation that would allocate $1 billion security for religious institutions.

• J Street is rallying behind Mohsen Mahdawi, a pro-Palestinian activist at Columbia University. Mahdawi is facing deportation by the Trump administration after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled Tuesday that a decision last year ordering his release was an error. The group has promoted a letter, which is did not author, to support Mohsen’s legal battle against the administration. “The Trump Administration is threatening to deport Mohsen because he supports Palestinian rights and the freedom of his own family, his own people,” J Street president Jeremy Ben-Ami wrote in a post on X. “You don’t have to agree with Mohsen. But we should all defend his right to speak.”

• Dan Sohail, the man who pleaded guilty to driving his truck into Chabad headquarters in Brooklyn in January, will be sentenced on Wednesday at noon. He faces imprisonment and restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

• On the yahrtzeit of Wesley LaPatner, the Jewish communal leader and CEO of Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust who was killed during a mass shooting in Manhattan last July, her family and friends have announced a new foundation in her memory. The Wesley Mittman LePatner Foundation will offer a mentorship program aimed at developing a network of “1,000 leaders”  who will strengthen the nonprofit ecosystem, to which LePatner was devoted. “What we are officially launching today is not just the start of a love letter to my amazing wife,” her husband, Evan LePatner, said in a statement to The Forward. “We are building programs and a community that she would have led, nurtured, and inspired many others to join.”

• After drawing fire for not including Jewish lawyers in his legal advisory team, Mamdani appears to have included at least one Jewish New Yorker in his new appointees to the city school board, which the mayor controls. Maddy Fox was among the signatories of a 2025 letter from Jewish academics accusing the Trump administration of “weaponizing” antisemitism concerns to pursue an anti-higher education agenda. JNS was the first to report about Fox’s signature on the letter, which an education department spokesperson told the outlet underscored Mamdani’s commitment to oppose antisemitism.