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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.
What you need to know today
- Alums, parents, students push back on planned prayers outside Gracie Mansion: Ahead of tomorrow’s planned Jewish student prayer service outside Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s residence, a petition is being distributed by the progressive group Halachic Left that urges organizers to relocate the event. The petition — which has been signed by more than 300 alumni, students and parents of students, mostly from SAR High School and the Ramaz School — charges that the location “will likely be interpreted as a political statement against the mayor, rather than as a response to rising antisemitism.” The petition says it “needlessly inflames tensions between the mayor and the Modern Orthodox Jewish community.” Mamdani said yesterday that he welcomes their presence.
- NYC man sentenced for October 2023 attack on Israeli tourist: Yehia Amin flashed peace signs and grinned as he was sentenced to 90 days in jail on Tuesday after pleading guilty to a hate crime for attacking an Israeli tourist in Times Square days after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack in Israel.
- Michael Sweetney: Former New York Knicks player Michael Sweetney died, his wife announced today. Sweetney was an assistant coach for the Yeshiva University men’s basketball team, and took a job this summer to coach Golda Och Academy, a small Jewish day school in New Jersey. Elliot Steinmetz, YU’s coach, wrote on X that Sweetney was “there for our student-athletes at Yeshiva University day in and day out, regardless of his other responsibilities and jobs,” and that the Jewish community “lost an ally and someone who knew exactly how to show up.” He was 43.
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