Bernie Sanders decries Gaza ‘genocide’ to applause in Riverside Church

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What you need to know today

• Jewish groups are rallying outside the United Nations. UJA-Federation of New York, JCRC-NY and other organizations are gathering outside the UN General Assembly at 5 p.m. to urge world leaders to take action against antisemitism. The speakers include Arsen Ostrovosky, a survivor of the Hanukkah shooting at Australia’s Bondi Beach, Shalev Biton, a survivor of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, and Younes Alkarnawi, a Bedouin who saved Biton.
  
  
• Sen. Bernie Sanders decried “genocide” in a speech at Riverside Church. The Vermont senator said in a foreign policy address on Tuesday that “we must continue to speak out against the extremist government in Israel and the genocide they have committed in Gaza,” adding, “we in the United States must end all military aid to the Netanyahu government.” The line was met with raucous applause in the historic Manhattan church, where Sanders also denounced runaway artificial intelligence, the climate crisis and wealth inequality.
  
  
• Gov. Kathy Hochul leads Bruce Blakeman with Jewish voters, a poll finds. The Siena Research Institute said in a survey released today that 56% of Jewish New York voters would vote for Hochul, a Democrat, while 41% would chose Blakeman, her Republican challenger and the executive of Nassau County. Blakeman, who is Jewish, has made combating antisemitism and defending Israel key pillars of his campaign.
  
  
• Speaker Julie Menin visited a Warsaw Ghetto exhibition at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. The Jewish City Council speaker today joined the council’s Jewish Caucus for a tour of the museum’s new exhibition, “Will These Words Reach You? The Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto,” which examines Jewish resistance and historical preservation in the Nazi ghetto.
  
  
• Ben Stiller shows up as a cat for Katz’s Deli. The actor, who has mixed Jewish and Catholic heritage, appeared in a cat costume and makeup for an ad filmed in Katz’s billing Stiller’s Soda, a collaboration between Stiller and the iconic deli. The video featured Stiller being interviewed by Nicolas Heller, a Jewish-Italian filmmaker and social media influencer who made Katz’s first-ever commercial.