A slew of Jewish groups have endorsed Andrew Cuomo for New York City mayor in the days after Mayor Eric Adams suspended his reelection campaign.

Crown Heights United PAC, a political group “anchored in the Crown Heights Jewish community” which is the center of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, endorsed Cuomo Monday morning.

“We proudly endorse Andrew Cuomo for Mayor of New York City,” Crown Heights United PAC wrote in a statement, which was signed by 13 rabbis and community leaders. “With extremism and antisemitism on the rise, and the city facing an unprecedented crisis, it is more important than ever to make our voices heard and vote.”

The Sephardic Community Federation has gotten fully behind Cuomo. After regularly posting generic messages urging people to vote in the November election, the SCF is now calling for donations to his campaign.

“It’s easy, DONATE NOW! MUST BE DONE TODAY,” the group wrote in an Instagram post Monday, referencing the impending matching funds deadline. “Ask friends and family to contribute $100 to help protect our city and our community. If we lose, the current wave of anti-Jewish sentiment could spread further; a win here can stop that momentum in its tracks.”

A joint endorsement letter published Tuesday included signatures from across the city’s five boroughs, including Senator Sam Sutton, a longtime activist in Brooklyn’s Sephardic community; representatives of the Far Rockaway Jewish Alliance, Queens Jewish Alliance, Staten Island Jewish Coalition, Crown Heights United and Association of Crown Heights Shuls; and Jewish community activists from Manhattan and the Bronx.

Citing Mamdani’s inexperience and “past support for those calling to ‘globalize the intifada,’” the letter reads that they “encourage our communities across New York City to unite with us in endorsing Andrew Cuomo for Mayor.”

The endorsements point to how the race is changing now that Adams has dropped out. Groups and individuals who may have stayed out of the race out of deference to the incumbent mayor are now jumping in to try to tilt the race away from frontrunner Zohran Mamdani.

Mamdani’s criticism of Israel, which has drawn accusations of fueling antisemitism, prompted a number of Jewish groups to seek out his most viable opponent. More broadly, opponents of Mamdani’s democratic socialist politics — including Jim Walden, who recently suspended his own mayoral campaign in an effort to unite against Mamdani’s “antisemitic obsessions” — have been calling for the frontrunner’s opponents to coalesce around one challenger.

Despite Cuomo polling comfortably in second place, there has been hesitance about picking which opponent that would be. Several Jewish groups and individuals had endorsed Cuomo in the primary, but at least three — including the Crown Heights PAC — clarified in July that they had not yet decided who to support in the general election.

Adams’ support among Orthodox Jews had helped him win the 2021 mayoral election, and he’d been making a significant play to Jewish voters this year, petitioning to run on an “EndAntisemitism” ballot line. He racked up four endorsements from rabbis, but his candidacy was clearly flagging. Two of those rabbis, Michael Landau and Yossi Garelik, have endorsed Cuomo since Adams dropped out.

While many Adams voters are expected to swing to Cuomo, some are also likely to opt for Republican Curtis Sliwa. Former assemblymember Dov Hikind, who is Sliwa’s most prominent Jewish ally, wrote Sunday that Sliwa is “the only alternative to a disastrous Mamdani administration,” adding, “CUOMO CAN NOT WIN!!!”

Cuomo is hovering around 30% in the latest polls without Adams, versus Sliwa at 17-18% and Mamdani at 44-46%.

Cuomo has positioned himself squarely against Mamdani on Israel, saying that he believes Mamdani is “pro-Hamas.” In November 2024, before he entered the Democratic primary, Cuomo joined the legal team defending Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the International Criminal Court issued his arrest warrant. Cuomo has laughed off Mamdani’s plan to arrest Netanyahu if he steps foot in New York. But he distanced himself from Netanyahu earlier this month, saying, “I never stood with Bibi.”

Fighting antisemitism has been a central part of Cuomo’s campaign. He called antisemitism “the most important and serious issue” of his campaign leading up to the primary, and declared in his campaign launch that New York should “be at the forefront” in “leading the fight against the global rise of antisemitism.”

Cuomo stuck to that messaging in his statement Monday, in which he said he was “deeply honored” by the Crown Heights United PAC’s endorsement, and “humbled by the trust placed in me by its leaders and by the broader Jewish community.”

“I pledge to redouble my efforts to lead the fight against antisemitism in every corner of New York City,” he wrote. “We must build a city where everyone, regardless of faith or background, feels safe, respected, and welcome.”

Still, Cuomo has a checkered history with the city’s Orthodox communities. While he cultivated haredi Orthodox votes during his three runs for governor, Cuomo’s relationship with those voters soured in 2020 when he sought to enforce COVID-era public health restrictions in neighborhoods like Borough Park and Midwood — singling out haredi Orthodox communities, critics said. That October, the haredi umbrella body Agudath Israel of America sued him for discrimination.

The next year, the New York Times reported that Cuomo had expressed disdain for Jewish practices: While at an event celebrating the fall festival of Sukkot, he allegedly remarked, “These people and their f—ing tree houses.” His spokesperson denied the allegation and said, “He has the highest respect for Jewish traditions.”

Tuesday’s joint endorsement letter acknowledged that “we may have had differences with him during his tenure as Governor,” but contended that “he is the most experienced and capable choice for our city at this pivotal moment.”

Elon Musk has intensified his long-running feud with the Anti-Defamation League, calling the Jewish civil rights group a “hate group” in a post on X, the platform he owns and renamed from Twitter.

“The ADL hates Christians, therefore it is is [sic] a hate group,” Musk wrote Sunday, responding to a pseudonymous account that had claimed the ADL views Christianity as extremist.

The exchange drew quick amplification from right-wing figures. U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican, accused the ADL of “intentionally creating a targeted hate campaign against Christians.” Provocateur Laura Loomer went further, urging that the ADL be “designated as a domestic terror org.”

At issue is the ADL’s page on “Christian Identity,” a specific white supremacist theology that portrays Jews as descendants of Satan and has been linked to violent extremism. The ADL, in a statement, explained that the ideology is “antisemitic, racist, and unambiguously poisonous” and bears no resemblance to mainstream Christianity. ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt wrote on X that the suggestion his group is anti-Christian is “offensive and wrong,” noting that “many of our staff members are Christian. Many of our supporters are Christian.”

Musk’s outburst is notable because, as recently as January, the ADL had defended him after he appeared to make a Nazi-style salute during Donald Trump’s inauguration. At the time, the group called the gesture “awkward,” a comment that drew backlash within the Jewish community and from the group’s left-wing critics.

The latest clash adds to a series of Musk’s attacks on the ADL. In 2023, he endorsed a post alleging that Jews were pushing “hatred against whites” and accused the ADL of “unjustly” targeting Western societies. He has also threatened to sue the organization for scaring advertisers away from X and recently demanded that it remove Turning Point USA, the group founded by Charlie Kirk who was assassinated earlier this month, from its database of extremist groups.

Kirk’s assassination took place the same day as a school shooting in Colorado allegedly by a gunman whose online activity had been flagged by a member of the ADL’s extremism monitoring division.

Since acquiring Twitter in late 2022, Musk has reshaped the platform’s approach to content moderation, reinstating banned white supremacists such as Nick Fuentes, who has praised Adolf Hitler and trafficked in antisemitic rhetoric. Civil rights groups, including the ADL, have warned that such moves have fueled a surge in online hate.

A viral video showing a group of high school seniors in Argentina chanting antisemitic slogans during their graduation trip has prompted a wave of condemnation, including from President Javier Milei.

The video, recorded in the city of Bariloche, shows students from Escuela Humanos, a private school in Greater Buenos Aires, chanting “Today we burn Jews.” A coordinator from the travel company Baxtter appears to join in the chants.

It is common during graduation trips to the southern mountain city for tour companies to combine buses from different schools for certain excursions. Students from Escuela Humanos were traveling with students from a Jewish school, Escuela ORT.

Escuela Humanos describes itself as training “ambassadors of peace.” The school issued a lengthy statement on Monday saying that the activities captured on the video “do not represent our values,” and that school officials had been in touch with Argentina’s leading Jewish organization, DAIA. But the statement distanced the school from the incident caught on tape, saying that the tone on the bus was the responsibility of the tour company.

Baxxter told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the coordinator would be fired and that the company would work with DAIA “to work jointly to ensure that incidents of this kind do not happen again.”

ABERRANTE ANTISEMITISMO EN ARGENTINA

Alumnos de la escuela "Humanos" durante su viaje de egresados cantando "Hoy quemamos judíos". El coordinador de la empresa Baxter se suma a los mismos. El hecho fue el 10/9

Dato de color, la escuela dice ser "Embajadora Mundial de la paz" pic.twitter.com/lcuLp0rU00

— Dani Lerer (@danilerer) September 28, 2025

The video was reportedly taken earlier this month but went viral on Sunday after it was shared by the pro-Israel Argentine influencer Dani Lerer. It soon vaulted to national news, and Milei tweeted a two-word condemnation.

“Reprehensible. Full stop,” said Milei, himself an avowed philosemite.

The Ministry of Justice, Argentina’s Jewish political organization, and private citizens have all filed legal complaints related to the incident caught on tape.

“In the Holocaust, Jews were burned, and that was truly genocide,” DAIA president Mauro Berenstein said on a morning radio news program on Monday. “We must eradicate this type of expression, working through education, setting limits, and raising awareness.”

Ariel Gelblung, the Latin America director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said in a statement that the chants appeared to reflect an unfortunate trend.

“There is an underlying layer of antisemitism in young people that comes out when they are away from home and encounter Jewish school students for the first time,” Gelblung said. “We need to work more on the disease than on the symptom. The responsibility does not lie only with the school or the company, but also with the values taught at home.”

Bariloche is a major tourist draw within the region of Patagonia, which is both popular with Israeli backpackers and a former refuge for Nazis after World War II. The Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke served as the director of the German School of Bariloche for many years. The city is also home to a Chabad center, until recently the only synagogue in Patagonia.

Fortnite, the popular multiplayer online video game, has disabled a character dance feature — called an “emote” — following speculation that its gestures resembled a swastika.

The “Peaceful Hips Emote,” which depicts actor and professional wrestler John Cena moving his arms up and down at a right angle, was part of a collaboration between Fortnite and the DC’s new television series “Peacemaker.”

But with the show’s latest season underway, it was revealed to fans that the alternate reality that Cena’s Peacemaker character had discovered is a version of the United States where the Nazis won World War II.

The latest revelation, which culminates in Cena discovering an American flag with its stars replaced by a swastika, caused some fans to take a closer look at the emote and determine that it appeared to loosely resemble the Nazi symbol.

Peacemaker’s dance emote from Fortnite has been disabled.

“As we inquire into our partner's creative intentions in this collab emote. Assuming it's not coming back, we'll issue refunds in the next few days.” pic.twitter.com/hwHqOiid1o

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) September 28, 2025

Following the show’s new twist, Fortnite issued a statement announcing the emote had been disabled.

“We’re disabling the Peaceful Hips Emote in Fortnite as we inquire into our partner’s creative intentions in this collab emote. Assuming it’s not coming back, we’ll issue refunds in the next few days. Sorry folks,” Fortnite said in a statement.

The show was created by filmmaker James Gunn, who also stirred controversy with his recent adaptation of “Superman,” which some fans said was an allegory for the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Gunn did not immediately comment on the Fortnite situation. But some fans on X have speculated that the dance move was inspired by a Oscar-nominated anti-Nazi wartime short featuring Donald Duck in Nazi attire, in which Donald Duck’s arms are unmistakably echo the shape of a swastika.

It’s kinda even more crazy the more deep you go down the rabbit hole. It was obviously inspired by a famous Donald The Duck’s short animation that was used as anti-Nazi propaganda in the 40s, it’s the only Donald The Duck animation to ever win an Oscar. pic.twitter.com/Yj86NOoHmg

— ⓧ (@CyclpsWsRght) September 28, 2025

The emote, which was a paid feature on the children’s video game platform with over 200 million users, drew outcry from some players that felt duped by the move’s alleged symbolism.

“I get that you are subversive, and I respect that. I am also 100% certain that your intentions with the story are good. But, not everyone knows you — we paid for a Nazi dance we didn’t know about, which is a little gross, and it isn’t great,” wrote one user on X to Gunn.

Antisemitism in video games is a major concern, as millions of people connect out of public view. The Anti-Defamation League has called attention to the risks of hate speech on prominent platforms, and the platform Roblox, in which users create their own spaces, had to remove a user-generated Nazi gas chamber in 2022.

But some also see gaming platforms as an opportunity to educate about antisemitism. In 2023, a virtual Holocaust museum called Voices of the Forgotten opened inside Fortnite, allowing users to see the lives of a French-Jewish family in the years before and during the Holocaust.

The name of Jewish food writer Jake Cohen’s new cookbook, “Dinner Party Animal,” is a particularly apt one: The 31-year-old celebrity chef — who lives on the Upper West Side with his famous pals, comedian Alex Edelman and songwriter Benj Pasek — regularly hosts parties for his well-known friends. 

Like his earlier cookbooks, “Jew-ish” and “I Could Nosh,” the new title is catchy. But beneath the playful phrase lies Cohen’s conviction in the central role of community —the Jewish community, in particular.

“Having a lot of Instagram followers and having people like posts online isn’t what makes me happy,” Cohen, who has nearly 2.5 million followers on TikTok and Instagram, said. “Having a book that sells a million copies isn’t what makes me happy. The act of hosting these dinners and building community, impacting individual people who come to me and say, ‘oh my God, I love this recipe; oh my God, I love this book of yours; I love making your challah every week.’ That is what makes me happy.”

Growing up in Dix Hills, Long Island, Cohen describes himself as a shy teen “struggling with my weight and sexuality.” But he gained confidence — and friends — through cooking and hosting dinner parties.

“I’ve always said extending hospitality to others is the fastest way to turn strangers into friends and friends into family,” he writes in the book’s introduction. “Through hosting Shabbat dinners I discovered firsthand the magic of a dinner party. But dinner parties shouldn’t be limited to Shabbat, and they don’t have to feel daunting.”

And so, “Dinner Party Animal,” which is out Tuesday, is a guide to demystifying the dinner party. Sprinkled among the book’s 100 recipes — which are grouped according to 16 party ideas, from a casual bagel brunch to an elegant, celebratory meal — are photos of his myriad friends, all of whom have been guests at Cohen’s table. Many of these pals are Jewish celebrities, like actress Debra Messing, fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi and record producer and songwriter Benny Blanco, who married pop star Selena Gomez over the weekend.

Not everyone in his universe is famous, however. One of the recipe testers for “Dinner Party Animal,” a stay-at-home Jewish mom from the Bay Area, befriended Cohen several years ago, when she sent him a message on Instagram.

Said recipe tester, 53-year-old Julie Bell, runs a cooking circle of Jewish women who range in age from 30s to 70s. The group tested several of the book’s recipes, and sometimes Cohen joined them via Zoom. 

“Jake brings joy to me,” Bell said. “He is an example of Jewish joy in the world, and I think we need a lot more Jewish joy.”

Cohen, who is gay and describes himself as “a nice Jewish boy,” said that many of his friends, like Bell, are “people who literally slide into my DMs.” That’s how he met journalist Katie Couric — she asked him to teach her how to make challah, he said — and it’s how he and Blanco, whose legal name is Benjamin Joseph Levin, connected.

“Benny direct-messaged me in 2020 and said, ‘You’re my hero,’” Cohen said. “I literally had no idea who he was. We became Instagram pen pals, I said I’m coming to LA on a book tour, let’s do Shabbat — and now we do all holidays together. I’m going to LA to do Rosh Hashanah with him. He did Passover with my family the last two years. Our mothers know each other!”

Cohen’s aim is to simplify the art of the dinner party. Every menu is accompanied by a grocery list, broken down by pantry items, spices, the type of meat or fish needed, the precise amount of produce to buy. He also provides a detailed game plan, from what to do five days ahead to how to finalize details in the hour before guests arrive. And one party menu, “That Was Tonight?” walks readers through how to put together a last-minute feast.

“A huge part of the success of the first two books came with recipes that people make every week, every holiday,” he said. “I started getting messages: ‘I love this recipe, but what do I serve with that? I got really good at making your Iraqi salmon but where do we go from there?’”

To celebrate the release of “Dinner Party Animal,” on Saturday, Oct. 4, Cohen will be joined by Jewish comedians Judy Gold and Modi at Temple Emanuel’s Streicker Cultural Center along with his roommates, Edelman and Pasek. Once the book talk is done, they’ll head to a subterranean space downstairs for what they’re calling “Bubbe’s Basement Dance Party.”

“I wanted something fun that is good for the Jews, and for me, the idea that the hottest club in New York on that Saturday night is going to be the basement of a synagogue?” said Cohen, adding that DJ Emil Cohen will spin “amazing” music. “Kind of iconic and kind of where we need to be going, creating these types of events so that we are engaging Jewish youth in some kind of relationship with synagogues or cultural centers like Streicker.”

But that’s not all. In honor of “Dinner Party Animal,” several New York City food establishments will be preparing Cohen’s recipes from the book to sell in their shops. Breads Bakery is offering, via Goldbelly, a “Jake in the Box” dessert sampler ($59.95), and at the West Village’s Buba Bureka, Cohen’s friend, baker Ben Siman-Tov will spotlight Cohen’s everything bagel bureka. Hani’s Bakery at Cooper Square will feature his chocolate raspberry cake, and Butterfield Market on the Upper East Side will be selling Cohen’s cabbage farro salad, a dish Cohen describes as “one of these salads that you can make long in advance with lemon tahini dressing and roasted broccoli and it’s just hearty and delicious.” 

While “Dinner Party Animal” can be enjoyed by people of all faiths and backgrounds, within the Jewish community, Cohen sees his role as turning people onto Shabbat and communal dinners. He sits on the board of One Table, an organization that connects people through Shabbat dinners all around North America. 

“I get the most internal fulfillment from this work of building community through a dinner party,” said Cohen. “I have influenced my entire generation to create a real pride around Shabbat and Jewish food. I am part of a group of people that feel the same way and are really helping to push our people forward with pride.”

KYIV, Ukraine — Just hours after a deadly Russian attack on Kyiv, Jewish community members gathered on Sunday for the 84th anniversary of the Babyn Yar Massacre, in which Nazi forces killed 33,771 Jews on the outskirts of the city in 1941.

At a second ceremony on Monday, the CEO of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, Anna Furman, revealed that researchers with her center had uncovered the identities of an additional 1,000 people buried in the ravine — names that had until now been lost to history.

“I am proud that our team has done this, discovering new facts and outcomes through collaboration with researchers, institutions, and by analyzing all the materials we could find,” Furman said. In total, she said, her team had identified 29,000 of the more than 100,000 people killed at Babyn Yar by the end of World War II.

The 1941 massacre at Babyn Yar was one of the single largest mass killings of Jews during the Holocaust and is the archetype of what scholars have termed the “Holocaust by bullets.”

To preserve the memory of those who were killed and their descendants, Ewgeni Gorodetski and Dmytro Yurinov co-founded the Babyn Yar March of Memory, which follows the “March of Death” Jews were forced to walk on their way to their deaths at Babyn Yar from Lukianivska Square.

This year, attendance on the annual march on Sunday was lower due to the overnight attack, which claimed the lives of four civilians and injured dozens more.

“We are happy for everyone who has arrived. Even after the bombardments. We came with you down a street that, for example, has been the most bombarded,” Gorodetski said. “But we also see how much is being rebuilt, and most importantly, that the people and our memory are still present.”

Members of the Jewish community, students and diplomats gathered at the Babyn Yar Menorah, which marks the site of the killings and where Nazi forces returned to eliminate evidence of the massacre. There, they recited the Mourner’s Kaddish and left stones in memory of those who were killed.

A replica menorah in a different city was damaged early in the war, prompting concerns that Russian attacks may be targeting Jewish sites.

At the Monday ceremony at the memorial’s synagogue,  Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center General Director Oleksiy Makukhin also announced that construction had been completed on an interactive monument known as Robina House.

“We wanted its interior to be decorated similarly to the synagogue because Robina is a place where people come to learn and understand the world,” he said.

The Russia-Ukraine war worked its way into the remarks of each representative who spoke, as they urged Ukrainians not to forget the memory of those who were killed in the Holocaust.

“On this day, with deep respect, we bow to every soul lost here,” Furman concluded.

Rabbi Yaakov Bleich recited El Malei Rachamim in the memory of those who were killed.

This reporting was supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Women on the Ground: Reporting from Ukraine’s Unseen Frontlines Initiative in partnership with the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.

Israel has accepted the White House’s proposal to end the Gaza war, U.S. President Donald Trump announced during a press conference Monday afternoon with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Now we just have to get Hamas,” Trump said. “I think we will.”

Whether Hamas will assent remains to be seen. The plan includes multiple elements that the group governing Gaza has previously rejected, including its disarmament. But it also includes incentives such as guaranteed passage from Gaza for Hamas leaders who agree to peace, and a commitment by Netanyahu not to strike again in Qatar, where its top brass have taken refuge.

Crucially, Trump said, if Hamas does not agree to the plan, Israel will have his full backing to continue to prosecute the Gaza war as it sees fit.

“If Hamas rejects your plan, Mr. President, or if they supposedly accept it, and then basically do everything to counter it, then Israel will finish the job by itself,” Netanyahu said. “This can be done the easy way, or it can be done the hard way, but it will be done. We prefer the easy way, but it has to be done.”

Netanyahu praised Trump effusively in his comments after Trump’s speech, saying, “You’ve proven time and again what I’ve said many times, you are the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House.” He said the plan represented “a critical step towards both ending the war in Gaza and setting the stage for dramatically advancing peace in the Middle East” — but emphasized that Israel would not stop fighting against Hamas without its full and convincing agreement.

Under the plan, all 48 of the Israeli hostages in Gaza would be released within 72 hours of the deal’s finalization while Israel withdraws from parts of Gaza. A full withdrawal would follow as Hamas disarms and a postwar plan for governance is put in place with the support of Arab and Muslim countries. An international “Board of Peace” helmed by Trump himself would make decisions for the enclave during a transitional period.

“This is some extra work to do, but it’s so important that I’m willing to do it,” Trump said.

Trump suggested that the mass protests by Israelis calling to end the war had played a role in his thinking. In recent months, the protests have included direct appeals to Trump, who has widely been viewed as the only figure with the leverage to get Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire deal over the objections of his coalition partners.

“I noticed that they have large crowds gathering in Israel all the time, and they have my name up. They like me for whatever reason,” he said. “They say two things, please get the hostages back and please end the war. They’ve had it.”

Both men thanked Jared Kushner, Trump’s Jewish son-in-law who returned to the White House after an absence to participate in the Middle East peace talks, and White House Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, for their role in the planning.

Trump boasted repeatedly of becoming the leader to end a long conflict, one that he said stretched back centuries.

“Within a few days, there’s a good chance there shouldn’t have to be a shot fired, maybe for eternity.” he said. “Wouldn’t that be nice?”

In keeping with pop legend Britney Spears’ penchant for posting seemingly random images on her social media, the star posted a photo of a group of Hasidic men playing chess over the weekend with the caption, “I like the beard !!!”

While it was unclear whether Spears posted the photo because of the Hasidic subjects or in keeping with her newfound interest in chess, the singer also tagged a Chabad-adjacent account, COLLive, which posts about Chabad engagements and cultural events.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by XILA MARIA RIVER RED (@britneyspears)

The unexpected post drew a flurry of discussion on social media, including from Jewish comedian Eitan Levine who raised the question: “Does Britney Spears have a Chabad fetish?”

“Britney Spears shared a picture of Chabad Chassidim playing chess to her 41 million instagram followers,” tweeted Dovid Bashevkin, the director of education for NCSY, the youth movement of the Orthodox Union. “Appreciate you @britneyspears — the Jewish People could use some positivity!”

The post was far from the pop singer’s first time showing interest in Jewish culture.

In 2003, Spears wrote in a post on her website that she had first been introduced to Kabbalah, a famous form of Jewish mysticism, by fellow pop star Madonna. While the singer later said she had stopped practicing Kabbalah in 2006, she posted a photo of her new Hebrew neck tattoo in 2021 that used a rare name for God usually used in Kabbalistic texts.

In 2017, the star was also mobbed by a large group of fans after she visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem ahead of a concert in Tel Aviv.

Spears is also not the only non-Jewish celebrity to express an interest in the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. In 2019, on the 25th anniversary of the death of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, supermodel Naomi Campbell posted a photo of herself praying at the Ohel, the rebbe’s resting place, calling him an “inspirational leader, scholar, and teacher.”

An electronic music festival in London has cancelled a set by an Israeli DJ, citing a blog post by a pro-Palestinian group that criticized the artist for serving as a “linchpin” of Israeli nightlife.

In a Substack post, Ravers for Palestine urged the Origins music festival to cancel Israeli DJ Roi Perez’s set, accusing him of “making apartheid look like a party,” despite his record of advocating for Israeli-Palestinian peace and LGBTQ+ rights.

“This is a DJ who encodes, via his plucky province-to-metropole settler backstory and appropriation of Black house music, the colonial narrative of a benevolent, queer-friendly liberal Zionism,” the blog post read.

The Origins organizers wrote in a temporary post on Instagram — now preserved elsewhere online — that it had canceled the event after learning of concerns about Perez’s “background” from Ravers for Palestine.

“We have read the recent statement from Ravers for Palestine and want to be absolutely clear that as a collective, we firmly and unequivocally support Palestinian liberation,” Origins said. “We do not want to take any action that undermines that struggle or risks platforming voices in ways that contribute to the ongoing genocide and Israel’s settler-colonial project.”

Ravers for Palestine specifically condemned a fundraiser hosted by Perez’s collective Laundrette in Berlin in November 2023.

In announcing the event, Laundrette said it had considered canceling given the “ongoing tragic events.” But instead, the collective decided to “emphasize our belief in coexistence and our hope for peace” and donate the proceeds to three nonprofits, including the coexistence group Standing Together.

“The funds will directly help survivors and evacuees of the 7/10 massacre, unsheltered Bedouin communities, displaced Palestinian communities due to settler violence, queer arabs in both Israel & Palestine in need of professional psycho-social counseling and other underserved groups,” Laundrette wrote.

Ravers for Palestine argued that the language was a way of downplaying Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, calling Perez and his Israeli supporters “settlers” themselves.

“Let’s be clear—’peace’ in this context is a euphemism for the orderly annihilation of Palestinian life,” the blog post read. “Any settler advocating for ‘coexistence,’ rather than full decolonization and right of return, supports the colonial occupation of Palestine and its continuance.”

Origins’ decision to cancel Perez’s set, which would have taken place at the London nightclub FOLD, has drawn condemnation online, with many noting Perez’s outspoken advocacy for Palestinians.

“AS AN ISRAELI!!!, I find it embarrassing to read what you wrote. Roi is one of the most prominent Israeli figures pushing against the state narrative, openly supporting Palestine and every action against Israel — and yet he’s the one you’re trying to crucify,” wrote one commenter on Ravers for Palestine’s Instagram post announcing the cancellation. Similar comments from people who said they were not Israeli also appeared.

This piece first ran as part of The Countdown, our daily newsletter rounding up all the developments in the New York City mayor’s race. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. There are 36 days to the election.

👋 Adams is out — but who will get his votes?

• Mayor Eric Adams quit his reelection bid on Sunday, ending an unpopular, scandal-ridden administration and a longshot campaign to hold onto Grace Mansion.

• Adams was consistently polling fourth, behind Democratic nominee and frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. But Jews made up an important part of his base. According to a Quinnipiac poll released earlier this month, of the 12% of voters who favored Adams, 42% said they were Jewish.

• Adams did not endorse another candidate but took an implicit shot at Mamdani, saying, “Beware of those who claim the answer is to destroy the very system we built together over generations.”

• It remains to be seen where Adams supporters will end up. Cuomo, who hopes they will help him beat Mamdani, praised Adams’ decision on X. “I believe he is sincere in putting the well-being of New York City ahead of personal ambition,” said Cuomo. “We face destructive extremist forces that would devastate our city through incompetence or ignorance, but it is not too late to stop them.”

• Sliwa, who could also win some Adams voters, insisted he would not end his bid and blasted his remaining rivals. “Cuomo made our city unsafe, victimized New Yorkers, and resigned in disgrace. He’s dangerous. Mamdani is proudly anti-police, during a public safety crisis,” he said on X, adding, “I’m the only candidate who will make this city safe.”

• Mamdani gave a cutting obituary to Adams’ administration, saying he made the city “nearly impossible” to live in. He also slammed his opponents over reports that President Trump weighed an appointment for Adams, potentially as ambassador to Saudi Arabia, to tempt him out of the race and tip its outcome in Cuomo’s favor.

• Adams exits as a staunch Israel supporter during a time when public opinion of Israel has soured in New York City. Days before leaving the race, he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and watched him address the U.N. General Assembly.

🥊 Mamdani torches Adams for Netanyahu meeting

• After Adams met Netanyahu and thanked him for “defending the western world,” Mamdani responded with fiery remarks on Friday.

• “I can’t even begin to explain the offense that that brings to New Yorkers across the five boroughs,” said Mamdani. “How can we describe the killing of a child once an hour every hour for close to two years as a defense of our way of life? That is not a way of life that any of us practice in this city.”

• Asked to speak about the Israeli hostages in Gaza, Mamdani quoted hostage families who he said have asked Netanyahu to agree to a prisoner exchange with Hamas. “My politics is built on a universality, and I can think of no better illustration of that than from the words of the hostage families themselves: ‘Everyone for everyone,’” he said.

🎙 Mamdani says ADL’s Greenblatt does not represent Jews

• Mamdani said Jonathan Greenblatt, head of the Anti-Defamation League, does not speak for Jewish New Yorkers in an interview with journalist Mehdi Hasan.

• Greenblatt has repeatedly criticized Mamdani for his positions on Israel, as the ADL has drawn an increasingly hard line against anti-Zionism.

• “I think there are far better representations of the concerns of Jewish New Yorkers than the ADL and Jonathan Greenblatt,” said Mamdani, adding that he would not seek a meeting with Greenblatt.

• As a counter to Greenblatt, Mamdani described a woman he met at the progressive Kolot Chayeinu synagogue in Brooklyn on Rosh Hashanah. She gave him stickers of bagels and lox that said, “Reject the smear campaign — join the schmear campaign.”

• Mamdani has expanded his outreach to Jewish political and communal leaders since the primary, seeking to convince them that his criticism of Israel won’t prevent him from protecting Jews against rising antisemitism.

• He also addressed his pledge to arrest Netanyahu, a move that some experts say falls outside his legal purview. Mamdani downplayed the logistics of the arrest, emphasizing more broadly his desire to bring New York City in line with international law. “To be clear, I’m going to operate within the bounds of the law,” he said. “I’m not Donald Trump seeking to create my own legal system as I make my own decisions.”

💰 Following the money

• Wealthy New Yorkers are banding together through several super PACs to fight Mamdani’s likely victory, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads and canvassing, according to The New York Times.

• Fix the City, the largest anti-Mamdani PAC, received $50,000 this month from Jewish philanthropist Deborah Simon, daughter of the billionaire shopping mall magnate Melvin Simon. She is a major donor to Democrats as well as Jewish causes, including the ADL and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

• Other recent Jewish donors to Fix the City include Ronald Lauder, who gave $750,000.