Friday, October 16, 2026
Simon Schama: Jew hatred feeds on lies. The antidote is truth
Antisemitism is now the fastest metastasising race hatred in the Western world. Eighty years after the end of the war that exterminated two-thirds of their European population, Jews are experiencing a drastic contraction of citizenship. They no longer enjoy the assumed right, for instance, to wear in public what clothing when and where they wish; to gather for prayer or weddings or bar mitzvahs without the necessity of armed guards in front of their place of worship.The Silenced Howl of Howard Jacobson
Should Jews have the temerity to show up near a pro-Palestinian demonstration carrying a sign indicating their allegiance, they are the ones threatened with arrest unless they remain silent or, preferably, remove themselves altogether from the scene. In April 2024, the head of the Campaign Against Antisemitism was told that looking “quite openly Jewish” near to a demonstration (he was wearing a kippah) constituted “a breach of the peace”.
Never mind that this dramatic loss of security in the Diaspora makes the case for Zionism more effectively than anything Herzl or Ben-Gurion wrote (though in many ways it rehearses their prophecies and warnings); the pile-on continues unabated. College faculties are commanded by student demonstrators to cleanse themselves of suspect – or, worse, professed – Zionists.
An undergraduate leader of marches and rallies at my own Columbia University in New York excitedly proclaimed on video that he would like to go out and murder as many Zionists as he could. A British government review in June 2026 revealed National Health Service workers saying they would refuse to treat Israeli patients, even if they were on the verge of death. Medical staff at a hospital in Bankstown, Australia, were filmed performing a throat-slitting gesture, indicating how much they looked forward to prime opportunities to hasten the death of any Israeli patients.
Everywhere, Jews have been instructed that they cannot expect to remain in cultural or social institutions in which they have participated, should they not publicly and vehemently repudiate their ancestral homeland. Installed on this cultural and social selection ramp are the arbitrators of which Jews may pass this acceptability test and which not.
In Italy, Keshet Italia and Keshet Europe, Jewish LGBTQ organisations, were forbidden from joining a Pride march in Rome for insufficiently denouncing Israeli genocide. The Israeli presence at the Eurovision Song Contest was enough for Spain, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Iceland and Ireland to pull out of the event, claiming in high dudgeon that it would be morally tainted. Purges and exclusions, active or passive, are now the norm.
On a New York subway car in 2024, a shouty pro-Palestine militant demanded to know whether there were any Zionists aboard, as they would have to exit before the train could proceed. In November the following year, supporters of the Maccabi Tel Aviv football team were banned by Birmingham City Council from attending a Europa League match against Aston Villa on the grounds that they had demonstrated a thirst for exceptional violence at an earlier match in Amsterdam.
The council acted on information supplied by the West Midlands Police; the fact that the information turned out to be false did not prevent the chief constable from repeating it to Parliament. In January 2026 it was revealed that the WMP had had intelligence about local groups planning to arm themselves and target Maccabi fans but failed to disclose this to the MPs.
On 3 June 2026, an unhinged woman on the C train subway in New York shouted that “Jews are eating kids”, adding that she could smell the children on a nearby Orthodox woman whom she went on to assault.
Appearing at an anti-Israel rally in the heart of a conspicuously Jewish district of Toronto, Abbas Hamze – who has been an instructor at Canadian colleges, including the University of Niagara Falls – spoke of Jews “practising black magic” and raping and eating children. The fleeting period when social media platforms made an ostensible effort to block evidently harmful lies from multiplying has given way to the higher imperative of clicks, triggered not by conscientious resistance to conspiracy and malevolent fantasy but by encouraging its profitable sensationalism.
The road to revenue is lined with lies and Jews are its run-over casualties.
In the digital universe, the revelation of outlandish falsehoods is no guarantee of their impotence, much less their disappearance. Long gone are the times when John Milton, arguing in Areopagitica for an unlicensed press, could write, “Let her [Truth] and Falsehood grapple; whoever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?”
Is a brilliant new novel about Britain after October 7 being cashiered?Seth Mandel: You Hate To See It
Many of Draxler’s demoralizing and deranging experiences are inspired by real events, among them teenagers filmed tearing down posters of October 7 hostages, London police officers telling “obviously Jewish” people to get off the street lest they provoke Gaza marchers into violence by their mere presence, and upper-middle-class activists vandalizing paintings to protest Zionism. Even so, there is a surreal quality to Draxler’s experiences. He is a far from reliable narrator, and even he wonders whether his Holocaust-shadowed childhood is distorting or intensifying his perceptions of post–October 7 London.
Does his daughter really have “Kill all Zionists” tattooed around her belly button? Could it be that it was his own brother, not roving anti-Semites, who daubed “Yid 1” on his car while he sleepily kept guard outside his mother’s house? And on the night of October 7 itself, did Draxler really hear his neighbors chorus “gas the Jews” as they “popped prosecco corks”? In real life, there were no reports of such an incident in Britain, as bad as things became in the days after October 7.2
Draxler is well aware that his mind is swimming in paranoia, but he also knows that there are sound historical reasons for a Jew like himself to be fearful, and that on a more local scale, there really are people who are out to get him.
In one of the richest parts of the book, Draxler has a friendly conversation with a Syrian Arab doctor, the father of one of his pupils. (Draxler has carefully made sure that a copy of the Koran is prominent on his office bookshelf.) The physician tells him about the hadith concerning the Gharqad tree. He explains that during the End of Days, when the Faithful are in their final war with the Jews and the very rocks and stones call out “O, Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him,” only the Gharqad tree will refuse to take part and stay silent. But then, says the doctor, “because Jews seek safety behind Gharqad trees we will know where to find them.” The doctor says he doesn’t subscribe to this teaching; he just wants Draxler to know what he is up against.
But Draxler’s predicament is not just a question of fear and the reasons for it. He is dealing with overwhelming disillusionment. He (like Jacobson, presumably) has always put his faith in the morally improving effects of knowledge, education, and culture, a faith that has become untenable in the face of campus bloodlust and bigotry: “Teach people and Belsen will never happen again, the world said in 1945. We forgot that it depended on what we taught.” Far from a source of hope, the young generation programmed in the West’s universities possesses an ugly moral certainty as profound as its ignorance. Language itself can no longer be trusted: “The language I’d been reading all my life assumed a common enterprise of imagination and compassion. Words were there to help us navigate our way to the truth. Not any more.”
Howl is not without flaws. Despite Jacobson’s acute understanding of the various forms of anti-Semitism, he does not and maybe cannot portray a convincing anti-Semite. Then there is his own predilection for Jewish stereotype. Draxler, like most of Jacobson’s male stand-ins, is proudly ignorant of the natural world, compulsively argumentative, impractical, and obsessed in a quasi-Oedipal way with his mother. Perhaps in the 1960s, when Jacobson’s comic sensibilities were taking shape, it was a cute act of aesthetic rebellion for Jewish authors to favor male Jewish protagonists who were hairy, sweaty, neurotic, self-conscious, unathletic, sexually perverse, and socially awkward. As quintessentially Jewish as those qualities may have seemed in the era of Lenny Bruce, today they feel like tired shtick.
None of this diminishes what Jacobson has achieved with Howl, a comic novel that is as serious and important as it is funny. Its implications reach far beyond Britain and the predicament of its Jewry—a predicament that has actually darkened since the book was written, as the Manchester synagogue attack in October 2025 made clear. Howl is the Catch-22 of the post–October 7 era, the first major artistic response to that horror and the ways in which it has changed the world.
It is therefore all the more bizarre—and troubling—that the novel could not find a mainstream American publisher.
That failure is so striking that it has become a key exhibit in the charge that mainstream American publishing has become institutionally hostile to Jewish authors and Jewish books (with the exception of those that are explicitly hostile to Zionism and/or reek of anti-Semitism).
According to a widely circulated article in the Wall Street Journal, there is considerable evidence of something that looks like an informal boycott in the publishing industry: “Published writers with overtly Jewish books say their agents have dropped them from their roster; writers are being asked by editors to purge Jewish or Israeli elements from their books.”
Jacobson’s mixed commercial record over four decades and the general decline of the literary novel could make for a plausible market-based explanation for the failure of Howl to find a U.S. publisher—if it weren’t so topical, so timely, so well-reviewed in the UK, and, above all, so damned good.
A publisher would have to be an idiot not to see the commercial potential of a comic masterpiece like Howl. Given that most heads of major publishing houses are not idiots, it does look, troublingly, as if some other, less creditable factor has been at play.
At best, it could reflect the cowardice of politically correct middle-aged executives who fear more than anything condemnation by their intolerant young staff. Certainly, it would be interesting to know what influenced the decision-makers at Simon & Schuster, which previously published two of Jacobson’s novels (Kalooki Nights and The Act of Love). It is not as if S&S has been afraid of publishing politically controversial authors. It has, after all, bought the novels of the Arab-American writer Susan Abulhawa, whose overtly anti-Semitic remarks have been condemned as “reprehensible” even by Zohran Mamdani.
Eventually, Wicked Son, the small publishing house that has inaugurated a new line of books specifically from the list of those by Jewish authors who find their work summarily rejected by the big firms, bought Howl. It is apparently due to come out in 2027. The fact that no mainstream American publisher would touch Howl is a disturbing confirmation that Ferdinand Draxler’s October 8 perceptions of a world changed for the worse are spot-on: “I had suffered no loss but the space I moved in, like the air I breathed, had acquired a different density.”
Though the Times gushes that Mamdani could have been built in a lab, he is running into a problem: his voters believed him.
Mamdani was always looking for ways to up the ante—rhetorically, at least. And so he infamously told socialist activists that the Jewish state was to be blamed for every local New York City problem. If you see police brutality, he mused, picture an IDF soldier lacing the cop’s boots. Then he insisted he would abuse his office by directing the NYPD to arrest a foreign head of government, the prime minister of the one and only Jewish state.
These were ludicrous claims, and they suggested Mamdani was very much a bigoted con man who would try to sell New Yorkers the air they breathed. But people believed him, because they hated Israel enough to believe anything.
And what is one thing you’d expect of a man who blamed Jews for NYPD misbehavior and who claimed total control over the police force as if it were his praetorian guard? Of course: His rabid supporters want the head of Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who wears a Star of David pendant around her neck.
Demands to purge high-profile Jews who haven’t renounced their own people are not unprecedented, of course. But rarely are they so nakedly proposed in New York, home to more Jews than any city outside Israel (and most cities inside Israel).
Of course, the pro-Palestinian fire-the-Jewess campaign is part of a larger menu of items on which anti-Zionists seek to gorge themselves. As the Times notes, Mamdani “is being asked to fulfill an activist wish list unlike any delivered to mayors in the recent past. It includes abolishing the City University of New York Board of Trustees (over investments tied to Israel); intervening in the programming decisions of local synagogues; and halting any military shipments to Israel through the city’s major airports, which the mayor does not control.”
Why would they think he had control over U.S. foreign policy? Perhaps because he indicated that he had precisely those powers when he threatened to J. Edgar Hoover the NYPD on Bibi Netanyahu.
The reporting on this all suggests poor Zohran Mamdani has been put in a tough spot. But of course, that’s not true at all. Mamdani put himself in that spot. He deserves all of this. It is important, in fact, that an anti-Semitic power-hungry demagogue be brought back down to earth with simple politics.
Mamdani’s mob wants what it voted for. They won’t get it—not all of it—and Mamdani will look like what he is: a man who over-promised and under-prepared for a serious role in a democracy.
The Moynihan Report: What the West Gets Wrong About the Middle East | Simon Sebag Montefiore
Historian and bestselling author Simon Sebag Montefiore joins Michael Moynihan to discuss his new book, The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East, and the history behind one of the world's most contested regions. They examine the myths surrounding Israel's founding, the Palestinian Nakba, the rise and fall of Arab nationalism, and the emergence of political Islam. Montefiore challenges the popular decolonization narrative, explains why the Iranian Revolution of 1979 transformed the region, and considers why Western audiences, particularly younger generations, have embraced increasingly distorted versions of Middle Eastern history. Along the way, they discuss antisemitism, the failures of Israeli leadership, the prospects for democracy in the Arab world, and whether Israelis and Palestinians can ever reach a lasting political settlement.
(0:00) Cold Open
(0:22) Monologue
(1:20) From Russia to the Middle East
(2:57) Antisemitism and Montefiore's Family History
(4:17) The Internet and the Persistence of Historical Myths
(6:26) Why Historians Need to Speak Up
(9:32) Challenging the Settler-Colonial Narrative
(10:17) Criticizing Israel vs. Antisemitism
(13:58) Why Is the West Obsessed With the Middle East?
(17:03) Anti-Colonialism and the New Crusaders
(18:55) Was the 1948 War Inevitable?
(22:29) The Nakba and the Palestinian Exodus
(28:05) Zionism Before 1948
(30:58) From Left-Wing Radicalism to Islamism
(34:07) Nasser and the Muslim Brotherhood
(39:27) Why the Iranian Revolution Changed Everything
(41:08) Can Democracy Take Root in the Middle East?
(45:15) How the West's View of Israel Changed
(48:28) The Future of a Two-State Solution
(50:37) The Biggest Misconception About the Middle East
Call me Back Podcast: Dan Live from Michigan’s Temple Israel
Is this a turning point for Jews in America, and what happens if the country fails the test?
Recorded live at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan, Dan Senor brings together New York Times columnist Bret Stephens and Representatives Josh Gottheimer and Hillary Scholten for a candid conversation about the rising tide of antisemitism, the political forces reshaping American life, and the choices facing Jews and their allies.
In this live conversation:
Dan explains the three-step playbook behind the blood libel that still plays out today
Bret Stephens reflects on reactions to October 7th, what it revealed about the Jewish community’s allies, and the meaning of becoming an “October 8th Jew.”
Stephens explores the uneasy parallels between Jewish success in the diaspora and the sudden rise of antisemitism.
Stephens reflects on how societies who condemn the Jews end up much worse in the aftermath.
Dan Senor, Gottheimer, and Scholten discuss the consequences for both parties when anti-Israel rhetoric moves from campus protests into the political mainstream.
The Representatives discuss what it takes to show moral courage when the political risks are very real.
Gottheimer and Scholten explain what they’re seeing inside their party, especially as Gottheimer co-chairs the Problem Solvers Caucus.
The conversation closes with a challenge to stand together, defend Jewish life, and decide what kind of country America wants to be.
TV host issues grim warning over the alarming rise of antisemitism around the world
News24 host Elizabeth Pipko claims the consequences of rampant antisemitism extend far beyond the Jewish community.
“As I always say, antisemitism isn’t just a Jewish issue; it’s an American issue,” she said.
“My family came from the Soviet Union, where a communist regime promising equality instead subjected Jews to brutal persecution while systematically denying freedoms to millions of people.
“And that’s why antisemitism should serve as a warning to all of us. Because when political ideology determines whose rights matter and whose don’t, it’s not just Jewish people who stand to lose their freedom.”
Tikva Podcast: Simone Rodan-Benzaquen on Why French Protesters Are Waving Palestinian Flags
If you have been following the news from France over the last few weeks, you have seen the images of cities in flames and high-school students in the streets. And if you have been reading the American press, you have probably read that these protests began with teachers striking over the conditions in their schools. There are too many children in the classrooms, too few teachers, the buildings are falling apart, and it was too hot this summer to learn. All that may be true, but this account appears to leave out quite a lot about what really matters. Looking at the protests, one sees Palestinian flags, not French flags, and keffiyehs draped over the shoulders and shrouding the faces of the demonstrators. What on earth do these symbols have to do with school buildings and faculty-to-student ratios in France?Washington governor’s office knew state panel member went on Jew-hatred rant at official meeting a year before he resigned, after JNS reported on it
Simone Rodan-Benzaquen is senior envoy for Europe at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and previously led the American Jewish Committee's work in Europe for many years. Earlier this month she published an essay in the Free Press called "Why France Is Burning," and recently joined the Tikvah Podcast to delve into the different forces at work.
With Mosaic's editor Jonathan Silver, Rodan-Benzaquen explores the political logic of these protests, the economic reality that underlies them, the generational anxieties that are being expressed there, and why a whole amalgam of French grievances are arrayed against the Jews and the Jewish state.
The office of the governor of Washington knew that a member of the state’s human rights commission went on an antisemitic rant within weeks of Luc fils Jasmin saying at a March 27, 2025 meeting of the panel that “the Jewish people keep on crying and crying and crying and crying—always crying over the antisemitism.”Most New York Jews view Mamdani unfavorably
The Washington State Human Rights Commission posted video footage of the meeting on its YouTube page on June 10, 2026, more than a year later.
After JNS reported about Jasmin’s remarks, he resigned from the state panel in July, about 15 months after the incident.
JNS learned from a public records request that Joyce Ansley, a Jewish attorney who was then a civil-rights specialist at the commission, filed a complaint against Jasmin on April 4, 2025, days after he made remarks.
The attorney recommended that he be removed from the panel.
Ansley, who was present at the meeting, described the remarks as “a vile, racist, sneering diatribe against Jews,” according to the complaint.
A May 22, 2025 email that JNS received in the records request shows that her complaint and a meeting transcript were sent to Franklin Plaistowe, chief operations officer in the office of Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson, a Democrat.
Plaistowe forwarded the email to a colleague and wrote, “Perhaps we can discuss early next week.”
Ansley emailed Plaistowe on July 1, 2025, providing a video link and urging that Jasmin be removed.
“Unfortunately, the transcript does not convey the outrageousness of Mr. Jasmin’s speech—his tone throughout was vile, racist, sneering and mocking,” she wrote. “Mr. Jasmin is still a commissioner.”
Barbara Harris, executive director of the commission, wrote in a June 12, 2025, email that the governor’s office had “reviewed this matter and investigated.” Records of such an investigation, if it occurred, have not been released.
Jasmin’s remarks drew backlash from Jewish groups, who urged supporters to write messages to the governor calling for the commissioner to be fired or for him to resign.
The governor appoints and, when necessary, removes commissioners.
Jasmin apologized to JNS and subsequently resigned.
The governor has still not publicly addressed Jasmin’s Jew-hatred. After Jasmin resigned, Ferguson’s statements were limited to an announcement that applications were open for the vacancy. (JNS sought comment from Ferguson’s office.)
Dee Simon, an Israeli-born Holocaust educator whom Ferguson appointed to replace Jasmin in October, recently told JNS of Jasmin that “getting him to know us would have been a really wonderful thing to have happened before he joined the commission.”
New polling data presented by CNN on Wednesday revealed a significant divide between New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Jewish voters in New York state, pointing to a sharp erosion of traditional support for the Democratic Party among this group.
According to a September Siena poll, 64% of Jewish voters in New York state view Mamdani unfavorably, compared with 33% who view him favorably.
The disparity is particularly striking when compared with the broader electorate. Statewide, Mamdani, a democratic socialist elected mayor in November 2025, holds a 46% favorable rating, compared with 44% who view him unfavorably. Among Jewish voters, however, the figures tell a markedly different story.
CNN analysis reveals 31-point favorability gap among Jewish voters
In an analysis presented on Wednesday, CNN senior data analyst Harry Enten reported that Mamdani had a net favorability rating of minus 23 percentage points among Jewish voters, compared with a positive eight-point rating among voters statewide.
The figures represent a 31-point gap between Jewish voters' attitudes toward the mayor and those of the general electorate.
Enten linked the findings to Mamdani's positions on Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which he said do not align with the views of many Jewish voters in New York.
Saritha could win because New Yorkers are more concerned about crime and fraud. It’s time to vote in an office with the ability to prioritize state enforcement over national political cases.
— Manhattan Mingle (@ManhattanMingle) October 16, 2026
Jonathan Tobin: Is it Islamophobic to connect the dots between Islamists and El-Sayed?
Open antisemitism
El-Sayed defeated Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) in the Michigan Democratic primary by smearing her as a puppet of Jews who were trying to buy American elections for Israel. What was truly “shameless” was his invocation of traditional tropes about Jews and money that came straight out of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion that the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups still promote.
This is also the candidate whose initial reaction to an attempt to plow a vehicle filled with explosives at a synagogue and Jewish school was to sympathize with the terrorist, rather than the intended victims. It took him several months to walk that back. But like most gaffes, it said more about him than he would like to admit.
El-Sayed may claim that he dislikes Israel, but not Jews. It’s an oft-used attempt to force them to drop an essential element of Jewish peoplehood to get the approval of the red-green alliance of leftists and Islamists that he embodies.
Some prominent Democratic activists, including Jews, are stating that the reluctance of Jews to vote for El-Sayed shows they care more about Israel than their own country and will suffer for doing so. But what it actually illustrates is that even most liberal Jews understand that his anti-Zionism and spreading of blood libels are indistinguishable from those of antisemites. In fact, they pose a clear and present danger to their safety and that of their children.
In their frenzy to win a majority in the U.S. Senate, what Democrats are doing is trying to legitimize a Muslim Brotherhood-adjacent candidate. That they are doing so amid an unprecedented surge of hatred and violence since the Hamas-led Palestinian Arab terror attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, is particularly shocking and especially irresponsible.
If they are successful, the consequences in terms of shifting the Overton Window of acceptable discourse even further to make Jew-hatred acceptable will be obvious.
The role of hate groups
Just as obvious are the implications of media labeling any criticism—or even reporting about El-Sayed’s antisemitism and his links to an international terror group—as Islamophobia and thus reprehensible.
Denial of the Brotherhood’s role in promoting Jew-hatred around the globe is nothing less than the moral equivalent of flat-earth advocacy. The same is true for efforts to make Americans look away from how Hamas supporters continue to evade accountability, even after the atrocities of Oct. 7. Like their friends operating within the terrorist organization based in Gaza, groups like CAIR and ISNA seek Israel’s destruction and Jewish genocide. They are hate groups, not advocates for civil rights.
It’s bad enough that public figures like El-Sayed won’t distance themselves from the effort to destroy Israel by condemning these groups. More than that, the dishonest campaign to claim that those who notice this hateful activity are just prejudiced against Muslims is doing real damage to Muslims in the United States. What’s more, by allowing these groups to get a foothold in the American public square, let alone put one of their friends in the Senate, El-Sayed’s apologists are undermining the security of all Americans and not just Jews.
Far from a campaign smear that will fade with time, the question of the Brotherhood’s efforts to gain a beachhead in the United States threatens democracy, and the safety of Jews and Americans at large. In the long run, that some on the left think that’s a small price to pay to get another Democrat elected to the Senate is a scandal that only further inflames a crisis of antisemitism for which El-Sayed’s supporters bear responsibility.
Abdul El-Sayed on his own half-sister's tweet about their mom and the Muslim Brotherhood: 'Hearsay.' Sir. That's not hearsay. That's your family group chat. And it wasn't Fox asking. It was NBC. https://t.co/W3PhsPqYro
— Siraj Hashmi (@SirajAHashmi) October 15, 2026
Abdul El-Sayed in Unearthed Synagogue Speech: Hamas Is 'the Same' as the Israeli Military
Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed told a group of Jewish voters at a Detroit synagogue in 2018 that he views the Israeli military "the same way" that he views Hamas, according to video obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The left-wing Democrat, speaking at the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue in Detroit, offered those thoughts during his failed 2018 gubernatorial campaign when asked about a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
El-Sayed responded with a lengthy sermon about his "values" and "standing up for truth and international law" on "both sides" of the Middle East debate.
"I've always said I'll condemn Hamas and what they do in the same way that I'll condemn some of the human rights abuses that we see on the part of the IDF," El-Sayed said.
At the time, Hamas had for decades been behind terror attacks against Israelis, including many deadly suicide bombings and other murders that targeted children and teens.
El-Sayed told the congregants eight years ago that, as he was running for governor, there would be "very little" he could do about the Israel-Palestinian issue. But now he is running for Senate and is reportedly angling for a spot on the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The 2018 video emerges as El-Sayed faces scrutiny over his family's purported ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group that spawned Hamas in Gaza in the 1980s. Eman Abdelhadi, El-Sayed's half-sister with whom he has been close, has stated that their mother and relatives in Egypt have "long been" members of the organization. Abdelhadi has stated that Palestinians have "a right to violent resistance," and she rebuked Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), a staunch El-Sayed ally, as a "disappointment" after he condemned the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.
El-Sayed, who ran heavily against the pro-Israel advocacy group AIPAC in the Democratic primary, has sought to win back historically Democratic Jewish voters who soured on the candidate over his hostility towards Israel.
NEW: Unearthed footage shows Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed standing inside a Detroit synagogue in 2018 and comparing Hamas to the Israeli military. I don't remember the IDF ever storming a music festival, massacring hundreds of young people, going house to house executing entire families, burning people alive in their homes, kidnapping babies and elderly Holocaust survivors, dragging bloodied civilians through the streets while crowds cheer, or taking hundreds of innocent people hostage and holding them in underground tunnels. This is grotesque. https://t.co/fL9ifqpzw0
— Yehuda Teitelbaum (@chalavyishmael) October 16, 2026
A 2009 promo clip for the University of Michigan Muslim Students Association shows Abdul El-Sayed preaching to students. https://t.co/wpHOKuMxth
— MAZE (@mazemoore) October 15, 2026
Abdul El-Sayed May Be Campaigning With 'Establishment' Barack Obama, But His 'Policies Have Not Changed,' His Sister Says
Abdul El-Sayed's sister is defending the left-wing Michigan Senate hopeful from left-wingers who have criticized him for his decision to rally with former president Barack Obama, saying that while Obama may be an "establishment" figure, El-Sayed's "policies have not changed."
Abdelhadi's remarks came during a Thursday evening event at the University of Chicago—where she works as a professor—titled "Power, Rage, and New Possibilities: Midterms 2026." Abdelhadi delivered a lecture titled "Moral Injury: How Palestine Is Changing US Politics," photos obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show. She identified El-Sayed not as her brother but as the successful "Senate Michigan primary candidate" who has since received "criticism" for his "relationship with the center or the establishment wing of the Democratic Party."
"Obama is campaigning with Abdul El-Sayed. Abdul El-Sayed has received a lot of criticism from the left for this," Abdelhadi said, according to an audio recording of the event obtained by the Free Beacon. "But his policies have not changed, right? So one of the things that we can say is that his policy position has been consistent since he ran, which is to stop aid to Israel, and yet Obama, who is, you know, arguably the establishment wing of the party, is campaigning with him."
Abdelhadi's remarks come as El-Sayed faces scrutiny over his sister's social media posts tying their family to the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group that spawned Hamas in Gaza in the 1980s. In the posts, which were first reported by the Free Beacon, Abdelhadi said her family "has long been" Muslim Brotherhood and that some have been "jailed" over their membership in the group. She also said her and El-Sayed's mother, Fatten Elkomy, was active in the Muslim Brotherhood while in college in Egypt.
Those posts came to light after El-Sayed told Meet the Press that neither he nor his family has connections to the brotherhood. When NBC News's Tom Llamas later pressed El-Sayed on the posts, El-Sayed accused him of relying on "hearsay evidence."
Abdul El-Sayed’s sister, Eman Abdelhadi, makes it clear for everyone what she really believes about Hamas and October 7: “I do believe that Palestinians have a right to violent resistance, I want to make that very clear…” “You have to recognize the war as a natural end result to the Zionist project (Israel's existence)” “Hamas' actions are actually result of Israel's actions” “We know that guerilla warfare is actually extremely effective”
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) October 16, 2026
🚨 RESURFACED FOOTAGE OF ABDUL EL-SAYED’S RADICAL SISTER University of Chicago professor Eman Abdelhadi, a Islamo-Marxist activist who posted “Morning Freedom” on October 7, 2023, as Hamas committed acts against Israeli civilians. Abdelhadi also has insisted her family has longstanding Muslim Brotherhood ties.
— Mossad Commentary (@MOSSADil) October 16, 2026
New York State Senate Candidate Dr. Larry He Campaigns at Brooklyn Mosque: The Beauty of New York City Lies in Its Diversity; Imam Prays for Destruction of Jews and Shiites https://t.co/dlPvCDSxSY
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) October 16, 2026
Former Foreign Secretary criticises Ed Miliband
Former Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind has criticised both his successor, Ed Miliband, and the previous Labour administration led by Sir Keir Starmer, over their public announcements relating to the Israel-Palestine conflict.UK expands sanction powers, enabling action against companies supporting West Bank settlements
Speaking on Thursday to supporters of the British Friends of the Israeli Jewish-Arab peace village, Neve Shalom/Wahat as-Salam, Sir Malcolm said he did not believe there should have been recognition of a Palestinian state in the absence of such a reality — “it is simply playing with words.”
As far as Mr Miliband’s announcement of sanctions went, Sir Malcolm said he “disapproved” of the present Foreign Secretary’s timing, so close to the upcoming Israeli elections, but adding that he believed there was “a difference between sanctions on Israel proper and sanctions imposed in the West Bank.”
Sir Malcolm gave a largely optimistic appraisal of the current Middle East situation in his wide-ranging address, entitled “One land, two states, past present and future?” Noting that “Israel’s relations with the Arab world have changed dramatically in the last five years”, he cited various global examples of conflict such as the Troubles in Ireland, the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the end of the South African apartheid regime.
Such seemingly intransigent situations, he said, had ultimately been resolved, in ways few might have believed. He was confident, he said, that peace between Israelis and Palestinians could and should be possible; but he asked, “what’s the alternative to the two-state solution?”
Sir Malcolm said that even if there were a change of government after 27 October , he did not expect the new Israeli administration to support a two-state solution straight away. However, his hope was that “the new government will encourage new dialogue between Israeli and those Palestinians who do not support terror.” In that way, he said, there could be a gradual acceptance of the two-state solution. In the meantime he believed it was possible for the Palestinians to create a “technocratic government”, with highly educated people ready for the chance of having “grown-up dialogue” with Israel.
He added: “Maybe this is airy-fairy stuff, but I hope it can happen”. It was “blindingly obvious,” he said, that a military option could never provide total security and that a political solution would have to be reached. “Israelis are not going to leave”, he said — “but the Palestinians aren’t either.”
Britain brought new regulations into force on Thursday, significantly expanding its sanctions powers in a move that could enable action against construction companies, developers, and financial institutions supporting settlement expansion in the West Bank.UK cops looking into post supporting Palestine Action by wife of Burnham’s top security aide
The measures took effect four days before the deadline for submitting bids for construction in the E1 area between Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim, amid a diplomatic dispute between Israel and Britain over the closure of the British consulate in east Jerusalem.
The new regulations expand Britain's sanctions framework concerning human rights and international humanitarian law. They allow sanctions against individuals and entities directly involved in activities classified as serious violations of international law, as well as those financing, facilitating, or promoting such activities, subject to specified legal conditions.
Possible measures include asset freezes, financial restrictions, travel bans, and disqualification from serving as company directors. The regulations could also allow sanctions against entities involved in settlement-related activities if they meet the established criteria, but do not impose blanket restrictions on all companies operating in the area. UK sanctions expansion comes ahead of E1 settlement construction deadline
The timing is particularly significant as Israel advances construction plans in the E1 area. The deadline for submitting bids for 1,234 housing units, part of a broader plan involving approximately 3,400 units, is scheduled for October 19, while consideration of the bids by the tender committee has been postponed until after November 19.
Britain opposes the project, arguing that construction in the area would undermine the territorial continuity required for a future Palestinian state. Israeli officials view the development as part of settlement expansion and efforts to strengthen continuity between Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim, rejecting the argument that international opposition should prevent the project from proceeding.
The tender is expected to close in the coming days despite the postponement of the committee's review. Companies seeking to participate must therefore submit their bids before it becomes clear whether Britain intends to exercise its new sanctions powers against entities connected to the project.
British advocates of expanded sanctions are seeking to deter companies and financial institutions from participating at the bidding stage, before contractors are selected and construction begins.
British police said on Friday they were assessing a social media post after the wife of UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s national security adviser appeared to express support for Palestine Action, an anti-Israel group group banned as a terrorist organization.
Journalist and author Sarah Helm, who is married to Jonathan Powell, responded on X to a post about the Irish novelist Sally Rooney, who this week announced her books would no longer be sold in Britain over her plans to use her royalties to support Palestine Action.
Helm said in the post: “God help us authors who support Palestine and Palestine Action.”
In response, a Metropolitan Police spokesperson said the post is “being assessed to determine whether any further police investigation may be required.”
Palestine Action, which had increasingly targeted Israel-linked defense companies, was banned shortly after a June 2025 break-in at the Royal Air Force’s Brize Norton base. Due to the proscription, expressing support for the group constitutes a criminal offense.
Asked for comment, a government spokeswoman said: “These views are held by an individual who does not represent the government in any capacity.”
Helm’s X post also criticized another British journalist who said Rooney had an anti-Israel and anti-Jewish stance, claiming he would “have all our books swept off the shelves in a jiffy.”
The Campaign Against Antisemitism wrote on X that Helm’s post was “gobsmacking” and “clearly, the police need to investigate and Ms Helm must face the full force of the law”.
It urged Powell to “publicly denounce this rhetoric” because he is involved in Middle East diplomacy.
Helm is a journalist who has written for the Sunday Times and the Independent newspapers.
In 2011 she wrote a play called “Loyalty” based on her relationship with Powell when he worked for Tony Blair as his chief of staff.
Powell is a civil servant who also served under Burhnham’s predecessor Keir Starmer.
Helm regularly comments against Israel on her X account, which has over 1,000 followers, including Palestine Action’s co-founder Huda Ammori.
You probably haven’t heard of Sarah Helm. She is a journalist, author… and wife of Jonathan Powell, Britain's National Security Adviser, the man at the very centre of the state's fight against terrorism. Yesterday, responding to reports that Sally Rooney's books may no longer be sold in Britain over her alleged support for Palestine Action, she posted this on X: "God help us authors who support Palestine and Palestine Action." Palestine Action is a proscribed terrorist organisation. Under the Terrorism Act, expressing support for a proscribed group is a criminal offence. Hundreds of people have been arrested for doing exactly that. Perhaps Ms Helm will say she was being loose with her words. But the household of the man responsible for Britain's national security is not where you'd expect to find what looks very much like a declaration of support for a banned terror group. Does Downing Street have anything to say? Does it hell.
— Jake Wallis Simons (@JakeWSimons) October 16, 2026
I really thought that spouses of top security officials would have been vetted. Seeing the fringe and extreme views of Jonathan Powell’s wife Sarah Helm brings the Jewish community’s fears to life. He should resign. @andyburnham https://t.co/O5CLfQAR1Z
— Heidi Bachram (@HeidiBachram) October 16, 2026
The wife of our national security advisor says Kamala Harris isnt 'up to it' because she mentioned the rapes on 7 October. Shameful https://t.co/BMO1SX1a9d
— JewishWomenCount (@jwomencount2) October 16, 2026
This is what the wife of our national security advisor posted on 7 October 2023. You won't see a word of sympathy for the victims just repeated posts that appear to try to justify the attack https://t.co/ST2EKkBYf8
— JewishWomenCount (@jwomencount2) October 16, 2026
The Greens are eating themselves, with antisemites being stalked by even greater antisemites. As Menachem Begin famously remarked in 1981 during the Iran-Iraq War: “I wish good luck to both sides.” Me with @TVKev on @TalkTV. https://t.co/p4YkJMq2Qd
— Jake Wallis Simons (@JakeWSimons) October 16, 2026
This is the brother of Ahmed Alnaouq and his ‘martyr’ notice from Hamas. He was killed in an airstrike in 2014. Invoking the death of a terrorist to defend the Zionism is Racism policy of the Greens. That’s the grim place we’re at in this country. h/t @EFischberger @GnasherJew https://t.co/uPoS1NEXSo
— Heidi Bachram (@HeidiBachram) October 16, 2026
Ghada Karmi: “I want at this point to pay tribute to Hamas.” How is this woman not arrested and continues to spread poison in this country. https://t.co/caDD5c3eMP
— Heidi Bachram (@HeidiBachram) October 16, 2026
h/t @habibi_uk https://t.co/2R1EX5thlg
— Joo (@JoosyJew) October 16, 2026
Ben-Gurion, meeting Albert Einstein in 1951. https://t.co/gkyNfI7wGn
— AP (@Average_NY_Guy) October 16, 2026
German-Lebanese Islamic Preacher Mustapha Elzein: Europe Is Satan; 10 Non-Muslims in Europe Convert to Islam Every Hour; Egyptian Islamic Scholar Walid Ismail: Europeans Go from Sleeping with Women of Every Color to Men, Animals, and Six-Year-Old Girls https://t.co/1dkcoko2fZ
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) October 16, 2026
Was it her anti-Assad perspective that was a step too far for the antizionists? There’s no good side in this squabble. https://t.co/06ThWR43pm
— Heidi Bachram (@HeidiBachram) October 16, 2026
New York City's DSA are attempting to use airport workers to "take collective action" to stop weapons shipments to Israel through JFK. They also absurdly claim that 600,000 Gazans are dead. Who knows where they got that number? Remember, our mayor is part of this organization. https://t.co/8GxGjfImNW
— Yehuda Teitelbaum (@chalavyishmael) October 16, 2026
Revealed: Teacher ‘tells boy Jews to blame for October 7’ but London school ignores call for staff antisemitism training
A nine-year-old Jewish pupil at a north London state primary school says his teacher told him Jews were to blame for the October 7 massacre, the JC can reveal.
The appalled family reacted asking for antisemitism training to be given but claimed they were told that staff “can’t be forced into politics”.
The father, who wishes to remain anonymous, says after the incident earlier this year he felt “forced” to move his son, who is now at a Jewish school.
Jewish leaders have said the case highlights the importance of the government implementing recommendations from the upcoming report by Sir David Bell on antisemitism in education.
The boy had already experienced antisemitism aged eight at the school, after one pupil shouted “F**k Israel” at him and others had chanted “Free Palestine”.
A year later, the father told the boy about the attack by Hamas on festival-goers at Nova.
The following day, the child told his teacher about the conversation.
According to the son she replied: “Actually it's the opposite.”
The father told the JC: “His understanding was that she was saying the Jews attacked the Palestinians, but she was denying the criminality of what Hamas did on that day – she was saying that it was deserved because they were ‘freedom fighters’.”
He immediately set up a meeting with the deputy headteacher who took notes and said the matter would be addressed with the teacher in question.
The father said he has heard nothing back from the school, despite calling the office for an update and sending a follow-up email.
On October 17, Lindbergh High School near Seattle will host the Northwest Teaching for Social Justice (NWTSJ) conference. The event will platform multiple presenters tied to Rethinking Schools, which applies “anti-racist” social justice frameworks to K-12 education and portrays Israel as a settler-colonial apartheid state while minimizing Jewish historical ties and context around the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks. Featured speakers include Suzanna Kassouf, author of an “Israel Apartheid: A Simulation” classroom activity; Ursula Wolfe-Rocca, who has written lessons framing Israel as a settler colony and advice on deflecting antisemitism accusations; and Nora Lester Murad, who posted video of herself tearing down posters of Hamas-held Israeli hostages. Other participants include Rethinking Schools co-founder Linda Christensen and board member Wayne Au, whose work emphasizes turning students into political activists. Workshops promote activism over balanced analysis. One of the workshops places antisemitism within an “anti-oppression” framework that CAMERA argues predisposes teachers to dismiss legitimate objections as censorship. To read the full breakdown of the how this event is trying to indoctrinate your children: https://t.co/7pCfaXIlKD
— CAMERA (@CAMERA4Truth) October 16, 2026
K-12 professional development instructor Prof. Muhammad Khalifa trains educators under the banner of "culturally responsive school leadership." But beyond the jargon, Khalifa: - Has spoken and collaborated with organizations that promote radical Islamist ideas. -Was forced to remove posts showing him speaking at the MAS-ICNA annual conference after his involvement was exposed. ICNA is an affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood. - Has falsely accused Israel and Jews of treating its citizens differently based on religion and said there are Zionists at every American college that "don't believe that any life is equal to Jewish life." - Has falsely accused Israel of “scholasticide.” Read all about it here: https://t.co/uEH30ZD98j
— CAMERA (@CAMERA4Truth) October 16, 2026
Irish actress Denise Gough posted this to her Instagram: gushing praise for the Dublin hotel that wouldn't accommodate Jews The absolute state of this https://t.co/TjEnyYvGwB
— Jonathan Eric Lewis (@LewisJonathanE) October 16, 2026
Irish actress Denise Gough says that Palestine is the little “place you shoot through” on the Death Star. If you free it the whole thing explodes, Sudan, Congo. This analogy is making my head hurt. https://t.co/oKKEGNnK42
— Heidi Bachram (@HeidiBachram) October 17, 2025
Andrew Weitz’s editing of his post - “Happy October 7th” and stating the world’s only Jewish country (Israel) isn’t real @Audiosalad https://t.co/gUqmU0uXJg
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) October 17, 2026
Despite Hamas’s ongoing attempts to spread false narratives about alleged shortages in the Gaza Strip, particularly following protests by private-sector merchants against Hamas, the facts on the ground tell a different story: Gaza is flooded with humanitarian aid and food supplies. Since the October 2025 ceasefire, over 2.2 million tons of food have entered Gaza. Hundreds of aid trucks enter Gaza daily, with 70–80% carrying food. Additionally, 41 bakeries produce over 3 million pitas daily, around 100 kitchens remain operational, and market food prices have dropped by 83%. Further evidence of food availability includes uncollected food boxes on Gaza’s streets, UN reports indicating an improved food situation, and a statement by the head of Gaza’s Bakers Association. Despite Hamas’s attempts to falsely portray Israel as obstructing the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, COGAT will continue facilitating its entry, ensuring a steady flow of food and essential supplies. Watch Major Ross, Deputy Head of COGAT’s International Relations Branch, show the hundreds of trucks carrying fresh food into Gaza daily.
— COGAT (@cogatonline) October 16, 2026
Selling 4×6 meter tent tarps for 100 shekels, which they says is the approved Hamas Ministry of Finance price. In other footage on the same TikTok channel we see they are also selling Qatar Aid tents. We also see trucks with large amounts of tarps entering Gaza, which they say are from UNRWA, and are accompanied by UN vehicles. Timestamps: October 2026 #TheGazaYouDontSee https://t.co/Mcg7bRbAOK https://t.co/OyVZ4rOGHP https://t.co/7b2UouZk8A https://t.co/jjTsTqVglG
— Imshin (@imshin) October 16, 2026
Kandinsky painting, restituted to Jewish family after Nazi looting, sells for over $42 million
A Nazi-looted Wassily Kandinsky painting, restored to the descendants of its Jewish owners in 2023, sold for over $42 million at a London auction on Wednesday, surpassing its estimated value and setting the night’s highest price, Christie’s auction house said.‘Crush the Jews’: Croatia leaders, Israel embassy slam pro-Nazi chants ahead of soccer match
The vibrant 1907 painting, “Das bunte Leben” (The Colorful Life) — described by Christie’s as “a monumental turning point on Kandinsky’s road to abstraction” — shows a festive scene in a valley in front of a heated argument at the foot of a mountain with a palace at the peak.
After a six-minute bidding war, the roughly 130-by-162-centimeter (about 4’3” by 5’4”) signed canvas sold for £31,560,000 ($42,025,000), besting the estimated price range of £18 million and £25 million ($24 million to $33.3 million), according to Christie’s, which did not identify the buyer.
The painting was bought by Amsterdam Jewish couple Hedwig and Emanuel Albert Lewenstein in November 1927, and was on loan to the Stedelijk Museum from 1933.
The couple died before World War II and left their extensive art collection to their two children, both of whom left Europe before or early in the war.
The painting was auctioned off under unclear circumstances on October 9, 1940 — less than five months into Nazi Germany’s occupation of the Netherlands — to Salomon Slijper, a Dutch Jewish businessman who survived the war in hiding.
In 1972, the year after Slijper died, his widow Johanna sold the painting to Bayerische Landesbank, the state bank of Bavaria, for 900,000 Dutch guilders — equivalent to about $5 million in 2026.
For the next five decades, it was on loan to the Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus and Kunstbau museum in Munich.
Croatian leaders on Friday slammed pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic chants by Hajduk Split soccer fans ahead of their UEFA Conference League match against Ajax, while Israel’s embassy voiced shock.
Groups of Hajduk Split fans, known as the Torcida, marched through the coastal town ahead of Thursday’s match chanting: “Crush the Jews,” “Rise up Adolf [Hitler]” and “Let’s go Ustasha,” referring to the country’s World War II pro-Nazi regime, local media reported.
Ajax Amsterdam is a Dutch team with a historical connection to the Dutch Jewish community.
Dozens of fans were detained ahead of Thursday’s match for violence. During the match Torcida fans set off flares and other pyrotechnics in the stands, forcing more than a 10-minute stoppage.
An investigation was opened into the pro-Nazi chants and suspects are being detained, police said.
President Zoran Milanovic, in a Friday statement, condemned the incident as “unacceptable and shameful.”
He urged swift action against the perpetrators to “show that there is no place in Croatia for the glorification of Nazism and Ustasha ideology.”
Israel’s embassy in Zagreb, in a statement obtained by AFP, said it was “deeply shocked by the serious antisemitic incident that took place in Split.”
Conservative Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic also condemned “messages of antisemitism … completely at odds with the values we want to uphold in Croatian society.”
Hajduk Split, who won the game 2-1, apologized in a statement to UEFA and Ajax, who “witnessed scenes which we do not want Europe to remember,” while the Croatian soccer federation also condemned the incident.
Croatian soccer fans shouted Nazi slogans like "Crush, crush the Jews,” “Auschwitz, Auschwitz,” and “Rise, Adolf” before a match. Their club was about to go up against the Ajax club, which started in a football field next to a Jewish neighborhood in Amsterdam. That is the 'justification' for hurling abuse towards Jews before soccer games. And this is an ongoing problem, apparently. Past chants include things like "Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas." Anything to be antisemitic, right? "Oh, I just really hate the other team" or "Oh, I just want Palestine to be free," and people think they have some kind of pass to act like this. Well, they don't. It's antisemitism. https://t.co/vqMAy5upLQ
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) October 16, 2026
Israeli cybersecurity firm Varonis Systems to be bought by Proofpoint in $6.3 billion deal
Thoma Bravo-owned cybersecurity company Proofpoint will buy data security firm Varonis Systems in an all-cash deal valued at about $6.3 billion, the companies said on Thursday.
Under the agreement, Varonis shareholders will receive $49.75 per share in cash, a 52 percent premium to the company’s closing share price on June 22, the day before speculation about a possible sale first emerged, the companies said.
The offer values Varonis’ equity at $5.71 billion. Its shares rose about 2.7% in extended trading.
The deal, expected to close in the first half of 2027, comes as businesses ramp up spending on cybersecurity to combat cybercrime, where AI is increasingly being used to steal data.
Varonis, which is traded on the NASDAQ, offers digital security services, including data classification on cloud storage systems and employee behavior tracking.
“Our mission is to secure AI and the data that powers it. By joining forces with Proofpoint, we can achieve this mission faster than ever,” Varonis co-founder and CEO Yaki Faitelson said. File – Pedestrians walk past the Nasdaq building Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)
According to Channel 12 news, Varonis has approximately 2,800 employees, with some 1,000 of them in Israel.
The company was founded in 2004 and was an early example of firms that used AI to detect cyber threats, Globes said.
The announced deal is the second large sale of an Israeli cybersecurity firm in recent months — in February, Palo Alto Networks, a Santa Clara, California-based cybersecurity firm founded by American-Israeli entrepreneur Nir Zuk, completed its acquisition of Israeli firm CyberArk in a deal valued at a staggering $25 billion.
MIKE TYSON 🇮🇱 🇵🇸 Mike Tyson’s legal team has reportedly accused Supreme of breaching an agreement by replacing the Israeli flag with a Palestinian flag on a re-release of a classic Tyson hoodie. The piece, created in collaboration with designer Martine Rose, was withdrawn from sale earlier this week after the change sparked a reaction from fans. ** Great news. Well done to Mike and his team for challenging the replacement of Israel will NOT be erased by a made-up flag of a place that doesn’t exist.
— Kosher (@koshercockney) October 16, 2026
Former Prisoners of Zion, aliyah activists, discuss plans for new Soviet Jewry heritage center
About 50 former Prisoners of Zion and aliyah activists gathered at the Heritage Ministry in Jerusalem on October 5 to discuss plans for a center documenting Soviet Jews’ struggle to preserve their identity and immigrate to Israel.
Heritage Ministry Director-General Itay Grank presented the ministry’s vision for the center, which would preserve personal testimonies and introduce younger generations to the history of Soviet Jewry and its contribution to Israeli society.
Former Prisoners of Zion Yosef Mendelevich, Simon Shnirman and Alex Silnitsky addressed the gathering, recounting their experiences and their involvement in the movement for the right to make aliyah, or immigrate to Israel.
Participants discussed how the center should be developed, which aspects of the struggle it should document and how to make that history accessible to the public. Preserving the accounts of those who took part was a central theme of the meeting.
Soviet authorities restricted Jewish religious and cultural life
For decades, Soviet authorities restricted Jewish religious and cultural life and prevented many Jews from leaving the country. Those denied permission to emigrate became known as refuseniks. Activists who challenged the restrictions faced harassment and imprisonment, while continuing to organize Jewish activities and campaign for emigration rights.
The center would tell that history through the experiences of former prisoners, refuseniks and aliyah activists, alongside the broader story of Jewish life under Soviet rule.
The government approved the establishment of a Soviet Jewry heritage center in May 2024, with an allocation of NIS 27 million. That decision provided for an educational and cultural center devoted to the preservation of Jewish heritage, Zionist activity and the struggle to immigrate to Israel.
“They came with hatred in their eyes." At the women's wheelchair basketball European Championship in Switzerland 🇨🇭, Israel's team was subjected to repeated discrimination, insults, and intentional fouls. According to reports, the Irish team players wore black ribbons and bowed their heads during Israel’s national anthem. Turkish players covered their palms to avoid skin contact when shaking hands, and turned their backs to the Israeli flag. Regardless of your opinion of the Israeli government, these actions are simply born out of hatred.
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) October 16, 2026
This is what Israeli resilience looks like. 🇮🇱❤️ On October 7 and during the Iron Swords war, these four Israelis suffered life changing injuries. But their stories didn’t end there. Through courage, determination and resilience, they found their way to the international Para sports stage. We will never forget what happened to them. Their strength and achievements are an inspiration to us all. 💙 #parasports #paraathletes #paralympics #resilience #teamisrael
— Israel ישראל (@Israel) October 16, 2026
102-year-old Kindertransport survivor to skydive for Israel’s lone soldiers
A 102-year-old Kindertransport survivor and Second World War veteran is preparing to skydive from 13,000 feet on Friday, 23 October, to raise money for two Israeli charities.
Walter Bingham will make the jump at Bar Yehuda airfield, near the ancient fortress of Masada and the Dead Sea, in aid of the Michael Levin Base, an Israeli non-profit organisation supporting lone soldiers, and B’not Sherut, young women undertaking national service. He hopes to raise $13,000 (£9,750), equivalent to one dollar for every foot of his descent.
Born in Germany in 1924, Bingham escaped Nazi persecution through the Kindertransport and later served in the British Army.
He went on to build a distinguished career in journalism and broadcasting, and holds the Guinness Book of Records accolades for Oldest Journalist and Oldest Living Radio Talk Show Host.
At age 100, he celebrated with a skydive.
His new jump, two years later, will support young people serving Israel without immediate family support in the country.
Named for American-born lone soldier Michael Levin, who was killed in the Second Lebanon War in 2006, The Michael Levin Base provides Shabbat meals, practical assistance, emotional support and a welcoming community during and after service.
How inspiring! Held hostage by Hamas terrorists for 477 days, Daniella Gilboa was forced to fake her own death – yet the Israeli singer is about to tour Australia with a message of social cohesion and resilience she hopes will be “an inspiration” to others. https://t.co/O1leTam7iT
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) October 16, 2026
