piquant nefesh

Jewish leaders begin outreach to incoming Mamdani administration, sensitively At the post-election Somos conference, Jewish officials tried to find areas of common ground with the new mayor

Some Jewish community leaders who spoke with Jewish Insider at the Somos conference suggested they were willing to give Mamdani the latitude to follow through on areas where they are aligned, pointing to a sort of provisional detente in the aftermath of an emotionally fraught election.

The populism of it all is so reminiscent and so off putting and even worse it's from voices I'd previously considered sober.

BREAKING: Mark Wolf, appointed to the federal bench by Ronald Reagan, writes that he is resigning as a judge to have the freedom to speak out against the president's assault on the rule of law.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

Exactly!

We have to engage with the ~30% who voted for Mamdani (esp bc it's probs a big bloc: younger, more progressive, more secular) but Mamdani got ~30% of Jews, has brutal favorability (iirc 75% unfavorable per QU), & is facing massive pushback from progressive Jewish leaders who met with him.

My concern is that Mamdani hasn't addressed his past at all & we're supposed to trust a very short track record starting ~this year.

He literally did a rally with WOL & Samidoun in 2021. His 2023 comments about the IDF & NYPD were blatant antizionist antisemitism. He praised the Holy Land five!

So, I’m not exactly a fan of Zohran but he's (early going!) assembling a transition team filled with serious, highly competent progressives &, notably, not many DSA/lefty ideologues.

If he concentrates on being a sewer socialist, then I think he'll succeed. If he focuses on culture wars, he won't.

Why younger Americans are less supportive of Israel | The Jerusalem Post Older generations of Americans understood Israel; that may not be the case for the next generation.

I wrote a thing about the generational cliff Israel is facing in US public opinion and why it's not going away easily (if at all).

If you thought it was interesting, share it, and I would love to hear your thoughts.

Always fun to remember the years of Corbyn-aligned types in the UK arguing that it was a horrific smear to suggest David Miller was perhaps a tad anti-Semitic. Anyway, here he is throwing a tantrum because Mamdani condemned swastika graffiti on a Jewish school

Heritage-affiliated antisemitism task force to cut ties with embattled think tank The National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism will expand its focus to include antisemitism on the right, now that it is independent from the Heritage Foundation

The task force was instrumental in the drafting of Project Esther, Heritage’s counter-antisemitism framework released last year.

The Project Esther report made no mention of antisemitism on the right. In their Thursday email, the co-chairs of the task force said they can no longer ignore it.

Two statements that both appear to be true, based on preliminary polling data:
1. A strong majority of NYC Jews voted for Andrew Cuomo for mayor.
2. A higher percentage of NYC Jews voted for Zohran Mamdani than Jews nationwide who voted for Donald Trump.

Importantly: Mamdani seems to have won ~30% of NY Jews. I'm guessing once results are studied, that will mostly come from a majority of younger, more secular, more progressive Jews.

Jewish civil society needs to engage & wrestle w that outcome, not castigate it, bc that's not just a fringe bloc.

Seven data-driven lessons from the 2025 elections Democrats outran their polls and swept statewide races from Georgia to New Jersey, on an agenda of affordability and a broad anti-Trump backlash

I’m taking a victory lap for my coverage of young voters over the last year. I’ve argued that Trump’s 2024 gains with voters <30 stemmed mostly from anti-incumbent sentiment from high inflation — and that “GOP gains” / a youth “realignment” was a mirage. Tuesday’s results suggest I was right.

This is getting mocked on this website but there is not much downside for Zohran in taking this meeting.

Is Mamdani still an *_anti_*-zionist? Genuine Q.

I think it’s fair to say he’s evolved towards non-Zionism or, really, post-Zionism. He supports Israel’s right to exist (as a state w = rights for all its citizens, he’s no longer anti-normalization, etc.)

He’s within the right to exist redline.

Newsom got his gerrymander. Now what? Winning is more than just fighting

"But if every American were as upset about this as I am, there’s an even better answer: multimember districts with proportional representation."
www.theargumentmag.com/p/newsom-got...

A swastika was discovered overnight on a yeshiva in Brooklyn. This should not be acceptable.

Pro-Andrew Cuomo super PAC depicts Zohran Mamdani in front of Twin Towers attack in late ad Cuomo and others have criticized Mamdani for appearing with Hasan Piker, who made 2019 comments that "America deserved 9/11." Mamdani has previously disavowed the comments.

This is gross and Islamophobic and should be denounced by everyone. www.nbcnews.com/politics/ele...

"President Trump has repeatedly labeled Jews who do not vote his way as 'disloyal,' 'stupid,' or worse," Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, told Axios in an emailed statement. She said that the president often divides the Jewish community into "'good' and 'bad' camps ... normalizing antisemitic attacks on those deemed 'bad.'" "Treating Jews as political footballs only makes Jews – and all communities – less safe. This is not about partisan politics — it's about the fundamental safety of our communities."

No matter who you vote for, Trump’s continued scapegoating of Jews is dangerous. www.axios.com/2025/11/04/t...

House Speaker Mike Johnson calls on conservatives to speak out against antisemitism Johnson, on right-wing antisemitism: ‘Whether it’s Tucker or anybody else, I don’t think we should be giving a platform to that kind of speech’

House Speaker Mike Johnson criticized Tucker Carlson’s platforming of neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes, adding his voice to the growing list of Republicans who have publicly admonished the former Fox host for mainstreaming the avowed antisemite.

The abiding anger of Republicans like Dick Cheney at the defenestration of Nixon led them on a long quest to create a permanent Republican imperial presidency. They ultimately succeeded
But Cheney lived long enough to see the monster he'd help create attack his own offspring.

Partisan redistricting efforts endanger pro-Israel incumbents Reps. Greg Landsman, Jared Moskowitz and Debbie Wasserman Schultz could be more vulnerable as a result of new maps ahead of next year’s midterms

A pro-Israel Democratic strategist told Jewish Insider that “it’s a big problem. The Republicans are trying to say they’re pro-Israel and they’re targeting pro-Israel Democrats left and right. … These guys are stalwart champions and we don’t want to lose them.”

DMFI poll finds majority of Democrats support ceasefire and credit Trump for achievement The new poll also found that three-quarters of Democrats support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish homeland

A majority of the Democrats in the poll also said they believe that the U.S. should keep its alliance with Israel. Three-quarters said they support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish homeland, with only 12% saying they believe Israel does not have a right to exist.

In Trump’s Washington, Hate Is Not a Deal Breaker

I’m genuinely glad some GOP leaders are naming Tucker Carlson’s dangerous antisemitism.

But it’s only words unless they also grapple with the broader normalization of antisemitism — including replacement/invasion conspiracies and the appointment of extremists to key federal roles.

The Firewall Against Nick Fuentes Is Crumbling The white-supremacist influencer is entering the MAGA mainstream.

It was always tragically obvious that a political movement dedicated to tearing down every social taboo of the past half-century would not have the internal resources to stop at neo-Nazism. www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

What's really going on with the right and Jews right now: www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

I've spent something like 10 years explaining to people "no, this type of politics isn't only a problem on the right, yes, it's important that we call it out and push it out among people who we would otherwise consider allies" - there's no surprise here, at all

Stop what you're doing to read & consider this extremely sharp thread.
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As Mamdani, a gifted communicator, well knows, the other part of the equation for a leader is the example they set by their words. And it is simply not OK for New York's Mayor to propagate the blood libel inspired claim that the Israeli army is directing NYPD officers to asphyxiate New Yorkers. 11/

I think he has stated his intentions in good faith, and applaud them. But listening is not always the same thing as hearing. The fact that Mamdani apparently has yet to recognize the implications of some of his own rhetoric where the subject of Jews and Israel are concerned is concerning. 9/

Mamdani explains to CNN’s Anderson Cooper why he said the IDF had laced the NYPD’s boots | CNN Politics Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday responded to a widely shared 2023 clip in which he suggested that the New York Police Department and Israeli army were linked in oppression, the latest example of the Democra...

And it is all the harder to grapple with given that, when confronted with the foregoing statement, Mamdani's response was not to repudiate it, but to descend into a word salad of obfuscation. 7/