Mamdani, Lander, local office hopefuls attend ‘racial and economic justice’ Passover event that ends in arrests at Palantir office in Manhattan
(JNS) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, former city comptroller and congressional candidate Brad Lander and several people running for state and city office in New York attended a “seder in the streets” event, ostensibly about Passover, hosted by Jews for Racial and Economic Justice on Apr 6. Some attendees subsequently went to the Chelsea offices of Palantir, a technology company that anti-Israel protesters have targeted often for its work with the Israeli military.
The New York City Police Department told JNS that officers responded to a demonstration in 45 W 18th Street at about 5:50 on Apr 6.
“A group of demonstrators inside the location refused multiple lawful orders to disperse and were taken into custody,” the NYPD said.
Images posted to the mayor’s social media accounts show Mamdani standing among people holding wine cup-shaped placards and signs stating “Jews against deportation.” Other images on social media appeared to show Hebrew inscriptions on signs that appeared to quote, in part, from a statement of Yossy son of Yochanan in the Mishnah, “Let your house be wide open, and let the poor be members of your household.”
Eli Northrup, a public defender who is running for the New York state Assembly, posted a photo of the event. “The story of Jewish New Yorkers is a story of immigration. A story of New York welcoming and protecting people. Our faith instructs us to welcome the stranger and to respect their rights, for we were once strangers in Egypt,” he wrote.
NYPD arrests teen for threatening to kill Jewish kids in Brooklyn
(JNS) — A New York City teen has been arrested and charged with hate crime and aggravated harassment, making terrorist threats and threatening mass harm after announcing his intention to kill Jewish children in Brooklyn, N.Y., the New York City Police Department said on Apr 7.
In a video chat recording shared on social media by New York City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, 18-year-old Eslam Alsaedi said, “If I see Jewish people in the U.S.A., I swear to God I’ve got to kill them. I try to kill kids. You know the kids for the Jewish people? I try to kill them.”
In the video, Alsaedi said he lives in Harlem and wanted to go to Brooklyn because he reportedly heard somebody say a lot of Jews live there. “I want big building, a lot of Jewish people, a whole school with kids,” he said.
The NYPD told JNS a complaint report was “filed for terrorism” on Apr 6 in the 32nd Precinct.
Alsaedi was arrested on later that day.
“He thought he would get away with it. We contacted NYPD’s counterterrorism unit, and they were immediately on it,” Vernikov said. “This must be prosecuted both locally and federally to the fullest extent of the law.”
Trump ‘not one to mess around,’ Vance says of US demands on Iran
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump is “impatient to make progress” and “is not one to mess around,” Vice President JD Vance said on Apr 8 about the two-week ceasefire with Iran and the diplomatic challenge Washington is now facing to end the Mideast conflict.
Trump “told us to negotiate [with Tehran] in good faith,” Vance continued in a televised interview from Budapest.
“And I think if they negotiate in good faith, we will be able to find a deal. That’s a big ‘if,’ and ultimately it’s up to the Iranians how they negotiate. I hope they make the right decision,” he added.
Trump had demonstrated “that we still have clear military, diplomatic, and maybe most importantly we have extraordinary economic leverage,” Vance went on to say, according to Reuters.
“If they’re going to lie, if they’re going to cheat, if they’re trying to prevent even the fragile truce that we’ve set up from taking place, then they’re not going to be happy,” he warned.
60% of Americans have an unfavorable view of Israel, up sharply since 2022, survey shows
(JTA) — Six in 10 Americans say they have a very or somewhat unfavorable view of Israel, up 20 points since 2022, according to a new Pew Research Center survey released this week.
About half of them say they have a “very unfavorable” view of Israel, a proportion that has tripled in the last four years.
The survey of 3,500 U.S. adults conducted late last month, weeks into the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, offers the latest signal that anti-Israel sentiment is surging among Americans. Multiple previous polls have shown that Americans newly sympathize more often with the Palestinians over the Israelis.
The poll results come as politicians on both sides of the aisle are pushing for Israel to receive less or no U.S. aid, and as the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC has become a punching bag especially among Democrats.
The latest poll replicated the partisan divide widely detected in polling, with about 80% of Democrats saying they have an unfavorable view of Israel, compared to 40% of Republicans. Nearly half of Democrats under age 50 said they have a “very unfavorable” view of Israel.
While Republicans continue to hold an overall favorable view of Israel, they are split on their assessment of its leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the Pew survey, which had a margin of error of 1.9 percentage points. As many have little or no confidence in him as have a lot or some confidence — though among Republicans under 50, only 30% said they had any confidence in him.
Jewish groups condemn Trump’s threat that a ‘whole civilization will die’ in Iran
(JTA) — Jewish groups were among those criticizing President Trump and accusing him of using genocidal rhetoric on Apr 7 after Trump posted online that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
“Never to be brought back again,” wrote Trump in a post on social media. “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
The president’s comments came hours before his 8 p.m. deadline for Iran on Apr 7 to reach a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and were met by swift condemnation by a group of Senate Democrats, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“We speak today with one voice and one purpose: to condemn President Trump’s threat to extinguish an entire civilization,” Schumer wrote in a joint statement. “This is not strength. Intentionally destroying the power, water or basic infrastructure upon which tens of millions of civilians depend to punish the very civilians who suffer at the hands of the Iranian regime would constitute a war crime, a betrayal of the values this nation was founded on and a moral failure.”
The American Jewish Committee wrote in a post on social media that while it “shares the objectives” of Trump’s war with Iran, it was “alarmed” by the president’s social media posts, adding that the Iranian people “deserve a future defined by dignity, opportunity, and greater integration with the global community.”
Less than two hours before the 8 p.m. deadline, Trump announced that he had agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran proposed by Pakistan.
