Jack Schlossberg, JFK’s ‘100% half Jewish’ grandson, is running for Jerry Nadler’s seat in Congress
(JTA) — Jack Schlossberg, the Kennedy family scion whose father’s side of the family is Jewish, is officially running for Congress in one of the most Jewish districts in the United States.
He entered the race on Tuesday night after months of speculation and an initial dismissive reaction from the seat’s current occupant, Jerry Nadler.
Schlossberg, the 32-year-old grandson of President John F. Kennedy who has risen to prominence recently as a progressive social media darling, posted an announcement Tuesday night that focused on Donald Trump and the cost of living.
“We deserve better, and we can do better, and it starts with the Democratic Party winning back control of the House of Representatives,” Schlossberg said.
Schlossberg, 32, is running to represent New York’s 12th Congressional District, which covers the Upper West and East Sides and all of Midtown Manhattan, where he said he was “born and raised, where I took the bus to school every single day from one side of the district to the other.”
His mother is the author and former U.S. ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy; Schlossberg’s father is Jewish artist Edwin Schlossberg. His paternal grandfather, Alfred Schlossberg, worked in what he told the New York Times was the “shmatte business,” making men’s dress shirts.
No US duty or right to arrest Netanyahu, legal expert says
(JNS) — Inna Vernikov, a Jewish member of the New York City Council who represents parts of Brooklyn, stated that she invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit New York City on Jan. 1 — the inauguration of the mayoralty of Zohran Mamdani, who has said he would have the Israeli premier arrested should he come to the Big Apple.
In a letter dated Nov. 10, Vernikov wrote that it was a “great honor” to invite Netanyahu to the city to “meet with members of our community and to reaffirm the deep and enduring bond between the State of Israel and the people of New York City, home to the largest Jewish population outside of Israel.”
She decried the “irresponsible and frankly absurd statements made by mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who has campaigned on the promise of ‘arresting’ you upon setting foot in our city.”
“Whether individuals agree or disagree with your policies, you are the duly elected prime minister of the State of Israel, a democratic nation that stands as a beacon of hope, freedom, western values, resilience and strength in a region surrounded by tyranny and terror,” the councilwoman wrote.”
Joseph Weiler, who holds several professorships at New York University School of Law, where he directs the Jean Monnet Center for International and Regional Economic Law and Justice, told JNS that heads of state and government have “absolute immunity” under international law, “even in the face of horrific crimes.”
‘City Journal’ to award Ben Shapiro for response to ‘destructive ideas’
(JNS) — The Manhattan Institute said it plans to give its annual City Journal Award to Ben Shapiro, the Jewish co-founder of the Daily Wire.
“Shapiro has distinguished himself as a steadfast advocate for truth and liberty in an era when both are increasingly under attack,” the think tank said. “His courage, intellectual clarity and dedication to open discourse embody the very spirit of the City Journal Award.”
It added that the award recognizes people “who have pushed back against destructive ideas and inspired efforts to protect liberty and unleash the potential of all Americans.”
Shapiro has clashed publicly with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and racist, Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes.
Anti-Israeli socialist appears to beat incumbent in Seattle mayoral race
(JNS) — Katie Wilson, who has accused Israel of “genocide” and whom the Council on American-Islamic Relations endorsed, led Bruce Harrell, the Seattle mayor, by nearly 2,000 votes, after the state released its latest ballot numbers on Nov. 12, prompting the Seattle Times and others to call the race for Wilson.
The socialist had 138,489 votes (50.19%) to the incumbent’s 136,513 votes (49.48%), according to state figures.
Harrell, who has not conceded, called a press conference on Nov 13. Many have predicted that the race between the two Democrats would be so close that a recount was inevitable.
The race, in which Wilson has pulled ahead a little bit each day after trailing initially, has drawn little public comment from national Jewish organizations, including those that commented often on Zohran Mamdani’s campaign for an election as New York City’s next mayor.
Regina Sassoon Friedland, who directs the American Jewish Committee’s Seattle office, told JNS that the group doesn’t endorse, “but we do speak out on policies that we support and oppose.”
“Now that she has been elected, we urge mayor-elect Wilson to commit to ensuring the safety of Seattle’s Jewish community and its institutions by supporting the Seattle Police Department and working with Jewish communal leaders,” Sassoon Friedland told JNS.
Settlement will ‘impose some adult supervision’ on legal union, Brandeis Center says
(JNS) — The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law said on Thursday that it and the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys had agreed to settle a lawsuit, which the center filed last year on behalf of three members of the union, and to pay the three $315,000.
The Brandeis Center alleged in July 2024 that the union retaliated against the three, who sued to block an anti-Israel resolution of the union’s, by trying to fire them.
“In a frenzy of anti-Israel fanaticism, these publicly-funded lawyers ginned each other up and engaged in clear violations of federal labor law with their desire to punish Jewish and allied members objecting to their anti-Israel advocacy,” Rory Lancman, senior counsel at the Brandeis Center, told JNS.
The settlement will “impose some adult supervision” on the union, Lancman said. He told JNS that he is “pretty confident” that the settlement is “unprecedented” and “far-reaching.”
The union, which is part of the United Auto Workers, agrees to pay $315,000 and to state publicly within 10 days about the resolution that “some of the communications from diverse perspectives were hurtful to union members and were inappropriate,” per a copy of the agreement that JNS saw.
The union also agrees to train its members about their rights under federal law and to subject all disciplinary charges to review by its outside legal counsel.
