The Mayoral Race Redefining New York’s Jewish History

The Mayoral Race Redefining New York’s Jewish History

As Zohran Mamdani leads in the polls, his unprecedented candidacy is testing the city’s long-standing political and cultural ties with its Jewish community and the State of Israel.

NEW YORK — With just weeks to go before election day, New York’s mayoral race remains unpredictable. One thing, however, is clear: it’s been unlike any in the city’s modern history. If frontrunner Zohran Mamdani wins on November 4, it would mark an extraordinary shift in New York City’s Jewish history. He would be the city’s first anti-Israel mayor, the first without close ties to the city’s large and diverse Jewish population, and the first in decades to face accusations of peddling antisemitism—or, at the very least, of failing to forcefully denounce it.

Il dibattito sulla gestazione per altri visto da un papà arcobaleno di New York

Il dibattito sulla gestazione per altri visto da un papà arcobaleno di New York

Il dibattito italiano sulla gestazione per altri come “reato universale” appare sempre più sradicato dalla realtà e, più si avvicina ad un disegno di legge, meno riflette le esperienze di chi ha davvero intrapreso un percorso di genitorialità tramite la GPA all’estero, in particolar modo in Paesi come gli USA e il Canada. Ne parliamo con Simone Somekh, scrittore, giornalista e papà arcobaleno. Vive a New York e lavora per un’azienda di software nel campo dell’intelligenza artificiale. Ha collaborato con Associated Press, Tablet Magazine e Forward. Con il suo romanzo Grandangolo (ed. Giuntina), tradotto in francese, tedesco e russo, ha vinto il Premio Viareggio Opera Prima.

Leggi l’intervista a cura di Emanuele Monaco qui.

Italian Jews worry and wait as Giorgia Meloni, far-right leader, prepares to take power

Italian Jews worry and wait as Giorgia Meloni, far-right leader, prepares to take power

(JTA) — The success of Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party in Italy’s national election last week means the country is poised to have its most right-wing government since World War II, when Italy was Hitler’s staunchest ally in Europe.

The prospect has unnerved many Italian Jews, even as several of their leaders appear to be taking a wait-and-see approach to Meloni’s leadership, refraining from making public statements about the results.

“Faced with the prospect of a prime minister that is affiliated with a party that ideologically is the heir of the Italian Social Movement, a good part of Italian Jews are concerned,” David Fiorentini, president of Italy’s Jewish Youth group, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Click here to read the full article.

Leading mayoral candidate in Rome apologizes for Holocaust comments decried as antisemitic

Leading mayoral candidate in Rome apologizes for Holocaust comments decried as antisemitic

(JTA) — A leading candidate for mayor in Rome has apologized to the Jewish community over an article he wrote last year in which he suggested that victims of mass murders other than the Holocaust gain less attention because they “didn’t own banks.”

Jewish community leaders and others had decried the comments by Enrico Michetti, a radio host who is the center-right coalition’s candidate in the Oct. 17 and 18 mayoral election. He received more than 30% of votes in the election’s first round earlier this month, more than any other candidate.

“Each year, 40 Holocaust-related movies are shot, trips and cultural initiatives of all sorts are financed to commemorate that horrible persecution, and up to here, I have nothing to say,” Michetti wrote on the website of the radio station where he is a host. “But I wonder, why the same pity and the same consideration are not given to the dead killed in the foibe massacres [of Italians by Yugoslav Partisans], in the refugee camps, and in the mass murders that still take place in the world?”

Among the answers he offered: “Perhaps because they did not own banks, perhaps because they did not belong to lobbies capable of deciding the destinies of the planet.” Continue reading here.