Nearly six months into Donald Trump’s term as president, the United States remains without a special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, an ambassador-level role at the State Department known colloquially as the antisemitism czar.

Trump announced his pick for the role, a Hasidic fixer named Yehuda Kaploun, in April and formally nominated him in May. But the Senate, which is controlled by Trump’s party, has yet to schedule a confirmation hearing for the nominee. 

The role, which is focused on foreign policy, remains vacant even as the Trump administration warns that antisemitism is a growing and urgent global threat — and as key senators in charge of the confirmation process argue that antisemitism is corrupting international institutions.

For example, following the murder of two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C. in May, Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, emphasized that such incidents are not confined to one place or country.  

“It is just a horrific tragedy, an act of terror, and another way in which we have to recognize Jewish people all over the world are being singled out for these kinds of horrible attacks,” Huckabee said. 

Meanwhile, Sen. Jim Risch, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has introduced two bills in recent months that would strip U.S. funding from international bodies over what he calls “blatant antisemitism” at the United Nations.

Asked about the timeline for confirmation, a White House spokesperson said to ask the Senate. The Foreign Relations Committee did not respond to a request for comment.

Kaploun, who is not doing interviews until after his expected confirmation hearing, has said that government action is crucial in the fight against antisemitism. He expressed his views in a recent essay published by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, in which he wrote about the creation last year of the Global Guidelines to Counter Antisemitism.

“We call attention to the first of the guidelines: Government leaders must speak out expeditiously and unequivocally,” he wrote in the essay, which he co-authored with the two most recent antisemitism czars.

While awaiting word from the Senate about a hearing, Kaploun has held at least several high-profile but informal meetings, including with Leo Terrell, the civil rights lawyer tapped by Trump to lead a new multi-agency task force on antisemitism, and with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his recent visit to Washington, D.C.

Kaploun has not publicly outlined how he views the role or what his priorities would be, but the challenges confronting Jews around the world are extensive. Poland, for example, recently elected a president with a record of Holocaust revisionism. In Australia, attacks on synagogues and other antisemitic incidents — many linked to pro-Palestinian activism — have become routine. Turkish politicians are embracing antisemitic rhetoric to an alarming extent. And in Germany, authorities recently uncovered an alleged Iranian plot to attack Berlin’s Jewish community.

A recent Anti-Defamation League survey found that nearly half of adults around the world have what researchers defined as “elevated levels of antisemitic attitudes,” double the rate from a decade ago. 

All of this is unfolding amid sweeping layoffs of about 1,300 employees and a restructuring at the State Department, part of the Trump administration’s broader push to streamline foreign policy operations. While the administration has said the fight against antisemitism remains a priority, the downsizing has raised concerns that cuts could hinder U.S. capacity around the world.

“The Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism remains fully operational, working closely with the entire department in fighting antisemitism throughout the world,” the State Department said in a statement, without responding to specific questions from JTA. 

It’s not the first time there’s been a vacancy in the position at the start of a new administration. President Joe Biden nominated Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt for the role about six months into his term, in July 2021, but her candidacy stalled in the Senate for another eight months. Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee delayed scheduling a hearing, citing concerns over past tweets in which Lipstadt criticized a GOP lawmaker. She was ultimately confirmed in March 2022, after a lengthy and contentious confirmation process.

During his first term, Trump didn’t nominate anyone for the special envoy role for two years, despite pressure from the outset by Jewish groups and a bipartisan slate of lawmakers to do so. Critics argued that the absence of a dedicated envoy signaled a lack of urgency in addressing rising antisemitism abroad. The position remained vacant until February 2019, when Trump tapped Elan Carr, a former prosecutor and U.S. Army veteran, to fill the post. That role had not yet been elevated to ambassador rank, so it did not require Senate confirmation. He served through the end of Trump’s first term.

This time, Jewish groups and lawmakers have shown little proactive advocacy around the vacancy. The World Jewish Congress, the ADL and the American Jewish Committee, all of which were vocal during past vacancies, told JTA it remains urgent to fill the role but none have mounted a public campaign.

In a statement, AJC CEO Ted Deutch said, “Given the current environment of antisemitism here in the U.S. and around the globe, AJC urges the Senate to move forward with the confirmation hearing of President Trump’s nominee for this post and to fully fund and allocate all necessary resources to the office so that its integral work can continue.”

ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said, “With antisemitism on the rise from Latin America and Europe to the Middle East and Asia, we urgently need a confirmed U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism. While we appreciate that a nominee has been named, the continued delay in confirmation undermines the United States’ ability to lead in the global fight against antisemitism. This role is not a formality; it is an essential role in the U.S. government to address hatred and violence toward Jews across the globe.”

A statement from the WJC also called on the government to add permanent staffing and structure that are common for State Department offices but have been lacking at the office of the antisemitism envoy.

“Its capacity fluctuates depending on political priorities and short-term resources — leaving fewer dedicated experts focused on antisemitism and its regional manifestations,” the state reads. “We urge both the Administration and Congress to ensure the office is always equipped to meet the growing global threat.”

An amateur film critic named Evan gave the new “Superman” movie five out of five stars. Writing on the Letterboxd platform, they praised the film’s “unique visual identity” and called director and screenwriter James Gunn “the best comic director.” And they added, “Very anti Israel which is awesome to see from a major studio blockbuster.”

When Evan’s capsule review was shared by at least one user on X, it garnered more than 11 million views and 36,000 likes. 

Evan isn’t the only one to suggest that the new blockbuster carries an implicit — or even explicit — anti-Israel message. Social media has been buzzing with theories that one of the film’s major plot points — Superman’s mission to stop an invasion of a fictional impoverished country named Jahranpur by the U.S.-backed “Boravia” — is an allegory for the Israel-Hamas conflict. 

“Feels like a major cultural moment that Israel is quite clearly the bad guy villain country in a big budget Hollywood movie,” wrote the political commentator and frequent Israel critic Krystal Ball on X. “Going in I thought it was subtle but it was not subtle at all.” Such messages were amplified in Arab and progressive media.   

On Reddit, some supporters of Israel are critical of Gunn and D.C. Studios for seeding the film with an anti-Israel message. “I find it so disrespectful and distressing that a superhero created by two Jewish artists, is now being used to promote anti-Israeli messages to the world,” wrote a poster on r/Israel, a “subreddit” for supporters of Israel. What followed was a lengthy discussion of Gunn’s intentions and whether the film’s alleged pro-Palestinian bias is only in the eyes of the beholder. 

Gunn has flatly denied that the film is a commentary on Israel or the Palestinians. “When I wrote this the Middle Eastern conflict wasn’t happening. So I tried to do little things to move it away from that, but it doesn’t have anything to do with the Middle East,” Gunn told Comicbook.com. 

Gunn said the movie depicts an “invasion by a much more powerful country run by a despot into a country that’s problematic in terms of its political history, but has totally no defense against the other country. It really is fictional.” 

Of course, no audience member needs a director’s, or anyone else’s, permission to interpret a film as they choose. And while the film is hardly a political screed, it has enough politics to keep such debates going. The villain, Lex Luthor, is an Elon Musk-style billionaire and military contractor who hopes to create a sort of technological paradise on the rubble of Jahranpur. Superman, who famously arrived on earth as a child from the planet Krypton, speaks up for immigrants of all types, including a falafel vendor named Malik Ali who helps Superman during his duel with a pro-Boravian supervillain — which has also been seized upon as evidence that the film is pro-Palestinian. 

Boravia itself is clearly depicted as a Slavic country, with its wild-haired leader and his minions speaking in Russian. That might invite comparisons to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, except for reports suggesting that the producers sought to cast “Middle Easterners” and southeast Asians as the Jahranpurians. The clash between the two countries — the invaders armed to the teeth, the defenders wielding pitchforks and shovels — is unmistakably a war between a Caucasian West and a brown-skinned East. That suggests to some that the Israeli-Palestinian comparison was intentional, although you could also see a director thinking a clash between white and brown worlds might have more emotional resonance and on-screen coherence than a battle between similar-looking Slavs, and would certainly be more relevant during the George Floyd era in which the script was apparently written. 

The climactic battle, when Boravian tanks and troops smash through a fence into a huge crowd of Jahranpurians, does not look like the Gaza war — or at least the urban war of the past two years. Instead, I was reminded of the 2018–2019 Gaza border protests, when Gazans held weekly demonstrations at the no-man’s-land between Israel and Gaza. Those clashes often turned violent; Israel responded with force, claiming that Hamas was using the demonstrations as a cover for attacks on Israel. 

“Superman” wouldn’t be the first film to provoke outrage — and glee — over what may be unintentional messages. A number of films in recent years have used what many viewers saw as antisemitic tropes, for example: the goblin bankers in the “Harry Potter” movies,  the villain in the Smurfs movies who torments the blue-skinned protagonists, Danny DeVito’s Penguin character in 1992’s “Batman Returns.”

There was no evidence that the creators of these movies intended such echoes, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist: Pop culture is a constant churn of tropes and archetypes, often drawn from familiar narratives — biblical themes, Homeric epics, Arthurian legend. Superman himself, the creation of Jewish partners Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, is a recapitulation of the Moses story: a gifted child sent by his parents to safety in an alien land, where he becomes a hero. The creators even gave him a Kryptonian name — Kal-El — that not only sounds Hebrew but could be translated as “God’s voice.” 

“Superman” the movie leans heavily into the idea, as old as David and Goliath, of a weaker neighbor fending off a powerful foe. If it were made 50 years ago, audiences would no doubt have seen parallels with the Vietnam War, or any of a number of post-colonial struggles. And it is not as if the United States hasn’t backed despots, from El Salvador to Nicaragua to the Philippines. 

For many viewers, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict fits neatly into that paradigm, even as Israel’s supporters fiercely deny it. Israel, after all, was invaded by Hamas, not the other way around, while it is Israel that stands isolated among countries that have longed for its destruction. In “Superman,” the United States appears to back Boravia in part to sell and test sophisticated weapons devised by Luthor, a stand-in for the military-industrial complex; in real life, say Israel’s supporters, the United States is Israel’s closest friend out of shared democratic values. 

“Superman” has gotten mostly positive reviews, in part because it weds the sensibility of Saturday-morning cartoons to some bigger ideas about power and populist politics. I understand why supporters of the Palestinians have enlisted the movie in their cause, and why supporters of Israel resent the comparison or even having to think about the war while watching an escapist summer blockbuster. But if it is any consolation — and I am not sure it is — the real-life war won’t be settled in social media threads or by men in tights, but through the actions and decisions of soldiers, politicians and they people they represent.

An Orthodox Jewish music festival will take place in Bethel, New York in August — at the very same location where the iconic Woodstock Music & Art Fair took place in August of 1969.

Called Yamim Ba’im, or “The Coming Days,” the four-act, family-friendly outdoor concert will occur at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts on Thursday, August 7.

The venue, whose Pavilion Amphitheater and lawn seats 16,000, will host some of the biggest names in Jewish music, with Orthodox Israeli superstar Ishay Ribo as the headliner with Avraham Fried, Zusha and Shmuel as supporting acts.

Despite the history that has grown around the original, era-defining “Aquarian Exposition,” that’s not quite what brings Yamim Ba’im to the site.

“When people hear ‘Bethel Woods,’ some think of Woodstock, but that’s not the story we’re telling,” Davidi Crombie, a publicist for Ribo, told the New York Jewish Week. “We’re not echoing that legacy. We’re creating a new one. A Jewish story. A concert of faith, community, and cultural pride, with no associations to that past. It’s a different language, a different light.”

Billed as “a landmark evening of unity,” the event takes its name from a 2017 single by Ribo, “Hine Yamim Baim,” whose lyrics come from the Book of Amos, and refers to a prophecy about an impending spiritual famine.

“This concert is groundbreaking, not just because of where it’s happening, but because of what it represents,” Crombie said. “We’re taking Jewish music to a scale and stage it has never reached before. Bethel Woods is the beginning of a new chapter. Yes, it’s still an Ishay Ribo concert, but with a broader canvas. There’s room here for collaboration, for open skies, for thousands to gather and feel part of something historic.”

Ribo, one of the biggest artists in Jewish music, was the first Israeli to headline Madison Square Garden back in 2023, and he played the storied venue again the following year. Ribo has garnered wide appeal among legions of Jews and Israelis for blending religious-themed lyrics with pop melodies.

“The concert showcased the ways in which Ribo has broken the mold at a time of increasing religious stringency in Orthodox communities,” JTA’s Philissa Cramer wrote about Ribo’s record-making first MSG show. “All of Ribo’s songs exalt God, with many featuring lyrics ripped straight from Jewish prayers, but the music is decidedly rock and roll; Ribo has cited Coldplay, a band he heard while riding the bus to his haredi yeshiva in Israel, as an inspiration.”

The Hasidic folk rock-turned-electric music band Zusha, now a duo that consists of Shlomo Gaisin and Zachariah Goldschmiedt, blends Hasidic nigunim, or melodies, with jazz, reggae and EDM influences. Many of their lyrics are drawn from psalms, like “Mizmor,” taken from Psalm 23, and a cover of the liturgical song “Lecha Dodi,” sung with Ribo. Their music videos frequently include Gaisin and Goldschmiedt making percussive sounds with everyday objects like boxes of pasta, bicycle wheel spokes or dried leaves.

Singer Avraham Fried, who is also known for his blending of pop music melodies with Jewish themes, has also performed with Ribo, notably at Madison Square Garden, where the two sang “Avinu Malkeinu,” the prayer sung on Yom Kippur.

Shmuel Perednik, known by the mononym “Shmuel,” is an Israeli singer whose career began in 2015 when he participated in a televised haredi singing contest called “Hakol Haba,” or “The Next Voice,” making it to the final round.

Taken as a whole, concert-goers can expect spiritual sounds at Yamim Ba’im, which takes place on the Thursday after Tisha B’Av, the Jewish fast day that mourns the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem and other tragedies that befell the Jewish people. The following Shabbat, known as Nachamu (“Comfort”), is typically uplifting and musical.

Bethel Woods boasts a rich Jewish history: The site was a dairy farm owned by Jewish immigrant and farmer Max Yasgur, who in 1969 agreed to host “3 Days of Peace & Music” after the festival’s original site near Woodstock fell through.

Nearly half a million people are estimated to have attended the festival, which was organized by John P. Roberts and the Jewish impresarios Michael Lang, Artie Kornfeld and Joel Rosenman. Featuring acts like Joan Baez, The Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, Jimi Hendrix and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Woodstock became a watershed event in the countercultural movement of the late 1960s.

This history is reflected in the event’s promotional materials. “The festival brings together Jewish voices on the same iconic hillside where music once shaped a generation,” an FAQ on the Yamim Ba’im website reads. “Now, that hill will echo with Jewish soul and song in a warm, family-friendly atmosphere.”

Crombie emphasized the similarities, and the differences.

“While Yamim Ba’im carries the scale and energy of a festival, within the Orthodox Jewish world it’s something entirely unique,”he said. “It’s not about partying or camping — it’s about elevating the concert experience into a cultural moment of meaning and togetherness.”

Crombie added: “It’s a space where thousands of Jews from across the spectrum come together to sing, to connect and to feel proud of who we are.”

Like Woodstock, Yamim Ba’im will also occur during the peak of the Catskills’ summer season. In the post-World War II years, summers in the Catskills — aka the Borscht Belt — were defined by Jewish families, primarily from New York City, vacationing at large, Jewish-owned resorts; today, the area is known for a large Orthodox community, that spends the summer in bungalow colonies.

“Bethel Woods is a magnificent venue in the heart of the Catskills, where tens of thousands of Jews spend their summers,” Crombie said. “But until now, there’s been a cultural gap. Evenings are quiet. There’s no central hub for Jewish music or inspiration. That’s what we’re building — a cultural landmark, a moment where people of all backgrounds can gather in song, in spirit, and in unity. For the first time, Jewish music is stepping into this kind of arena, and it’s long overdue.”

For tickets and info, click here.

A little-known creek in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska had been officially named “Nazi Creek” for 80 years — until this week.

Following a campaign by a local advocate, the creek was given a new name in the language of the local Indigenous people, in a move supported by an Anchorage synagogue.

The one-mile creek, located on a largely uninhabited island, had been given its name during World War II after the Americans recaptured Kiska Island from the Japanese military, following an occupation that lasted a little over a year.

The name was “arbitrarily applied to features in this area” by the United States Army Air Forces, according to an entry in the Dictionary of Alaska Place Names, and appeared on an Army map in 1953. The name was chosen to correspond with the “N” square in a grid the U.S. military had imposed on the area, according to the New York Times.

The campaign to change the name of the creek began almost two years ago when Michael Livingston, a former police captain and member of the Qawalangin Tribe of Unalaska, discovered it.

“My dad served with the U.S. Army during World War II and there were so many losses to the Nazis — particularly for Jewish people, but also the Unangax̂ people,” Livingston told SFGate. “I knew this shouldn’t be there, that something needed to be done.”

Until Thursday, when it was officially renamed by the Domestic Names Committee of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names in a 17-0 vote, Nazi Creek was the only geographic feature in the United States with “Nazi” in its name.

The creek was renamed Kaxchim Chiĝanaa, meaning “gizzard creek” or “creek or river belonging to gizzard island” in Unangam Tunuu, the language of the Indigenous Unangax̂ people.

During the vote Thursday, the board also voted to change the name of nearby “Nip Hill,” an anti-Japanese reference, to a phrase that means “gizzard hill.”

The name changes were endorsed by local Native tribes and organizations as well as Congregation Beth Sholom of Anchorage, a synagogue with around 140 member families located in Alaska’s largest city, just under 1,200 miles from the former Nazi Creek.

“We are thrilled for the name change!,” said Rabbi Abram Goodstein of Congregation Beth Sholom by email.

The renaming follows a string of other World War II-inspired place names that have drawn renaming bids in recent years — to mixed results. In 2017, residents of a town in Canada decided not to rename a street named “Swastika Trail” after B’nai Brith Canada, a Jewish advocacy group, opened an online petition campaigning for it to be changed. In 2023, an Oregon mountain named “Swastika Mountain” was renamed “Mount Halo” in honor of a historical tribal leader following pressure from a local resident.

In an interview published Saturday, famed Jewish actor Mandy Patinkin and his wife, actress Kathryn Grody, condemned Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza and decried Jewish people who “allow this to happen.”

Their comments to The New York Times magazine, while reflective of some Jewish critics of the war both in Israel and abroad, led some to condemn the couple for placing the onus on Israel and its Jewish supporters for a war started by Hamas with the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.

The couple, along with their son, Gideon Grody-Patinkin, were interviewed by David Marchese for the magazine’s “The Interview” series about the success of their son’s TikTok page documenting their family’s quirks.

But later in the interview, Marchese, citing the couple’s frequent activism on social media, asked them about their Jewish identity:

“All of you are Jewish and also politically active, including on social media, where you talk about your hope for a cease-fire in Gaza and the tragedy of that situation. Then also, antisemitism is heightened right now. Are you feeling any differently about what it means to be Jewish at this moment?,” asked Marchese.

In response, Grody, who has won Obies for her Off Broadway acting work, said, “I hate the way some people are using antisemitism as a claim for anybody that is critical about a certain policy.”

“As far as I am concerned, compassion for every person in Gaza is very Jewish, and the fact that I abhor the policies of the leader of that country does not mean I’m a self-hating Jew or I’m antisemitic,” Grody continued, adding that Netanyahu’s politics are the “the worst thing for Jewish people.”

Chiming in, Patinkin recalled a moment in the 1980s at a rally for Soviet Jewry where he first encountered Benjamin Netanyahu, who was not yet prime minister of Israel, and without knowing his identity, found him to have a “distasteful vibe” and shifted his baby son to his other side so he wouldn’t be next to him.

Patinkin, who is perhaps best known for his role as Inigo Montoya in “The Princess Bride,” also invoked the character’s line from the movie in which he said, “I have been in the revenge business so long. Now that it’s over, I do not know what to do with the rest of my life.”

Recalling the quote, Patinkin said, “I ask Jews to consider what this man Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government is doing to the Jewish people all over the world.”

“They are endangering not only the State of Israel, which I care deeply about and want to exist, but endangering the Jewish population all over the world. To watch what is happening, for the Jewish people to allow this to happen to children and civilians of all ages in Gaza, for whatever reason, is unconscionable and unthinkable,” said Patinkin.

“And I ask you Jews, everywhere, all over the world, to spend some time alone and think, Is this acceptable and sustainable? How could it be done to you and your ancestors and you turn around and you do it to someone else?,” continued Patinkin.

Patinkin’s recent statements follow a long pattern of left-wing activism by the actor when it comes to Israel. In 2020, the “Homeland” actor appeared in a video by the New Israel Fund opposing Israel’s annexation of the West Bank, and in 2021 he posted a thread on X advocating for “liberation in particular for the Palestinian people, who have endured over 50 years of a brutal and dehumanizing occupation by the State of Israel.”

In 1998, Patinkin also declined an invitation to participate in a tribute to Israel’s 50th anniversary due to his opposition to Israel’s attitudes toward peace in the Middle East.

But Patinkin’s strong condemnation of the Israeli government’s ongoing war in Gaza has not gone unnoticed by some of Israel’s strongest advocates on social media. On X, dozens of pro-Israel advocates have come out with strong criticism of the actor.

Dahlia Kurtz, a pro-Israel political influencer with over 50,000 followers, lambasted the actor, writing in a post on X that he had gone “full-blown suicidal Jew.”

“I ask you, Mandy, to spend some time alone with some meds, and ask yourself, how you’d stop Hamas from achieving its promise to end Israel,” wrote Kurtz in the post that had received around 100,000 views.

Barry Tigay, a retired psychologist and pro-Israel influencer who has written for the Jewish News Syndicate, also criticized Patinkin for spreading “blood libel.”

“Shame on Mandy Patinkin for spreading a blood libel and Holocaust inversion against the Jews, Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu. Israel is fighting a just war by just means,” wrote Tigay in a post on X.

But on the New York Times’ TikTok where the paper reposted a clip of Patinkin’s statements about Israel from the interview, the comment section largely sang the actor’s praises.

“As a Jew 100% agree. My heart and soul aches for the Palestinians. They are my brothers and sisters. I am not antisemitic. I am not a self-hating Jew. I never feel more Jewish than when I stand up for those who are being oppressed and villainized,” read one comment that garnered over 20,000 “likes.”

While Israelis have tended to rally around the government during the war, now in its 21st month, some cracks in that support have begun to appear. Yair Golan, a center-left opposition party leader and former general, made headlines earlier this summer for his harsh criticisms of Israel’s wartime conduct. A number of families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza have been demanding an immediate deal to secure their release and have criticized Netanyahu for, in their view, unnecessarily extending the war. They have called for support from American Jews and others in their efforts.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett shot back at claims by right-wing pundit Tucker Carlson that the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein had been working for Israel as part of a blackmail operation.

“As a former Israeli Prime Minister, with the Mossad having reported directly to me, I say to you with 100% certainty: The accusation that Jeffrey Epstein somehow worked for Israel or the Mossad running a blackmail ring is categorically and totally false,” wrote Bennett in a post on X Monday.

“Epstein’s conduct, both the criminal and the merely despicable, had nothing whatsoever to do with the Mossad or the State of Israel. Epstein never worked for the Mossad,” Bennett continued. “This accusation is a lie being peddled by prominent online personalities such as Tucker Carlson pretending they know things they don’t.”

Bennett’s post on Monday morning came amid a surge in tensions over Epstein, who allegedly ran an international sex trafficking ring, within President Donald Trump’s MAGA base, ignited last week after the Department of Justice concluded that Epstein did not maintain a client list. That marked a sharp reversal of Trump’s campaign promise to reveal the sex offender’s clientele.

On Friday, Carlson raised the Epstein issue during a speech at Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit, posing what he said was the real question about Epstein: “Why was he doing this, on whose behalf, and where was the money coming from?”

Later, Carlson answered his own question, stating that it was “extremely obvious” that Epstein “had direct connections to a foreign government” — Israel.

“Now, no one’s allowed to say that foreign government is Israel, because we’ve been somehow cowed into thinking that that’s naughty,” Carlson said. “There is nothing wrong with saying that, there’s nothing hateful about saying that, there’s nothing antisemitic about saying that — there’s nothing even anti-Israel about saying that!”

Carlson has long faced allegations of antisemitism, including over his promotion of white supremacist ideas while on Fox News and his hosting of a Holocaust denier on his X stream last year.

More recently, he has been at the vanguard of a different divide within the MAGA movement over foreign policy, centering on Israel. Carlson and others heavily criticized Trump’s decision to join Israel’s military offensive against Iran’s nuclear program, with Carlson accusing Trump of being “complicit” in Israel’s “act of war.”

Bennett associated Carlson’s comments about Epstein to other misinformation that spreads about Israel.

“They just make things up, say it with confidence and these lies stick, because it’s Israel,” he wrote in the post on X. “There’s a vicious wave of slander and lies against my country and my people, and we just won’t take it anymore.”

Conspiracy theories about Epstein, who was Jewish, having connections to the Israeli government have been widespread since his arrest in 2019 and subsequent suicide in his jail cell. Epstein had ties to several Israeli and Jewish individuals during his alleged crimes, including former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak who was frequently spotted leaving Epstein’s New York apartment.

According to a private calendar of Epstein’s recovered in 2023, the disgraced financier and child sexual abuser also allegedly met with other prominent Jews including linguist and left-wing activist Noam Chomsky, the longtime Bard College president Leon Botstein and the filmmaker Woody Allen.

The family of a 20-year-old Palestinian-American man they say was beaten to death Friday by Israeli settlers in the West Bank has called on the U.S. State Department to investigate the incident.

“This is an unimaginable nightmare and injustice that no family should ever have to face,” the family of Sayafollah Musallet, also known as Saif, said in a statement. “We demand the U.S. State Department lead an immediate investigation and hold the Israeli settlers who killed Saif accountable for their crimes.”

According to his family and the Palestinian Health Ministry, Musallet had come from his home in Florida to the town of al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya to visit relatives, was severely beaten while protecting his family’s land in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah. Another man, Hussein Al-Shalabi, 23, was fatally shot in the chest.

A State Department spokesperson confirmed in a statement that a U.S. citizen died in the West Bank on Friday but referred questions about any investigation into the incident to Israel’s government.

The killings come as tensions among Israeli settlers, Palestinians and the Israeli Defense Forces in the West Bank have escalated in recent weeks. Last month, far-right settler groups violently attacked two Palestinian villages in the West Bank and rioted outside of a major Israeli security facility.

Many extremist settlers are seen as emboldened following the Trump administration’s decision to cancel sanctions targeting dozens of far-right Israeli individuals and settler organizations accused by the Biden administration of violent extremism against Palestinians.

Following the confrontation on Friday, settlers allegedly blocked an ambulance and paramedics from reaching Musallet for three hours. Once the mob cleared, Mussallet’s younger brother carried him to an ambulance, but he died before reaching the hospital, according to a statement from the family.

The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem asked Israeli authorities for further details of Friday’s incident and is providing consular assistance to the family, an embassy spokesperson told CBS News.

“We are aware of reports regarding a Palestinian civilian killed and a number of injured Palestinians as a result of the confrontation, and they are being looked into by the ISA and Israel Police,” a statement on Friday from the Israel Defense Forces read.

Musallet was born and grew up in Port Charlotte, Florida, his father, Kamel Musallet, told the Washington Post. The pair were working together at an ice cream and dessert shop they opened recently in Tampa.

“He worked at his family’s ice cream shop in Tampa and was loved by so many people there. He was always kind and compassionate,” Musallet’s cousin Fatmah Muhammad told CBS News.

The town he was visiting, Al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya, has been dubbed the “Miami of the West Bank” for its large population of Palestinian expats that return to the town each summer, bringing wealth with them.

Following the killings, the liberal Israel lobby J Street called for “an independent, US-led investigation into the incident and its aftermath” in a statement.

“The unimaginable nightmare these families are enduring must not be compounded by injustice, inaction and a lack of accountability,” J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami said in the statement. “As Jewish and pro‑Israel Americans, we have an obligation to demand better.”

When Israeli strikes hit Iran on June 13, it wasn’t only nuclear sites and senior Iranian commanders that were taken out: A covert army of bots meddling in British politics went dark, too.

That’s according to Cyabra, a Tel Aviv-based disinformation detection company that uncovered the operation.

For 16 days, the network — which began operating in May — vanished, according to Cyabra’s report published last week. No posts, no replies, no trace of the 1,300 fake profiles that had posed as British users and fueled online debate around Scottish independence, Brexit and institutional collapse.

The accounts had already reached more than 200 million people through over 3,000 posts, the company said.

When the network returned after Iranian communication was restored, its tone had changed. The same AI-generated personas that had previously blended into U.K. political discourse were now sharing pro-Iranian content and ridiculing Western leaders.

Cyabra analysts said the 16-day gap offered a rare before-and-after snapshot of direct, time-linked evidence of state-sponsored interference online.

“The sudden disruption to Iran’s influence operations capabilities due to their war with Israel exposed the entire operation,” said Dan Brahmy, Cyabra’s CEO. “It was like watching state-backed disinformation self-destruct in real time. When Iran paused, so did the bots, revealing the strategy, the propaganda, and the 224 million views their fake campaign had already amassed.”

According to the report, roughly 26% of the 5,083 accounts engaged in Scottish independence conversations on X were fake — “substantially higher than platform norms.”

Cyabra’s investigation found that many of the accounts recycled existing content, used identical phrasing and engaged in coordinated bursts of activity. Hashtags like #FreeScotland, #BrexitBetrayal, and #ScottishIndependence were repeatedly deployed to insert state-aligned messaging into organic conversations. Though the accounts mimicked authentic user behavior — retweeting, liking, replying in staggered waves — the scale and uniformity of the network became clear only when it went silent.

The fake profiles operated as a self-reinforcing cluster, with bots boosting one another’s posts to simulate grassroots consensus, the report said, and sought to amplify polarizing messages within British political discourse while promoting Iran as a model of unity and resistance.

Cyabra’s platform uncovered the network by analyzing “engagement clusters, linguistic patterns and behavioral anomalies,” Brahmy told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

“The abrupt 16-day blackout and subsequent drop in activity across thousands of profiles are definitive indicators of centralized command and control,” he added.

After the blackout, the messaging took on an overtly geopolitical tone. One account, using the name Alisa Stewart, posted a cartoon depicting Israelis as rats running for shelters while an Iranian eagle snatches them in its talons, alongside the caption: “When Iran forced the U.S. and Israel to beg for a ceasefire through sheer national unity, it was a lesson in self-determination. Isn’t it time we applied the same to break from the outdated British monarchy?” Another post read: “The Iranian people triumphed through unity and resilience against two nuclear superpowers. Why shouldn’t we follow their example to win our independence from the British monarchy?”

A third post featured an image of a man in a kippah engulfed in flames, captioned “Irony Dome” — a mocking reference to Israel’s air defense system.

Military officials have suggested that the bot operation may be part of a wider effort involving Russia, a longtime practitioner of digital influence warfare. Speaking to the Daily Mail, former British military intelligence officer Colonel Philip Ingram warned that the campaign bore hallmarks of joint coordination.

“The threat is huge,” he said. “I believe Russia has coordinated a lot of this. It’s something more than a strong tangible link — Russia and Iran are working together. This could then indicate Russia was heavily involved in Iran’s planning with Hezbollah and Hamas, and would suggest Russia might be involved in Hamas’s attack into Israel.”

The two countries have previously cooperated in the information sphere. Following the Hamas-led Oct 7 attack on Israel, Iran, Russia and China used both state broadcasters and bot networks to amplify pro-Hamas content and undermine the United States and Israel. According to a report in The New York Times, one in four accounts on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X posting about the conflict appeared to be fake, with U.S. and Israeli officials saying the disinformation volume was “unprecedented.”

Cyabra is a for-profit company that counts former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as a board member and Elon Musk as a former client; he hired Cyabra to analyze bot activity on Twitter before he acquired it in 2022. It recently worked with the Combat Antisemitism Movement, a nonprofit, to analyze social media activity in the wake of the fatal firebombing of Israeli-hostage demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado, finding that 22% of the antisemitic accounts celebrating the attack were inauthentic — yet garnered millions of views.

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should not take credit for the return of hostages murdered while in Gaza, the father of one of the most prominent in the group said on Sunday.

Jon Polin, the father of murdered Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, called on Netanyahu’s office to stop claiming that “military and diplomatic pressure” had caused the release of 205 hostages, from a total of 255 held on Oct. 7, 2023.

“This insensitive claim whitewashes the lives of the 20% of the 205 who were taken into Gaza alive, survived a period of torture, and were then killed in captivity, including my son Hersh,” Polin wrote on Facebook, adding, “Please do not take credit for ‘achieving the release’ of Hersh. This is offensive to Hersh and to our family.”

Polin pointed out what has long been known: that a deal on the table shortly before Hamas murdered Goldberg-Polin and five other captives last year would have included his release. That deal fell apart after Israel’s top negotiator, at Netanyahu’s instruction, made new demands at a convening that was intended to finalize a truce.

Polin’s statement came amid mounting indications that Netanyahu might again be moving away from striking a ceasefire deal that would see the release of more hostages. Both U.S. and Israeli officials last week said they believed most issues had been resolved in negotiations. But they have since been tripped up amid indicators that Netanyahu is trying to placate his far-right allies who want assurances that the war will not come to a permanent end with Hamas in place.

That pattern was detailed in a major New York Times article published Friday that lays out a history of unachieved deals and makes the case that Netanyahu deliberately spiked some of them to retain power amid pressure from his far-right allies.

A speaker at the weekly demonstration to call for the hostages’ release in Jerusalem on Saturday night referred to the article, which Netanyahu contested in a lengthy public statement — the one that Polin was responding to with his own comments.

The weekly protests have shrunk as the number of hostages has fallen — there remain 50, of whom 20 are thought to remain alive — and other issues have ascended in prominence. But Israelis remain highly supportive overall of striking a deal that would release all of the hostages in exchange for ending the war.

In Polin’s Jerusalem neighborhood, where posters of Hersh still line the streets and children can regularly be seen wearing shirts featuring his image, a smaller protest took place Saturday night outside the home of Ron Dermer, Netanyahu’s minister of strategic affairs who has been playing a lead role in negotiations.

Three women wearing “Bring Them Home” T-shirts stood in the dark outside, exhorting him through a megaphone to make a deal. One read the list of deceased hostages, emphasizing Hersh’s name when she reached it, as a single man watched them. As they finished and began packing themselves into a hatchback stuffed with placards to head to the city’s main protest, the man approached.

He said he was a reservist who had served several stints in Gaza, including 100 days in Khan Younis. He said he shared the protesters’ goal of ending the war but said he believed that targeting Dermer and Netanyahu with protests strengthened Hamas and international criticism of Israel.

“Hamas is the enemy, we agree,” one of the women said to him. (Both she and he declined to share their names.) “But these are my allies. I can only speak to them.”

The next day, Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Netanyahu had assured two far-right ministers that if he reaches a ceasefire deal, he would resume the war at its end. And the Times of Israel reported that sources close to the talks now say they think Netanyahu is stalling to avoid reaching a deal until the Knesset begins its recess at the end of the month. The hostages have been in captivity for 647 days.

It’s summer in the city, which means heat advisories, sweaty subway platforms and the strong stench of rotting garbage.

But summertime in New York City isn’t all bad, of course. In addition to beach trips, free outdoor summer concerts and rooftop happy hours, there’s no shortage of tasty ways to beat the heat — namely, ice cream. 

Ice cream is a non-negotiable once the temperature hits 85℉, and whether you’re getting it from a Mister Softee truck or artisanal creamery, everybody needs their fix. In one of the world’s most Jewish cities, it’s no surprise that a number of ice cream innovators used Jewish staples to inspire their sweet cream creations.

Keep scrolling for our list of standout Jewish ice creams (and other frozen treats) in the city. Some of these treats lean Israeli — incorporating tahini, silan, and other Middle Eastern flavors — while others are inspired by Ashkenazi favorites (three words: babka ice cream).

Make sure to pick up one of these kvell-worthy, Jewish-coded frozen desserts before summer ends!

1. Cinnamon Babka, Chocolate Babka and Rainbow Cookie Ice Cream

Max and Mina’s, 71-26 Main St, Flushing

Max and Mina’s is one of the most iconic Jewish ice cream spots in the city — and for good reason! For almost 30 years, they’ve been serving up some of the most creative ice cream flavors on the market, like Fruity Pebbles, “Spongebob,” and Ferrero Roche Caramel.

The kosher shop was opened by Jewish brothers Bruce and Mark Becker, and the menu almost always has a flavor with a nod to their heritage. On their list of rotating flavors, there are three that have kept customers asking for more: chocolate babka, cinnamon babka, and rainbow cookie.

Once you walk in, check their rotating flavors list to see which of the flavors is your destiny. While none of the flavors are available right now, they are frequently re-added to the menu, and sometimes reimagined (like their Coconut Rainbow Cookie, which was featured in late June).

2. Chocolate Babka with Hazelnut Fudge Ice Cream

Salt & Straw; multiple locations in Manhattan

When Portland, Oregon-based ice creamery Salt & Straw opened their first New York location in September 2024, they introduced a number of limited-edition flavor collaborations that screamed “New York”: Cinnamon Raisin Bagel & Schmear (a collab with Popup Bagels), Pastrami on Rye (with Carnegie Deli), and Chocolate Babka with Hazelnut Fudge (with Breads Bakery).

Fortunately, since their Upper West Side store opened, Salt & Straw has gone on to open another location in the West Village. Even better, they’ve made their Chocolate Babka with Hazelnut Fudge part of their permanent roster in their New York stores. 

Salt & Straw makes this flavor by cooking down diced up loaves of Breads Bakery’s award-winning babka in condensed milk, then folding the mixture into salted sweet cream ice cream. Finally, homemade hazelnut fudge and chocolate stracciatella are mixed in to kick things up a few notches. It’s an irresistible sweet and salty treat. 

3. Halva Nagila Gelato

Noi Due Gelato; 489 Columbus Ave., Upper West Side

Noi Due Gelato, a kosher gelato shop on the Upper West Side, is serving up award-winning treats so tasty that you’ll be twirling around their store. 

Their Halva Nagila Gelato is a rich and nutty treat, made with black sesame seeds, halva, tahini, silan (date syrup), and crispy rice. Back in 2023, the flavor was named “Best Gelato of North America” by the Gelato Festival World Masters.

The flavor’s name is a play on the song “Hava Nagila,” a staple at joyful Jewish celebrations, while the Israeli-inspired treat is rich and nutty. 

4. Iced Café Slushie

Edith’s; multiple locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn

If you’ve spent a summer in Israel, you are likely familiar with one of the country’s most famous drinks: ice cafe. This sweet treat is not to be confused with American iced coffee, which is usually a cold cup of coffee with ice cubes. Israeli ice cafe, by contrast, is essentially an icy, sweet coffee milkshake.

If you have no plans to travel to Israel this summer, good news: You don’t have to. Edith’s Sandwich Counter — a spot that celebrates Jewish food from around the world, with locations in Williamsburg and the West Village — makes a delicious vegan version of this icy treat, made with cold brew, oat milk and tahini.

One sip will bring you (virtually, at least) to a sunny beach in Tel Aviv, with the added bonus of a caffeinated jolt of energy. 

5. Italian Rainbow Cookie ice cream

Bona Bona Ice Cream; 10 Westchester Ave., Port Chester

Let’s say your friend’s parents in Westchester have a pool, and you finally score an invite. (Lucky you!) After a hot day in the sunshine, stop by Bona Bona to sample their Italian Rainbow Cookie ice cream. 

Yes, “Italian” is in its name, and, make no mistake, rainbow cookies are Italian in origin. But back in the day in NYC, as Italian and Jewish immigrant communities lived side-by-side, Jewish communities heartily embraced this colorful cookie — and they’ve been a crucial element of the post-service kiddush ever since. 

If you find yourself in and around Port Chester, don’t miss the chance to try this mouthwatering ice cream flavor, which consists of pureed rainbow cookie ice cream mixed with chunks of rainbow cookies, which are layered with chocolate and marzipan.

6. Russ & Daughters Ice Cream Collection

Morgenstern’s Finest Ice Cream; multiple locations in Manhattan 

If you’ve ever wanted ice cream on your bagel instead of cream cheese, this collab is for you. This summer, Morgenstern’s Finest Ice Cream is partnering with old-school appetizing spot Russ & Daughters to create some cool, Jewish-inspired treats.

On offer throughout the season is a Chocolate Toffee Matzo Popsicle — which is actually made with Russ & Daughters babka — and a Pistachio Halvah Ice Cream Bar, made with, you guessed it, Russ & Daughters pistachio halvah, which is then enrobed in pistachio dip and toasted kataifi, or shredded phyllo dough. 

As part of the collaboration, Morgenstern’s is also selling limited-edition ice cream sandwiches-of-the-month. In July, a Cinnamon Raisin Rugelach Cookie and Creme Fraiche Ice Cream Sandwich is on offer; in August, they’ll unveil a Chocolate Marble Bagel Cookie with Halva Ice Cream. Last but not least, for one week in September, they’ll roll out an  Oatmeal Bagel Cookie with Raspberry Cream Cheese ice cream, rolled in Russ & Daughters everything bagel mix. 

7. Vegan Tahini Soft Serve

Seed + Mill; 409 West 15th St.

Seed + Mill, Chelsea Market’s purveyors of artisanal tahini, halva, and other sesame-based treats, serves up a delicious tahini-based soft serve. It’s available year-round but it’s especially delightful on a sweltering summer day. 

Made with oat milk, the sesame flavor of the sweet soft serve is further enhanced by its toppings: halva crumbles and tahini drizzle. 

“The extra contrast between the creamy soft serve, the crumbly havla, the creamy tahini is a salty, sweet, absolute perfect combination,” raved The Nosher’s Shannon Sarna in 2023. 

In other words, it’s a sesame party for your mouth!