WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Today: Jewish students sue MIT • Kanye West set to perform in Europe • Ceasefire with Iran holding for now • Trump makes $1.3 million in Bible sales • and celebrating 100 years of Yiddish history.

OUR LEAD STORY

Zohran Mamdani giving a victory speech Tuesday night in Queens. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Zohran Mamdani wins NYC Democratic mayoral primary — and rattles the city’s Orthodox community

Thanks to a stunning upset Tuesday, Zohran Mamdani is one step closer to becoming the first Muslim mayor of New York City, home to the largest concentration of Jews outside of Israel.

• Propelled by a magnetic personality and progressive platform, the 33-year-old Democratic Socialist and state assemblyman trounced the frontrunner, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, 43.5% to 36.4% with ranked-choice votes still to be counted. Mamdani has long diverged from the Democratic mainstream on Israel, backing the boycott movement and defending the slogan “globalize the intifada.”

  
  

• In his victory speech, Mamdani attempted to ease tensions with Jewish voters. “I hope now that this primary has come to an end, I can introduce myself once more,” he said, alluding to attack ads that labeled him a threat to the Jewish community.

  
  

• But the reaction from many Orthodox Jews was swift and anxious. “Well, it was a pretty good 100-year run for Jews in New York City,” one person wrote on social media. Another wrote: “I can’t believe this is real.” Orthodox podcaster David Bashevkin summed up the mood with an emoji: “I 💔 NY.”

My colleague Jacob Kornbluh has been up all night reporting this for you — with sharp analysis of what Mamdani’s victory means heading into November’s general election.

WAR WITH IRAN

A man kisses the tarmac after arriving Wednesday at Ben Gurion Airport, which has returned to full capacity in the wake of a ceasefire. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)

Ceasefire holds, damage debated

The ceasefire between Israel and Iran brokered by President Donald Trump appeared to be holding steady on Wednesday — at least for now. (Reuters)

• Israel has lifted all restrictions on public gatherings, allowing schools, workplaces, and transit to fully reopen. (JTA)

  
  

• Israel reopened its airspace and returned Ben Gurion Airport to full operation after nearly two weeks of wartime shutdowns. (Times of Israel)

  
  

• In the wake of damage from Iran’s strikes, the Jewish Federations of North America allocated $10 million for Israeli Jews. The money came from the $897 million raised since Oct. 7, 2023. (Religion News Service)

  
  

• Pope Leo XIV called on Israel and Iran to “reject the logic of bullying and revenge” and instead pursue peace through dialogue and diplomacy. (AP)

What’s the damage?

• The U.S. strikes on Iran set the country’s nuclear program back only a few months, a classified Pentagon report said. (New York Times)

  
  

• Trump disputed the findings, saying Iran’s nuclear sites were “completely destroyed.” (Bloomberg, JTA)

  
  

• White House envoy Steve Witkoff echoed Trump’s claim in a Tuesday night interview on Fox News, calling the reporting on the Pentagon findings “completely preposterous.” (Times of Israel)

  
  

• Israeli intelligence officials agreed with Trump’s assessment, claiming the strikes caused “very significant” damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu adding that “we sent Iran’s nuclear program down the drain.” (Axios, Times of Israel)

Palestinians wait to receive food at a refugee camp in Gaza on Sunday. (Moiz Salhi/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

War with Hamas…

• Seven Israeli soldiers were killed Tuesday when an explosive hit their armored vehicle during fighting in Gaza, marking one of the deadliest incidents in months for the Israeli Defense Forces. (JTA)

  
  

• The announcement follows reports from hospitals and witnesses that Israeli forces killed at least 44 Palestinians early Tuesday as they waited for aid. Gaza health authorities now say the Palestinian death toll in the war has risen above 56,000. (AP)

  
  

• Hundreds attended the Tuesday funeral for Yonatan Samerano, a slain hostage whose body was recovered from Gaza earlier this week. (Times of Israel)

Opinion | For Trump and Netanyahu, statecraft is now synonymous with stagecraft: “Looking ahead, expect Trump to play the postwar game with his usual flair,” writes our Tel Aviv-based columnist Dan Perry. “And Netanyahu, for his part, will lean on Trump’s theatrics to navigate his political minefield at home. After all, in our social media-addled age, a gripping story is the key.” Read his essay ►

CULTURE

Jewish tourists found this amateur painting, of an Austrian Nazi official, painted on the back of a Torah scroll fragment. (Courtesy YIVO Institute for Jewish Research)

Celebrating 100 years, YIVO opens its vaults

For its centennial, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is pulling back the curtain on its vast archive — with a new book and three exhibitions that spotlight both its own remarkable history and the stories it was built to preserve.

• On view at New York’s Center for Jewish History, the exhibits span the spectrum of Jewish life: from a Yiddish puppet troupe to early “Jewface” sheet music by Irving Berlin. They also pay tribute to the Paper Brigade, who risked their lives to rescue Jewish texts in Nazi-occupied Vilna, and to treasures like the Strashun Library’s rare rabbinic works from the 1500s. Go deeper ►

  
  

• A companion book, 100 Objects from the Collections of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, brings these stories to the page — proof that YIVO’s archive is not only immense, but still growing. Go deeper ►

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Ben Saraf, left, and Danny Wolf are expected to be picked in this week’s NBA Draft. (Saraf photo: Mateusz Slodkowski/Getty Images; Wolf photo: Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images)

The Trump administration…

✍️  Sixteen Republican-led states filed a brief backing the Trump administration in its fight with Harvard, arguing that cutting federal funding over campus antisemitism was justified, not retaliatory. (Harvard Crimson, Washington Post)

🤷  Democratic Jewish lawmakers are demanding answers from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the promotion of Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson, who has shared antisemitic posts and supported the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory. (JTA)

💰  President Trump earned $1.3 million in royalties selling a “God Bless the USA” Bible, according to a new financial disclosure from the White House. (Religion News Service)

And elsewhere…

🎒  Two Jewish students sued MIT, accusing the university and a tenured professor of antisemitic harassment and discrimination, including slurs and online abuse. (Jewish Insider)

🎵 Kanye West, who sparked outrage in May by releasing a song glorifying Hitler, is set to perform in Slovakia in July — his only confirmed European show — drawing backlash over his ongoing embrace of antisemitic rhetoric. (AFP)

👮  A Maryland man was arrested for allegedly sending threats to the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, referencing “Kristallnacht” and hinting at its future destruction. (JTA)

🏀  Two young Jewish basketball stars — Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf — are projected to be picked in the 2025 NBA Draft, which begins today. If both are chosen, it would mark the first time in nearly two decades that two Jewish players are drafted the same year. (Forward)

What else we’re reading ► Sen. Chuck Schumer, the self-dubbed “guardian of the people of Israel” struggles to live up to his “shomer” title (Jewish Insider) … “In big place with few people, a minister needs a pilot’s license” (New York Times) … “Did Curb Your Enthusiasm inspire a New York voting law?” (Forward)

PHOTO OF THE DAY

“Cheers to all the readers who make our work possible,” Louis posted on social media, “and special thanks to the good people of Pico-Robertson who spoke candidly for this story.” (Miranda Green)

👏  Mazel tov to my colleague Louis Keene, who won two LA Press Club awards this week: One for his story on how a Jewish neighborhood in liberal Los Angeles became a stronghold for Trump and the other for a story on how a California wildfire put an Orthodox school’s values to the test.

Today’s newsletter made me:

🤓 Confident I understand issues impacting American Jews.

🔗 Connected to the Jewish world.

💡 Curious to learn about something I read.

🤷🏽‍♀️ No different.

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