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New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is facing mounting criticism after it emerged that his inaugural committee includes a senior activist from the Democratic Socialists of America who previously praised individuals caught tearing down posters of Israeli hostages.

The activist, Alvaro Lopez, a DSA electoral organizer, reacted in November 2023 to a post on X about a New York Post cover story showing two women ripping down hostage posters on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Responding to the incident — during which one of the women cursed a passerby and shouted “[Curse] you, [Curse] Israel” — Lopez wrote: “All I see are heroes.”

The comment drew sharp backlash at the time and has now resurfaced following Lopez’s appointment to Mamdani’s inaugural committee.

The episode is not an isolated one. In October 2023, Lopez accused Ritchie Torres of complicity in violence, writing in another X post that the congressman had “Palestinian children’s blood on your hands.” In the same post, Lopez asked, “What’s your asking price from APAIC [sic] ?” — a reference to American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Mamdani himself is a member of the DSA, an organization that came under widespread condemnation after promoting a pro-Palestinian rally in Times Square a day after Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 people in Israel on October 7, 2023 — the first of several such demonstrations.

Lopez is one of several figures with records of extreme anti-Israel rhetoric who were selected for the mayor-elect’s inaugural committee. Mamdani has also appointed Ms. Rachel — the online persona of Rachel Griffin-Accurso — who previously appeared in a children’s video with Motaz Azzaiz, a Palestinian activist who had posted “May God curse the Jews themselves” on social media.

Griffin-Accurso has long been accused by critics of echoing Hamas messaging in content aimed at young children, while failing to address the suffering of Israeli children victimized during the October 7 Hamas attacks.

Also serving on the committee is Beth Miller, political director of Jewish Voice for Peace, who previously accused Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu of “pledging to commit war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza” following Israel’s announced response to the October 7 massacre.

Separately, Mamdani’s transition team has already been rocked by scandal. His head of appointments, Catherine Almonte Da Costa, resigned last week after past antisemitic tweets referring to “money hungry Jews” resurfaced.

Responding to the renewed scrutiny, Lopez told New York Post that he did not remember making the X post and said, “It’s possible I was talking about the people on the posters. It was a really chaotic time.”

{Matzav.com}

Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week with layoffs remaining low despite a weakening labor market. U.S. applications for jobless claims for the week ending Dec. 27 fell by 16,000 to 199,000 from the previous week’s 215,000, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. Analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet forecast 208,000 new applications. Unemployment […]

A Minneapolis daycare that unexpectedly became famous for a spelling error on its front sign has now fixed the mistake, but the episode has only intensified questions about oversight and accountability in Minnesota’s child care system amid lingering fraud concerns.

The business, known as the Quality “Learing” Center, drew national attention after a misspelling on its sign circulated widely online and became a symbol of broader skepticism about state monitoring of daycare providers. The error was corrected Tuesday morning, when a sticker was added to amend the name to “Quality Learning Center.”

Despite the correction, not all mistakes were addressed. The street name displayed beneath the sign still read “Nicolet” rather than the correct “Nicollet,” leaving another visible inaccuracy in place.

Manager Ibrahim Ali told the New York Post on Monday that the original typo was the fault of the center’s graphic designer and said it would be fixed.

The sign was changed just one day after independent journalists visited the location while probing allegations of fraud involving daycare providers across Minneapolis. Critics had pointed to the misspelling as an ironic warning sign for a facility responsible for early childhood education.

State officials said the daycare had shut down. The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families stated that the center closed last week because of space limitations, and Commissioner Tikki Brown said Monday that authorities found no evidence of fraud linked to the operation.

What reporters observed on site appeared to conflict with those assurances. On Monday afternoon, the building appeared active, with cars pulling into the lot and children arriving. At least 20 children were seen entering the center, despite official claims that it was no longer operating.

The situation also revived memories of an infamous 2015 video from an earlier Minnesota child care fraud scandal. According to the Daily Mail, that footage showed adults posing as students to artificially boost enrollment figures at state-funded education programs.

The video emerged during investigations into fraudulent billing schemes and became emblematic of how lax oversight allowed providers to collect public funds for services that were never actually delivered.

Its reappearance alongside the “Learing” Center controversy has deepened public doubt that Minnesota has fully resolved the systemic weaknesses exposed nearly a decade ago, particularly as officials once again insist there is no wrongdoing.

Federal authorities, meanwhile, have highlighted recent enforcement actions tied to other fraud cases in the state. FBI Director Kash Patel announced on X that the bureau has been aggressively pursuing a major fraud network connected to Feeding Our Future in Minnesota.

“The FBI has toppled a $250 million fraud network that targeted vulnerable children and exposed a large-scale money laundering operation,” Patel said.

“The investigation exposed sham vendors, shell companies and large-scale money laundering tied to the Feeding Our Future network,” he wrote. “The case led to 78 indictments and 57 convictions.”

The daycare’s misspelled sign first caught widespread attention after it appeared in a viral video by independent journalist Nick Shirley, who visited multiple Minneapolis daycare centers while examining alleged misuse of taxpayer funds.

Shirley said some of the centers he reviewed had received hundreds of millions of dollars in payments without legitimate business activity to support those sums.

{Matzav.com}

Outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams is leaving office with historically low approval ratings, according to a new poll released Tuesday that found widespread voter dissatisfaction with his four-year term. The survey, conducted by the Honan Strategy Group, found that 69% of likely voters disapprove of Adams’ job performance, while just 31% approve. An […]

The Jerusalem District Court sentenced two terrorists from Chevron to 28 years of imprisonment each for carrying out a ramming and an attempted shooting and stabbing attack near a shul on Techelet Mordechai Street in the Ganei Geula neighborhood on Erev Pesach, 2024. The two were convicted of four counts of attempted murder under circumstances […]

Dear Matzav Inbox,

Every few years, the same script gets dusted off, the same alarms are sounded, and the same hysteria is repackaged. This time, the hashkafah villain of the hour is AI.

Suddenly, we are told it is uniquely dangerous, spiritually radioactive, a threat to the very fabric of Yiddishkeit. People are “yelling.” Flyers are warning. Speeches are thundering. And once again, common sense is nowhere to be found.

Give me a break.

AI is not some supernatural force of tumah. It is a tool. A powerful one, yes—but a tool nonetheless. And if we’re being honest, it is no more inherently treif than a smartphone, the internet, email, or a laptop. All of those can be used for garbage—or for tremendous good. The difference has never been the technology. The difference is the user.

Let’s not pretend we haven’t been here before.

When phones became smart, we were told they would destroy kedusha. When internet access became widespread, it was described as an open sewer. When texting appeared, people warned it would end normal human communication. And yet—somehow—Klal Yisroel survived. Not only survived, but adapted. Guardrails were built. Filters were installed. גבולות were drawn. Life went on.

Were the dangers real? Of course. Are they real with AI? Absolutely. No one is denying that. But danger does not equal prohibition, and fear does not equal wisdom.

If “it can be misused” is the standard, then we need to ban phones, cars, credit cards, microphones, printing presses, and pens. Kefirah can be written by a machine, but it can also be written by a human being. The כלי is not the problem. The lack of yiras Shamayim is.

There is a difference between responsible guidance and panic. Between caution and absolutism. Between leadership and yelling.

We do not need screaming proclamations that everything new is treif by default. We need measured voices, thoughtful boundaries, and adults who trust other adults to act responsibly within halacha.

A little perspective would go a long way. A chill pill wouldn’t hurt either.

Sincerely,
A tired observer of tech panic cycles

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New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has tapped longtime anti-Israel activist Ramzi Kassem as his chief counsel. The appointment, announced roughly a day before Mamdani’s inauguration, elevates Kassem—who served on the mayor-elect’s transition team—into one of the most powerful legal roles in City Hall. As chief counsel, Kassem will serve as the mayor’s top legal […]

Russian drones blasted apartment buildings and the power grid in the southern Ukraine city of Odesa in an overnight attack that injured six people, including a toddler and two other children, officials said Wednesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed confidence in his country’s eventual victory in the nearly four-year war against its neighbor. Four apartment buildings were damaged in […]

TRUMP: California and Colorado are two of the TOP OUTBOUND STATES IN 2025 ( United van lines!) – in other words, PEOPLE LEAVING!!! That’s what bad governors do to even places blessed with beautiful surrounds and climate. President DJT

Q: “Does President Trump want those Somalis to have their citizenship revoked if convicted of fraud?” Press Sec.: “Absolutely — and it’s something the Department of Homeland Security; the Department of State is currently looking at right now.”

WH Press Sec. on the rampant Somali fraud in Minnesota: “The Department of Justice, as we speak, is continuing to execute search warrants and subpoenas. People will be in handcuffs as a result of the fraud that Gov. Walz has allowed to occur for many, many years.”

The 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit released footage of their forces conducting maritime interdiction operations training in the Caribbean Sea as part of Operation Spear.

Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced that authorities carried out another large-scale operation early this morning targeting individuals suspected of links to ISIS, resulting in the detention of 125 people across 25 provinces.

TRUMP: Paul Perez and the border patrol have done a fantastic job, and so proud that more than half are of Hispanic heritage, which Los Angeles’ incompetent Mayer, Karen Bass ( who hasn’t even gotten the permits for people, rebuilding their homes after the record setting fire that took place), and other third rate politicians.

Protests in Iran entered a fourth consecutive day as demonstrations expanded to multiple cities, drawing in university students and additional labor unions. In the southern city of Fasa, early reports indicate that protesters took control of the governor’s building after security forces withdrew.

Iran’s Supreme Leader has appointed Ahmad Vahidi as deputy chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, replacing Ali Fadavi. Vahidi has been linked to the 1994 bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires and is sanctioned by the United States for his role in the crackdown on protests following the 2022 death of […]

Justice Minister Yariv Levin sent a sharply worded letter on Wednesday morning to the Courts Administration, demanding the cancellation of a conference set to take place at the Supreme Court under the title “Education for Democracy.” His request followed reports that the event would feature former Supreme Court president Esther Hayut and Justice Yitzchak Amit, […]

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee continued deliberations Tuesday on the proposed draft law, focusing on enforcement clauses that would allow the imposition of financial sanctions on yeshivos and their officials.

The discussion centered on Sections 26K1 through 26K16 of the bill, which outline mechanisms for financial penalties as part of the law’s implementation. Under the proposal, the director-general of the Israeli Ministry of Defense would be authorized to levy monetary fines if it is determined that at least five percent of a given yeshiva’s students do not meet the “declared condition” — namely, that they are engaged in regular Torah study for a minimum of 45 hours per week, or 40 hours per week in the case of a kollel.

The declaration would be submitted by a senior official of the yeshiva who also serves as an authorized signatory for the nonprofit organization or public-benefit corporation that operates the institution. If a violation is found, the defense ministry’s director-general could impose a fine of up to 20,000 shekels, after granting the official an opportunity to present arguments.

In addition, the bill provides for a fine of 1,500 shekels for each student regarding whom a declaration was submitted that does not comply with the law’s requirements. The proposal further states that an official who is sanctioned more than once, or who is fined in connection with five or more students, would lose the right to submit additional affidavits seeking deferments from military service.

The legislation would also require the director-general of the Defense Ministry to submit a report every six months to the committee detailing the number of sanctions imposed, their total monetary value, and the grounds on which they were issued.

During the session, members of bereaved families addressed the committee with emotional testimony. Mia Moreno, the widow of Lt. Col. Emanuel Moreno, said: “Both of my sons serve in the army. No leniencies apply to me — if they don’t enlist, they go to prison, and they are IDF orphans. How can it be that the State of Israel discriminates between citizens? One of my sons studied for two years in yeshiva, a talmid chacham, and chose to enlist in a regular army unit. There is great value to Torah, but Torah without a connection to the state — I question what its value is.”

Michal Castel-Keidar, the widow of Lt. Col. Dolev Keidar, also spoke at the hearing. “We are not a religious family, but Dolev commanded a company of yeshiva students and did everything he could to ensure they received what they needed,” she said. “How is it not self-evident that everyone who lives in this country must also help defend it?”

{Matzav.com}

Israel’s Supreme Court has issued an interim order stopping State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman from continuing his investigation into the failures surrounding the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre. The court barred him from summoning officials, demanding documents, or publishing any draft or final report that had already been prepared, noting that the order is based on […]

New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani revealed Tuesday that he is selecting Ramzi Kassem, a lawyer whose past work has drawn controversy, to serve as the city’s chief counsel, the highest legal position in City Hall.

Mamdani, who is set to be sworn in on January 1, said Kassem will take on the role of chief counsel. He also announced additional senior legal and policy appointments, naming Steven Banks, who has described himself as a “social justice attorney,” as corporation counsel, and Helen Arteaga as deputy mayor for health and human services.

Kassem previously served in the Biden White House as a senior policy adviser on immigration within the Domestic Policy Council.

His legal career includes acting as lead defense counsel for Ahmed al-Darbi, an al Qaeda operative who in 2014 pleaded guilty before a U.S. military commission to conspiracy related to a terrorist attack on the French oil tanker MV Limburg off the coast of Yemen. The attack killed one civilian and wounded others. Al-Darbi was convicted in 2017 and, in 2018, was transferred by the Trump administration into Saudi Arabian custody.

“While it may not make him whole, my hope is that repatriation at least marks the end of injustice for Ahmed,” Kassem said at the time of the transfer, adding he had “16 long and painful years in captivity.”

More recently, in 2025, Kassem represented Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student and anti-Israel activist who was arrested by ICE over his alleged involvement in leading antisemitic protests on campus. Khalil has since been released, though the case remains unresolved.

In announcing the appointment, Mamdani praised Kassem’s background and values.

“I will turn to Ramzi for his remarkable experience and his commitment to defending those too often abandoned by our legal system,” Mamdani said.

The mayor-elect added that “City Hall will be stronger with him in it, and our work of building a more prosperous city for all will have a powerful advocate.”

“My sincere hope is that New Yorkers who have long felt on the margins of this city, the homeless veteran straining to survive, the patient searching for the care that they need, an immigrant trying to get by will feel that they now have leaders in their corner who understand their struggles and care to fight for them,” Mamdani went on, adding, “That is the city I want to build. The prosperity I intend to deliver and the leadership that has too long been lacking.”

Kassem responded by expressing gratitude for the appointment and a sense of obligation to the city.

He said the role represents a “call of duty to serve the city that I’ve called home, the city that embraced me.”

“I grew up in war-torn countries in the Middle East, authoritarian regimes, and New York City was really my first stable and permanent home,” said Kassem. “This is an opportunity for me to repay that debt. I’ve been trying to repay that debt ever since I came to this country, ever since I immigrated.”

Kassem is also the founder of the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility law clinic, known as CLEAR, which states on its website that its mission is “to support Muslim and all other client, communities, and movements in the New York City area and beyond that are targeted by local, state, or federal government agencies under the guise of national security and counterterrorism.”

{Matzav.com}