Who Leads the Democrats on Israel

A Haifa rabbi declared din rodef on anyone who governs with the Arab parties. Rabbi Gedalia Axelrod, a former head of the Haifa Rabbinical Court, wrote that backers of a government formed with the Joint List and Ra'am "put the people of Israel in terrible danger," and invoked the ruling that sanctions stopping a "pursuer" by any means, killing included. Yigal Amir cited it to justify murdering Yitzhak Rabin. About 20 former security chiefs, including ex-Shin Bet heads Carmi Gillon and Ami Ayalon, asked police Thursday to investigate "before our fears are realized." ¹

Seven Jewish employees sued New York City's Health Department. They allege discrimination and a hostile workplace for Jews and Israel supporters under both Eric Adams and Zohran Mamdani, including a ban on a Jewish employee group and retaliation after a mass email mourning the December 2025 shooting of Jews in Australia. ²

Rand Paul will be the top Republican on the Senate panel that handles campus antisemitism. Bernie Sanders will chair the HELP Committee next Congress. Paul helped Democrats block the Antisemitism Awareness Act there and, per Jewish Insider, "argued that it was racist to describe Israel as a Jewish state." ³

Democrats flipped at least seven Senate seats last week and pick their leader in December. Chuck Schumer says he's "confident" he keeps the job. ⁴ Chris Van Hollen of Maryland says he is "actively listening to people" about a challenge, and "we should not have a coronation." ⁵

Jewish Insider calls Israel the clearest line between the two men. ⁵ Schumer said in March 2024 that Netanyahu had "lost his way," yet still votes against Sanders' resolutions to block arms sales to Israel; all but seven of 47 Senate Democrats voted with Sanders earlier this year. Van Hollen has consistently voted to block them, has accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing," and led a dozen Democratic senators in asking to strip U.S.-Israel defense cooperation from the 2027 defense bill. He still supports selling Israel Iron Dome components. Sanders and Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed say they'd back him. ⁴

Hakeem Jeffries, expected to be the next speaker, said Thursday that "the status quo is unacceptable, and we need dramatic change," in the West Bank, in Gaza, and in the memorandum that gives Israel $3.8 billion in military aid a year and expires in September 2028. ⁶ Activists to his left are pushing Ayanna Pressley for speaker, and Rep.-elect Don Leonard of Ohio says senior Democrats threatened him for tying his vote for Jeffries to ending U.S. support for Israel. ⁵

Senate leadership votes are private, usually by secret ballot, and take a simple majority. ⁵

The Astros hired MLB's only Jewish manager. Houston named Brad Ausmus, most recently the Yankees' bench coach, on Wednesday. It's his third managing job, after Detroit and the Angels. He caught 18 seasons, 10 of them in Houston, and his 1,971 games are the most by a Jewish player, per the Jewish Baseball Museum. This year he managed Team Israel to two wins in four and a spot in the 2030 World Baseball Classic. Nate Fish of Israel Baseball Americas noted that this is the second time Ausmus has landed a big-league job right after managing Team Israel, which makes the national team a decent audition. ⁷

Rep.-elect Brad Lander calls himself a progressive Zionist. His new communications director, Jesse Myerson, wrote in a since-deleted 2014 thread that "wealthy, powerful, well-connected Jews depicting themselves as part of a huddling, vulnerable minority make me sick." Lander says he's "quite comfortable having a senior staffer with his non-Zionist views." ⁸

Our view: Lander filed this under the wrong heading. A congressman can hire someone who opposes Zionism, and plenty of Jews would shrug. The 2014 sentence is about Jews and never mentions Israel, and Lander's statement doesn't address it. He says Jewish Insider stripped the context. The context would have to be very good. A spokesman speaks for the boss, so Lander owes his district a plain answer on whether that sentence speaks for him.

JTA ran ten tips for a healthier Hanukkah this week. Paula Shoyer, author of The Healthy Jewish Kitchen, bakes her latkes on oiled pans at 450 degrees and says "it doesn't have to just be that we have to fry everything in oil." Micah Siva, a dietitian, suggests making fewer than six latkes a person and filling the gap with salad. ⁹ We have exactly one holiday built around a jar of oil, and the experts want to bake it. Siva, to her credit, keeps frying and says the smell "means so much to me during the holiday." ⁹

Hero: Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. Organizers of last Sunday's bike ride against six Jewish- and Israeli-owned businesses, whose flyer said "these Zionist establishments must go," called off their follow-up ride Thursday. The federation welcomed it, warned that the boycott campaign isn't over, and is holding its own Sunday ride anyway, the Jewish Life "Cycle" March and Ride. It also asked people to shop at Jewish-owned businesses all year, not only when there's trouble. ¹⁰

Villain: Chris Rabb. The Philadelphia congressman-elect, whose district hosted the ride, won't condemn it. Asked by CBS's Major Garrett, he said, "I heard some awful things in some of the videos from counterprotesters," allowed that some people were "triggered by the timing" (the eve of Kristallnacht), and wouldn't commit to convening a meeting. He calls his track record "being a convener." ¹¹ A convener could have managed one sentence about a flyer telling his constituents' restaurants they "must go." ¹⁰¹¹

Parashat Toldot; Friday is 3 Kislev 5787. ¹² Isaac re-digs the wells the Philistines filled in after Abraham died and gives them his father's names. His own new wells get named for the fights over them: Esek, "contention," and Sitnah, "harassment." The one nobody fights over he calls Rehoboth, room. ¹³

Send this to the one who'll argue about it at Shabbat dinner.

Shabbat shalom.