Day 649 - College heads, NYC comptroller on the mat over anti-Zionism

The Times of Israel Daily Briefing

The Times of Israel

News

4.4 • 864 Ratings

🗓️ 16 July 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

New York reporter Luke Tress joins host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode.

Tress discusses several universities dealing with issues of antisemitism and anti-Zionism, including Tuesday's hearing in Congress as Republican officials questioned the CUNY chancellor and presidents of Berkeley and Georgetown about foreign funding, support for terrorism on campus and harassment of Jewish students on campus, keeping up the Trump administration pressure.

He also discusses a report on Israel studies programs in universities, as a Jerusalem think tank looked at the climate on campuses, including anti-Zionism activism on campus alongside rich discussion and a broad array of viewpoints in the classroom.

Tress talks about mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and his threats to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he ever visited New York, as well as the current feud between New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Comptroller Brad Lander about a possible BDS conflict over New York's divestment from Israel bonds.

He also mentions the 100-year-old Adirondacks synagogue that has persisted despite the dearth of Jews in the area and the history of Jewish immigrants in rural America.

Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates.

For further reading:

US university heads grilled in Congress about anti-Israel terror support on campus

Shai Davidai, an outspoken Israeli professor at Columbia, leaves the university

Israeli postdoc sues Stanford for discrimination; university denies it

Israel studies programs on US campuses are at a crisis point, report warns

NYC hopeful Mamdani’s vow to arrest Netanyahu likely oversteps what US mayors can do

NYC mayor feuds with comptroller over Israel bonds investments

NY’s rural 120-year-old ‘Peddlers’ Synagogue’ charts new path — without a congregation

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IMAGE: FILE- Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters demonstrate on the campus of DePaul University, April 30, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, file)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, welcome to the Times of Israel's Daily Briefing. It is Wednesday, July 16th, and I'm Jessica
0:08.1	Steinberg. I'm speaking today with New York correspondent Luke Tress. Hey, Luke, how you doing?
0:13.3	Hey, Jessica. Good. Good to have you here with me. It is day 649 of the war. In our headlines at the top of the page right now, U.S. and European allies
0:23.9	are giving Iran until the end of August to reach a nuclear deal. Locally on the national front,
0:31.0	Kharedi parties Shas and United Torah Judaism may be poised to collapse Netanyahu's government
0:36.8	over the ultra-Orthodox draft
0:39.7	Dodger sanctions. Meanwhile, today we're going to discuss the many headlines on the U.S.
0:46.3	campus front, as well as the latest within New York City mayor or race, what's happening
0:52.4	with New York City Mayor Eric Adams,
0:55.2	and briefly, a turn-of-the-century synagogue in upstate New York. So stay with us.
1:04.8	In a powerful series of interviews in this season of legends among us,
1:12.2	Rabbi Benji talks with young widows in their 20s
1:15.6	who lost their spouses in the current war in Israel.
1:20.0	Ordinary people that were so extraordinary
1:22.6	that most of us never realized it
1:25.4	until we couldn't help but recognize it.
1:28.2	And so, in 2024, Tafshin Pai Dalit, I invited seven of these legends to have an open
1:34.7	and honest conversation, to reflect on the loved ones they lost, go back to the moment when
1:40.1	they found out, and ask them how they're currently grappling with this incredible loss
1:45.3	while it was still fresh. So much has happened since. But the freshness of these conversations
1:51.2	is crucial as their gaping hole can never be filled. This first series will invite you into
1:57.6	the mind and heart of our phenomenal heroes, but in the process, I have no doubt that they and their loved ones will enter your minds and hearts.
	...

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