Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is facing sharp criticism from the city’s only Jewish alderman over his decision to appoint a local activist who was caught on video tearing down posters of Israeli hostages to a prominent city commission. 

Ishan Daya, the co-director of a think tank called the Institute for Public Good, was named to Johnson’s new Chicago Fiscal Sustainability Working Group, which will make recommendations to the mayor for a long-term financial plan for the city. The group’s other members include prominent Chicagoans working at institutions including Google, United Way, Microsoft and Chicago Urban League.

Warning that “the entire population of the Gaza Strip … is facing acute levels of hunger,” a group of 30 Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT), introduced a resolution on Thursday condemning Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid moving into Gaza and calling on the Trump administration to work to end it.

The resolution states that the senators are “gravely concerned” with the “humanitarian crisis and acute suffering of the Palestinian civilians in Gaza” and “the suffering of the hostages and hostage families.”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said on Thursday that he’ll attempt to force a vote on his resolutions halting several sets of arms sales to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in response to the Qataris offering President Donald Trump a $400 million Boeing jet to add to the Air Force One fleet and the Emiratis investing $2 billion in his family’s cryptocurrency coin.

The Connecticut senator’s joint resolutions of disapproval target $1.9 billion in arms sales to Qatar and $1.6 billion in weapons sales to the UAE, all five of which were co-sponsored by Sens. Brian Schatz (D-HI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT). 

Eileen Filler-Corn, the first woman and Jewish speaker of Virginia’s House of Delegates, is backing Fairfax County Supervisor James Walkinshaw in his bid to succeed outgoing Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) in Northern Virginia, she said in an announcement shared exclusively with Jewish Insider on Thursday. 

“From my early days as delegate to my time as speaker of the Virginia House, James was a critical legislative partner in the historic progress we delivered for Fairfax County families,” Filler-Corn said of Walkinshaw, a former longtime chief of staff to Connolly. “He’s steady, thoughtful and deeply experienced at every level of government — and that’s the kind of leadership we need to take on Trump’s dangerous agenda and deliver real results.”

Is President Donald Trump good for the Jews? The question has been asked since his first term, when he made several high-profile moves that were widely praised in the Jewish community — moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and bringing together the historic Abraham Accords, to name a few. Now in his second term, with Trump squaring off with universities and revoking the visas of some foreign students in the name of combating antisemitism, Jews continue to debate the question.

Two prominent Jewish voices put forward their arguments on Thursday night — Jason Greenblatt, who served as Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East during the first administration and, prior to that, had worked for him for 20 years, and Rahm Emanuel, former chief of staff to President Barack Obama. The charged debate, held at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan, was moderated by SAPIR Editor-in-Chief Bret Stephens. 

Joel Rayburn, the Trump administration’s nominee to be assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, said at his confirmation hearing on Thursday that Iran should not be allowed to continue to enrich uranium in any capacity.

Rayburn said in his testimony that he agrees with positions articulated by various administration officials that Iran “does not need and should not have” a domestic nuclear enrichment program or reprocessing capacity in order to have domestic nuclear power or a medical research program. 

President Donald Trump visited the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Friday, the first American presidential visit to the interfaith institution since its inauguration in February 2023.

The complex, which houses a synagogue, mosque and church connected by a central pavilion, was intended as a display of interfaith cooperation and tolerance by the UAE. During its construction, Mohamed Khalifa al-Mubarak, chair of the Emirati Department of Culture and Tourism, said the project “epitomizes interfaith harmonious coexistence and preserves the unique character of each religion.”

Lifting all U.S. sanctions from Syria risks bolstering a jihadist regime, Israeli analysts warned after President Donald Trump’s announcement in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

After announcing the removal of sanctions, Trump met the following day in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former head of Al Qaeda in Syria whose nom de guerre was Ahmed al-Jolani.