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WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION |
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Today: Mamdani’s inner circle of Jewish advisers • Teachers union cuts ties with ADL • The D.C. meeting Netanyahu plans to skip • Plus Gary Shteyngart, Stephen King and a new Western featuring a gun-slinging rabbi. |
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Elon Musk’s A.I. tool — like Musk previously — made claims that Jews promote hatred toward white people. (Photo illustration by Vincent Feuray/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images) |
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Musk’s A.I. tool has a hate problem
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, has been spreading antisemitic conspiracies — including that Jews promote hatred toward white people and control Hollywood. It also praised Adolf Hitler.
The posts came days after Musk boasted that Grok had improved “significantly.” How it works: “Chatbots like Grok are based on large language models that comb through massive databases of online content to produce written answers to questions or prompts based on common responses it finds,” explains our Arno Rosenfeld. “But their creators can also instruct the models to respond in specific ways.”
Context: Musk performed what appeared to be a Nazi salute during an inaugural rally for Trump, and followed the incident with a series of Holocaust jokes on X, the social media platform he owns. In response to the rise in antisemitic and hateful content, many major Jewish organizations have left the site.
Fallout: The Anti-Defamation League called the posts — some of which have now been deleted — “irresponsible, dangerous and antisemitic.” |
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Related: Actor John Cusack deleted a social media post that claimed Jeffrey Epstein, the financier accused of sex trafficking who died in prison, was a Mossad agent. (Deadline) |
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Zohran Mamdani, Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, at a campaign stop last week.(Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images) |
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Meet Mamdani’s Jewish team of advisers
“Zohran Mamdani is poised to become New York’s first Muslim mayor in no small part thanks to a tight-knit team of young Jewish professionals who helped him beat a storied political dynasty,” writes our senior political reporter, Jacob Kornbluh. The team behind the 33-year-old socialist’s shocking blow to the establishment is all the more remarkable, considering how his positions on Israel have roiled New York City, the largest Jewish community in the United States.
The team includes a former student at the West Side Yiddish School, a Jewish aide who shadows his every move and the son of a Hollywood producer.
“I’m lucky that I do not have to turn too far for feedback from Jewish New Yorkers in that so much of my campaign is being run by Jewish New Yorkers,” Mamdani told Jacob in April. |
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Related… Seven New York rabbis penned an op-ed explaining why they “proudly support” Mamdani for mayor. “We’re kvelling over our contribution.” (Times of Israel)
At a Jewish heritage event Tuesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams vowed to combat rising antisemitism — likening it to a frog slowly boiling in water — as he seeks reelection against Mamdani. (X, Times of Israel) |
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President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met for 90 minutes Tuesday in the Oval Office. (Avi Ohayon/GPO) |
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After two days of meetings at the White House this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left without the usual fanfare or announcements, signaling that he’s in no rush to strike a deal with Hamas — unlike President Donald Trump. (JTA) A delegation from Qatar, which is helping mediate an Israel-Hamas deal, was also at the White House Tuesday, meeting for several hours with Trump administration officials. “Hopefully we will reach an agreement by the end of the week,” said Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Mideast envoy. (Axios)
For the second U.S. visit in a row, Netanyahu is skipping a formal meeting with American Jewish leaders — once a routine stop. (eJewishPhilanthropy)
Opinion | “There was something particularly garish about this feast of mutual congratulation,” writes our Tel Aviv-based columnist, Dan Perry, of the Trump-Netanyahu White House dinner. “The two men with the most power over the course of the conflict are feasting on fine china, apparently more preoccupied with boosting one another’s egos than on finding a real end to a conflict that has brought incalculable pain to so many.” Read his essay ► |
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A Palestinian woman, wounded in an Israeli strike, sits on the floor at the Nasser Hospital in Gaza on Tuesday. (AFP/via Getty Images) |
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War in Gaza… It’s believed that there are 20 living hostages remaining in Gaza; Ten would be released under one proposal for a ceasefire. Another 30 are presumed to be dead; about half of them would be returned to Israel under the same terms. (JTA)
The Israeli Air Force struck more than 100 targets in Gaza over the past day, hitting operatives, weapons sites, tunnels, and other infrastructure, they said. (Times of Israel)
Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency says 20 Palestinians — including at least six children and 10 members of the same family — were killed in two overnight Israeli airstrikes. (Guardian, Times of Israel) |
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Gary Shteyngart’s new novel was released Tuesday. (Tim Davis) |
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Books: Gary Shteyngart’s latest dystopian novel — Vera, or Faith — “is a small family drama released at a moment of incipient American fascism,” writes our reviewer, Dan Friedman. “Though, it feels sadly inadequate.”
Movies: Life of Chuck, based on a Stephen King novella, is a Jewish meditation on how to live a rewarding life, writes our Olivia Haynie.
Sports: Rinus Israël, who died this month at 83, was one of the greatest Jewish soccer players who ever lived. So why haven’t you heard of him?
Advice: Is it ever OK for Jews to host — or attend — a pig roast? Our Bintel Brief expert weighs in.
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WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
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Left to right: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Rabbi Levi Shemtov and Sen. Chuck Schumer light a menorah during a Hanukkah reception at the U.S. Capitol in Dec. 2024. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) |
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🕍 A new IRS policy lets clergy endorse political figures without jeopardizing a house of worship’s tax-exempt status — but many Jewish leaders say politics doesn’t belong in the pulpit. “God is not a Democrat or a Republican,” said one New York rabbi. (Forward)
⛺ Faith-based summer camps — including the one ravaged by deadly floods in Texas — are a cherished rite of passage and generational tradition for millions of kids. This summer alone, more than 200,000 young people are attending at least 300 Jewish camps nationwide. (AP)
🚘 A grand jury indicted an Ohio man who is accused of tailgating Rep. Max Miller, trying to run him off the road, yelling “dirty Jew,” and threatening to kill his family. (Spectrum News, Forward)
🎒 The nation’s largest teachers union voted to sever ties with the Anti-Defamation League, prompting backlash from Jewish groups who say the move empowers a “radical antisemitic agenda.” (Jewish Insider, New York Post)
Context: The ADL began exerting more pressure on K-12 schools in 2024, our Arno Rosenfeld reported in December. (Forward)
💻 Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who is Jewish, called the United Nations “transparently antisemitic” after it published a report alleging the tech giant profited from Israel’s “genocide.” (Washington Post)
🇮🇷 Despite mounting warnings and a pattern of arbitrary arrests, some European tourists continue to travel to Iran, undeterred by the risks. (AFP)
📺 AppleTV+ postponed the release of the third season of its popular Israeli spy series, Tehran, after the Hamas attacks in 2023. It may finally make it to air in the coming months. (Hollywood Reporter)
What else we’re reading ► “A new café opened on Shabbat in Tel Aviv. Threats soon followed” (Haaretz) … “In Iraq, restored tomb of biblical prophet quietly attracts Jewish pilgrimage” (Times of Israel) … Welcome to the “Mel Brooks renaissance” (Kveller)
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How’s this for a movie premise? Inspired by the 2019 shooting at the Chabad of Poway, a rabbi in a small desert town becomes an unlikely gunfighter after his community is violently attacked. Guns & Moses — which stars Mark Feuerstein, Neal McDonough, Alona Tal, Dermot Mulroney and Christopher Lloyd — arrives in theaters July 18. |
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Thanks to Jacob Kornbluhfor contributing to today’s newsletter, and to Julie Moos for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com. |
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