By David J. Benger, NJAC Litigation Counsel Picture two soup kitchens on the same block. Both feed the same hungry neighbors. Both take federal money. The secular one may hang whatever it likes on its walls and say whatever it likes before the meal. The synagogue-run one may not pause to say a blessing with the people it is feeding, at least not unless it holds that blessing “separately in time or location” from the funded meal, makes the separation “completely clear to the c

Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations in New York, announced a new U.N. task force on Jew-hatred, Sept. 9, 2026. Photo by Rebecca Szlechter. Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, was motivated to launch a U.N. Task Force on Combating Antisemitism due to growing concern about Jew-hatred worldwide and a disconnect between governments expressing concern publicly and following that up with action... Mark Goldfeder, an Orthodox rabbi and director o

British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband speaks in the House of Commons in London, September 8, 2026.(House of Commons/Handout via Reuters) Today, in a joint statement signed by twelve countries, Britain announced a national ban on trade with Israeli communities in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem. The ban covers goods and services such as financing and advertising. It comes three days before Rosh Hashanah, on the same day the Commons debates the safety of British Jews, in a

A highly hyped New York Times investigation—touted with the unusual label "Times Exclusive"—appeared this month under the headline "How the Supreme Court Locks Away Its Own History." It complained that "many of the justices have valued confidentiality over transparency and chosen to postpone scrutiny of their work for years to come." "Some scholars question why papers should be sealed long after a justice has retired," says theTimes article, by Jodi Kantor, with research and

Last month, Touro University, in association with the National Jewish Advocacy Center (NJAC), launched a first-of-its-kind teaching fellowship designed to help university professors build and teach rigorous undergraduate and graduate courses on antisemitism within their existing academic disciplines. The resulting courses will deepen students’ understanding of antisemitism, civil rights protections, and the modern challenges facing Jewish students and Israel today. The fellow

Photo: JewishBreakingNews.com More than 170 Jewish Hollywood creatives signed an open letter titled “Enough!” that was published Tuesday defending Mark Ruffalo, best known for his role as the Hulk, from charges of antisemitism. The letter opened with the assertion that the signatories have “a simple message to share with the world: Enough! Enough with the false and dangerous weaponization of charges of antisemitism against those who are brave enough to point out the obvious:

Vice President JD Vance recently met with representatives of Temple Israel in Michigan to offer “his support in the wake of the attack on our community,” clergy from the synagogue told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Vance’s Monday meeting with representatives of the suburban Detroit synagogue that had been attacked by a terrorist in March came as the vice president has upped his outreach to Jewish voters ahead of a likely 2028 presidential run. He also invited a rabbi and sec

The north facade of Widener Library in Harvard Yard at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. Credit: Matthis Volquardsen/Pexels. The U.S. Department of Justice is appealing the dismissal of its antisemitism lawsuit against Harvard University, seeking to revive a case in which the government wants to recover nearly $1 billion in federal grants over the university’s alleged failure to protect Jewish and Israeli students... Mark Goldfeder, director of the nonprofit National Jew

The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Credit: Pexels. The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office is at fault for the “leniency” of the 30-day jail sentence for seven anti-Israel protesters, who blocked traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco in April 2024, Mark Goldfeder, director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, told JNS. Teresa Caffese, a judge in the Superior Court of San Francisco County, “gave each defendant 30 days in county jail, six months of pr

California Attorney General Rob Bonta speaks during a press conference at the Elihu M. Harris State Office building in Oakland, California. REUTERS California Attorney General Rob Bonta has a Mark Ruffalo problem. Last Friday, Ruffalo took to Instagram to denounce Paramount Skydance’s $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery. He tried to link the merger with the Middle East conflict through a bizarre conspiracy theory. According to Ruffalo, David Ellison, the CEO of Pa

As political pressure builds to resolve the standoff between California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and Paramount Skydance Chief Executive David Ellison over his company’s proposed Warner Bros. merger, the two sides are set to face off in a court-ordered mediation session this week... The fight intensified Sunday when Mark Goldfeder, head of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, lashed out at Bonta and suggested California’s top law enforcement official was doing Ruffalo’s bidding by

A whistleblower last week accused the Trump administration’s antisemitism task force of rigging its civil-rights enforcement. But the disclosure, which Haley Van Erem filed with Congress, refutes itself repeatedly. Lawyers for Ms. Van Erem—a former Justice Department attorney who was temporarily reassigned in 2025 to the Department of Health and Human Services for Title VI investigations of Brown, Columbia, Cornell and Harvard—allege in the report that “the outcomes of the in

Rabbi Mark Goldfeder, CEO of National Jewish Advocacy Center, testifies at a House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government hearing on antisemitism on college campuses on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., May 15, 2024. Photo by Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images. (Aug. 20, 2026 / JNS) This week, Rabbi Dr. Mark Goldfeder and the National Jewish Advocacy Center (NJAC) delivered a decisive, precedent-setting legal victory that cuts to the core of how antise

Photo: Kent Nishimura/Getty Images. Judge Richard Stearns needed four pages to hold that a university may violate Title VI for two academic years, retain every federal dollar it received, and defeat the United States by merely behaving itself once the government’s letter arrives. His order dismissing United States v. Harvardis brief, and that brevity is load-bearing: the reasoning cannot withstand a longer look at the statute, precedent, or his own prior findings. In August 2

Photo from FreeBeacon: Aftermath of the 2001 Sbarro restaurant bombing in Jerusalem (Courtney Kealy/Getty Images), Ahlam Aref Ahmad al-Tamimi The family of a 15-year-old American girl who was killed in one of the most high-profile terrorist attacks in Israel's history is suing the Hamas operative who planned the operation in an American court for the first time, hoping to secure justice 25 years after the horrific bombing claimed their daughter's life, according to a copy of

“Israeli medics and volunteers treat the injured in the aftermath of the Sbarro pizzeria suicide bombing at the corner of King George Street and Jaffa Road in Jerusalem, on Aug. 9, 2001. Credit: Getty Images.” Mark Goldfeder of the National Jewish Advocacy Center told JNS that a judgment would follow Ahlam Tamimi “if she travels to any jurisdiction that will recognize it, and it forecloses her from ever monetizing her celebrity through any channel that touches the American fi

Police at the scene in Jaffa where Palestinian terrorist Bashar Masalha murdered U.S. citizen Taylor Force and wounded 11 other civilians, March 8, 2016. Photo by Eitan Elhadez/TPS. (Aug. 11, 2026 / JNS) A federal judge on Monday denied a motion by the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Liberation Organization to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that their terrorist-payment programs, dubbed “play-for-slay,” helped induce two Hamas attacks. The plaintiffs are Stuart Force, fa

Harvard University. Photo credit: CampusReform.org The Trump administration is asking a federal appeals court to overturn a ruling that restored nearly $2.2 billion in research funding to Harvard University, arguing the federal government has authority to condition taxpayer funding on universities’ compliance with federal requirements. The appeal stems from the administration’s April 2025 decision to freeze billions in federal research grants after demanding reforms at Harvar

Photo credit: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images Mark Goldfeder, CEO and director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, told the Post that NJAC is referring the matter to the Department of Investigation and the Conflicts of Interest Board. It is also requesting the city hall server logs. “City employees may not use public resources for political messaging, and public officials may not deceive the public they serve; that has been New York law since long before anyone w

NJAC Senior Litigation Counsel Arielle Klepach testified today before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights on the topic of the Muslim Brotherhood Network in America. Watch the full subcommittee hearing here. Here testimony starts at minute 47: https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/committee-activity/hearings/hidden-in-plain-sight-confronting-the-muslim-brotherhood-network-in-america-08-05-2026?_cb=1785963967310