Alyssa Katz

eventbrite.com“New York: The Future of Cities” — Rebuilding Lower ManhattanExplore how Lower Manhattan’s transformation shaped NYC's future in a screening and conversation with filmmakers Ric Burns & James Sanders.

Happy new-Ric-Burns-New-York-documentary-episodes week! I'll be moderating a post-screening conversation this Thursday with Burns, writer/producer James Sanders + architect Vishaan Chakrabarti, sponsored by the Downtown Alliance. Come join us.

prospect.orgToxic Haste: - The American ProspectAfter the World Trade Center fell, many shaken New Yorkers took unexpected comfort in numbers. As the mayor’s initial order for 10,000 body bags was gradually displaced by an increasingly verifiable e...

9 Sept

Giuliani, with and Bush's EPA, tried to bury journalist Juan Gonzalez's 2001 reporting on environmental hazards at Ground Zero. So did editors at his own newspaper, the Daily News, as I wrote back then.

Democracy Now!@democracynow.org

Twenty-five years after September 11, 2001, more people are believed to have died from cancer, respiratory and other illnesses due to exposure to the airborne toxins than the nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center.

democracynow.org“Toxic Nightmare”: 25 Years After 9/11, Juan González on His Predictions of Worker Illness & DeathTwenty-five years after September 11, 2001, more people are believed to have died from cancer, respiratory and other illnesses due to exposure to the airborne toxins than the nearly 3,000 people kille...

9 Sept

Gonzalez, then: "Christie Whitman, Mayor Giuliani, and the other public officials should have told New Yorkers the truth from the start — that no one could guarantee the air around Ground Zero was safe because no one had ever confronted a disaster of such proportions."

9 Sept

Most coverage minimized post-9/11 environmental risks. Trad journalism doesn't know what to do with uncertain or inconclusive information to begin with. Political leaders's pushback amid fears about lower Manhattan's recovery worked to keep the story quiet, save for Gonzalez.

forward.comRabbis Mamdani invited to City Hall tell him his Israel rhetoric is ‘causing harm’During a private hour-long meeting, Jewish clergy across denominations urged the NYC mayor to change how he talks about rhetoric on Israel

11 Aug

"Everyone agreed that the current course can’t go on," said one of the rabbis who met with Mamdani at City Hall today and talked with @jacobkornbluh.bsky.social afterward. "The way he vilifies Israel, and so constantly, is really causing harm.”

forward.comIsrael is revoking entry permits for Jewish U.S. activists involved in West BankVolunteers who accompany Palestinian farmers during harvests say their travel authorizations vanished, sometimes while they were still in the country

7 Aug

American Jews who volunteered to protect Palestinians on the West Bank have been getting out-of-the-blue notices from the Israeli government that they are now blocked from reentering the country. @theiachatelle.bsky.social talked to seven of them for @forward.com.

forward.comOrthodox Jews are scootering to synagogue. Will Shabbat ever be the same?With neighborhoods sprawling, a transportation hack opens up new possibilities — and tests the limits of the day of rest

6 Aug

A properly epic account from @keene.la on the phenomenon of Orthodox Jews riding kick scooters on Shabbat to go farther and faster than their feet alone can take them. Some traditionalists do not approve.

forward.comAbdul El-Sayed is right about the future of Israel and PalestiniansThe Michigan Senate nominee’s vision of self-determination for all provides a coherent alternative to the one-state partisans on both the left and right.

5 Aug

Read @jaymichaelson.bsky.social on what El-Sayed is actually saying about the future of Israel and Palestinians: unlike Mamdani, he's not talking about a zero-sum showdown.

forward.comMan charged in car crash that killed Jewish journalist vandalized a Jewish business days beforeA fatal car crash, an unsolved murder and attacks on Jewish establishments have put a Queens community on edge

4 Aug

Each of these incidents in a heavily Jewish Queens neighborhood was alarming to learn about. Now the same person has been charged in both — one of them as a hate crime — putting the speeding-vehicle death of journalist Cara Trager in a new and chilling light.

forward.comAbdul El-Sayed is courting Jewish voters — without moderating his views on IsraelThe Michigan Senate candidate, who has called the Israeli government “evil,” is finding a following among Jewish voters that includes some who identify as Zionist

4 Aug

On this primary day in Michigan, read @forward.com on the Jews for El-Sayed phenomenon — including former Rep. Andy Levin, defeated by Haley Stevens with AIPAC's help.

Alyssa Katz reposted

Michelle

@sneaker328.bsky.social

2 Aug

Was just there on my last visit. This is so upsetting. Whether antisemitism or not, just devastating.

Alyssa Katz@alykatzz.bsky.social

"This is how Europe started" —the landlord of the Montreal kosher restaurant that burned down early Saturday, son of a Holocaust survivor, speaking to @forward.com's @benyamincohen.bsky.social .

forward.comSuspected arson gutted Montreal’s trendiest kosher restaurant. The city’s Jews say they saw it comingSurveillance video shows a man setting fire to Nöam, a popular pizza establishment. Canadian Jews say it's part of a pattern officials refuse to name

2 Aug

"This is how Europe started" —the landlord of the Montreal kosher restaurant that burned down early Saturday, son of a Holocaust survivor, speaking to @forward.com's @benyamincohen.bsky.social .

Alyssa Katz reposted

forward.comA mayor exposed New York City Jews to chaos. It wasn’t Mamdani.John Lindsay’s inept handling of a schools control crisis six decades ago as antisemitism swirled offers perspective on claims that Mayor Zohran Mamdani is turning his city into a hellscape for Jews.

30 July

NYC has a history of moments when mayors failed to lead in ways that looked out for Jews. I delved into one of them, the 1968 teacher's strike, for some perspective on claims Mamdani is turning his city into an antisemitic hellscape.

30 July

forward.comMamdani isn't the real resistance against Netanyahu — Israelis areIsraeli voters are quietly doing something New York’s mayor can't: putting Netanyahu's coalition on track to lose.

26 July

Israel has an election coming up in late October with an opposition poised to eject Israel's current prime minister. @forward.com columnist Rob Eshman is polite here when he says that Mamdani's fixation on Netanyhau is a distraction from the real story of how to change course.

forward.comDr. Bronner’s soap mixes Israeli and Palestinian olive oil — and dodges product boycotts‘Cosmic Engagement Officer’ David Bronner brings the family “All-One” legacy into a campaign for Palestinian rights and Jewish coexistence, promoting peace by doing business with both sides

21 July

Dr. Bronner's soap, which is made from West Bank and Israeli olive oil, is still sold at the Park Slope Food Coop despite the coop ban on products from those places. The soap co CEO insists on the opposite approach: peace through "constructive engagement."

forward.comVatican silent on Jewish villains in U.S. Ukrainian Catholic church pageantsGiant noses, peyos and booze are props in the Christmas-season plays called verteps, hosted and attended by church officials

21 July

Read @forward.com's investigation of U.S. church pageants where Jewish characters are villains out to destroy baby Jesus. Thanks to our reporting, the Ukrainian Catholic church is now vowing to stop the antisemitic displays. The Vatican remains silent. forward.com/news/839093/...

forward.comAfter Platner's collapse, Jewish Democrats say party can't ignore candidates’ red flagsJewish Democrats who opposed the Maine Senate nominee say their party’s push to anoint him offers lessons about compromise on values important to Jewish voters

7 July

From the department of "we told you so," by @jacobkornbluh.bsky.social. forward.com/news/836396/...

Alyssa Katz reposted

Jason Leopold

@jasonleopold.bsky.social

4 July

Happy 60th birthday to the #FOIA, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on this day in 1966! Subscribe to FOIA Files! It's FREE! bloomberg.com/foiafiles

Alyssa Katz reposted

Adam Roy

@adnroy.bsky.social

2 July

"But it seems to me the real danger is that young Jews will conclude there is no room for them inside Jewish institutions unless they silence their conscience. A community cannot thrive if the choices it offers the next generation are hypocrisy or excommunication."

Alyssa Katz@alykatzz.bsky.social

In a new op-ed for @forward.com, Brad Lander responds to Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove's prediction that an emboldened left will consider him an expendable Jew and vote him out the way he defeated Dan Goldman.

forward.comMy hopes for the rabbi who envisions my defeat — and for a better Jewish futureElliot Cosgrove says I’m doomed politically as a Jew who seeks a new path for Israel. I invite him to join me in reckoning with our shared spiritual challenge.

2 July

forward.comColumbia Mideast course reforms leave scrutinized department untouchedA year after the school settled threatened federal action with a commitment to more balanced teaching on Israel, the Middle East studies department Trump tried to seize remains status quo

1 July

Columbia University has a new president today. A year after the Trump administration shoved the school into a pledge to reform its offerings on Israel and the Mideast, the department at the center of controversy remains more or less alone.

forward.comWe're losing control of AI. Is Judaism the key to keeping it from killing us?Judd Rosenblatt believes that we need a new idea to ensure that self-improving AI doesn't delete human values from its code

1 July

Not chutzpah to say that Judaism could be what saves us from AI apocalypse. As laid out beautifully here by @miraefox.bsky.social

Alyssa Katz reposted

Taniel

@taniel.bsky.social

30 June

JUST IN: The Supreme Court *upholds* birthright citizenship as a right under the Fourteenth Amendment. Justice Roberts writes the 6-3 decision, with only Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissenting.

forward.comColorado voters weigh candidate for Congress who declined to call Boulder firebombing antisemiticMelat Kiros has made Israel a wedge issue in her campaign. Polls show the strategy is working.

30 June

A detailed and fair look from @keene.la at Melat Kiros (and incumbent Diana DeGette's) differences on Israel that could decide today's congressional election in Colorado.

forward.comThe Army’s only airborne rabbi finds his congregation wherever he landsAs America celebrates 250 years, Scott Klein — the sole Jewish chaplain at the country's largest military base — is carrying on a tradition of service that dates back to the Revolution

30 June

The Army's paratrooping rabbi: a profile in what America makes possible and a Jewish leader's drive to pay it forward, from @benyamincohen.bsky.social. .

forward.comHow seriously should we take San Francisco’s anti-Zionist hecklers?The confrontations with congressional candidate Scott Wiener bubble from a tradition of Bay Area provocateurs

29 June

My colleague @arnorosenfeld.bsky.social, who covers antisemitism for @forward.com, is from San Francisco and has an excellently local assessment of what just happened (twice) to @scottwiener.bsky.social. .

forward.comThe biggest Jewish issue in New York's most Jewish primary wasn't really IsraelThe race was really a contest over which strategy for fighting antisemitism American Jews should bet on

27 June

The most insightful piece I have read anywhere about what the Goldman/Lander race was really all about when it came to the place of Jews in the world, from @joelhs.bsky.social in @forward.com.

27 June

"It is a fight over which of two coalitions — one anchored to Israel and institutional Jewish groups, and one tied to the multiracial progressive coalition reshaping the city — is the safer harbor for American Jews going forward."

27 June

I would only add that similar analysis applies to how Lander and Goldman each address the future of Israel. Institutional approach vs. focus on grassroots coalition-building.

@clauirizarry.bsky.social

26 June

Don't be fooled by Netanyahu pausing the antiquities bill: The settler project of using historic sites to expand Israel's West Bank turf and hem in Palestinians is in full effect. forward.com/news/833972/...

forward.comforward.com

Alyssa Katz reposted

claudia irizarry aponte

25 June

NEW: The United Auto Workers Is New York City’s Unlikeliest Kingmaker For the second consecutive year, the UAW bet early on long-shot candidates, putting themselves in opposition to their allies in labor. Now two of its own are set to serve in Congress. www.thecityreporter.nyc/2026/06/25/u...

thecityreporter.nycThe United Auto Workers Is New York City’s Unlikeliest KingmakerFor the second consecutive year, the UAW bet early on long-shot candidates, putting themselves in opposition to their allies in labor. Now two of its own are set to serve in Congress.

forward.comLander, Avila Chevalier unseat incumbents on winning congressional primary night for MamdaniIsrael was front and center in defeats of Reps. Dan Goldman and Adriano Espaillat

Quite a night for anyone following how Israel is resonating as an issue in Democratic politics. Here's @forward.com's New York City roundup. forward.com/news/833219/...

forward.comVictory for Mamdani's candidates prompts Jewish leaders to puzzle over implicationsThree Congressional candidates endorsed by New York City's mayor defeated incumbents they labeled too friendly to Israel. But some champions of the Jewish state won Tuesday primaries

The picture of what happened in this week's primary is bigger and more complicated than Mamdani's three wins, and (of course) Jewish leaders disagree about what it all means.

forward.comIsrael's cheerleaders lost big in the New York primaryIsrael was an issue in Congressional primaries in part because supporters insisted on litmus tests that backfired

Columnist Emily Tamkin on why insistence on loyalty to Israel was a losing proposition in New York's Democratic primaries: "You can force voters to think about something, but you can’t actually force them to think what you want."

forward.comCan a liberal Zionist win with the pro-Palestinian movement? Brad Lander is trying.In race for Congress, Rep. Dan Goldman and his progressive challenger differ on how Democrats should build political coalitions around Israel and Gaza

Brad Lander is projected to win the NY-10 primary over Rep. Dan Goldman. Read @jacobkornbluh.bsky.social on how Lander turned out anti-Zionist voters even as he is committed to the premise of Israel as a Jewish state.

forward.comIs AIPAC a 'monster' that decides Congressional races? The data shows otherwiseAIPAC is the most demonized lobby in the US — despite being far from the most effective one

23 June

Fascinating analysis of a question hovering around AIPAC: Does all its spending actually sway elections? The evidence suggests not.

forward.comIn the race for Jerry Nadler’s seat, much talk on Israel but little disagreementIn Manhattan’s heavily Jewish 12th Congressional District, Alex Bores, Micah Lasher and Jack Schlossberg all largely support Israel, even as Gaza and military aid divide Democrats elsewhere

23 June

Voting in the Dan Goldman or Jerrold Nadler districts in NYC today? @forward.com coverage can help. Here's @jacobkornbluh.bsky.social's in-depth guide to where the Upper East/Upper West Side candidates stand on Israel.

23 June

And here's @jacobkornbluh.bsky.social on Brad Lander's bid to dislodge Dan Goldman by mobilizing anti-Zionist voters even as Lander supports Israel's existence as a Jewish state.

forward.comThis year’s biggest World Cup upset came from its most Jew-ish teamCape Verde, the island country that shut out Spain, has a rich Sephardic heritage — and a player with likely Jewish ancestry

21 June

If you’re rooting for Cape Verde today in the World Cup, some related Jewish history here will enhance the experience. By @keene.la

forward.comJuneteenth story is marred by myth that Blacks didn’t know they were freeAnd here's why it’s time for supremacists and their sympathizers to surrender

19 June

Essential Juneteenth reading from Robin Washington debunking the insulting and flat-out wrong popular story about how the holiday came to be.

forward.comWho is Gadi Eisenkot, the Israeli politician who could dethrone Netanyahu?The former IDF chief of staff whose son was killed in the Gaza war is rapidly climbing in polls and betting markets, emerging as a leading contender to become Israel’s next prime minister.

19 June

Running neck and neck with Netanyahu on Polymarket's Israeli election pool.

forward.comJudaism requires men to offer sex to their wives. Why does the manosphere blame women for men not getting laid?Many men are arguing that women use sex to entrap men into marriage. But the Talmud imagines a flipped gender dynamic.

19 June

Jewish law offers a lesson for all those men who want to require their wives to have sex with them: Just ask! Often! @miraefox.bsky.social dispenses Talmudic wisdom.

forward.comYou're wrong, Ken Paxton: Obviously God is nonbinaryThe Texas Senate candidate has insulted millions of Jews (and Christians) with his mockery of basic theology

18 June

Bookmark this, from @jaymichaelson.bsky.social, for next time you need to school a Ken Paxton about God and gender.

Alyssa Katz reposted

Joel S.

@joelhs.bsky.social

16 June

I hope the city does apologize for this: forward.com/news/831956/...

forward.comThis Jewish activist was arrested and deported for her book ‘Lesbian Love.’ 100 years later, will NYC apologize?Eve Adams, a Polish immigrant, died at Auschwitz after being targeted by the NYPD. Now Mayor Mamdani is weighing a request to deem her arrest unjust

16 June

The NYPD has never apologized for arresting lesbian activist Eve Adams a century ago on obscenity and disorderly conduct charges. Now Mayor Mamdani just might.

forward.comNew Jewish-Arab political party debuts in Israel, aiming to topple NetanyahuFounders of Makom Lekulanu aim to build on their work as leaders of the coexistence group Standing Together, who’ve been harassed by the political right and face a skeptical left

16 June

A serious run at building a new coalition to challenge Netanyahu in upcoming Israeli elections, led by Jews and Palestinians.