Latest news with #Jew
New York Post
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Comedian Michael Rapaport mocks NYC mayoral candidate Mamdani as ‘Zohran the moron'
Comedian and New York City resident Michael Rapaport gave democratic socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani a new nickname during his podcast on Tuesday. Rapaport called Mamdani 'Zohran the Moron,' pronouncing his first name so it rhymes with moron, and vowing that he would not leave his home city even if the democratic socialist candidate became mayor. Advertisement 'I've heard a lot of people say that if Zohran the Moron wins the election, you're going to leave New York. New Yorkers, if Zohran the Moron wins the election, don't go anywhere,' he said, telling them not to let him run them out of their city. Mamdani's primary win has caused alarm among Jewish New Yorkers because of the candidate's rhetoric and stances surrounding Israel. During an interview with NBC's Kristen Welker, Mamdani refused to condemn the phrase 'globalize the intifada.' After receiving blowback for refusing to denounce the slogan, Mamdani reportedly told city business leaders that he would not use the phrase and would discourage others from doing so. Business leaders are also concerned about the candidate's democratic socialist policies, like his proposed rent freeze policy. Advertisement 4 Michael Rapaport calls out Zohran Mamdani during a video posted to X on July 22, 2025. Michael Rapaport/X 4 Zohran Mamdani at a UAW Legal Services Workers strike rally on July 15, 2025. / MEGA Rapaport, a Jew who became an outspoken advocate for Israel following the Oct. 7 terror attack, urged fellow New Yorkers to 'not let this terrorist supporter, socialist bulls— artist run you out of your city.' 'He's not even from here,' he continued. 'Do not even think you're going to leave New York City if Zohran the Moron wins the election. I'm going nowhere.' Advertisement Mamdani, a Ugandan-born Muslim New York State Assemblyman from Queens, beat former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to become the Democratic Party's nominee for mayor. 4 Rapaport calls Mamdani 'Zohran the Moron' during his rant posted to social media. Michael Rapaport/X 4 Sen. Bernie Sanders and Zohran Mamdani after a meeting at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, DC, on July 16, 2025. Getty Images Rapaport noted that even though he'll take a financial hit if Mamdani wins and enacts his far-left policies, he will still stay in the city. Advertisement 'I'm never leaving New York for a Three-Card Monty playing bulls— artist like you, Zohran the Moron,' he said. 'If this guy wins, we need to blame ourselves. We need to dust ourselves off and make New York great again.' Rapaport has spoken out against the mayoral candidate since he won the Democratic primary race last month. In an interview with NewsNation earlier this month, the comedian lamented, 'We are this close to having a person like that become mayor of what should be considered the greatest city in the world.' 'But the fact that this guy is even in contention is a slap in the face,' he added. 'Whether he wins or loses, it is a slap in the face.' Mamdani didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Journal
19 hours ago
- The Journal
Jewish man who faced antisemitic abuse on Dublin Bus says city 'a very bad' place for minorities
A MAN WHO says he was the victim of antisemitic abuse on a bus in Dublin over the weekend has said the city is a 'very bad' place to be a minority due to an escalation in racism from a 'small minority' of people. The man says he was abused for being Jewish during an incident on the route 15 Dublin Bus last Friday night. In a viral online video, which has been shared on X and by a number of Israeli news outlets, a man can be seen accusing another individual of being a 'genocidal Jew', shouting 'the Jew, the Jew' and swiping towards the person's phone. The man, who asked to be referred to by his nickname Lio, told The Journal he was not surprised by the incident, as he has noticed a rise in antisemitism during his two years working and studying in Ireland. He said: 'It just confirms what I already thought, I wasn't surprised when it happened, what else is new?' 'It is bloody bad, not just for Jews, but also for other minorities. It feels kind of bad to be a minority in Ireland right now, especially Dublin,' he said. Lio said the majority of Irish people are tolerant and gardaí are doing the best they can. He believes the racism is coming from a 'small minority' of people who he describes as 'radical'. Asked about the incident, a garda spokesperson told The Journal that a man was arrested and later released but that investigations are continuing. 'Shortly after 11pm, on Friday 18th July 2025, Gardaí from Rathmines responded to reports of a disturbance on a bus in Rathgar, Dublin 6. A male in his 30s was arrested at the scene under public order legislation. He was later released without charge. 'Investigations into the incident are ongoing,' the spokesperson added. A spokesperson for Dublin Bus also confirmed that an incident took place on Friday evening. A statement from the company said: 'We can confirm that our driver contacted our central control requesting the assistance of An Garda Síochána and a call was placed to emergency services. Dublin Bus will liaise with An Garda Síochána and provide any assistance needed. Advertisement Other than a headache, Lio said he was not harmed from the situation. 'I'm in a very odd situation where stuff like this happens to me regularly because of my job', Lio said, explaining that he works as a bouncer. Lio said he has previously been abused over his ethnicity on two occasions in Dublin and witnesses racial abuse against other security guards of minority ethnicities at work. 'I just have a habit of phasing out what drunk people say, it reflects what they actually think but you can't do anything about it,' he added. He said: 'A lot of my colleagues in the security industry are African and Indian,' adding that they are called slurs every night. 'You can't excuse this behaviour,' he said, adding: All the minorities around me say this is not good, this is becoming worse. This is not a good place for minorities in general. It's very bad. He believes Irish people are 'radicalised' because they are watching what he described as inaccurate news reports about what is happening in Gaza. As well as incidents such as what happened on the bus, he said people from his work have told him not to tell anyone he is from Israel. Lio is studying in Ireland, but he's not sure if he intends to stay after his degree. 'Depends what direction the country goes, if no one does anything for all the minorities,' he said. 'There's always been racism, this is the first time it's so naked.' In a statement released yesterday since the video was shared widely, Maurice Cohen, Chair of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland said antisemitism is a problem in this country. 'When antisemitism is ignored or dismissed, it festers. When hateful myths are allowed to circulate unchecked, they embolden those who act on them,' Cohen said. 'The Jewish community in Ireland deserves the same protection, concern, and respect as any other. The time for silence and denial is over,' he added. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
L'Orient-Le Jour
a day ago
- Politics
- L'Orient-Le Jour
Moroccan-French artist Mohammed catches flamenco dancer Israel off guard on Avignon stage
Playwright, director and actor Mohammed al-Khatib disrupts all norms through documentary theater, where the boundaries between reality and fiction blur. In doing so, he attempts to give voice to those who are silenced. Now a prominent figure on the international stage, he gave an interview to L'Orient-Le Jour in Avignon to discuss his journey and his vision of theater, which is deeply rooted in real events. First, this choice of an eponymous title, Israel and Mohammed, provokes strong emotions throughout Avignon and stirs contradictory feelings. What's unsettling — and almost ironic — is that Israel Galván has nothing to do with Judaism. Yet he could have been seen as a Jew or an Israeli dissident against the Israeli government. What do you make of all these misunderstandings, and what do they provoke? That's a complex question for a complex situation. There's the randomness of a meeting, the disconnect, the expectation — an expectation that is thwarted, because Israel is not Jewish: He is a Jehovah's Witness, Arab-Andalusian, the result of a mix. However, this mix has consequences: When he performs in the Middle East, he must change his name. He is no longer called Israel, but Galván de Los Reyes. These objective facts inevitably refer us back to political considerations. In the video, my father says at one point, 'It's good to want peace, but first, you have to do politics.' The Palestinian question has always represented, for my parents, a horizon of peace — an increasingly distant one — but also a place of political confrontation. I believe that even after a year of genocide, after the mass slaughter of Palestinians, it's essential to maintain a link with that part of Israel that condemns the massacres and tries to persuade from within. It is politically necessary to take a stand against this extremely dangerous far-right Israeli government, so that it can be isolated, boycotted and politically and economically neutralized. But at the same time, we must maintain the link with civil society, like the Israel Festival in Jerusalem, made up of leftist anti-militarist activists opposed to settlement in the West Bank and the occupation of Gaza. They are our brothers and sisters in political struggle. So there is a double gesture: that of isolation and, at the same time, that of connection — a constant dialogue with Israeli intellectuals who share our fight against colonization. Without this, there is no possible horizon of peace. Today, we have just lost a generation. The children of Gaza, that generation, will not be able to forgive. During the performance, there is an extraordinary moment where you make a mosque appear in the Cloître des Carmes, recreating the architecture of Al-Aqsa. Beyond its political scope, what memory do you have of that place? The day I visited the Temple Mount to take a picture of the Al-Aqsa Mosque for my mother, I went with my French passport, so I was protected. They made me wait three hours at the checkpoint. Next to me, a Palestinian father was waiting with his child. At one point, an Israeli female soldier, about 20 years old, made this father kneel, threatening him with her weapon in front of his child. I looked at that child and thought he was lost. He was experiencing a double humiliation. It's severe. In Palestine, a generation of resentment has been created. A sacrificed generation. That's the tragedy: When you see your parents humiliated, massacred, you can't forgive. I hope the international community will have the courage to mobilize and confront this situation that, personally, makes me ashamed. A shame mixed with helplessness and contempt — a contempt toward Arabs. Because you understand painfully that a Palestinian life is not valued as an Israeli or Western life. At the start of the performance, you distance yourself from religion, while inviting it onto the stage through this mosque and the bell tower turned into a minaret. In this way, you offer a platform for identification to Arab spectators, both Christian and Muslim, in a context where Arab-Muslim voices are almost absent from the French media space. It's a gesture of repair. As someone who is neither a believer nor a practitioner, I felt, as after Sept. 11, 2001, when people said, 'I am American,' the need to say today: 'I am Muslim.' In today's France, in this racist, Islamophobic, reactionary political climate, I wanted to make a gesture of repair and reconciliation. To show my parents' Islam, which is a peaceful Islam. The mosque, with its minaret, converses with the bell tower. And the France of bell towers doesn't scare anyone — it's cultural. There is also a cultural, tranquil Islam. I saw my parents live their faith this way. Today, the witch hunt against Muslims is unbearable. With this mosque, this bell tower and this first name — Israel — I wanted to make a gesture of peace, of hospitality. A gesture of recognition towards my parents' generation, scorned and humiliated. And I do so peacefully. Serenely. And with a lot of love and humor, you symbolically kill both your fathers on stage. Both refused to accept you as you are, yet you build them sanctuaries. This way of 'killing the father,' as we say in psychoanalysis, is also a way of rehabilitating him. One of the big problems of Arab culture is this ever-present patriarchal figure. People are often afraid of the father in our families, where a form of omnipotence settles in, which can sometimes lead to abuse. But most of the time, this omnipotence masks an impotence. A social, political impotence. My father, for example, was mistreated at the factory. He had to sacrifice his life. He suffered constant humiliation. He was prevented from existing politically and socially. And the more you marginalize people, the more you contribute to their exclusion. Real integration would have been to welcome them with dignity. My father arrived in France in the 1970s, with the first wave of immigration. They were brought in to do 'the work': collect garbage, work in construction and sort. They did the grunt work. An entire generation was scorned. And today, it comes up against the next generation — mine, which is entirely French, fluent in the language, and will not accept being domesticated as our parents' generation was. What I wish is that, at least for the end of their lives, since this generation will soon disappear, we give them a form of dignity. Because they contributed to France's economic growth. Because they sacrificed everything for their children, who now take part in the country's life, among the elite, the working classes and in culture. Through my artistic practice, when I recreate my mother's Grand Palais, or stage the Renault 12 and the Peugeot 504, it may seem anecdotal. But it's my way of rehabilitating a part of France's history. To say that this generation of immigrants is part of France's popular history. It thoroughly deserves its place in national museums, just like Breton history or Corsican specificities. What is very touching in your work is that you become the parent of your own parents. Through your work on retirees and seniors, you seem to embrace that entire generation. And yet, in your art, you are rejected by your father, who wanted you to pursue a career in political science. It must be said that your audience is much larger than that of political science readers... It's a question of responsibility. Through my work on collective history, I feel that I'm engaging in a kind of sociology in action. I embody, in a way, a particular idea of political science, but in a concrete way. I did research on Islam in France at Sciences Po. And I was already asking this question: In a secular perspective, why does the French state want to organize Islam? Whenever this question arises, it's from a place of suspicion, fear of foreign interference. The most recent report was about 'the Muslim Brotherhood's entryism' in France, which is, in reality, marginal. But a political ghost is stirred up, that of the 'great replacement.' A cultural battle is being fought over a fantasy, while it's not the reality on the ground. The difficulty — but also the richness — of Islam is that it has no equivalent to the Pope. There is no Catholic Church. It's an intimate relationship between you and God. There are as many branches as there are countries. No doubt my parents' peaceful little mosque would be frowned upon by Salafists. But those nuances are not perceived. Many French people are ignorant and thus are caught up in fantasy. I've always seen my parents as having immense spiritual strength. And in my view, what produces racism today is social misery, the damage of liberalism, which feeds this rejection of Muslims in France. Theater gives me public speaking. I cannot trivialize this space. I feel indebted to those who have been silenced or erased politically because I am the result of this history. And what about dance? You invite Israel, who expresses himself with his flamenco steps, and you end up a dancer yourself. At the end of the performance, you are two. Two twins are escaping from the screen. How did your body follow Israel's? It was pretty natural. I played soccer at a very high level for a long time. I have an intense physical practice, mastering my body, but in the field of physical performance, not dance. And dance, for us, is always a bit taboo. It isn't received well at home. And therein lies the paradox: We don't dance, but the best weddings are Arab weddings! That's where I saw my uncles and aunts dance. I love this paradox, these rituals that transcend religion. This poetic license is granted for special occasions. It's a way to reconnect with moments of freedom. Moments of joyful childhood. This leads to the final liberation scene, that of the body. Once memory is healed, you can move on... Absolutely. Jean Vilar said, 'The best heirs are unfaithful heirs.' I respect this legacy, and I am also forging my own path. And the question remains: What kind of fathers will we be? Were we good children? What kind of father will I be to my eight-year-old daughter? I hope she will be free. Free to be Muslim or not. Free to have a religion or not. Free to dance or not to dance. And that she will follow her own path. If I can give her enough confidence to allow her that freedom, then I will have accomplished part of my work.
Sydney Morning Herald
a day ago
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
QUT race debate not antisemitic, despite damaging fallout: review
A review into a satirical race debate at the Queensland University of Technology that sparked media outrage has cast a shadow over the future of one of the university's specialist research institutes. The review was commissioned in February to look into the anti-racism event organised by the Carumba Institute, which focuses on First Nations research and education at QUT's two Brisbane campuses. Under its six recommendations, released on Wednesday, the university's governing council was urged to 'consider and define the role and function and the leadership' of the institute, and more closely supervise its public events. The institute's January symposium on anti-racist research made headlines after one audience member leaked recordings and presentation slides from the satirical 'Greatest Race Debate'. While on stage, writer and artist Lorna Munro, a Wiradjuri and Gamilaroi woman, showed slides calling on the audience to 'throat punch a racist'. Loading Jewish Council of Australia chair Sarah Schwartz presented a checklist of characteristics that she said were being used to weaponise Jewish identity by political leaders, in a slide headlined 'Dutton's Jew'. The review found these slides and the speakers' remarks were not antisemitic or offensive 'to those actually present', and should be considered within the full context of the event. It found Munro's presentation, 'while provocative in tone, was clearly satirical in nature', while Schwartz's was intended as a criticism of certain political leaders, and not Jewish people themselves.
The Age
a day ago
- Politics
- The Age
QUT race debate not antisemitic, despite damaging fallout: review
A review into a satirical race debate at the Queensland University of Technology that sparked media outrage has cast a shadow over the future of one of the university's specialist research institutes. The review was commissioned in February to look into the anti-racism event organised by the Carumba Institute, which focuses on First Nations research and education at QUT's two Brisbane campuses. Under its six recommendations, released on Wednesday, the university's governing council was urged to 'consider and define the role and function and the leadership' of the institute, and more closely supervise its public events. The institute's January symposium on anti-racist research made headlines after one audience member leaked recordings and presentation slides from the satirical 'Greatest Race Debate'. While on stage, writer and artist Lorna Munro, a Wiradjuri and Gamilaroi woman, showed slides calling on the audience to 'throat punch a racist'. Loading Jewish Council of Australia chair Sarah Schwartz presented a checklist of characteristics that she said were being used to weaponise Jewish identity by political leaders, in a slide headlined 'Dutton's Jew'. The review found these slides and the speakers' remarks were not antisemitic or offensive 'to those actually present', and should be considered within the full context of the event. It found Munro's presentation, 'while provocative in tone, was clearly satirical in nature', while Schwartz's was intended as a criticism of certain political leaders, and not Jewish people themselves.
