A federal judge in Boston dismissed the Trump administration’s antisemitism lawsuit against Harvard University on Thursday, ruling that the incidents were “too isolated and episodic” to show an ongoing violation of civil rights law.

Judge Richard Stearns pointed out that while the government’s amended complaint cited three March 2025 incidents, it still focused almost entirely on the 2023–2024 school year. 

J Street Action Fund, the super PAC affiliated with the progressive Israel advocacy group, spent $108,000 on Thursday on digital advertisements to boost progressive California state Sen. Aisha Wahab in the special election in California’s 14th Congressional District.

The AIPAC-affiliated super PAC United Democracy Project has spent $1.2 million — along with significant independent expenditures by other groups — attacking Wahab and boosting moderate former local mayor Melissa Hernandez in the run-off special election race to replace former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA).

A synagogue in the capital of Vermont co-sponsored a fundraiser last Sunday for Mohsen Mahdawi, a former Columbia University anti-Israel activist who has voiced sympathy for Hamas, drawing sharp criticism from some congregants. 

The event took place at Unitarian Church of Montpelier, which co-sponsored it with Beth Jacob Synagogue, according to a flyer posted on the synagogue’s website and distributed to all members. The congregation is unaffiliated with a denomination.

A quarter century ago, when the late Sen. Joe Lieberman was tapped by Al Gore, the Democratic nominee for president, to be his running mate on the 2000 ticket, the question around many a Shabbat table was, “Is he too Jewish to be in the White House?”

There’s a different question being asked, largely in Democratic circles, of today’s Jewish presidential candidates: “Is he the ‘right’ kind of Jewish candidate to be president?” — a question that is almost entirely centered around a candidate’s position on Israel and how openly he identifies with his religious faith. 

Behnam Ben Taleblu, the senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Iran program, warned on Thursday of potential Iranian escalation — military or otherwise — in the run-up to the midterms, with the goal of disrupting the elections.

Taleblu said on a panel at the Hudson Institute that, ahead of November, “my fear for the president prior to the midterms … is not failure. My fear for the president now is success.” He said that U.S. economic pressure alongside the blockade has been highly effective and will have success in squeezing Iran’s economy and oil exports, potentially bringing retaliation from Iran, even in the event of another diplomatic agreement.

Leaders in the Bay Area Jewish community are urging former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to speak out or otherwise address her endorsed successor Connie Chan’s decision to lean into Israel and AIPAC-related attacks on her Jewish Democratic opponent, state Sen. Scott Wiener, which some in the Jewish community view as antisemitic.

Pelosi has been a longtime ally of the area’s Jewish community and, until her final years in office, a reliable supporter of Israel, though she recently voted for an amendment to cut off U.S. aid to Israel. Pelosi — a top surrogate for Chan, who is a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors — has not commented on Chan’s stances or rhetoric on Israel, and did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Jewish Insider on Wednesday and Thursday.

More than a week after Abdul El-Sayed narrowly clinched the Democratic nomination in Michigan’s bruising Democratic Senate primary, his Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), is working to fine-tune his campaign’s outreach and messaging to disaffected Jewish voters who could play a decisive role in the closely contested race.

While Republicans in the key battleground state see an opportunity in November to capitalize on Jewish Democrats’ alarm over El-Sayed’s hostile rhetoric toward Israel and lackluster record in confronting the rise of antisemitism, Rogers has in the days following the primary still appeared relatively cautious in directly courting Jewish voters, as he has widened his pitch to Democrats in Michigan whom he reassured in a video message last week have “a home with” his campaign.

Former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers starts off the Michigan Senate general election race with a narrow advantage over Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, according to a new Fox News poll, aided by an advantage with independents and making inroads with a small but significant number of Democrats willing to cross party lines.

Overall, Rogers leads El-Sayed among registered voters by four points, 51-47% — and is one of the only Republicans to hold a lead in the series of Fox News Senate battleground polls that have otherwise shown Democratic Senate candidates ahead of their GOP opponents.