Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Less than an hour after election night exit polls were published, Mansour Abbas, the leader of the Islamist Ra’am party, whose representation was predicted to almost double, declared: “We will translate this electoral power into an influential political force … we’re here — not on the sidelines.” With all the votes now counted, Ra’am has indeed grown from five to eight seats, while the other Arab party, the Joint List, has received 11. Their combined unprecedented 19 seats out of a total of 120 in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, now make the Arab parties a powerful force and one that could potentially break the political deadlock after neither the bloc led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot have enough seats to form a governing coalition. A record number of Arab-Israelis voted in last Tuesday’s election, signaling for the first time in Israel’s history that the country’s Arab public, which makes up around 21% of the general population, is demanding to be counted in Israel’s political process. Read the full story here: https://www.jta.org/2026/11/02/israel/arab-parties-are-kingmakers-but-will-israels-jewish-leaders-accept-them

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When Marvel offered Sacha Baron Cohen the role of Mephisto, the demonic figure he played in the 2025 series “Ironheart,” the creative team behind the show had a concern. The mostly Black team, he recalled, was aware of the long history of associating Jews with the devil and wanted to make sure the Jewish actor would not be offended by the offer. “It was such an amazingly considerate, empathetic thing to say,” Baron Cohen recalled at a live taping of the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast at New York’s 92nd Street Y last week. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m good.’” He then added, “I think for the Jews out there, sometimes we don’t feel seen.” Read the full story here: https://www.jta.org/2026/10/28/culture/sacha-baron-cohen-wants-to-fight-bigotry-but-is-ali-g-part-of-the-problem

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Florida Democratic Rep. Jared Moscowitz told Fox Business last month that Jews are feeling “politically homeless”: repelled by today’s Republican Party but anxious about rising antisemitism fueled by anti-Zionism on the left. Rabbi Avi Killip agreed in a recent essay in eJewishPhilanthropy. “Many American Jews feel politically homeless these days,” she wrote. Seeing antisemitism on the left and right, “it isn’t surprising that many of us are feeling abandoned and alone.” In July, Ashley Inbar, a 38-year-old Jewish Democratic voter in Maine, described her predicament in a first-person essay for the Times of Israel. “I’m a Democrat. I still am,” she wrote. “But lately, I’ve begun to feel oddly homeless. Not because my values have shifted, but because [of] the conversation around me.” Ahead of the 2026 midterms, “politically homeless” has become the Jewish label of the moment. The phrase has also surfaced on the campaign trail, in sermons and on podcasts about the future of Jewish political identity. Read the rest of Andrew Silow-Carroll opinion essay and explore even more of JTA’s Ideas section here: https://www.jta.org/2026/11/01/ideas/politically-homeless-is-the-new-mantra-for-american-jews-will-it-change-their-vote?utm_source=JTA_Iterable&utm_campaign=JTA_DB&utm_medium=email

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On a recent weeknight, a local Jewish federation official met with a small group of Jews in suburban Chicago for an election organizing event. Leaders of the group preemptively barred journalists, and anyone they deemed could be a journalist, from entry on Zoom. Chicago Jewish leaders were quietly organizing an effort with big implications: how to convince voters to defend a state law designed to shield Israel from boycotts. “It’s a fight, to put it simply,” Dan Goldwin, public affairs officer at Chicago’s Jewish United Fund, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Full story here: https://www.jta.org/2026/10/31/united-states/bds-is-on-the-ballot-in-illinois-sort-of

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Key Jewish Democratic figures denounced pro-Israel U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens’ endorsement of Republican Mike Rogers for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat on Sunday. Some, including Michigan congressional candidate Jeremy Moss, spoke at a press conference at the United Auto Workers headquarters in Detroit to support Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed hours after Stevens endorsed Rogers across town. “I would rather debate our disagreements in a democratic institution than one that has been eroded by Trump and Rogers,” Moss, who has had his own public disagreements with El-Sayed, told the crowd. Full story here: https://www.jta.org/2026/11/01/politics/some-michigan-jewish-democrats-disavow-stevens-over-endorsement-of-el-sayeds-gop-rival

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Confused by the election results? We’re breaking down the gridlock on Waiting for 61. 🎧 Join Ami Eden, CEO of JTA’s parent organization, 70 Faces Media, and Ruth Eglash, JTA’S senior Israel correspondent, every weekday as they break down the personalities, power struggles and political calculations shaping Israel’s future. 🎧 Catch up on the latest episodes now! Listen at the link in bio.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his opponent Gadi Eisenkot will have to break their promises to their constituents if they want to form and lead Israel’s next government. Their potential political allies will have to do the same. Netanyahu’s Likud and Eisenkot’s Yashar party both garnered more votes than any of the other nine parties that met the threshold to join the next parliament. Netanyahu and the bloc of parties that ideologically align with him, however, secured only 53 of the 61 seats needed for a governing majority in the 120-seat Knesset. The Eisenkot bloc won 48. For Eisenkot, three divisive issues are likely to dominate the debate and force some politicians to renege on campaign pledges: aligning with Arab parties, mandatory military service for Haredi men and a unity government with Netanyahu. Full story here: https://www.jta.org/2026/10/29/israel/what-pledges-eisenkot-and-netanayhu-need-to-break-to-become-pm

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Two years after an Argentine judge ordered a Spanish dictionary to drop a definition of “Jewish” as “miserly or usurious,” the institution responsible for the dictionary has yet to comply — frustrating the Jewish groups that brought the case. The definition reflects a long history of associating Jews with greed and moneylending, a stereotype reinforced by literary figures such as Shakespeare’s Shylock and by centuries of anti-Jewish prejudice. The Royal Spanish Academy, the Madrid-based language-standardization institution that is ignoring a September 2024 order by a federal judge here, has defended its dictionary as a record of how words are used, including pejorative meanings. Jewish groups argue that preserving the definition perpetuates an antisemitic trope. “We understand that the dictionary reflects how some people use language, but it is also true that many people learn through the dictionary,” Ariel Siedler, a member of the Latin American Jewish Congress (CJL) who monitors online discrimination, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency last month. “That is why adding that definition seems negative. The aim was to avoid reinforcing discrimination, which would be perpetuated through the dictionary.” Full story here: https://www.jta.org/2026/10/29/global/two-years-after-a-judges-order-a-spanish-dictionary-still-defines-jewish-as-miserly

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Why is forming a coalition so complicated this election? Find out in the latest episode of Waiting for 61 🎧 Join Ami Eden, CEO of JTA’s parent organization, 70 Faces Media, and Ruth Eglash, JTA’S senior Israel correspondent, every weekday as they break down the personalities, power struggles and political calculations shaping Israel’s future. 🎧 Catch up on the latest episodes now! Listen at the link in bio.

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Dovid Hofstedter was visiting Belarus five years ago when he discovered that a historic Jewish school had turned into something else. Hofstedter, a Canadian rabbi, was joining a group of rabbis from around the world at the Radin Yeshiva, nestled in the small town of Radun in western Belarus. The school was founded in 1869 by the famed Lithuanian rabbi Israel Meir Kagan, known as the Chofetz Chaim, and housed 300 students before World War II. As Hofstedter delivered a lecture in the building, he was surprised to see it fill up with locals, who then gradually wandered out. He realized they didn’t know the building had once housed a yeshiva in a town where no Jews live today. Instead, people had walked in expecting a play — and left when they didn’t get one. Full story here: https://www.jta.org/2026/10/28/global/a-famed-rabbis-yeshiva-reopens-for-students-for-the-first-time-since-world-war-ii

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As election results from Israel’s parliamentary vote on Tuesday continue to trickle in, what seems clearest is that no side in this political race will have enough votes to form a majority government, meaning the question of who Israel’s next prime minister will be remains uncertain. According to the vote count so far, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party could have as many as 28 seats, yet his bloc of right-wing and ultra-Orthodox parties will fall short of the 61 seats needed to form a majority government. Yashar, the party led by Netanyahu’s main rival, former Israeli army chief Gadi Eisenkot, looks set to be the second-largest party, with around 22 seats. The so-called “change” bloc that Eisenkot leads will likely have around 47 seats, also far short of what is needed to form a government on its own. Full story here: https://www.jta.org/2026/10/28/israel/israels-election-deadlock-3-scenarios-for-what-comes-next

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