They Are Called Progressive Jews But Are Really Regressive Ones

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              

      Mayor Adams in Ghana at the Chabad House during Chanukah

They are called Progessive Jews.  That's not what I would call them;  I'd say Regressive ones.  These progressive Jews are ones suspected of being voters for Mamdani. The New York City mayoral election is heating up, with early voting well underway. Candidates Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa are running to replace outgoing Mayor Eric Adams.  Adams is Black.  Adams is also a retired cop, a Captain at that! Born September 1, 1960, he's hit age 65, and either retiring or not being able to run again, but has been mayor since 2021-the past 4 year period. "In 2021, Adams received the Democratic Party's nomination for mayor of New York City after winning a crowded primary that used ranked-choice voting. In the general election, Adams won a landslide victory over Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. As mayor, he has taken what is seen as a tough-on-crime approach and reintroduced a plain-clothed NYPD unit that had been disbanded by the previous administration."   Eric Adams is not running for mayor again because he ended his re-election campaign in September 2025 due to mounting pressure from corruption scandals, low poll numbers, and a decision by the city's Campaign Finance Board to deny him millions in public matching funds.   

Andrew Cuomo is running for mayor. A Democrat, born in New York in 1957 is 67 years old.  He's son of former governor Mario Cuomo, Andrew Cuomo served as the 56th governor of New York from 2011 until his resignation in 2021 following numerous sexual misconduct allegations. He's an Independent since  Mamdani took over the Democrat ticket.  His parents both came from Southern Italy with his mother from Sicily.  In solidarity with Israel, Cuomo announced an executive order against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Cuomo tweeted: "If you boycott Israel, New York State will boycott you." (He's my man!)   On March 1, 2025, Cuomo announced his candidacy in the 2025 New York City mayoral election. Cuomo emphasized public safety and housing affordability in his campaign and branded himself as a progressive because he passed liberal policies. However, it has been noted that Cuomo has "developed a reputation as a moderate" and was seen as the "top centrist." On May 7, 2025, Cuomo filed to also run as an independent on the Fight and Deliver Party ticket. Throughout the campaign, Cuomo emphasized his prior experience as governor and his opposition to antisemitism.             

Curtis Sliwa has no chance of winning this election, either. He was born in 1954, so at age 71 is cute with his red hat, that might be showing he's been head of the Guardian Angels of crime prevention, but he's not in the news like Mamdani, the one likely to win that makes New York Jews look regressive to me. Curtis is Catholic and has Polish and Italian roots, which is good for understanding New York City. His Guardian Angels  were either Black or Hispanic.  In late 1992, speaking on the Crown Heights riot and related issues to Hasidic Jews, Sliwa said of the difference between Hasids and Black New Yorkers:  "There is no fear that the Jewish community is going to come to the streets and loot and rob and rape," Sliwa said, "When in my lifetime have I ever seen a Hasid grab anyone's pocketbook? 

Zoran Mamdami was born in 1991, only 34 years old!  He is a  politician who has served since 2021 (4 years) as a member of the New York State Assembly from the 36th district, representing the Queens neighborhood of Astoria. A member of the Democratic Party and the Democratic Socialists of America, he is the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City in the 2025 election.  His campaign platform includes support for fare-free city buses, public child care, city-owned grocery stores, LGBTQ rights, a rent freeze on rent-stabilized units, additional affordable housing units, comprehensive public safety reform, and a $30 minimum wage by 2030. Mamdani also supports tax increases on corporations and those earning above $1 million annually.

 His mother is a Punjabi Hindu who was born in Rourkela and raised in Bhubaneswar, and his father is a Gujarati Muslim who was born in Bombay and grew up primarily in Uganda, where Mamdami was born as a Muslim.   He is Shia Muslim and identifies with the Twelver branch.   This is the state religion of Iran! So by voting for him will bring Iran closer than ever, a country out to destroy the USA and Israel.  

Zohran Mamdani, a New York City mayoral candidate, has a long history of strongly pro-Palestinian activism and criticism of Israel. His views include calling Israel's actions in Gaza a genocide and stating he cannot support it as an officially Jewish state, which has drawn both praise and sharp criticism from various communities. His past statements have also faced scrutiny, such as a remark linking the NYPD and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during a 2023 speech. Connection to NYPD and IDF: He has explained a 2023 comment linking the NYPD and IDF as a reference to training exercises between the two, though some critics remain concerned about his views on the relationship between the two forces. 

• Views on Israel as a Jewish state: Mamdani has stated he would not recognize any state's right to exist based on a system of hierarchy of race or religion, leading to the criticism that he is questioning Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state.  (Is he forgetting how many states are listed as Muslim states?)  
• Eight Islamic states have adopted Islam as the ideological foundation of state and constitution.  There are about 50 that are Muslim majority states. How about Iran?   Yes, Iran is a Muslim state, officially a Muslim theocracy whose legal system is based on Islamic law (sharia). Its constitution declares Twelver Ja'afari Shia Islam as the official state religion, and all laws are supposed to be based on Islamic criteria. The government is structured as a religious democracy, combining elected institutions with an unelected supreme leader and a Guardian Council that vets all candidates for public office.    
• Israel's actions: He has called Israel's actions in Gaza a genocide and is critical of its treatment of Palestinians.
• Past legislation: In the New York State Assembly, he sponsored the "Not On Our Dime" Act, which aimed to strip tax-exempt status from charities with ties to Israeli settler groups.
• Oh G-d !  This man has the mouth of Iran!  So many people have already joined him in this  acceptance of nonsense, but he has been first as a Muslim that following Iran's thinking patterns, I'm afraid.This may be why he's running in the first place! 

 A July 2025 poll indicated a shift in Jewish American political attitudes, with 43% of Jewish New Yorkers and 67% of Jewish voters under 44 planning to support Mamdani — levels of support suggesting waning attachment to traditional pro-Israel politics, while many Jewish leaders and voters remained critical of Mamdani.  This is why these Jewish youth especially are Regressive Jews.

They know nothing about Israel and seem to not care about learning at all.  They are believing all the misleading anti-Israel news reports from other people other than the Jews themselves.  This way, they are getting more  social approval from their peers.  They are joining them!  In a way, they feel ashamed of their Jewish inheritance.  I am really disappointed that this is what theyturned out to be.  

And why should I care?  I'm living in Portland, Oregon.  What has this election got to do with me?  New York has been the center of Jewish society since its beginning ; creating the acceptance of the Jewish peoplethere.  Jews makeup 2% of New York's population, of which we are only 0.02% (2/10 of one%) of the world's population.  As they feel and treat Jews in New York soas they will treat Jews in Portland, Oregon.  Is it progress these days to follow others like sheep do?  

So between his socialistic outlook, and his anti-Israel upbringing, no thank

you in choosing Mamdami with me.  I hope the Regressive young take

time to think about their vote.  It amounts to a lot more than checking a  

circle by a name.  

  Edited 7:44pm on 11/1/25 about Cuomo (being a Portlander, forgot he was also in the race.)

The Harm From AI To All Of Us

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

                     Watch out!  I hear AI is learning to think on its own

AI is only as intelligent as the people who create it.  Right now it is fed with hatred of Israel, for we are hated by practically every group and country in the world.  That's the propaganda that is being delivered into AI.  Take Italy right now.  I think of Daniel Silva's books that take place in Rome.  The main character, Gabriel Allon, is a retired Mossad head, whose wife is a Roman Jewess, and they live in Rome.  Gabriel often has helped out the Pope, knows all the head people there, and there was good rapport.  A Jew cannot walk down the streets today without being cursed or spat upon. There are billboards everywhere against Israel.  People would not speak to Israelis.   That's from a Phd student at the university in Italy just recently, spotted being an Israeli by his accent only.  

The difference between AI and us is that we are not robots like AI, and our thinking is creative at the moment, not fed at a time of production.  We have the human affect, can judge things as good or bad.  Our minds cannot hold all the information like AI but can make judgement calls and can decide what is true and what is false.  AI can help, by giving us so much information work with, but shouldn't be the final result of any decision.                                

In 1977, Skokie, Illinois was home to around 40,500 Jews, thousands of whom were Holocaust survivors. Then, the National Socialist Party of America, a group of self-styled Nazis planned a march. In March of that year, the group requested a permit to march through the village, and were sued by Skokie to prevent it. They chose Skokie purposely, to hurt the people there.  It was no accident.  

Alan Dershowitz, lawyer, has a mind like a computer.  He remembers everything about our constitution-everything.  When it came to Skokie, the Nazis won due to his judgement call that differed from his mother.  His was like a computer, and his mother (and I, for that matter) held onto our human quality of acknowledging the intent of Nazis harming the Jewish neighborhood holocaust survivors once again and on purpose, and deemed the Nazis guilty.  So I see in this a human acting with a robot's AI information.                                

In Jewish law, the same idea prevailed centuries ago.  The two houses were Bet Hillel (Hillel's house) and Bet Shammai (Shammai's house), with Bet Hillel being the more lenient school whose opinions were ultimately chosen to be followed. Bet Shammai was known for being stricter, while Bet Hillel emphasized compassion and individual welfare, making its rulings more applicable in daily life. After the destruction of the temple in 70 CE, the more lenient rulings of Bet Hillel became the basis for mainstream rabbinic law.  Even then, the judges saw that onecannot live with only the AI information, and they had no idea how that would develop later.  

I can spot an AI story written only by AI.  Good grief!  They are all alike!  They have the same taste and flavor the way they turn out; only their subject is different.  They go on and on, never getting to even one point.  It's horrible.  I skip reading it as soon as this shows up.

The problem is that people read and do accept anything written as if it is the bible.  If it is slamming something they have grown up believing, they are willing believers also, maybe even more-so.  They do not read opposing information.  Example.  Many follow whatever is given on Fox News and no other.  What only Fox says is to be believed. Fox is the most popular newscast around.  "Yes, Fox News is consistently the most-watched cable news channel and has been for more than 23 consecutive years. In 2025, it has frequently been the highest-rated network across all of television (including broadcast networks like ABC, CBS, and NBC) in weekday primetime and total day viewership.."  

Whatever would we do without google.  It's giving us encyclopedias at our fingertips.  We should know so much more than ever before.  When a question comes to my mind, I can look it up quickly.  When it involves international political situations, there is so much research in front of me to do, and for everyone else, too.  There, you have to really know how to separate the wheat from the chaff (winnowing).  This is harvest time.  Be sure you do a good job.  Since these robots are learning to think, we think, they will only think with what they have been fed.  This is really scary.