Free Republic

(JNS) A few weeks ago, a sermon by Reform Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, the senior rabbi at the Steven Wise Free Synagogue in New York, shocked millions from that city to Tel Aviv. Standing at his pulpit, Hirsch delivered a stern warning to the Democrats. Noting that he is someone “who is finely attuned to American Jewish sentiment,” Hirsch told Democratic elected officials: “Do not take American Jews for granted.” Hirsch explained, “I have spoken to many American Jews in the past few months who have surprised me with their anxiety about developments in the Democratic Party, and their perception that...

We were expecting this moment, and it came on Friday, the eleventh day of the Hush Trump trial in New York City. It was the moment when Donald Trump's attorney looked at the judge and invoked the name of destroyed, defiant, and disgusting movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, the poster boy of the #MeToo movement. It was, in baseball parlance, a brushback pitch by the Team Trump. Only last week, Weinstein's 2020 conviction on rape charges was overturned by a New York appeals court because the prosecution had piled on unaffiliated "evidence," resulting in an unfair trial. It was a reversible...

With violent pro-Hamas protests erupting on our nation’s campuses, millions of illegal aliens swarming across the southern border, and a mentally declining president who seems like he can barely get through a sentence—much less run the most powerful nation on earth—it can seem like all the news is bad these days. The tale of Derek Floyd, the FDNY firefighter who died of a heart attack after being fired because New York City needed money for illegal aliens, leaving his family with nothing because he was just short of becoming eligible for benefits, certainly fits into the “tragic” category. RedState’s Nick...

Sinister pro-Hamas flyers have emerged on the NYU campus amid fears over rampant anti-Semitism and threatening behavior at demonstrations. Posters declaring 'Death to America' and 'Long live the intifada' have been plastered around the Manhattan college's Gaza encampment, days after over 100 protestors were arrested in furious clashes with the NYPD. The police force shared images of the fliers on Friday, noting the 'inflammatory literature and signage' observed at the 'illegal encampment.'

NEW YORK — District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case suffered more setbacks Thursday as the prosecution’s sixth witness wrapped up his testimony with significant hits to his credibility. During a heated cross examination, defense attorney Emil Bove managed to cast Keith Davidson, former attorney for Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, as a shady lawyer who gets as close to the line as he can without crossing it, brokering deals that border on extortion. Davidson, who played an important role in the $130,000 payment to Daniels at the heart of the prosecution’s case, failed to deflect much of Bove’s line of questioning,...

The student editors of the Columbia Law Review issued a statement on Wednesday urging Columbia Law School to cancel exams in the wake of the police operation that cleared the university’s unauthorized encampment, saying the "violence" had left them "irrevocably shaken" and "unable to focus." The statement, which represents the majority opinion of the editorial board and was endorsed by five other law journals, including the Columbia Human Rights Law Review & A Jailhouse Lawyer’s Manual, accused the police of "brutalizing" students—though no major injuries have been reported—and claimed that canceling exams was a "proportionate response" to the "distress our...

On Thursday's broadcast of MSNBC's "Alex Wagner Tonight," Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) stated that the encampment on Columbia was "completely peaceful" and "Some of the images that we saw from UCLA and other places made it look like a bunch of disorder. But the majority of these protests are peaceful. When you send in hundreds of military-dressed law enforcement officers into a college, that brings the disorder and that brings the chaos."Bowman said, "We want the protests to be peaceful. We do not want violent protests. I visited the Columbia encampment last week, and they were completely peaceful. There was...

NYC Mayor and NYPD PC have released new information showing that approximately 48% of individuals arrested on Tuesday evening at Columbia and City College NY protests were unaffiliated with the schools.

Former President Donald Trump was back in New York City Thursday for his criminal trial, and it's been a pretty good day for him. During Thursday's proceedings, Keith Davidson, the lawyer representing adult film actress Stormy Daniels, gave revealing testimony that completely undermines Bragg's charges against Trump. For starters, Davidson argued that the $130,000 payment to Daniels should not be construed as "hush money" but rather as a legitimate "consideration" payment. Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Johsua Steinglass pressed Davidson on the witness stand about Daniels’ statement in January 2018, which Davidson prepared for his client, that denied any relationship with...

Business groups are urging Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration to delay regulations that would significantly restrict widely used coolant chemicals — a priority under the state’s sweeping climate law — that they say could wreak financial havoc on stakeholders ranging from grocery stores to hospitals. The mandates have stoked concerns from trade groups ranging from the Business Council to the New York Farm Bureau. A broad coalition of business interests sent a letter to Hochul and the state Department of Environmental Conservation on Wednesday arguing that the state’s timeline is not feasible. DEC’s proposed phaseout of chemical compounds known as “hydrofluorocarbons,”...

“Ayers was hunted by the FBI for his alleged involvement in the 1970 bombing of the New York City Police Department headquarters, 1971 bombing of the United States Capitol building and the 1972 bombing of the Pentagon.”.. Bill Ayers, famous for being a leading member of the ‘Weather Underground,’ a domestic terror group in the 1960s, showed up at the anti-Israel encampment at the University of Chicago, where he ended up teaching for years. People who remember the 2008 election will recall that Ayers became a political lightning rod because he was an old friend of Barack Obama, who famously...

A coalition of pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) in the state of New York preemptively filed a lawsuit against the state’s attorney general, Letitia James, on April 30. The lawsuit comes just days after James sent a letter to the centers noting that she would be suing them for “misleading statements” regarding the so-called “abortion pill reversal” protocol. The Thomas More Society is representing the PRCs, including CompassCare and Heartbeat International, in the case Heartbeat, …CompassCare, et al v James. James sent a letter to 10 of the state’s PRCs on April 22, in which she indicated that she would be...

A “Gaza solidarity encampment” popped up at Fordham University on Wednesday, just hours after tent cities at the other two schools were destroyed by police. Seven tents were erected inside the University’s Leon Lowenstein Center, and 25 students have occupied the building. The University has unfurled blue tarps over the windows of the building, and has allegedly warned the pro-terrorist campers to leave or face arrest. Two prison buses have arrived at the encampment. “There are police coming in and out. They have barricaded some parts of the lobby," a demonstrator told The Post. “The administration refuses to meet with...

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's case against Donald Trump had already hit a few snags, but now, Judge Merchan may have made a critical error that could reverse the Trump verdict upon appeal by allowing prosecutors to make certain arguments, according to GWU University law professor Jonathan Turley. During an appearance on “Fox & Friends,” Turley suggested that New York Judge Juan Merchan made a mistake by allowing Bragg's prosecutorial team, which is being led by former Biden administration official Michael Colangelo, to say unequivocally that Trump was involved in federal election law violations. “I got to tell you, I...

The American flag was re-raised at City College of New York after anti-Israel protesters removed it and replaced it with a Palestinian flag at the Harlem Heights campus. Video from Wednesday morning captured members of the NYPD standing atop the base of the flagpole as they worked to remove the four-color flag, ripping it from the rope before tossing it to the ground. Protesters threw flares and waved Palestinian flags in the air. Getty Images The American flag was subsequently raised back up during an impromptu ceremony along with a speech from NYPD Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry. Notorious anti-Israel demonstrator...

Call it pinko talent development, but we can still learn from it When Florida governor Ron DeSantis and Texas governor Greg Abbot proposed legislation making particular radical tactics crimes — many of them felonies — carrying mandatory jail time, much commentary, positive and negative, focused on DeSantis’ proposal (previously made by other jurisdictions) that a driver fleeing from safety from a mob should not be liable for injury or death caused by hitting someone with his car. That proposal was especially popular with those who, beyond supporting the right to physical safety and self-defense, fantasize about breaking radical Lefty movements...

New York, California, Georgia, Texas, and Nevada also received migrant flights. The House Homeland Security Committee subpoenaed documents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tuesday detailing a list of 45 cities that thousands of paroled migrants flew into in the past two years via a controversial immigration program. The DHS established the immigration policy in October of 2022, which was intended for Venezuelans to enter the country legally as long as they had an American sponsor, and passed a vetting process. It was later opened to migrants from Haiti, Cuba, and Nicaragua. The program did not secure the...

Columbia University protesters smashed windows, upended furniture and caused damage throughout Hamilton Hall during the occupation before police stormed the campus and arrested more than 100 protestors Tuesday night. Around 40 protesters were arrested on the first floor of the building after police swooped just after 9pm ending the pro-Palestine encampment that stretched on for nearly two weeks and included students taking over the hall. Pictures and video taken of the aftermath show the hall's trashed interior strewn with activists' belongings.

Video released by NYPD shows 63-year-old Lisa Fithian, who has a long history of participating in protests like Occupy Wall Street [cut] Fithian is a professional "protest consultant" who has been arrested over 80 times, Laura Ingraham of "The Ingraham Angle" said on her show Tuesday night. Fithian has reportedly participated in protests on climate change, Occupy Wall Street, and now, the Free Palestine movement. After midnight Tuesday, Fithian was seen on video instructing a mob of anti-Israel agitators as they took over an academic building at Columbia University.

Northwestern University has capitulated to the demands of pro-Palestinian protesters who set up an encampment last week, offering scholarships for Palestinians, Palestinian faculty appointments, and special housing for Muslim students. In return, the students agreed to take down their tents and to protest during daylight hours in Deering Meadow, the common space that they had occupied since last week and decorated with radical and antisemitic signs and slogans. As Breitbart News noted, the activists in the encampment not only physically barred other students from entering, but also stole an American flag from peaceful pro-Israel counter-demonstrators and vandalized university buildings. ewish...