Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his wife Rama Duwaji pose for photos during moving day at Gracie Mansion, Jan. 12, 2026. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

A version of this piece first ran as part of the New York Jewish Week’s daily newsletter, rounding up the latest on politics, culture, food and what’s new with Jews in the city. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.

What you need to know today

• The falafel chain Taim, founded by the Israeli-American restaurateur Einat Admony, is closing stores after facing penalties for not paying taxes, the Forward reports. The chain, named for the Hebrew word for “tasty,” entered the fast-casual space at a challenging time, with a bevy of similar options proliferating and anti-Israel sentiment stacking the deck against Israeli restaurants. 

• Meanwhile, a story in New York magazine contends that pro-Palestinian diners are increasingly differentiating between Israeli and other Middle Eastern eateries, and spurning the Israeli options. 

• Milton Tingling, a former judge appointed to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s judicial advisory committee, is facing a lawsuit accusing him of “failing to address” alleged antisemitic and racist rants by the executive director of the West Harlem Development Corporation, on which he serves as the board chair, the New York Post reports. Tingling did not respond to a request for comment from the Post. Mamdani faced criticism for failing to appoint a single Jewish lawyer to the committee.
  
• Pop-up Jewish experience gets a permanent home: The Neighborhood, a nonprofit that has held Jewish events across Brooklyn since 2022, announced on Tuesday that it has acquired a permanent home in the heart of Williamsburg. The group did not announce a date for the start of operations at 177 S. 4th St., which is just down the street from Traif, a pork-focused restaurant named for the Hebrew and Yiddish words for non-kosher meat, and two blocks away from Shalom Japan, a Jewish-Japanese fusion spot. The Neighborhood will continue holding events elsewhere as well, including a tashlich program at Brooklyn Bridge Park on Rosh Hashanah.
  

• Delayed justice: Jay Clayton, the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, wrote a letter to the survivors of the 1994 antisemitic shooting on the Brooklyn Bridge, including the mother of Ari Halberstam, who was killed in the attack. Clayton, who was sworn in as the director of national intelligence earlier this month, told the group prior to his confirmation, “First, there is no question that if the murder of your son, Ari Halberstam, had occurred today, we would investigate it and seek to prosecute it as a federal hate crime,” according to CBS News. The case was never prosecuted as a civil rights violation. The perpetrator of the attack, Rashid Baz, was convicted of murder and sentenced to 141 years in prison.
  
• The NYPD denied that it plans to send officers to accompany New York City First Lady Rama Duwaji on her upcoming trip next month to Lebanon and Syria, contradicting City Hall’s previous claim that the NYPD had recommended she travel with a detail. “The NYPD does not send officers to countries with level four travel advisories for discretionary reasons not linked to investigative work,” an NYPD spokesperson told the New York Post. Mamdani told PIX that, “when she takes that trip, it will be without any NYPD detail.”