January
Kevin McCarthy becomes the Speaker of the House after 15 rounds of votes.
KnowUs, supported by the Agudath Israel of America, launches a campaign challenging The New York Times’ perceived biased focus on the chasidic community in New York, citing questionable research methods and reliance on biased sources. They argue that the accusations against the chasidic community demonstrate a double standard and emphasize positive social outcomes of chasidic schools, calling for an end to what they see as unjust attacks by The New York Times.
Reuters downplays the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, framing it as primarily Palestinian and Muslim, despite its historical and religious significance to Judaism. The article highlights the lack of understanding in the mainstream media, with Reuters’ influence spreading a skewed narrative that impacts various news outlets globally. This misrepresentation is seen as part of a broader effort, influenced by the United Nations, to diminish the historical and religious ties between the Jewish people and Israel, ultimately influencing public perception on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
President Joe Biden finally visits the US Southern Border after over five decades in public service. After 36 years as Senator, eight years as Vice President, and two years as President, Biden finally decides to grace the city of El Paso with his presence in what CNN calls a “tightly controlled visit.”
Assemblymember Simcha Eichenstein is named Assistant Majority Whip for the New York State Assembly Majority.
In New York City, District Attorney Alvin Bragg offers a lenient six-month jail sentence to Waseem Awawdeh, who allegedly led an attack on Joseph Borgen, a Jewish man near a pro-Israel rally in 2021. Borgen was brutally beaten, and Awawdeh, who proclaimed he would repeat the assault, received the controversial plea deal despite the severity of the charges, leading to concerns about the justice system’s handling of anti-Semitic crimes and a potential rise in violence against Jews.
February
A Chinese spy balloon is discovered floating over the United States. The Biden administration is criticized for allowing the balloon to traverse vast swaths of the country, hovering over US military installations, before shooting it down.
A train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, becomes a flashpoint display of the incompetency of the Biden administration and of Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.
Nikki Haley declares her candidacy for President of the United States.
Congressman Ritchie Torres goes viral when he defends Israel and the use of the Iron Dome to some of his constituents in a Town Hall.
Clashes erupt in the Palestinian town of Huwara after a terrorist killed two Jewish Israelis, resulting in one Palestinian reported dead and violent incidents involving Israelis targeting Palestinians. Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich condemned the violence, urging against taking the law into one’s own hands, while the US State Department denounced the deadly flare-up, including the terrorist attack and settler violence.
March
Silicon Valley Bank collapses.
The FBI, Department of Energy, and other federal agencies admit, after over three years, that the Covid-19 virus “likely” originated from a lab in Wuhan, China.
Tucker Carlson reveals new footage from January 6 security footage given to him by then-Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy that was hidden by the January 6 Select Committee. The footage debunked claims made by the Committee.
For the first time ever, Gallup polling shows that Democrats’ “sympathies in the Middle East now lie more with the Palestinians than the Israelis, 49% versus 38%.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signs an expansion of the state’s school voucher program, making it the fourth state in the nation to move towards universal school choice.
President Biden tells reporters that the Israeli government can’t “continue down this road” with its judicial overhaul plan and stressed he is not going to invite Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to the White House “in the near term,” emphasizing the rift between Biden and Bibi.
April
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicts former President Donald Trump on 34 counts of “falsifying business records” related to the 2016 election.
The House of Representatives passes the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023 along Party lines, with all Republicans voting in favor and all Democrats voting against. The Bill aimed to prevent biological males from participating in women’s sports. The Act was never put to a vote by the Democratic Senate, and never became law.
The New York City Council passes a resolution to recognize April 29 as “End Jew Hatred Day” each year.
May
New York is the first state in the country to ban natural gas and other fossil fuels in most new buildings. The ban is set to go into effect by 2026 for homes and shorter buildings, taller buildings by 2029.
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib attempts to secure a room in the House offices for a “Nakba” event, spreading revisionist history of the 1948 Israel War for Independence. Then Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy cancels the event, saying, “It’s wrong for Members of Congress to traffic in anti-Semitic tropes about Israel.” The event continues, however, when Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders steps in and secures a venue for Tlaib in a Senate room.
Democratic Socialists in the New York State Legislature push a bill called the “Not On Our Dime Act,” which would allow the New York State Attorney
General to dissolve any not-for-profit if it engages in “unlawful support of Israeli settlement activity.” Based on the broad language of the bill, this would have made every Jewish institution in the State of New York subject to dissolution at whim.
King Charles is crowned monarch of Great Britain.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis officially enters the race to become the Republican nominee for President of the United States.
June
Former President Donald Trump is indicted by a grand jury in Miami on seven federal criminal charges for his alleged mishandling of classified documents.
The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) proposes new rules targeting coal-and-wood-fired ovens, attempting to forever change the landscape of how pizza is made in New York.
The OceanGate submersible exploring the shipwreck of the Titanic is lost.
President Joe Biden reinstates an Obama-era rule that cut scientific and technological funding in Judea and Samaria, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights, caving to the BDS movement.
The Supreme Court issues several monumental decisions. The Court addresses the legality of race-based affirmative action in college admissions programs, ending the long-time practice. In a win for religious freedom and expression, the Court also rules that artists cannot be forced into compelled speech or expression that they disagree with, in the case of a Web designer being sued because she refused to create a custom website for a same-sex wedding. President Joe Biden’s unilateral plan to spend over $400 billion to bail out the student loans is also struck down by the Supreme Court.
July
Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal lands in hot water for telling a crowd at Netroots Nation, “I want you to know that we have been fighting to make it clear that Israel is a racist state.”
Unclassified FBI documents reveal allegations that then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden coerced the co-founder and CEO of Burisma, Mykola Zlochevsky, into paying them millions of dollars.
August
Former President Donald Trump is indicted in Washington, DC, on charges that he attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
In Hawaii, wildfires tear through Maui, killing 100 people. The historic town of Lahaina is destroyed.
Jewish professors at CUNY are subjected to retaliatory investigations after complaining about anti-Semitism on CUNY campuses.
Former President Donald Trump is charged in Atlanta by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a radical leftwing prosecutor, under the RICO Act.
CUNY hires Marc Lamont Hill, known anti-Semite, after years of accusations of having an anti-Semitism problem.
Elon Musk declares war on the Anti-Defamation League, claiming the organization “pushed hard for us to shut down accounts,” that they consider to be anti-LGBTQ and the ADL coerced advertisers to pull ads from X.
September
The United Auto Workers union goes on strike against GM, Ford Motor, and Chrysler parent Stellantis.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas makes international news when a speech he gave goes viral on social media. His remarks claimed that Jews were persecuted during the Holocaust because of “their social role, which had to do with usury, money, and so on.”
October
The House of Representatives votes to remove its speaker, Kevin McCarthy, through a motion to vacate filed by Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, a fellow member of McCarthy’s Republican Party.
Hamas attacks Israel in the largest terrorist attack against a Western power since 9/11 and kills the most Jews in a single day since the Holocaust. Israel declares war for the first time since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
Mike Johnson is voted in as the new Speaker of the House, ending weeks of Republican turmoil.
November
Over 300,000 Jews gather at the National Mall in Washington, DC, in support of Israel. This is seen as the largest gathering of Jews since Sinai.
A brief pause in the fighting allows over 50 hostages to be freed from Hamas captivity. After four days, Hamas violates the ceasefire and the war continues.
Former Secretary of State and presidential advisor Henry Kissinger dies at 100.
December
Former Supreme Court Justice and first female on the highest court in the land, Sandra Day O’Connor, dies at 93.
Presidents of Harvard, MIT, and UPenn testify on Capitol Hill and refuse to say definitively if calling for the genocide of Jews is considered harassment on their campuses when questioned by Representative Elise Stefanik (R-NY).
The Colorado Supreme Court rules that former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for President, cannot appear on the ballot in Colorado. The Court claims that Trump committed insurrection, despite never having been convicted in a court of doing so and no passage of such in Congress.
Congress recesses for the year without any legislative agreement on the border, Ukraine, or Israel funding.
