{"id":406,"date":"2026-08-17T19:39:05","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T19:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanhousingtransition.com\/?p=406"},"modified":"2026-08-17T19:39:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T19:39:05","slug":"new-york-magazine-turns-its-back-on-the-citys-jews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanhousingtransition.com\/?p=406","title":{"rendered":"New York<\/I> Magazine Turns Its Back on the City\u2019s Jews"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome back to Forgotten Fact Checks. This week, we look at a widely criticized New York <\/em>magazine cover story that purports to celebrate Arab and Muslim culture in New York City, but instead attacks the Jewish community, and we cover more media misses.<\/p>\n

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New York <\/em>Magazine: NYC is \u2018Habibi City,\u2019 the Jewish State is Merely a \u2018Land Mass Currently Called Israel\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cA cultural shift is underway,\u201d New York <\/em>magazine declared last week in a 31-page, six-part package on the rise of \u201cSWANA\u201d culture in the Big Apple.<\/p>\n

That shift, the magazine says, is \u201cled by a generation of New Yorkers coming into its own.\u201d<\/p>\n

But what follows is less a celebration of the culture of New Yorkers from Southwest Asia and North Africa than an attempt to erase the city\u2019s longstanding Jewish culture, and an attack on Zionism and Israel.<\/p>\n

In fact, the series goes so far as to describe the Jewish state as \u201ca land mass currently called Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The author behind the main \u201cHabibi City\u201d cover story is Zaina Arafat, a \u201cqueer Arab-American\u201d writer and adjunct professor at Barnard College.<\/p>\n

The article, which is about the city with the largest Jewish population in the U.S., suggests the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack on Israel was a turning point that brought on a cultural sea change in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the months after October 7, however, we were increasingly spilling into view, desperate to be close to people who knew what it felt like to pretend everything was normal when your family \u2014 not just blood relations but people who looked like you and spoke like you \u2014 was living under the threat of annihilation. So we protested, we boycotted, we wrote op-eds. And slowly, out of that resistance, a cultural ecosystem started to bloom.\u201d<\/p>\n

The article not only suggests Palestinians were facing \u201cannihilation,\u201d but completely ignores that the October 7 attacks left 1,200 people dead. End Jew Hatred knocked the magazine for \u201cfailing to mention the massacre of Jews that actually happened that day and the ongoing threats from Hamas, the regime of Iran, and its terror proxies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arafat says the strengthening of the SWANA community has been \u201cbeautiful to witness,\u201d but that the community still faces \u201cxenophobia, Islamophobia, and Zionism \u2014 along with the repercussions of speaking out against them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee blasted the magazine for \u201ctreating Zionism as though it belongs in a list of identity-based hatreds,\u201d saying the comparison \u201cerases what [Zionism] actually means to millions of Jews: the belief that Jews, like other peoples, have a right to national self-determination and safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the piece laments the struggles facing the SWANA community, it also fails to mention that New York City has recorded a sharp rise in hate crimes this year under Mayor Zohran Mamdani, with more than half of those incidents targeting Jewish New Yorkers, as the New York Post <\/em>reported.<\/p>\n

The Jewish outlet Tablet Magazine <\/em>called the magazine\u2019s spread \u201cantisemitic\u201d and \u201cabsurd\u201d and said a six-page piece on the city\u2019s Middle Eastern restaurant scene included in the package read like a loaded \u201cintifooda.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the three years since October 7, awareness of Israel\u2019s genocide of Palestinians and the wars that keep proliferating have turned eating out into just one more way people are expressing their views on Israel, on Gaza, on Lebanon, on Iran,\u201d Madeline Leung Coleman writes for the mag.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile pro-Israel New Yorkers have doubled down on supporting Israeli restaurants, those horrified by the genocide are turning away \u2014 and toward chefs who they would rather support,\u201d she adds, asking readers to accept the idea that the war in Gaza is a genocide as a foregone conclusion.<\/p>\n

The reporting includes coverage of the \u201cPalestinian soul food\u201d restaurant Ayat, which features a menu with a \u201ccheerful, tourist-style map in which the land mass currently called Israel is titled \u2018Discover Palestine.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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The CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, said in a post on X that the cover story \u201chas too many issues to count.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCalling for other peoples\u2019 self-determination while labeling the Jewish people\u2019s request for the same treatment as hate is not factual \u2014 it[\u2019]s a blatant, disgusting double standard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Notably, the ADL received a total of $3.5 million from James and Kathryn Murdoch\u2019s private foundation, Quadrivium, between 2022 and 2024, according to the Washington Free Beacon<\/em>, which notes that James Murdoch took control of New York <\/em>magazine on July 8 and declared \u201cthe beginning of a new chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Combat Antisemitism Movement says it\u2019s likely that editor in chief David Haskell commissioned the piece \u201cwell before\u201d Murdoch\u2019s purchase of the magazine was complete, the organization calls out Murdoch\u2019s business ties to Qatar nonetheless.<\/p>\n

Murdoch\u2019s Lupa Systems, which purchased New York <\/em>magazine, previously partnered with Indian media executive Uday Shankar in February 2022 to launch a separate investment platform called Bodhi Tree Systems \u2014 and Qatar\u2019s sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), committed $1.5 billion to the venture.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat doesn\u2019t necessarily mean Qatar is dictating New York Magazine\u2019<\/em>s editorial decisions,\u201d the group says, but notes the financials suggest Qatar is \u201cmaking a concerted effort to shape America\u2019s public space against Jews and Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, despite the criticism, the magazine\u2019s leadership stood by the cover story.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur latest cover story is an exploration of a New York subculture that is making its presence felt, both culturally and politically, in new ways over the last few years. As with other communities forged by common experiences of conflict, there is an irreducible political dimension to any coverage of this subject,\u201d the magazine told the New York Post<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have endeavored to capture the tensions and live debates that exist within these communities, including how they relate to Israel. We are aware of the wide range of responses to the piece, including critiques from some in the Jewish community. We take these comments seriously, and, as always, we welcome and acknowledge good faith discussion and criticism about our journalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Headline Fail of the Week<\/p>\n

Back in December, President Trump announced a seemingly innocuous nationwide athletic competition in celebration of the country\u2019s 250th birthday. But, as with most things to do with Trump, the media opted to cover the Patriot Games with a more sinister tone. Numerous outlets immediately amplified Democrats\u2019 comparisons to the Hunger Games, a young adult book series that follows young people forced to compete in a televised fight to the death.<\/p>\n

By the time the actual competition rolled around this month, the \u201cHunger Games\u201d comparison had lost its Democratic attribution and was fully adopted by several media outlets.<\/p>\n

\u201cHunger Games, MAGA Style,\u201d reported The Atlantic<\/em>. New York <\/em>magazine claimed \u201cTrump\u2019s MAGA Hunger Games Was Even Weirder Than Expected,\u201d while The Guardian <\/em>said \u201cTrump\u2019s Dismal Patriot Games were the Hunger Games ordered off Temu.\u201d<\/p>\n

How, one might wonder, did the Patriot Games compare to the Hunger Games? Only in that a male and female high school athlete were chosen to represent each state and territory.<\/p>\n

The offending event included high school students competing in games of dodgeball, tug of war, monkey bars, basketball, and an obstacle course, with the winning boy and girl each earning a $125,000 college scholarship.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, ABC Australia also described the games as the \u201cHunger Games\u201d and said Trump \u201cpitted 120 students\u201d against each other.<\/p>\n

The Boston Globe <\/em>said the games introduced a new generation \u201cto the ugly side of politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Media Misses<\/p>\n