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[Video below.] Sen. Cory Booker said Sunday that Democrats are facing a leadership crisis ahead of the midterm elections, arguing that voters have lost confidence in the party establishment and are looking instead for candidates who focus more on people than politics.

Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” the New Jersey Democrat said his party must reinvent itself if it hopes to regain public trust before November’s elections.

“We need to focus on the people, and the Democratic Party desperately needs new leadership, and that’s what’s exciting me about this cycle. It’s not only new leaders emerging, but a new vision for our party,” Booker told host Jake Tapper.

Booker pointed to several Democratic Senate candidates whom he believes are helping reshape the party’s image, including Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, along with Roy Cooper and James Talarico, the Democratic Senate nominees in North Carolina and Texas.

According to Booker, those candidates are “leaders” who are “stepping up and saying, ‘I don’t give a damn about parties. I care about people.’”

The senator argued that the Democratic Party’s larger problem is a lack of public confidence in its political machinery.

“You cannot lead the people if they don’t trust you, and that’s what’s lacking right now with the party apparatus. But the people running out there that I’m running around this country trying to support, they’re building real trust with the American people, and that’s my hope,” Booker added.

His remarks come as Democrats continue grappling with fallout from the party’s disappointing 2024 election performance. Lawmakers within the party recently criticized the Democratic National Committee over its newly released autopsy report analyzing Kamala Harris’s loss to President Trump.

The 192-page review notably avoided addressing President Biden’s decision to seek reelection despite concerns over his age, as well as Harris becoming the nominee without facing a competitive primary process.

Booker acknowledged that the DNC faces serious problems moving forward.

“The Democratic National Committee has got to do a lot better if they’re going to meet this moment in history,” he said.

Still, Booker suggested that many Americans are no longer paying close attention to party structures and political infighting, because they are far more focused on their own financial and personal struggles.

“The American people have lost trust because of all politics as usual. People are suffering, people are hurting, and they’re going to support the leaders,” Booker added.

When asked directly whether Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer remains one of the leaders he trusts, Booker avoided giving a direct endorsement. However, he stressed that Schumer, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and the broader Democratic leadership must present a clear alternative vision to President Trump.

“You are not going to win this election just by what you’re against,” he noted. “You need to start articulating who you’re for and what you’re for. Have a vision that’s compelling that not only engenders trust but makes sense for the American people.”

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[Video below.] Brad Lander, a Democratic candidate in New York’s 10th Congressional District race, is facing criticism following remarks he delivered at a Queens mosque in which he condemned Israel’s war in Gaza and expressed solidarity with prominent anti-Israel progressive lawmakers in Congress.

During a May 15 appearance at the Al-Khoei Islamic Center in Queens, Lander recited a verse from the Quran in Arabic before addressing congregants on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Introducing himself as “a proud Jewish New Yorker,” Lander told attendees that what he described as “Israel’s genocide in Gaza” contradicts the Jewish teaching that all human beings are created in the image of God.

Lander also said that if elected to Congress, he hopes to build the same type of political partnership he currently shares with New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani alongside Representatives Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, two of the most outspoken critics of Israel in Congress.

Following the candidate’s speech, the imam led the congregation in a supplication invoking the coming of the Mahdi and asking that victory and relief come to believers through the defeat and killing of infidels “by his sword.”

Lander, who currently serves as New York City comptroller, has positioned himself as a progressive Democrat aligned with the party’s left wing on a range of domestic and foreign policy issues.

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[Communicated]

For many years, the subject of Har Habayis was viewed in much of the yeshivah world as a closed discussion. The prevailing attitude was simple: the area is overwhelmingly forbidden to enter, the dangers of כרת are severe, and the matter was not something the average frum Jew involved himself with.

But quietly, beneath the surface, something appears to be changing.

Over the last few years, increasing numbers of visibly Chareidi Jews have been seen ascending Har Habayis in accordance with carefully mapped halachic guidelines established by rabbanim and researchers who maintain that certain peripheral areas may be entered after proper preparation. Organized groups, shiurim, and halachic discussions surrounding the topic have become far more common than they once were — even within circles where the subject was rarely spoken about at all.

Now, a recently circulated video featuring Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz has added another layer to that ongoing conversation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXI9G_m6GDQ 

See around minute 32:00 in the video

In the video, Rabbi Breitowitz discusses the complexity of the sugya and acknowledges that, according to many shitos, there are areas on Har Habayis that are not part of the מקום המקדש itself and may be permissible to enter under specific halachic conditions. While emphasizing the seriousness and sensitivity of the issue, his comments were widely viewed by listeners as reflecting a more nuanced approach than many in the frum world may have previously assumed.

To be clear, many Gedolim and major poskim over the decades strongly opposed ascending Har Habayis, citing both halachic concerns and the fear that public ascent could lead to confusion regarding prohibited areas. Those concerns remain significant and continue to shape the views of large segments of the Torah world.

At the same time, however, there is a growing sense among some Bnei Torah that the topic itself may deserve more serious examination than it has traditionally received. Much of the newer discussion focuses on the distinction between the areas universally understood to be forbidden and other sections which some authorities argue were never included within the boundaries of the Azarah or Makom Hamikdash.

Perhaps most striking is not necessarily the halachic debate itself, but the fact that the discussion is increasingly taking place openly and respectfully within Torah circles.

For decades, many frum Jews associated any discussion of Har Habayis with political activism or ideological agendas far removed from the עולם הישיבות. Today, however, the conversation is increasingly being framed around the halachic sugya itself: the geography of the Har, the locations of the original boundaries, the requirements of taharah, and the broader question of how Jews should relate to the site of the Beis Hamikdash in our generation.

Whether this shift remains limited or eventually grows into something broader remains to be seen. But one thing is becoming harder to ignore:

A discussion once considered entirely outside the mainstream of the frum world is no longer being dismissed quite so automatically.

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