Gabe Friedman, JTA

Zohran Mamdani has called the Palestinian cause “central to my identity,” and says so in high-profile settings across New York City, such as when he takes the stages with Mahmoud Khalil, the anti-Israel activist at Columbia University who was detained by the Trump administration.

Jewish communal mourning was defined in large part this year by Oct. 7. But other notable losses occurred throughout the year, of people who have left outsized legacies on politics, the arts, sports and everything in between.

Hamas released 13 Israeli hostages into Egypt on Friday, a sign that the four-day ceasefire brokered between Israel and the terror group that runs Gaza was holding.

For most of a week, Israel’s latest unlikely celebrity lounged on the Jaffa beach, drawing throngs of onlookers, constant media attention and round-the-clock protection from the government as she sunbathed and slept the day away.

When Israel and Poland agreed to resume Israeli youth trips to Polish Holocaust sites last month, their agreement stipulated that new sites be added to the students’ itineraries, including some that document Nazi crimes against non-Jewish Poles.