For nearly six hours, about 100 protesters — including Yale students — blocked the staircase and escalators that lead from the station to the tracks to demand that Rep. Rosa DeLauro call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and stop voting for military aid to Israel. Organizers wrote in a statement to the News that the goal of the sit-in was to “end business as usual” during what they described as a genocide in Gaza. Israel disputes charges of genocide. Several event attendees told the News that they participated with the intention of police arresting them.

Dave Steckel, the MTA media liaison, wrote to the News that the nine people arrested were issued misdemeanor summons for second-degree breach of peace, which is the “intent to cause inconvenience, annoyance, or alarm or recklessly creating a risk thereof.”

Event attendees disputed the number MTA police offered, saying that 13 people received charges of breach of peace. Steckel declined to comment on the discrepancy, and the News was unable to independently verify either count. The News could not confirm whether Yale students were among those arrested.

During the sit-in, which lasted from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., protesters chanted “Free, free Palestine” and “Get up, get down, we’re anti-war in this town” as they blocked the main stairwell and escalators to the platform. protesters hung a banner over the timetables that read “DeLAURO STOP FUNDING GENOCIDE.” 

According to multiple attendees and video obtained by the News, the protesters directly at the top and bottom of the staircase and escalators locked themselves together with bicycle locks and PVC pipes. While this blocked the stairs and escalators, passengers were still able to get from the station to the tracks using the building’s elevators. 

Around 11 p.m., at least nine and possibly as many as 13 attendees on the bottom floor of the station blocked the elevators to provoke arrest, according to several attendees. They were quickly arrested by MTA police. The rest of the protesters left the station around the same time. Some protesters continued demonstrating outside the station past midnight. 

Steckel wrote that no protesters were detained in a cell after the arrests, and all protesters left the station by 11:00 p.m. Some protesters continued demonstrating outside the station past midnight. 

“We wanted to escalate so that people in ‘lock boxes’ could get arrested because we wanted the image of law enforcement cutting them up,” said one attendee, to whom the News granted anonymity due to safety concerns. “That was the whole purpose of being locked down — you are intending to be arrested after law enforcement ‘unlocks’ you.”

Breach of peace is a Class B misdemeanor in Connecticut and carries penalties of up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Advocates in New Haven and across Connecticut have protested since October in support of a permanent ceasefire to end Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, through which Israel has killed over 32,000 people in Gaza, though experts believe thousands more to be dead. Israel has undertaken the offensive in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which Hamas killed 1,200 people and took over 250 people as hostages.

The sit-in was organized by what several attendees interviewed by the News described as a collection of individuals who took issue with DeLauro’s support for military aid to Israel and refusal to call for a permanent ceasefire. 

“The point of direct action is to disrupt the business as usual, and really bring attention to these causes,” Abdul Osmanu, a Hamden Town Councilor who attended the sit-in, said. “Oftentimes the needle really doesn’t move without any real meaningful direct action.” 

Osmanu also argued that DeLauro was ignoring the will of her constituents, citing polling that shows the majority of Democrats support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

On March 7, DeLauro — who represents New Haven — put out a statement calling for a six-week ceasefire.

“We must work to get more humanitarian aid into Gaza, free all the hostages held by Hamas, and enact a six-week ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict that allows for the protection and survival of innocent Palestinian civilians caught in the middle of war,” DeLauro wrote. 

On March 22, DeLauro voted for a $1.2 trillion government funding package which passed overwhelmingly and included $3.3 billion in aid to Israel’s military.

DeLauro did not respond to a request for comment on the sit-in or arrests.

The protesters also held an Iftar — the evening meal that breaks the fast for Muslims observing Ramadan — during the sit-in. Osmanu, who is fasting for Ramadan, said that people brought water, dates and pizza, which enhanced the sense of community among the protesters. 

Adam Nussbaum ’25, who participated in the sit-in, said that he had met with staff from DeLauro’s office earlier in the day alongside a delegation from Yale Jews for Ceasefire and described the meeting as frustrating. The protest, by contrast, brought him hope. 

“I think it can easily feel cynical, and in moments like these, seeing so many people rally and put their bodies on the line — saying that we won’t stand for this injustice and this sort of death-making is very moving,” Nussbaum said. “I feel very inspired by it. It just makes me feel like we will win.”

One bystander, who asked only to be identified by their first name Ty due to fear of retaliation from their employer, told the News that they arrived at Union Station around 7 p.m. to catch a train. They said that while they could have gone around the protest to board, they felt “uncomfortable” with breaking the line and wanted to support the ongoing protest.

They added that the protest was “very peaceful” and “powerful,” and that they believed the police were aggressive in their removal of protesters from the stairwell area. Ty ended up taking a train on Friday instead.

Shilpa Patel, a worker at the Sbarro in Union Station, said that the MTA Police “did their job” but that the police were not able to control the protesters as they blocked the escalator and elevator. 

According to attendees and video of the event obtained by the News, more than 30 police officers from four departments — New Haven police, Amtrak police, MTA police and Connecticut State police — were present at the protest, though only MTA police made arrests. 

The Union Station sit-in followed a protest on the New Haven Green Thursday afternoon where approximately 100 Yale and New Haven community members gathered to urge New Haven officials to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. An organizer for the New Haven Green protest told the News that the rally on the green and Union Station sit-in were planned separately. At the end of the rally, the organizers informed protesters that they could march to Union Station to support the action. 

DeLauro has represented New Haven since 1991.

Anika Arora Seth, Khuan-Yu Hall and Kenisha Mahajan contributed reporting.

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The arrests came after dozens of protesters blocked the staircase and escalators that lead from the station to the tracks. In the station, protesters also unfurled a banner over the timetables that read “DeLAURO STOP FUNDING GENOCIDE.” Protesters sang, danced, chanted pro-Palestine slogans — including “free, free Palestine” — and locked arms during the sit-in. 

Over a dozen police officers with the New Haven Police Department and Metropolitan Transit Authority Emergency Service stood around the building during the demonstration, according to WTNH.

In a statement to the News, organizers of the sit-in wrote that their demand was for “Rep. Rosa DeLauro [to] stop voting to fund the genocide in Gaza and commit to divestment from the Israeli war machine.” 

On March 24, DeLauro — who represents New Haven in Congress — voted for a $1.2 trillion government funding package which passed overwhelmingly and included $3.3 billion in aid to Israel’s military. Israel disputes charges of genocide.

After U.S. President Joe Biden voiced his support for an immediate six-week ceasefire in his State of the Union address, DeLauro put out a statement on March 7 clarifying her position.

“We must work to get more humanitarian aid into Gaza, free all the hostages held by Hamas, and enact a six-week ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict that allows for the protection and survival of innocent Palestinian civilians caught in the middle of war,” DeLauro wrote. “I am glad that President Biden is using every lever to ensure that desperately needed aid gets to innocent Palestinian civilians, including the recently announced seaport that will be established in Gaza to distribute aid.”

DeLauro did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the protest.

The sit-in at Union Station followed a protest on the New Haven Town Green, which began around 3:30 p.m., when approximately one hundred Yale students and New Haven community members gathered to urge New Haven officials to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. 

The protest was organized by the joint efforts of Yalies4Palestine, Yale Law Students for Justice in Palestine, Citywide Youth Coalition, Students for Justice in Palestine at UConn, Owls for Justice in Palestine and humanitarian activist group We Will Return. Members of political groups such as the Revolutionary Communists of America and Jewish Voice for Peace also joined in solidarity. 

An organizer from the coalition of pro-ceasefire organizations clarified on Friday that the organizers of the rally on the Green had not planned the march to Union Station. During the rally, an organizer learned about the sit-in, which was planned by individuals and not the coalition of organizations. At the end of the rally, the organizers informed protesters that they could march to Union Station to support the action but were not obligated to do so if they felt uncomfortable.

At the rally, organizers highlighted their recent push to encourage registered Democrats to vote “Uncommitted” in Connecticut’s presidential primary on Tuesday, to express dissatisfaction with Biden’s policies regarding the war in Gaza, specifically as Israel has signaled its intention to invade Rafah, a city in the southern part of Gaza.

“We launched a couple of weeks ago the Vote Uncommitted Connecticut campaign,” said a speaker from Vote Uncommitted Connecticut. “Vote Uncommitted Connecticut represents building a coalition — a diverse coalition of workers, students, Muslims, Jews, people of color and people of conscience.” 

In early March, a group of Connecticut residents unveiled a campaign to vote “Uncommitted” on the Democratic presidential primary ballot to show support for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

Advocates in New Haven and across the state have engaged in protests since October in support of a permanent ceasefire to end Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, through which Israel has killed over 32,000 people in Gaza, though experts believe thousands more to be dead under the rubble. Israel has undertaken the offensive in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, in which Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 250 people as hostages.

Biden has previously expressed support for a six-week ceasefire but has stopped short of calling for a “permanent” ceasefire, which many American voters support, according to polls.

Although Connecticut’s Primary Day is on Tuesday, early voting is already underway. Connecticut’s Democratic primary ballot will have four candidate options, and the option to vote “Uncommitted.” However, Biden has already earned enough delegates in other states’ primaries to be named the Democratic nominee.

At the protest, organizers also criticized New Haven’s Board of Alders. Pro-ceasefire organizers introduced a resolution calling for a ceasefire to the Board in November. Board president Tyisha Walker-Myers moved the ceasefire resolution to the Committee of the Whole in February, and the committee will meet to hear testimony on the resolution on May 1 over Zoom.

Kirill Staklo, a speaker representing the Connecticut branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, expressed frustration at the committee meeting date.

“They want this to go on for months, they don’t see the urgency,” Staklo said.

After the speakers had finished, the crowd of protesters marched over a mile from the Green to New Haven’s Union Station, where they held the sit-in.

The protesters emphasized the importance of blocking public spaces to make people “uncomfortable.”

“I implore you all on April 2 get out and vote,” said Zachary Herring ENV ’24, a protester involved with JVP. “Right now I implore you all to stick around and clog up the streets so people aren’t comfortable – like us right now. ”

In advance of the protest, Yale’s chapter of Faculty for Justice in Palestine released a statement supporting the protesters and the civil disobedience action. Yale’s FJP chapter was joined by those from ten other schools.

In the statement, faculty expressed their “unequivocal support” of the protest and sit-in and their commitment to defending students from any repercussions they face as a result of their participation in the protest.   

“Their carefully planned interruption of business as usual reminds us that there is no business as usual when the United States is funding, arming, and defending the genocide in Gaza,” the statement reads. “If today’s action demonstrated how the flow of our days grinds to a halt when the infrastructure we depend on does not run properly, it is a reminder of the fact that the Gaza strip has been without working transportation, including serviceable roads, since late October.”

On Primary Day, polls will be open across the city from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. for voters to cast their ballots.

Nathaniel Rosenberg contributed reporting.

This is a developing story that the News will continue to follow.

Correction, March 29: This article has been updated to reflect that the sit-in at Union Station was not planned by the organizers of the rally on the Green.

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That was the focus of the report given to the Education Committee of the Board of Alders on Wednesday. New Haven Public Schools Superintendent Madeline Negrón, Assistant Superintendent Keisha Redd-Hannans, Jennifer Tousignat, supervisor of elementary reading and language arts; and Jennifer Sinal-Swingler, supervisor of secondary English language arts, presented the committee with literacy and mathematics screening results, citing an overall growth. 

For literacy, the school system introduced a new universal literacy screening test from the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt company. The HMH growth measure assesses both comprehension and language through a computer test by giving harder or easier stimuli according to student response. The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills tests, known as DIBELS tests, are also used for universal literary screening. For example, in the DIBELS tests, kindergarteners and first-graders were tested on phoneme segmentation fluency to test phonemic fluency — whether they can separate word sounds into letters. While there is overall growth in phoning segmentation and reading fluency in elementary school, Tousignat hopes to have 35 percent of all students make a full year’s growth in half a year.

“This is important because when we have students that are reading below grade level, we want to make sure that we are accelerating them and that they are making more than a year’s worth of growth in a year,” Tousignat said. “If they just stay with a year’s worth of growth every year and they are behind they’re never going to close that achievement gap.” 

Sinal-Swingler agreed, saying that similar tests conducted in secondary schools showed that data is trending in a positive direction. Sinal-Swingler also hopes to see continuous trends of growth. 

Negrón added that she is excited about the new HMH assessment but acknowledges that it has not been implemented for long enough to fully analyze results.

“We’re excited because [the HMH] trend is positive, but this is not the time to release that gas pedal … because we just don’t know,” Negrón said. “It’s a new assessment. We are looking forward to continuing along this progress.”

Negrón wants to continue to monitor this new assessment to help brainstorm strategies for students to improve more quickly. The district is also piloting mCLASS and Amira learning as new universal screeners, both approved by the state.

Redd-Hannans reported that mathematics screenings were carried out in a similar manner by comparing mid-year data with beginning-of-year data. The school system is focusing on stretch growth, which shows the growth a student needs to be at grade-level proficiency, and has seen positive data trends. 

Another topic discussed during the hearing was the work of educators in the future. 

“It has been quite a privilege to see the hard work of the teachers of New Haven and we continue to elevate our thinking by working with our coaching team,” Sinal-Swingler said. “We know that high quality professional development can’t live in isolation of classroom practice.”

Ward 17 Alder Sal Punzo, a former public school teacher and principal, asked if professional development is being looked at in a different way that can give teachers excitement.

Negrón sees educator retention work as the biggest factor of producing positive data trends in these assessments. She said there is a dedicated committee involved in brainstorming retention strategies with a focus on emotional intelligence in administrators and teachers. Negrón and her team have also introduced celebration campaigns, most recently recognizing female teachers on Facebook for Women’s History Month. 

As the district works to diversify the teaching force, Negrón said they are introducing professional training for hiring team members. 

“We know that we all bring bias … but getting the training so that we’re more open in terms of hiring committees so that when you get a person that has this amazing resume, maybe they talk to you like I do with a heavy accent,” Negrón said. “But just because I have a heavy accent doesn’t mean that all of a sudden the panel has a different opinion.”

By the end of the 2026-27 school year, Negrón hopes to see a 15-percent increase in new teachers of color, reflecting the diversity of students, from the current 29.9 percent teachers of color in the district. 

Negrón also mentioned that when she met with Yale University in the summer, she received funding from the NHPS-Yale partnership, which contributes five million dollars to the district annually. She hopes to use the funding to invite educators to work in New Haven schools while also getting their master’s degrees for free at Yale. 

Ward 26 Alder Amy Marx LAW ’00 questioned why there is a lack of educator retention, discussing problematic working conditions. Negrón acknowledged that the large number of students significantly behind grade level and poor school facilities are primary reasons for the retention issues. However, Negrón and her team are focusing on professional learning and fostering a welcoming school environment to counteract them. 

The Education Committee will be meeting next on April 24 at 6 p.m. in City Hall.

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New Haven’s churches have been hosting Holy Week events since Sunday, as most have been commemorating Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday with worship services. Maundy or Holy Thursday refers to the night of the Last Supper within the Christian tradition, while Good Friday marks the day of Jesus’ crucifixion on the cross. Easter is the final celebration of Jesus’ resurrection, signifying new life and promise for many Christians.

“Easter is a time full of hope,” Rev. Stephen Holton DIV ’11 of Christ Church told the News. “We see the brokenness of a world that would try to kill the very love that God reveals in Jesus Christ. I’m not sure that the world has changed a whole lot from there, but we can rejoice in the resurrection, and that’s an exciting thing.”

Christ Church’s Holy Week program began with a series of events to commemorate Palm Sunday on March 24, including a blessing of the palms and a procession. This was followed by a Tenebrae service on Holy Wednesday, an event in which candles are gradually extinguished in the Church to mark the Bargain of Judas. On Thursday evening, a high mass, footwashing and stripping of the altar took place, in preparation for the final three days of Holy Week. 

Holton emphasized the importance of allowing time for rest and personal reflection amid the busy Holy Week. Each year, Good Friday and Easter cause financial markets to close, which Holton said, for him, mirrors how Jesus’ death literally halts the world in the scripture.  

“It’s a wonderful marker in a world that never stops when we can slow down and gather together to mark that moment, and then just two days later to gather again to mark the moment when love can’t be stopped,” Holton said, referring to the crucifixion and the resurrection.

Another of New Haven’s Episcopal churches, Trinity on the Green, is hosting a variety of similar events throughout the week. For Maundy Thursday, the church held a service for its Chapel on the Green community, composed of people living in or around the New Haven Green, some of whom are experiencing homelessness, hunger and poverty. The service included a foot washing clinic and a health fair in collaboration with the Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center.

On Friday, Trinity on the Green will host a three-hour event called “The Seven Last Words of Christ,” which will include preaching and music encouraging reflection on Jesus’ last words before the crucifixion. Friday evening’s event will consist of a solemn liturgy during which candles will be illuminated at the foot of the Church’s cross. An Easter vigil on Sunday night will close the Holy Week celebrations at Trinity. 

“What’s powerful about Easter is the way that that theme of resurrection cuts across people from all backgrounds,” said Trinity Church Reverend Heidi Thorsen DIV ’19. “People who are dealing with mental health or homelessness need the resurrection, but also people who’ve been watching the news about violence in the world need resurrection.”

Thorsen also spoke about Lent, a forty-day period preceding the Holy Week during which many Christians give up an element of their daily lives to allow space for a greater connection to God in preparation for Easter. The forty days of Lent are related to the forty days that Jesus Christ spent wandering through the wilderness in the Bible. Thorsen highlighted the importance of embracing this spirit of wandering and uncertainty during Lent to allow for greater reflection and intentionality in life. 

The Blessed Michael McGivney Parish is the only Catholic parish in New Haven and includes all of the city’s Catholic churches. While events and mass times vary among churches, most will hold services Thursday through Sunday of the Holy Week. 

Included in the Parish are St. Anthony Church, which offers mass in both English and Spanish to accommodate its Latine community, and St. Stanislaus, a Polish Catholic church. On Saturday, St. Stanislaus will host a blessing of Easter food, a Polish tradition in which people bring baskets of the food they will prepare on Easter Day to be blessed by the priest.

This year will be the first Easter in which all of New Haven’s Catholic churches celebrate together as one after merging under the Blessed Michael McGivney Parish. According to Parish Communications Director Emily Naylor, this merging occurred in response to changes in church operations on the part of the Archdiocese of Hartford, the ecclesiastical district to which all New Haven Catholic churches belong. 

Discussing the merging of churches, Naylor spoke about the diversity of the Catholic Church’s community. 

“I think it’s beautiful that we’re able to bring all those different traditions and languages, again not eliminating any of it, but bringing it together in this beautiful way,” Naylor told the News. “God’s love and grace transcends any language.”

There are 395 Christian nonprofit organizations registered in New Haven. 

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“The University of Idaho student band, a tribe from the North, brave and bold, bearing banners of Silver and Gold, donned blue and white, tried and true, to subdue all Yale’s foes,” the official statement from the governor said.

With Yale’s marching band unable to make the trip over spring break, Yale Athletics reached out to Idaho’s Vandal Marching Band on Sunday, March 17 — the day Yale defeated Brown to earn a spot in March Madness — asking if it could sub in.

The musicians, wearing Yale T-shirts and calling themselves the “Van-Dogs,” gained national media attention after performing during Yale’s first-round win over Auburn and also earned praise from the team’s players and coaches.

“It’s outstanding that the government did that to recognize the band,” head coach James Jones told the News after Lamont’s proclamation. “It was such a selfless act and I’m humbled that they were able to come out and support us and be recognized in this way.”

Lamont’s statement commends the band’s effort to learn “Bulldog,” the Yale fight song, and its commitment to “understanding Yale traditions.” It also credits the band as a contributor to the Bulldogs’ upset victory over Auburn.

After that game, the band briefly returned to the University of Idaho for a campus recruiting event before making another 90-minute trip to Spokane on Sunday to perform during Yale’s second-round matchup against San Diego State.

“Our entire goal was to do the best we could to represent Yale University and the State of Connecticut as well as the University of Idaho and the Gem State,” Spencer Martin, Idaho’s director of athletic bands, wrote to the News. “We are so humbled to be honored by Governor Lamont and the State of Connecticut.”

By all indications, Lamont is a big fan of college basketball.

The University of Connecticut men’s team won last year’s national championship, and the UConn women boast a record 11 national championships. Lamont has taken to calling the state “the basketball capital of the world.”

On March 21 this year, Lamont released his March Madness brackets, accompanied by a nearly two-minute video discussing the prospects of each of the five Connecticut teams that had qualified for either the men’s or women’s tournaments. No fewer than ten of the governor’s 26 posts on X in the past two weeks have concerned college basketball.

David Bednarz, a spokesperson for Lamont, wrote in a statement to the News on Thursday that the governor decided to declare “University of Idaho Day” after seeing news coverage about the Idaho band’s service to the Bulldogs.

“Proclaiming a day in the university’s honor is a fun way to show that while our two states may be on opposite sides of the country, acts of good sportsmanship like this can bring us together,” Bednarz wrote.

Thursday’s announcement was not Lamont’s first time focusing the ceremonial power of the governorship on March Madness.

Last spring, after the UConn men’s team qualified for the Final Four, Lamont proclaimed a “Husky Weekend” before traveling to Houston to watch the games. But Lamont ruffled feathers by saying on a radio show that Houston was “butt ugly” during his visit. He later apologized to the city’s mayor.

For the University of Idaho, there is no apology — only thanks.

Yale and the University of Idaho are 2,193 miles apart.

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“Trees are awesome,” said Mayor Justin Elicker at the celebration. “They are beautiful, they’re wonderful for the environment because they suck in carbon so we can help reduce the impacts of climate change, they shade our neighborhoods to keep our cities cooler [and] they provide habitat for the birds that we’re hearing right now. We need many, many more trees in our city.”

Thanks to a $2.6 million grant from the U.S. Forest Service through the Inflation Reduction Act, the URI is going to be planting 1,000 trees per year for the next five years, up from the 500 it planted in 2023. URI has been planting trees for at least the last 20 years. 

In addition to the first tree planted in Kimberly Field Park, which is the largest park in New Haven’s Hill neighborhood, Colleen Murphy-Dunning — the director of URI — announced plans to plant a total of 30 trees in the park this week.

“Yale researchers have studied satellite images of New Haven and found that some of our neighborhoods, like Fair Haven and the Hill, can have surface temperatures that are 20 degrees hotter than other New Haven neighborhoods because they have less trees and less parkland,” Murphy-Dunning said.

The remaining 970 trees will be planted in the types of neighborhoods Murphy-Dunning referenced that have fewer trees and hotter temperatures due to climate change. 

Murphy-Dunning also announced that the URI is working with IRIS — Integrated Refugee & Immigration Services — which will help spread the word about the opportunity to have a tree planted for free in backyards, parks, schools and wherever residents want them.

“We only plant trees where people want them. We will plant for a resident, a school, a park [or] a business. Any institution who would like a free tree, we will plant it for you — if you promise to love and care for that tree by just watering it once a week,” Murphy-Dunning announced to the crowd. “So, we ask the public’s help in fighting climate change and growing our green workforce by requesting a tree from URI.”

In addition to the trees being planted, the city and URI, thanks to a $60,000 grant from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, will also be making improvements to Kimberly Park. 

The other improvements to Kimberly Field will include upgrading the park trail, installing benches and trash cans, resurfacing the basketball court, improving the entrance between the school and park and planting other flowers and shrubs.

“For the last couple years, our community has poured its heart and soul into advocating for this park, a space that holds so much meaning for all of us. We all know Kimberly Field hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves, and this is a story we see repeated across the city,” Crystal Fernández,  co-founder of Friends of Kimberly Park, said. “Neighborhoods most impacted by environmental injustice often lack access to quality parks. This project is a symbol of our collective power.”

Kimberly Field Park is located next to the Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School parking lot, which uses the park for student recreation.

Principal Jennifer Jenkins mentioned that many families and members of the community walk or ride their bikes in the school parking lot for exercise, so she was glad to see this park become something that can be a part of their daily lives. 

“It is beautiful to see [this project] finally come to fruition,” Jenkins said. “It is just like with trees: we always see the big end result, but we don’t always see how the roots are planted into the ground. So I must say the process of getting here is definitely much like these trees being planted today.”  

The Urban Resources Initiative began in Baltimore in 1989. 

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Mamoun’s Falafel is a New Haven staple that offers Middle Eastern dishes such as falafel sandwiches, shawarma plates ​​and baklava. Established in New Haven in 1977, Mamoun’s Falafel is owned by Suleiman Chater, whose dedication to the restaurant reveals itself in an unwavering love for the community he feeds. 

“It’s about serving quality stuff, being consistent while doing it and always making sure the customer is happy,” Chater said. “I really like my customers. They’re totally awesome … and they treat us like family. It’s really an honor.”

But the complete history of the family-owned restaurant dates back to 1971 when Mamoun Chater, Suleiman’s uncle, founded the first store in New York as an immigrant while he was trying to support his parents. 

Encouraged by the support of a loyal customer base in New York City, Mamoun opened a second location in Connecticut six years later, now celebrating nearly five decades of service in the Elm City.

“We had a bunch of customers in the 70s go to our location in New York,” he said. “They would literally bring 200 or 300 sandwiches at a time back [to New Haven].”

Mamoun’s now has locations in New York, New Haven, Atlanta and several other cities along the East Coast. 

Since 1971, Mamoun’s has solidified itself in the New Haven restaurant scene but retains its traditional flavors and charm. Suleiman celebrates the consistency of the food they serve and cherishes the bonds they have formed with regulars who have been coming for decades. 

“I get customers from 40 years ago, coming even longer,” Suleiman said. 

Despite the generational legacy he carries on his shoulders, Suleiman declined to comment on the mark he personally hopes to leave behind. For Suleiman, the sole mission is simply “to be good to people.” 

In addition to serving food, Suleiman said he has provided support and mentorship to other New Haven chefs, like Bun Lai, a Hong Kong-born American chef and former owner of Miya’s Sushi, a now-closed sushi bar that opened in 1982 across the street from Mamoun’s.

Since childhood, Suleiman and Lai bonded over their shared experiences as children of immigrant parents in the restaurant business. Lai said that he credits his success as a chef to Suleiman. 

“He’s been a mentor, a best friend and brother to me throughout my life. Honestly, I couldn’t have survived in this business without him.” Lai said. “He’s doing it to honor that community and honor his father and his mother.” 

Students, too, told the News that they appreciate Mamoun’s Falafel, a casual quick bite that has cemented itself into the cultural memory of New Haveners. 

“Mamoun’s is more than just a place to go to when you’re hungry. It’s a place you go to with friends, with family, with lovers. It’s a place that brings you up when you’re down,” Will Miller ’26 said. 

Mamoun’s is located at 85 Howe St.

The post Past and present of Mamoun’s Falafel in New Haven appeared first on Yale Daily News.

The senior Connecticut senator mostly recounted anecdotes from his long political career and offered advice for novices. The hourlong event in Linsly-Chittenden Hall was interrupted briefly by pro-Palestine protesters.

Standing before a crowd of roughly 100 students, Blumenthal stressed the value of starting out in politics by forming relationships through local campaigns and community organizations.

“Go back to your roots,” Blumenthal said he was told by Justice Byron White LAW ’46 during the now-senator’s year clerking for Justice Harry Blackmun. Blumenthal added, “You don’t have to go back to your hometown, but you do have to set down some roots.”

Five minutes into the senator’s introductory remarks, an attendee stood up and began to read a statement demanding that Blumenthal “call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.”

About a dozen students pulled out pieces of white cloth with the word “ceasefire,” and some held them up while walking by Blumenthal at the front of the room.

“You refuse to hold Israel accountable, but we will hold you accountable,” the protester yelled, referring to the over 32,000 people Israel has killed in Gaza since Hamas killed 1,200 and took over 250 as hostages during its Oct. 7 attack on Israel. “Shame on you, senator, and shame on all of you who remain complicit.”

The protesters, numbering about 30, marched out of the room while chanting “shame.” Blumenthal resumed a minute and a half after he had been interrupted and said he regretted that the protesters could not hear his position on the ongoing war.

He told the remaining group that he supports an “extended pause” in fighting along with the release of Israeli hostages and certain Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. He also called for increased humanitarian aid to Gaza.

“Many in the Congress, like the president, are losing patience with the Netanyahu government,” Blumenthal said, referring to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

The rest of the event focused less on current events than on sometimes extended stories from Blumenthal’s nearly five decades in public life.

When asked how individual testimonies affect policymaking, Blumenthal spoke about the PACT Act of 2022, which expanded benefits for veterans exposed to toxic chemicals, and brought up legislation he has introduced to protect minors on social media.

During the Q&A section near the end of the hour, one student asked Blumenthal whether it amounted to a conflict of interest for members of Congress to trade stocks.

Blumenthal, whose wealth exceeded $80 million in 2015, said he holds no individual stocks personally and has no hand in trades by his wife’s company that he reports in disclosure forms. He would support banning members of Congress and their spouses from owning stocks, Blumenthal said, adding that it was “pretty tender territory” at home, a line that drew laughs.

Blumenthal told the News after the event ended that he enjoys returning to Yale, where he attended law school and where three of his four children have been students. The fourth will start at the law school in the fall.

He said he was not surprised by the pro-Palestine protests. “What I really hope to do with protesters is to engage with them and hear their point of view,” Blumenthal said.

The News was unable to seek comment from the protesters who marched out of the event.

“Our organization is in support of our peers’ right to stand up for the causes they believe in,” wrote the Yale College Democrats in a statement to the News. The group added that it adheres to the University’s policy against event disruptions, which the moderator announced before Blumenthal spoke.

Blumenthal, 78, has served in the Senate since 2011.

The post Blumenthal reminisces with Dems, interrupted by protests appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Lieberman, a practicing Orthodox Jew, was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000, selected to be former Vice President Al Gore’s running mate. He was the first Jewish American to run for the position on a major party ticket. He passed away after complications from a fall in his home in Riverdale, New York, according to a family statement.

Born in Stamford, Connecticut, Lieberman attended Yale College and Yale Law School. During his college years, he served as chairman — now editor in chief and president — on the Yale Daily News Managing Board of 1964.

Neither of the senator’s parents had a college education, according to filmmaker Jonathan Gruber, who said his biographical documentary about Lieberman will be released in May. Gruber, who filmed part of the documentary on Yale’s campus with Lieberman this past summer, said that Lieberman considered his Yale education to be a “leg up.”

Paul Steiger ’64, a childhood friend of the senator, fondly remembered his experiences working on the News’ Managing Board with Lieberman.

“I first knew him in seventh grade,” Steiger said, “and then we were on the YDN together. We called it ‘Chairman’ those days, but he was our editor in chief and I was on his staff.”

After graduating from law school, Lieberman was elected to the Connecticut State Senate in 1970, where he represented New Haven for ten years, including six as Democratic Majority Leader. After losing a race for Connecticut’s 3rd Congressional District in 1980, he served as Connecticut Attorney General from 1983 to 1989.

Lieberman was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1988, where he represented Connecticut for more than two decades. In 1994, he won reelection by the largest-ever margin in a Connecticut Senate race, winning with 67 percent of the vote. 

Gore, who served as vice president under President Bill Clinton LAW ’73, selected Lieberman to be his running mate in August 2000, while Lieberman was campaigning for reelection to his senate seat. The Gore-Lieberman ticket, which won the popular vote by over 500,000 votes, lost the general election to Republican President George W. Bush ’68 and Vice President Dick Cheney after a recount and Supreme Court challenge in the crucial swing state of Florida.

Lieberman briefly ran for the Democratic nomination in the 2004 presidential election but suspended his campaign in early February. 

In the Senate, Lieberman staunchly supported the Iraq War, over which he was criticized by his more liberal Democratic peers. 

In 2006, Lieberman lost the primary for the Democratic nomination to now-Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, who clashed with the Senator over his stance on the Iraq War. Despite this loss, Lieberman ran as a third-party candidate and won the seat with over 100,000 votes more than Lamont.

“While the senator and I had our political differences, he was a man of integrity and conviction, so our debate about the Iraq War was serious,” Lamont wrote on X on Wednesday. “When the race was over, we stayed in touch as friends in the best traditions of American democracy. He will be missed.”

After his reelection as an independent, Lieberman still caucused with Democrats while at the same time shifting away from the party. In the 2008 presidential election, he endorsed Republican nominee John McCain. Lieberman even contemplated running on the Republican vice presidential ticket but was not picked by McCain. 

In his final term, Lieberman became the decisive 60th vote needed to break the filibuster on the Affordable Care Act. At the same time, he blocked the passage of a public insurance option, which then-President Barack Obama — and most Democrats — supported. 

When asked about Lieberman’s legacy, Gruber described Lieberman as a “man of courage” who took his moral cues from his faith. 

“He was a person who, as he said, was stubbornly, at least in the political world, bipartisan,” Gruber said. “I think where it comes from is his being an Orthodox Jew, and how much his religion and his faith guided him in terms of how he dealt with people on an everyday basis.”

In 2012, Lieberman retired from Congress. In recent years, he challenged the Democratic party line and worked as a co-chair of the political group No Labels, which sought to find an independent presidential candidate for the 2024 race. 

Lieberman is survived by his wife Hadassah, four children and 13 grandchildren.

Anika Arora Seth contributed reporting.

A full obituary will appear soon.

The post Longtime Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman ’64 LAW ’67 dies at 82 appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Monday night’s meeting was held in Ross Woodward Magnet School New Haven, and also on a Zoom webinar. The meeting covered the needs of the district’s schools, from methods of improving students’ learning, to fostering inclusivity and community engagement through educational activities, such as a recent local math competition. The student Board of Education representatives also presented their reports, which highlighted a call for facility upgrades.

The student Board representatives, John Carlos Musser and Harmony Cruz-Bustamante, who both attend Wilbur Cross High School, delivered a report to the Board detailing the state of school facilities that are in need of improvement. They argued in favor of Negrón’s proposed budget, and emphasized the importance of maintaining learning environments over fiscal constraints.

“We acknowledge it is very difficult to manage the expenses of a city like New Haven, but students shouldn’t be on the platter,” Cruz-Bustamante said.

Musser then detailed conversations he has had with students regarding the lack of accessible restrooms in their schools. He reported that one of the schools had only one boys’ bathroom available in the entire school, and in another case, only one bathroom accessible that was located in the school office for the entire school to use. 

“I find [this] really ridiculous. It really shows the desperate situation that our schools are in for clean and functional facilities, and it cuts a lot into the education as well” Musser said.

Musser added that such conditions both hinder students’ comfort and cut into valuable learning time, fostering an environment of frustration rather than education.

Board response and initiatives

Board Vice President Matt Wilcox noted that discussion and advocacy for better restrooms had already begun within the Board’s finance and communications committee. Wilcox committed to prioritizing the issue, indicating a readiness to seek necessary funding and address the restroom crisis. 

“It is a priority of the students from what we heard [at the committee meetings]. It is a priority of the staff,” Wilcox said. “We need to get at the reasons for the issues there and figure out ways to solve them, and if it is a lack of funding, then we are going to need to find the funds to do it. It is a basic, basic thing.”

Following Wilcox’s comment, board member Edward Joyner suggested the formation of a “School Beautification Committee,” involving students in the upkeep and maintenance of their schools. This initiative, he discussed, would also aim to combat vandalism, a significant contributor to the deterioration of school facilities.

In response to Joyner’s suggestion, Cruz-Bustamante noted that vandalism was also a common topic that was brought up in the council meeting. They discussed the importance of a balanced approach that goes beyond punitive measures regarding the response to vandalism in New Haven schools.

Rather than seeking traditional punishments for vandalism, Cruz-Bustamante explained how the student representatives are working on pursuing holistic strategies that involve the entire school community in fostering a respectful and unified environment.

“It is a tough discussion because there are a couple of students who are like, ‘Let’s just expel and suspend them,’ which we are hesitant about, because that is an easy answer, and it hasn’t deterred anyone so far,” Cruz-Bustamante said.

The suggested solutions Cruz-Bustamante spoke about included collaborations with students and teachers toward restorative justice programs, and collaborating with psychiatrists from Yale University to create an extensive program focused on transformative and restorative justice.

There are 57 schools and programs in New Haven, serving 19,150 students.

The post Students criticize facility crisis in New Haven Public Schools appeared first on Yale Daily News.