Bethany Mandel

In February 2020, Mandel wrote in a column in the Washington Examiner about the American election of delegates to the 38th World Zionist Congress that "the American Jewish Left is using this World Zionist Congress election to try to turn the financial support of the Jewish people against Israel," describing the aims of the left-leaning Zionist candidates as an "effort..to hijack a billion dollars in money meant to support Israel, not undermine it."

During the 2019-20 coronavirus outbreak in the United States, Mandel was outspoken in her opposition to the continuation of lockdowns after the initial month. In one tweet, she said:

"You can call me a Grandma killer. I'm not sacrificing my home, food on the table, all of our docs and dentists, every form of pleasure (museums, zoos, restaurants), all my kids' teachers in order to make other people comfortable. If you want to stay locked down, do. I’m not."

In August 2017, Mandel wrote a column for the Forward urging people to follow the examples of Daryl Davis, David Abitbol, and the classmates of Derek Black, who led neo-Nazis to renounce their previous ideology by first befriending them. The column was headlined, "We Need to Start Befriending Neo Nazis." She wrote a year later that her critics on the "angry left" had failed to read beyond the headline of her column and had caricatured her as a "Nazi-loving member of the alt-right." She then began referring to herself as a Nazi on her twitter account.

In 2016, she was the target of online harassment after writing about her opposition to Donald Trump during his campaign for the Republican nomination for president.

Bethany Shondark Mandel is a conservative American author and political and cultural commentator who writes for The Federalist, The Jewish Daily Forward and Acculturated. She was named one of "36 under 36" by The Jewish Week in 2013, one of the "Forward 50" in 2015,, and one of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency's "50 Jews everyone should follow on Twitter" in 2019. In 2014–2015, in the wake of the Freundel scandal, she served on a committee appointed by the Rabbinical Council of America to suggest safeguards against future abuses in the conversion process.

Since 2013, she has been a freelance writer and commentator while working from home to raise her children.

Mandel was born to a Catholic mother and a Jewish father, and sought out Rabbi Barry Freundel for an Orthodox conversion that would make her Jewish status universally recognized. She completed her conversion in 2011, and in 2014 learned that the rabbi had filmed her naked while preparing her for conversion. She wrote an article entitled "The Convert Bill of Rights" that went viral, making her a spokeswoman for the many victims of the Freundel scandal, and the Rabbinical Council of America asked her to join a committee to prevent future such abuses. For this work, the Forward named her one of the "Forward 50" in 2015, and the Rutgers University Hillel honored her with its Young Alumni Award at its 2016 Annual Gala.

Upon graduation, Mandel moved to Washington, DC and worked for Washington Hebrew Congregation while looking for a position in conservative politics. After reading about the Jay Pritzker Academy near Siem Reap in Cambodia, she wrote and asked to teach at the school, becoming a fifth grade teacher there for a year. Returning to Washington, DC in 2010 to pursue an Orthodox conversion to Judaism, she found work as a fundraiser and writer at the Heritage Foundation, and then as a marketer, editor and blogger for Commentary magazine, and a guest commentator on numerous radio and television shows. Her effective advocacy for conservative causes led to her being named as one of "36 under 36" individuals reinventing Jewish life by the Jewish Week in 2013.

She transferred to Rutgers University in 2005 for its strong Jewish Studies department and Jewish student community, and worked full-time while a full-time student, graduating in 2008 with a degree in history and Jewish studies. During her college years, she adopted conservative views after finding that Medicaid and other government welfare programs she had expected to help her after her mother's death were inefficient and ineffective, as well as due to the influence of college friends and the writings of Ayn Rand.