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9 stories that defined our Jewish year in 2023 before Oct. 7
(JTA) — On Oct. 6, JTA led its morning newsletter with an article that had long been in the works — and that we expected to drive conversation in the days ahead: It was a profile of a Jewish dad in Florida who had pushed to ban hundreds of books — including Anne Frank’s diary — from school libraries.
The ongoing saga of book bans in school libraries, and how they ensnared works about the Holocaust and other Jewish topics, is a story our reporter Andrew Lapin, and JTA more broadly, had focused on all year. For much of 2023, book bans seemed like one of the topics that would define American Jewish life this year.
Then Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack happened, plunging Israel into war and upending life not only there but for Jews in the United States and across the world. For the past 10 weeks, nearly everything we have covered at JTA — from advocacy for Israeli hostages to antisemitism to discourse on college campuses — has related back in some way to the Oct. 7 attack and the Israel-Hamas war.
In the wake of that cataclysm, it sometimes feels like everything else American Jews once thought and talked about has taken a backseat. But before the Hamas attack, there were important and complex topics that occupied and characterized Jewish life this year — not least an(other) upheaval in Israel.
Here are nine stories that defined our year before Oct. 7.
Protesters at the summit of Moms For Liberty, the “parents’ rights” group behind many book challenges across the United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 30, 2023. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images))
A campaign spreads to ban books, including Jewish ones, from school libraries
The book ban movement, driven by conservative “parents’ rights” groups such as Moms for Liberty, wasn’t only a Jewish issue: Activists largely sought to ban books about race and gender, claiming that they were inappropriate for children. But those campaigns, sometimes targeting large numbers of books at once, often swept up Jewish books in their dragnet.
One book that faced challenges in multiple school districts — some of them successful — was a graphic novel adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary. The Holocaust graphic novel “Maus” was also hit with challenges. One of the most prolific participants in the book ban movement was that Florida Jewish dad.
More generally, some American Jews felt that the book ban movement built on a tradition of censorship that has often boded poorly for the Jews. And even when the bans didn’t target Jewish books, Jews were sometimes implicated: A Florida mom who tried to ban an Amanda Gorman poem had also promoted the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. She apologized.
Israelis protest against the government’s planned judicial overhaul, outside the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, March 27, 2023. (Jamal Awad/Flash90)
A seismic fight erupts in Israel over the judicial system
Before October, if you asked what the most important Israeli news story of 2023 was, this was the answer, hands down. At the beginning of the year, Israel’s brand-new, hardline right-wing government unveiled a plan to sap the Supreme Court of its power and independence, a plan proponents said would enable the government to enact the agenda of its conservative voters.
The plan sparked an unprecedented protest movement — drawing hundreds of thousands of protesters into the street who condemned the overhaul as a danger to Israeli democracy. What followed was civil unrest, mass threats by reservists to abstain from military service, a raft of warnings and criticism from world leaders and Diaspora Jewish groups alike, and fruitless negotiations between Israel’s sparring political parties.
In July, the government pushed through one piece of the plan, limiting the Supreme Court’s ability to strike down government decisions. That led to a fresh wave of protests, and anticipation across the country and beyond regarding what else the government would legislate. Lawmakers were set to reconvene after the Jewish holidays ended with Simchat Torah — which fell on Oct. 7.
The Joseph Weis federal courthouse in Pittsburgh, June 27, 2023. (Ron Kampeas)
The Pittsburgh synagogue shooter is tried and sentenced to death
In 2018, a violent attack on Jews shocked the country and the world. In the spring of 2023, the man who killed 11 Jews at prayer in a Pittsburgh synagogue stood trial, was convicted and sentenced to death.
The shooter’s guilt was never in question; his lawyer admitted as much. But the course of the trial revealed gruesome details about the attack and — for jurors and others — served as a primer of sorts on American Jews and how they see their place in the United States. And in Squirrel Hill, the historically Jewish neighborhood where the shooting occurred, residents contended with fears of retraumatization and leaned on each other to heal.
The shooter’s lawyers did fight hard to spare him the death penalty. Families of victims and survivors also disagreed over the punishment. But following a months-long trial, the jury handed down a death sentence in August.
Under Elon Musk, the social media platform X has been at the center of several antisemitism-related controversies. (Ludovic Marin/Pool/AFP via Getty Images/Design by Mollie Suss)
Elon Musk’s handling of hate speech on Twitter/X raises alarms
Elon Musk, the billionaire tech mogul, bought Twitter in 2022. And over the course of 2023, his shifting approach to hate speech, including the removal of some of the platform’s guardrails, alternately enraged, concerned and confounded Jewish watchdogs and others.
As the year progressed, Musk’s personal pronouncements about Jews began to draw criticism. In May, he posted that George Soros, the liberal megadonor and frequent target of antisemitism, “hates humanity.” He later turned his sights on the Anti-Defamation League, threatening to sue it for billions of dollars and blaming it for rising antisemitism.
This particular story has continued post-Oct. 7. Musk has taken steps to combat anti-Israel rhetoric on the platform, now called X. He visited Israel and toured sites of the massacre. But he also amplified an endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory, leading major advertisers to stop their spending on the platform.
Micaela Diamond and Ben Platt during the opening night curtain call for “Parade” at New York City Center, Nov. 1, 2022. (Bruce Glikas/WireImage/GettyImages)
A trio of antisemitism-themed shows run on Broadway
For a few days this year, Broadway fans keen on seeing antisemitism portrayed on stage could go to three shows on the topic.
The musical “Parade,” about the 1915 lynching of Leo Frank, opened in March. The play “Leopoldstadt,” a semi-autobiographical work by Tom Stoppard about his Jewish family in Vienna in the years surrounding the Holocaust, opened in October 2022 and ran through July. And “Just for Us,” a one-man show by Jewish comedian Alex Edelman about the time he attended a meeting of white supremacists, opened in June.
All three received positive reviews, and “Leopoldstadt” and “Parade” won a total of six Tonys in June. And “Parade” wasn’t immune from antisemitism: Neo-Nazis protested at its previews.
Christie’s international head of jewelry Rahul Kadakia presents an item from the collection of Heidi Horten ahead of auction in Geneva, Switzerland, May 8, 2023. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)
Christie’s faces blowback for auctioning jewelry with Nazi ties
Christie’s, the auction house, achieved a record sale when it put a jewelry collection belonging to Austrian art collector Heidi Horten on the block. But the auction house also faced a wave of blowback from critics who said it obscured the source of the wealth that purchased the jewelry: Helmut Horten, Heidi’s husband and a Nazi Party member who made his fortune from businesses seized from their Jewish owners.
Christie’s pledged to donate a portion of the proceeds to Holocaust research and education, but organizations and institutions devoted to Holocaust memory castigated the auction house, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art called off an event about art restitution that had been organized by Christie’s. In August, Christie’s canceled a planned second auction of the jewelry.
Bradley Cooper is shown as Leonard Bernstein in the trailer for Netflix’s “Maestro.” (Screenshot from YouTube)
‘Maestro,’ the Leonard Bernstein biopic, reignites a debate over ‘Jewface’
Controversy over the prosthetic nose Bradley Cooper wore in his biopic about composer Leonard Bernstein began last year, when promotional shots of the movie circulated. But the debate ramped up this year when the first trailer for “Maestro” hit screens ahead of its December premiere.
Was it antisemitic for a non-Jew to put on an elongated nose for a Jewish role? Should non-Jews play Jewish characters at all — a practice some call “Jewface?” Those questions sparked numerous takes online and beyond, but petered out after the ADL and Bernstein’s family said they had no objections to the movie, which began streaming on Netflix this week. The makeup artist of “Maestro” apologized anyway.
Jewish institutions have faced bomb threats delivered remotely, through email and online contact forms. (Flickr Commons)
Synagogues face a string of fake bomb threats
Before reports of rising antisemitism began to dominate the headlines, synagogues across the United States were hit with dozens of bomb threats. All of them were fake, seemingly designed to provoke a police response. Some of the perpetrators targeted synagogues that live streamed their services, such that the congregation could be seen on screen fleeing their pews.
This is not the first time waves of fake bomb threats have hit Jewish institutions, and suspects have been arrested for the incidents, but they have continued throughout the year. One weekend in December, hundreds of synagogues across the country got false bomb threats.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) poses prior to a working lunch with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Presidential Palace, June 16, 2023. (Chesnot/Getty Images)
Israel and Saudi Arabia move toward a treaty
One major news story from this year that is now in limbo: prospects for a diplomatic accord between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Before Oct. 7, the Biden administration was pushing for the two countries to normalize relations — a step that would signify significant warming between Israel and the Arab world and that would transform regional relations in the Middle East. It would be a major coup for Israel, which had already established ties with four other Arab nations in recent years.
There appeared to be progress toward a treaty, and the outlines of a deal had been proposed. But what will happen next on that front is unclear: After Oct. 7, Saudi Arabia put the talks on hold.
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The post 9 stories that defined our Jewish year in 2023 before Oct. 7 appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Drexel University Professor Stole Signs From Synagogue, Police Say
Illustrative: People pass a cluster of signs outside a pro-Hamas encampment at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. on April 28, 2024. Photo: Max Herman via Reuters Connect
A Drexel University professor allegedly participated in a mass theft of items from a synagogue in a suburb outside Philadelphia, a local NBC affiliate reported on Tuesday.
Mariana Chilton, 56, a professor of health management and policy at Drexel, has been accused of stealing pro-Israel signs from the Main Line Reform Temple in Lower Merion Township, traveling there from her neighborhood of residency, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Chilton allegedly drove the getaway car while two other accomplices, Sarah Prickett and Sam Penn — who is from New York — trespassed the synagogue and absconded with the loot.
“We are just taking them because we feel like it is a representative of genocide,” Chilton told law enforcement after being caught in the act, the report stated. She then, after offering to “just put them back,” refused to identify herself and comply with other lawful orders.
Video evidence provided by a local resident placed Chilton and her accomplices at the scene of the crime, and a Main Line Reform Temple official identified the signs recovered from her car as the temple’s property. That was enough for law enforcement to charge her with several offenses, including conspiracy and theft. She is also charged with driving without a license and not registering her vehicle.
Drexel University has not responded to The Algemeiner‘s request for comment for this story.
Experts have told The Algemeiner in the past academic year that while the conduct of anti-Zionist students should be reported on, the role of faculty in fostering and engaging in antisemitic acts should be closely scrutinized. Last semester, anti-Zionist faculty attached themselves to anti-Israel, pro-Hamas demonstrations, sometimes breaking the law by preventing officers from dispersing unauthorized demonstrations and detaining lawbreakers.
At Northeastern University in Boston, professors formed a human barrier around a student encampment to stop its dismantling by officers, and at Columbia University, anti-Zionist faculty at the school, as well its affiliate Barnard College, staged a walkout in support of the demonstrations and demanded the abeyance of disciplinary sanctions against anti-Zionist students — dozens of whom cheered Hamas and threatened more massacres of Jews similar to Oct. 7 — who violated school rules.
Chilton’s case is unlike any other reported in the past year, however. While dozens of professors have been accused of abusing their Jewish students and encouraging their classmates to bully and shame them, none are alleged to have resorted to stealing from a Jewish house of worship to make their point.
Mass participation of faculty in pro-Hamas demonstrations marks an inflection point in American history, Asaf Romirowsky, an expert on the Middle East and executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, told The Algemeiner in April.
Since the 1960s, he explained, far-left “scholar activists” have gradually seized control of the higher education system, tailoring admissions processes and the curricula to foster ideological radicalism and conformity, which students then carry with them into careers in government, law, corporate America, and education. This system, he concluded, must be challenged.
“The cost of trading scholarship for political propagandizing has been a zeal and pride among faculty who esteem and cheer terrorism, a historical development which is quite telling and indicative of the evolution of the Marxist ideology which has been seeping into the academy since the 1960s,” Romirowsky said. “The message is very clear to all of us who are looking on from the outside at this, and institutions have to begin drawing a red line. The protests are not about free speech. They are about supporting terrorism, about calling for a genocide of Jews.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Drexel University Professor Stole Signs From Synagogue, Police Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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White House Cites Biden Clash With Netanyahu Over Iran as Proof of President’s Mental Fitness
US President Joe Biden hosts the 2023 Teacher of the Year event at the White House in Washington, US, April 24, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Amid growing concerns over US President Joe Biden’s mental fitness, key White House officials are suggesting his foreign policy discussions with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including a clash over how to respond to Iran’s unprecedented military attack on the Israeli homeland earlier this year, serve as evidence that he is still capable of leading from the Oval Office.
Biden and Netanyahu engaged in a heated back-and-forth in the immediate aftermath of Iran launching a massive missile and drone salvo at Israel in April, according to a new report by the New York Times. The US and other allies helped Israel shoot down nearly every drone and missile. The attack caused only one injury.
However, the Times revealed that while Netanyahu initially wanted to respond to Iran in a forceful way, Biden threatened to withhold US support in the event of a major Israeli retaliatory strike, arguing it would risk sparking a regional conflict in the Middle East.
“Aides present in the Situation Room the night that Iran hurled a barrage of missiles and drones at Israel portrayed a president in commanding form, lecturing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone to avoid a retaliatory escalation that would have inflamed the Middle East,” the Times reported. “‘Let me be crystal clear,’ Mr. Biden said. ‘If you launch a big attack on Iran, you’re on your own.’”
“Mr. Netanyahu pushed back hard, citing the need to respond in kind to deter future attacks,” the report continued. “‘You do this,’ Mr. Biden said forcefully, ‘and I’m out.’ Ultimately, the aides noted, Mr. Netanyahu scaled back his response.”
Israel’s military response was small and appeared aimed at minimizing the risk of escalation.
The Times report, headlined “Biden’s Lapses Are Said to Be Increasingly Common and Worrisome,” came on the heels of Biden delivering a widely-panned presidential debate performance last Thursday against former US President Donald Trump. Biden’s performance, which oftentimes appeared incoherent and muddled, set off alarm bells in Democratic circles, sending the president’s allies scrambling to extinguish concerns over his age and mental acuity.
While highlighting rising concerns, the news story also noted instances in which, according to aides, Biden appeared coherent and capable, citing the exchange with Netanyahu and his handling of the Iranian missile attack more broadly as one such example.
However, an anonymous Biden administration official told the Times that they are unsure whether Biden could hold his own against adversarial foreign leaders such as Vladimir Putin of Russia.
On Wednesday, the White House directly attributed quotes to Netanyahu in which the Israeli premier reportedly said he found Biden “very clear and very focused” during his visit to Israel following the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas. According to a White House spokesperson, Netanyahu also reportedly cited the “more than a dozen phone conversations, extended conversations with President Biden” as evidence of the commander-in-chief’s vitality.
“Some White House officials adamantly rejected the suggestion of a president not up to handling tough foreign counterparts and told the story of the night Iran attacked Israel in April,” the New York Times reported. “Mr. Biden and his top national security officials were in the Situation Room for hours, bracing for the attack, which came around midnight. Biden was updated in real time as the forces he ordered into the region began shooting down Iranian missiles and drones. He peppered leaders with questions throughout the response.”
During its first direct attack on Israeli territory, Iran in April launched roughly 300 missiles and drones at the Jewish state.
Leading up to the attack, Iranian officials had promised revenge for an airstrike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus, Syria that they attributed to Israel. The strike killed seven members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), a widely designated terrorist organization, including two senior commanders. One of the commanders allegedly helped plan the Hamas terrorist group’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the incident.
“After it was over, and almost all of the missiles and drones had been shot down, Mr. Biden called Mr. Netanyahu to persuade him not to escalate. ‘Take the win,’” Mr. Biden told the prime minister, without reading from a script or extensive notes, according to two people in the room. In the end, Mr. Netanyahu opted for a much smaller and proportionate response that effectively ended the hostilities,” the article added.
Days later, Israel responded to the Iranian aggression by launching a modest missile attack on an airbase near Isfahan. The Jewish state sought to show that it could effectively target key strategic locations in Iran while not escalating the conflict any further. Netanyahu insisted on launching a retaliatory attack against Iran, arguing that ignoring the Iranian strikes would incentivize more attacks against the Jewish state.
IRGC Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said that Iran is waiting for “the opportunity” to launch a new round of strikes against Israel, Iranian media reported on Tuesday, potentially boosting Netanyahu’s argument that a smaller response would invite further attacks.
The post White House Cites Biden Clash With Netanyahu Over Iran as Proof of President’s Mental Fitness first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Journalist at US-Based Nonprofit Promoted Stabbing Israelis, Depicted Rescued Hostage as Pig Drinking Blood: Report
Palestinian terrorists ride an Israeli military vehicle that was seized by gunmen who infiltrated areas of southern Israel, in the northern Gaza Strip, Oct. 7, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ahmed Zakot
A journalist at a US-based nonprofit posted tutorials on how to commit stabbing attacks and depicted a rescued Israeli hostage as a pig drinking blood, according to newly surfaced social media posts.
Eitan Fischberger, a communications analyst and former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) staff sergeant who first broke the story on X/Twitter, alleged that Mahmoud Ajjour, a correspondent for The Palestine Chronicle, posted disturbing images and videos to his Instagram page.
Fischberger posted screenshots and screen recordings of the posts.
According to The Chronicle‘s website, Ajjour is a photojournalist and correspondent for the outlet, which is a US-based 501c3, or nonprofit organization.
One of the posted images depicted Noa Argamani — an Israeli who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival during Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in southern Israel, and then rescued in an IDF special operation last month — as a pig drinking blood from a Coca-Cola bottle.
Here, for example, Ajjour posted a picture of Israeli hostage Noa Argamani, portrayed as a pig drinking the blood of Palestinians.
Noa, as you recall, was freed by Israeli forces in the same rescue operation in which Ajjour’s terrorist colleague was killed pic.twitter.com/oiLCqekxbl
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) June 30, 2024
In Oct. 2015, Ajjour posted a picture of a masked Palestinian holding up a knife, with the caption, “I declare it a revolution.”
That time — from approximately Sept. 2015 to June 2016 — was referred to as the “knife intifada,” as there was an uptick in Palestinian terrorist attacks, particularly using knives, against Israelis in Jerusalem, along with other parts of Israel and the West Bank.
Ajjour also seems mighty fine endorsing stabbing attacks pic.twitter.com/xi2MnZVddl
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) June 30, 2024
During that same month, Ajjour also reportedly posted a two-part tutorial on how to carry out stabbings with the caption, “May Allah protect them,” likely referring to those who were engaging in such attacks.
So much, in fact, that he uploaded a two-part instruction video showing off some best practices for stabbing Israelis pic.twitter.com/Z12rVo4Enx
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) June 30, 2024
Then, in 2023, after the son of a Hamas preacher was killed when a device he was trying to launch at Israel exploded, Ajjour mourned his death on Instagram. “Your father’s legacy is proud of you,” he wrote alongside a picture that included what appeared to be a Hamas flag.
And here, Ajjour mourns the death of Bara’a al-Zard, son of Hamas preacher Wael al-Zard.
Silly Bara’a died in an explosion caused by a device he was trying to launch at Israeli forces near the Gaza security fencehttps://t.co/vZR6IW0shF pic.twitter.com/ipQw55BYd7
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) June 30, 2024
This is not the first time a journalist from The Palestine Chronicle was alleged to have either supported or partaken in terrorism.
Abdallah Aljamal, who was a correspondent for The Chronicle, allegedly held three Israeli hostages in his home, according to the Israeli government. He was killed during a raid that rescued four hostages, including Argamani. After the allegations came to light, The Chronicle changed Aljamal’s status on its website from a correspondent to a contributor.
The Palestine Chronicle did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Fichberger wrote that he wants the US House Ways and Means Committee to investigate The Chronicle for what seems to have become a pattern.
“If The Chronicle is let off the hook for employing an actual terrorist hostage-taker, it would prove that the American counter-terror legal apparatus really is irreparably broken,” he wrote.
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