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Rebuilding the Jewish Brand in America
Shabbat candles. Photo: Olaf.herfurth via Wikimedia Commons.
JNS.org – What is the central vibe in the Jewish world today? In a word, anxiety.
Justified anxiety, I might add.
It seems everywhere we turn, there are anti-Israel and anti-Jewish forces mobilizing for action. The hatred and chutzpah have reached new levels. There’s no fear, for example, about spray painting “Hamas is Coming” on a statue in Washington, DC, or assaulting Jews outside a synagogue in my Los Angeles neighborhood of Pico-Robertson.
The good news is that Jews have mobilized in response. We have our rights and we’re fighting to enforce them. Haters must pay a price. Lawsuits are being filed. Scores of organizations are on the case. We’re making noise.
All of this fighting is crucial and we must never relent. Indeed, we cover the fighting extensively in the Jewish Journal. But that’s not why I’m writing this column; you don’t need me to repeat the obvious.
I’m writing to bring attention to an unusual side effect in the fight against antisemitism; one that is not easy to see. This side effect, if we don’t take action, has the potential to severely weaken the Jewish brand in America.
Let me explain.
A brand is as valuable as a reputation. That applies to organizations, individuals and products as well to groups of people. The Jews in America have always been blessed with a strong brand, one that is marked, among other things, by our inclination to give back to our country.
How is the fight against antisemitism influencing that brand?
Branding is all about the noise we make. That noise helps shape the brand we become. Right now, the Jewish noise in America is very much about fighting those who hate us. Whether we like it or not, we’re becoming the group that cares mostly about protecting itself.
This is not a criticism. Fighting for safety is primordial. It does, however, hold a subtle trap: Safety is so important that it tends to drown out everything else, to suck up all the noise. As a result, Jews become associated with weakness; fear on one side; and seeking safety on the other.
This not only “shrinks” the Jewish brand, but it’s also not true to who we are.
The Jewish way, which promotes growth, goodness and renewal, has always treated safety as a beginning, not an end.
Perhaps the ultimate example is Israel. In its 76 years of existence, no country has been under more physical threat than the world’s only Jewish state. And yet, it is known not just for its strong military but for its vibrancy and creative spirit, not to mention its many contributions to the world.
As critical as safety is, Israel reminds us that there’s a lot more to the Jewish brand than seeking protection.
In America, no group has contributed more than the Jews. From comedy to science to academia to literature to Broadway to Hollywood to social justice to endless other fields, the Jewish reputation has sparkled because Jews are natural contributors. Antisemitism or no antisemitism, our brand has always been dominated by our giving gene.
I bumped into one of my favorite Jewish “givers” recently—Matisyahu. I mentioned that infamous concert in Spain where he sang the “Jerusalem” song in front of anti-Israel protestors. He remembered it well. What I loved, I told him, is that he didn’t use his position on stage to verbally push back on the haters who wanted to shut him down.
No, all he did was sing. And boy did he sing. While the haters hated, Matisyahu did what he does best. He performed. He gave of himself to the audience.
Giving of ourselves has been the American Jewish way since we landed on these shores.
Now that we’re feeling under siege, that Jewish way is being tested. Naturally, the noise is going to the act of fighting the haters, of seeking protection. It’s understandable.
But if we’re serious about revitalizing the Jewish brand—which is our most valuable asset—we must bring more noise to the Jewish act of bringing goodness, of bringing a positive spirit to the world around us.
How can we do that?
One way is if every Jewish event—whether for major groups like the ADL, AJC and Federations or smaller neighborhood groups—would feature one Jew who is giving back to the world and is not connected to that particular cause. Just a Jew doing good things.
This would offer hundreds of occasions each year to make some noise about Jews and goodness. I can envision Jewish organizations taking 10% of their “fighting antisemitism” budgets and allocating it to promoting Jews who share their contributions—from grade school kids to Holocaust survivors, from entertainers to scientists, from doctors and artists to architects and volunteers in soup kitchens.
The good thing, of course, is that these Jews are everywhere. They’re the easiest people to find.
The spreading of Jewish contributions, creativity and goodness won’t just revitalize the Jewish brand throughout America, it will also provide a welcome injection of positive energy into our anxious community.
Yes, we must never relent in fighting for the safety of Jews. But we must also never relent in honoring the Jewish way of never settling, of always aiming higher.
We are determined fighters when we are forced to be, but we are givers always. And giving, from what I hear, helps reduce anxiety.
Originally published by Jewish Journal.
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Israeli FM’s Tweet Raises Storm in Turkey
Then-Israeli transportation minister Israel Katz attends the cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem, Feb. 17, 2019. Katz currently serves as the foreign minister. Photo: Sebastian Scheiner/Pool via REUTERS
JNS.org – A tweet by Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Friday accusing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of destroying his country has garnered nearly 40 million views and has drawn a sharp reaction from Erdoğan’s supporters.
In the Aug. 2 tweet, Erdoğan stands in the foreground as a Turkish flag and the city of Istanbul go up in flames.
“Erdoğan is turning Turkey into a dictatorship just by reason of its support for Hamas’s murderers and rapists, against the stance of the entire free world,” Katz tweeted in Turkish.
“[Erdoğan’s Turkey] blocks Instagram, interrupts sports broadcasts because an Israeli athlete beat a Turkish athlete, threatens to invade a democratic country with which Turkey is not in a military conflict, and inflicts an annual loss of $6 billion on Turkish exporters by severing trade relations,” the foreign minister said in his tweet.
“Erdoğan is taking and destroying a Turkish state with scientific, cultural, technological and economic capabilities, and eliminating the legacy of [President Mustafa Kemal] Ataturk, who built a progressive and prosperous Turkey,” Katz concluded.
Senior officials in the Turkish government were quick to attack Katz and Israel in response.
The tweet also united Erdoğan’s political opposition. “We are not going to learn democracy and law from someone whose hands shed the blood of tens of thousands of children,” tweeted Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, a member of the secular Republican People’s Party.
“Everything will be fine, when Palestine is free,” he said.
Katz had tagged İmamoğlu in his tweet and İmamoğlu had to respond as he did in order not to appear as an Israeli “collaborator,” Channel 12 reported.
Other leaders came out in support of Katz’s tweet. “President Ronald Reagan once called [Libyan dictator Muammar] Khadaffi the Mad Dog of the Middle East. Today that title suits #Erdogan,” the leader of the Netherland’s Party for Freedom, Geert Wilders, posted to X.
Erdoğan, whose ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) suffered a historic defeat in local elections on March 31, has become ever more hostile towards Israel and closer to Hamas since the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 massacre.
On July 28, Erdoğan threatened to invade Israel. Katz called on NATO to expel Turkey in response.
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US Says Moves in Middle East Are Defensive, Goal Is Deterrence
Illustrative: The world’s largest aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford steams alongside USNS Laramie (T-AO-203) during a fueling-at-sea in the eastern Mediterranean Sea in this photo taken on Oct. 11, 2023 and released by the US Navy on Oct. 14, 2023. Photo: US Naval Forces Central Command / US 6th Fleet / Handout via REUTERS
The United States is deploying additional military might in the Middle East as a defensive measure with a goal of de-escalating tensions in the region, a White House official said on Sunday.
Regional tensions have increased following the assassination on Wednesday of Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in the Iranian capital Tehran a day after an Israeli strike in the Lebanese capital Beirut killed Fuad Shukr, a senior military commander from the Lebanese group Hezbollah. Both groups are backed by Iran.
There are mounting fears that Israel’s war against Palestinian terrorists in Gaza, which began last October, could escalate into a wider Middle East conflict. Iran and Hamas have blamed Israel for Haniyeh’s killing, and they, together with Hezbollah, have vowed revenge. Israel has not claimed or denied responsibility.
The Pentagon said on Friday it would deploy additional fighter jets and Navy warships to the region.
“The overall goal is to turn the temperature down in the region, deter and defend against those attacks, and avoid regional conflict,” Jonathan Finer, White House National Security Council deputy adviser, said on the CBS program “Face the Nation.”
The United States and Israel are preparing for every possibility, Finer added.
There was a “very close call” of regional conflagration in April, Finer said, when Iran launched an attack on Israeli territory with drones and missiles after what it called an Israeli strike on its consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus on April 1 that killed seven officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The United States wants to be prepared should that situation rise again, Finer added.
US President Joe Biden on Saturday expressed hope that Iran would stand down despite its threat to avenge Haniyeh’s killing.
The United States on Wednesday urged its citizens who wish to leave Lebanon to start making plans immediately.
“This is no prediction about future events. It is prudent planning for them and for our government,” Finer said on CBS.
The British government advised its nationals to leave. Canada told its citizens to avoid all travel to Israel, saying the regional conflict endangers security.
Haniyeh’s death was one in a series of killings of senior Hamas figures in the Gaza war and it fueled concern that the conflict in Gaza was turning into a wider Middle East conflict.
Hamas said it has begun a “broad consultation process” to choose a new leader to replace Haniyeh, who was the face of the group’s international diplomacy.
The United States and international partners including France, Britain, Italy and Egypt continued diplomatic contacts seeking to prevent further regional escalation.
Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, will travel to Iran on Sunday in a rare visit to discuss regional developments with his Iranian counterpart, Iranian state media reported.
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CENTCOM Chief in Mideast to Mobilize Against Iranian Attack
Illustrative: File photo: A F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, Red Sea, February 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
JNS.org – Gen. Erik Kurilla, commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM), arrived in the Middle East on Saturday amid sky-high tensions as Israel prepares for an imminent attack by Iran and its terrorist proxies.
The trip by the general in charge of American forces in the region was already planned. However, in light of Tehran’s pledge to retaliate for the targeted killing of Hamas terrorist leader Ismail Haniyeh on its soil on July 31, his visit will focus on building a multilateral defensive alliance similar to the one that fended off the vast majority of the more than 300 missiles and explosive drones Iran fired at the Jewish state in mid-April.
Hezbollah, Iran’s Lebanese terror proxy, has separately vowed revenge for the targeted killing of senior member Fuad Shukr in Beirut on July 30.
Israel took responsibility for the Shukr killing, which occurred after Hezbollah murdered 12 children on a soccer field in the Druze Golan town of Majdal Shams on July 27. Jerusalem has not commented on the Haniyeh hit.
Kurilla is expected to visit several Gulf states, Jordan and Israel. Amman is an important stop because King Abdullah II played a pivotal role during the April 13 onslaught.
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi will visit Tehran on Sunday to discuss the security escalation in the Middle East following the Haniyeh assassination, the Qatari newspaper Al-Arabi Al-Jadid reported.
US increases defense posture in the region
Meanwhile, the Pentagon said on Friday that the US is boosting its defense posture in the Middle East in preparation for an expected attack against Israel by Iran and its terror proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “has ordered adjustments to US military posture designed to improve US force protection, to increase support for the defense of Israel, and to ensure the United States is prepared to respond to various contingencies,” the Pentagon statement from deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said.
Austin ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group to replace the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group. In addition, destroyers and cruisers capable of ballistic missile defense will be sent to the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East.
“The secretary has also ordered the deployment of an additional fighter squadron to the Middle East, reinforcing our defensive air support capability,” said Singh.
CENTCOM forces destroy Houthi missile and launcher
CENTCOM reported on Saturday that its forces had destroyed a missile and launcher of Iran’s Yemen proxy the Houthis in an area of Yemen controlled by the terrorist group.
“It was determined these weapons presented an imminent threat to US and coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region. These actions were taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure,” CENTCOM said.
Iran planning larger attack
The Houthis could join the Iranian attack along with Tehran’s other regional terror proxies, with US officials expecting an attack “potentially larger in scope” than in April.
Three US and Israeli officials who talked to Axios reporter Barak Ravid said they expect Iran to attack Israel as early as Monday.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ordered a direct attack on Israel following the killing of Haniyeh in Tehran, The New York Times reported on July 31.
Iranian officials said that the drones and missiles would aim for “military targets in the vicinity of Tel Aviv and Haifa, but would make a point of avoiding strikes on civilian targets,” the Times reported.
However, Tehran said on Saturday that it expects Hezbollah to expand its scope beyond just military targets.
“We expect … Hezbollah to choose more targets and [strike] deeper in its response,” Iran’s mission to the United Nations said, as quoted by the official IRNA news agency.
“Secondly, that it will not limit its response to military targets.”
Report: Mossad hired Iranian agents to kill Haniyeh
Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency hired Iranian agents to plant explosive devices in the room where Haniyeh was staying in Tehran for the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian, according to Iranian sources who spoke to British newspaper The Daily Telegraph.
According to the report, the original plan was to kill Haniyeh in May when he visited Tehran for the funerals of Iran’s President Ibraham Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, who died in a helicopter crash on May 19. However, that plan was postponed after a large crowd gathered in the building where Haniyeh was staying.
Instead, the Mossad hired two Iranian agents who planted explosives in three rooms where Haniyeh was expected to stay at an IRGC guesthouse in the north of the capital, according to the report.
The agents, who were captured on CCTV entering and leaving the room, immediately fled the country, but left behind a source in Iran, according to the Telegraph. The regime in Tehran arrested dozens of suspects in connection with Haniyeh’s death, the Times reported on Saturday, including senior intelligence officers, military officials, and staff workers at the guesthouse.
“They are now certain that Mossad hired agents from the Ansar al-Mahdi protection unit,” an IRGC official told the Telegraph from Tehran, referring to the IRGC unit responsible for protecting high-ranking officials.
A second IRGC official told the Telegraph that “this is a humiliation for Iran and a huge security breach.”
“It’s still a question for everyone how it happened, I can’t make sense of it. There must be something higher up in the hierarchy that no one knows about,” the second official said.
“There is now an internal blame game taking over the IRGC, with different sectors accusing each other of the failure,” the first official said, adding that Quds Force commander Esmail Ghaani has been summoning people for questioning, arrests and possible execution.
“The breach has humiliated everyone,” said the IRGC official. “The supreme leader has summoned all the commanders several times over the past two days, he wants answers. For him, addressing the security breach is now more important than seeking revenge,” he added.
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