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Major Body of University Professors Targets Antisemitism Prevention Policies at University of Pennsylvania
Anti-Israel encampment at University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA, USA in May 2024. Photo: Robyn Stevens via Reuters Connect
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the largest and oldest US organization for defending faculty rights, is picking a fight over the University of Pennsylvania’s efforts to combat antisemitism, arguing that a range of faculty speech and conduct considered hostile by Jewish members of the campus community are key components of academic freedom.
In a letter to the administration regarding antidiscrimination investigations opened by Penn’s Office of Religious and Ethnic Interests (OREI), the group charged that efforts to investigate alleged antisemitism on campus and punish those found to have perpetrated can constitute discrimination. Its argument reprises recent claims advanced by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) group, notorious for its defense of Sharia law and alleged ties to jihadist groups such as Hamas, in a lawsuit which aims to dismantle antisemitism prevention training at Northwestern University.
“Harassing, surveilling, intimidating, and punishing members of the university community for research, teaching, and extramural speech based on overly broad definitions of antisemitism does nothing to combat antisemitism, but it can perpetuate anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, and anti-Palestinian racism, muzzle political criticism of the Israeli government by people of any background, and create a climate of fear and self-censorship that threatens the academic freedom of all faculty and students,” the AAUP said, threatening to scrutinize the university. “AAUP-Penn will continue to monitor reports related to OREI.”
Additionally, the AAUP described Penn’s efforts to protect Jewish students from antisemitism as resulting from “government interference in university procedures” while arguing that merely reporting antisemitism subjects the accused to harassment, seemingly suggesting that many Jewish students who have been assaulted, academically penalized, and exposed to hate speech on college campuses across the US are perpetrators rather than victims. The group also argued that other minority groups from “protected classes,” such as Arabs and African Americans, are disproportionately investigated for antisemitism.
Despite the AAUP’s claims, some University of Pennsylvania faculty have played an outsized role in organizing antisemitic activities on campus, as previously reported by The Algemeiner.
In 2023, professor Huda Fakhreddine helped organize the “Palestine Writes Festival,” a gathering of anti-Zionists which featured Gaza-based professor Refaat Alareer, who said in 2018, “Are most Jews evil? Of course they are,” and Salman Abu Sitta, who once said in an interview that “Jews were hated in Europe because they played a role in the destruction of the economy in some of the countries, so they would hate them.” Roger Waters, the former Pink Floyd frontman, was also initially scheduled as a speaker, despite a documentary exposing his long record of anti-Jewish barbs. In one instance, a former colleague recalled Waters at a restaurant yelling at the wait staff to “take away the Jew food.”
That event prompted a deluge of antisemitic incidents at the University of Pennsylvania, including Nazi graffiti and a student’s trailing a staffer into the university’s Hillel building and shouting “F–k the Jews” and “Jesus Christ is king!” overturning tables, podium stands, and chairs. Fakhreddine, who days after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel attended an on-campus rally in which a speaker castigated what he called “the Israeli Jew,” later sued Congress to halt its investigation of campus antisemitism at Penn.
The professor’s civil complaint brimmed with classic antisemitic tropes, describing efforts to eradicate antisemitism as a conspiracy by “billionaire donors, pro-Israel groups, other litigants, and segments of the media” to squelch criticism of Israel and harm Arab students and academics. It also disparaged the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, calling it a tool of a “militant minority which believes that Israel can do no wrong” and alleging that it is “unconstitutional” and the bedrock of a larger plan of a “social engineering movement” to abolish the First Amendment of the US Constitution. A federal judge ultimately threw the case out of court.
The following year, the University Pennsylvania pledged in a report on antisemitism that it would never again confer academic legitimacy to antisemitism and formally denounced the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel as “discriminatory” and “anti-intellectual.” The university also passed other policies aimed at protecting academic freedom and free speech from attempts to invoke them as justification for uttering hate speech and founded the Office of Religious and Ethnic Interests, which the AAUP is now accusing of breaking the law.
The AAUP has defended antisemitic speech before.
In 2014, it accused the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign of violating the tenets of academic freedom when it declined to approve the hiring of Steven Salaita because he uttered a slew of antisemitic, extramural comments on social media, such as “Zionists transforming ‘antisemitism from something horrible into something honorable since 1948,” “Every Jewish boy and girl can grow up to be the leader of a murderous colonial regime,” and “By eagerly conflating Jewishness and Israel, Zionists are partly responsible when people say antisemitic s—t in response to Israeli terror.”
An AAUP report that chronicled the incident, which mushroomed into a major controversy in academia, listed those tweets and others but still concluded that not hiring Salaita “acted in violation of the 1940 Statement of Principles of Academic Freedom and Tenure” and “cast a pall of uncertainty over the degree to which academic freedom is understood and respected.” At the same time, the AAUP said that it was “committed to fighting systemic racism and pursuing racial justice and equity in colleges and universities, in keeping with the association’s mission to ensure higher education’s contribution to the common good.”
Other actions have moved the AAUP further into the world of left-wing anti-Zionism, tarnishing its image as a bipartisan guardian of scholarship and inquiry.
Following Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, two and a half weeks passed before the AAUP commented on the ensuing conflict between Israel and Hamas, and when it did, the group said nothing about the Palestinian terrorist group’s atrocities, instead discussing the importance of academic freedom. At the time, many professors cheered Hamas’s violence and encouraged extreme anti-Zionist demonstrations in which masses of students and faculty called for the elimination of the Jewish state “from the river to the sea,” which is widely interpreted as a call for genocide.
In August 2024, the AAUP issued a statement in support of academic boycotts, a seismic decision which reversed decades of policy and cleared the way for scholar activists to escalate their efforts to purge the university of Zionism and educational partnerships with Israel.
Coming amid a bitter debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on college campuses and Israel’s war to eradicate Hamas from the Gaza Strip, the statement did not mention the Jewish state specifically, but its countenancing the anti-Israel BDS movement was made clear, according to Jewish and pro-Israel leaders, by a section of the statement which said that boycotts “can legitimately seek to protect and advance the academic freedom and fundamental rights of colleagues and students who are living and working under circumstances that violate that freedom and one or more of those rights.”
In March, the AAUP held a webinar which promoted false claims about Israel’s conduct in the war with Hamas in Gaza.
Titled “Scholasticide in Palestine,” the virtual event accused Israel of “scholasticide” and “exterminationist” tactics of war. Such accusations cite damages sustained by education institutions and loss of life in Gaza, but rather than describing those misfortunes as inevitable consequences of a protracted war that Hamas started by launching the surprise Oct. 7 massacre, those leading the AAUP event argued that Israel’s aim was to murder educators and erase Palestinian history and culture.
“We are very concerned that AAUP, whose stated mission includes representing all academics and ensuring ‘higher education’s contribution to the common good’ continues to act in ways that demonize Israel, marginalize Jewish and Israeli members, and promote policies and events that portray a one-sided, politicized view of complex issues,” Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive officer of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), said at the time.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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In memory of the quiet hero from Nepal, Bipin Joshi
זונטיק, דעם 19טן אָקטאָבער 2025, צוויי יאָר און כּמעט צוויי וואָכן נאָכן בלוטיקן זיבעטן אָקטאָבער האָבן מיר זיך געזעגנט בײַם בן־גוריון־פֿליפֿעלד אין ישׂראל, מיט ביפּין דזשאָשי.
ווער איז ביפּין דזשאָשי?
אפֿשר געדענקט איר ביפּין דזשאָשין?
איר ווייסט נישט, ווער ער איז?
ביפּין דזשאָשי איז געווען אַ 23־יאָריקער נעפּאַלער יונגערמאַן, ווען ער איז געקומען קיין ישׂראל אין סעפּטעמבער 2023 מיט אַ גרופּע נעפּאַלער יונגע־לײַט. זיי האָבן זיך באַזעצט אויף אַ צײַט אין דעם קיבוץ עלומים [אַלומים], אַ צען קילאָמעטער פֿון עזה. דאָרט האָט ער געאַרבעט אין די פֿעלדער. נאָך שׂימחת־תּורה האָט ער געדאַרפֿט אָנהייבן זײַנע אַקאַדעמישע לימודים אין באר־שבֿע־אוניווערסיטעט, אין דעם תּחום פֿון אַגריקולטור.
דעם טאָג פֿון שׂימחת־תּורה איז ביפּין דזשאָשי מיט זײַנע נעפּאַלער פֿרײַנד אַטאַקירט געוואָרן, ווי אַלע אײַנוווינער פֿון די ייִשובֿים אין דער עזה־געגנט. ווי אַלע האָט ער געפּרוּווט אַנטלויפֿן, זיך שיצן, וואַרטן אויף הילף. להיפּוך אָבער צו די ישׂראלים, האָט ער נישט געקענט די שפּראַך פֿון לאַנד און נישט די שפּראַך פֿון פֿײַנד. ער האָט אויך קוים פֿאַרשטאַנען די אומשטאַנדן אין וועלכע דער אַטאַק איז פֿאָרגעקומען.
ער איז בכלל נישט געווען קיין צד אין דעם סכסוך.
זיצנדיק אין איינעם פֿון די קליינע בונקערס בײַ די גאַסן, איז ער ערשט באַשאָסן געוואָרן פֿון אַראַבישע טעראָריסטן, האָט צוגעזען ווי עטלעכע פֿון זײַנע פֿרײַנד ווערן געטראָפֿן, גוססן. דערנאָך, אַז די טעראָריסטן האָבן זיך ווײַטער איזדיעקעוועט איבער די וואָס נאָך בײַם לעבן און זיי אָנגעהויבן באַוואַרפֿן מיט האַנטגראַנאַטן — האָט ער געפּרוּווט כאַפּן און צוריקוואַרפֿן. אַזוי האָט ער געראַטעוועט עטלעכע פֿרײַנד.
ביפּין דזשאָשי איז אַ שטילער העלד וואָס האָט געטאָן מיט שטילער גבֿורה און וואָס די וועלט איז אים לרובֿ מזכּה מיט שטיל פֿאַרשווײַגן. אויף די גרויסע מאַניפֿעסטאַציעס איבער דער וועלט לטובֿת מענטשלעכקייט שרײַט מען לרובֿ נישט זײַן נאָמען; דערציילט מען לרובֿ נישט זײַן מעשׂה; דערמאָנט מען לרובֿ נישט זײַן אַקט פֿון מענטשלעכקייט און נישט זײַן אוממענטשלעכן סוף.
ביפּין דזשאָשי איז נישט אומגעברענגט געוואָרן דעם 7טן אָקטאָבער 2023.
ער איז אויך נישט געראַטעוועט געוואָרן דעם 7טן אָקטאָבער 2023.
ער איז פֿאַרכאַפּט געוואָרן דעם 7טן אָקטאָבער 2023 קיין עזה.
דעם זעלביקן טאָג נאָך האָט אַ קאַמערע אין דעם שיפֿאַ־שפּיטאָל אין עזה רעקאָרדירט אים, אַ לעבעדיקן, בשעת ער ווערט געשלעפּט פֿון אַ פּאָר עזהער.
מיט צוויי יאָר שפּעטער, אין אָקטאָבער 2025, האָט די ברייטע עפֿנטלעכקייט זיך דערוווּסט וועגן אַ פֿילמעלע, וואָס די ישׂראלדיקע אַרמיי האָט געפֿונען אין עזה. אין דעם פֿילמעלע זעט מען ביפּין דזשאָשין אַ רעלאַטיוו געזונטן. דאָס פֿילמעלע האָבן זײַנע פֿאַרכאַפּער און שומרים געמאַכט משמעות אין נאָוועמבער 2023.
מיר ווייסן, אַז ביפּין דזשאָשי האָט געלעבט אין עזה לכל־הפּחות אַ חודש צײַט. אַ רעלאַטיוו געזונטער. נאָר ווי געזונט קען אַ פֿאַרכאַפּטער אין עזה זײַן?
די וואָס האָבן באַוויזן איבערצולעבן און זײַנען צוריקגעקומען — זײַנען אפֿשר נישט צוריק קיין געזונטע, זיכער נישט קיין לחלוטין געזונטע — אָבער דער פֿאַקט אַז זיי זײַנען נישט צוריק קיין משוגענע איז אַ גבֿורה פֿאַר זיך. שטילע העלדן.
פֿאַר וואָס שרײַט מען אויף די מאַניפֿעסטאַציעס איבער דער וועלט לטובֿת מענטשלעכקייט, לרובֿ נישט וועגן דער אָ אוממענטשלעכער, אויפֿגעצוווּנגענער גבֿורה? נישט גענוג. אַ שטילערהייט פֿאַרשוויגענע גבֿורה.
ביפּין דזשאָשי איז צוריק. ער האָט אָבער נישט איבערגעלעבט. דעם 14טן אָקטאָבער 2025 איז אַ טויטער גוף וואָס דער כאַמאַס האָט אומגעקערט אידענטיפֿיצירט געוואָרן ווי זײַנער. ביפּין דזשאָשי איז פֿאַרכאַפּט און דערמאָרדעט געוואָרן אין עזה דורך עזהער.
זײַן משפּחה, וואָס האָט לעצטן זונטיק מקבל־פּנים געווען זײַן אָרון אין נעפּאַל, אַריבערגעפֿירט דעם זעלביקן טאָג פֿון ישׂראל, האָט, ווי המונים אין ישׂראל, געהאָפֿט ביז דער לעצטער רגע אויף אַ בעסערן סוף. זי האָט געהאָפֿט, אים אַרומצונעמען אַ לעבעדיקן — נישט אים אויפֿצונעמען אַ דערהרגעטן.
זײַן משפּחה צוזאַמען מיט המונים קרובֿים, פֿרײַנד און באַקאַנטע האָט אים אָפּגעגעבן דעם לעצטן כּבֿוד פֿאַרברענענדיק זײַן קערפּער לויטן הינדו־מינהג נאָענט צו אַ טײַך. דאָס געוויין האָט געגעבן אַ ריס אין הימל, ווי טיף עס איז געווען דער ריס אין זייערע הערצער. זײַן משפּחה האָט נישט באמת פֿאַרשטאַנען דעם סכסוך צוליב וועלכן זייער זון איז געפֿאַלן אַ קרבן.
זײַן משפּחה — ווי ער גופֿא — איז נישט געווען קיין צד אין דעם סכסוך. די פֿאַרכאַפּער האָבן געוווּסט. זיי האָבן גערצחנט לשם רציחה. פֿאַר וואָס שרײַט די וועלט לרובֿ נישט וועגן דעם?
פֿאַר וואָס באַשרײַט די וועלט לרובֿ נישט אַזאַ קרבן? דעם קרבן ביפּין דזשאָשי. פֿאַר וואָס קען די וועלט לרובֿ נישט ביפּין דזשאָשין?
זונטיק, דעם 19טן אָקטאָבער 2025, צוויי יאָר און כּמעט צוויי וואָכן נאָכן בלוטיקן זיבעטן אָקטאָבער, האָבן מיר זיך מיט אים געזעגנט אין אַ ישׂראלדיק־נעפּאַלישער צערעמאָניע מיט מלוכישע פֿאַרטרעטער, דיפּלאָמאַטן, קיבוץ־מיטגלידער, אַקאַדעמישע רעפּרעזענטאַנטן, פֿרײַנד און באַקאַנטע אי פֿון דער ישׂראלדיקער געזעלשאַפֿט אי פֿון דער נעפּאַלער קהילה אין ישׂראל. מען האָט אים באַדאַנקט פֿאַר זײַן איבערגעגעבענער אַרבעט אין קיבוץ, דערמאָנט זײַן חלום זיך צו לערנען אין דער פֿרעמד כּדי זיך אומצוקערן איין טאָג מיט נײַעם וויסן און בײַצושטײַערן פֿאַר דער אַנטוויקלונג פֿון זײַן אייגן לאַנד, אָפּגעשאַצט זײַן פֿריילעך־גוטמוטיקן כאַראַקטער און געדענקט אין זײַן שטילער גבֿורה.
די צערעמאָניע איז פֿאָרגעקומען אונטער אַ הייסער אָקטאָבער־זון, ענלעך צו דער וואָס האָט באַשײַנט די לעצטע רגעס פֿון זײַן פֿרײַהייט, ענלעך צו דער אונטער וועלכער כאַמאַס־אָנהענגער האָבן צוגערויבט בגוואַלד און מיט רציחה זײַן פֿרײַהייט.
אויף אַ פּלעצל בײַם פֿליפֿעלד פֿון וועלכן ער איז אָפּגעפֿלויגן אַהיים, איז געשטאַנען ביפּין דזשאָשיס אָרון. דעם אָרון האָט מען באַדעקט מיט בילדער, בלומען און בריוולעך. איבערן אָרון האָט דער פֿאָרשטייער פֿון דעם ראַיאָן אין וועלכן עס געפֿינט זיך קיבוץ עלומים, אויסגעשפּרייט לויטן נעפּאַלער מינהג אַ ווײַסן, זײַדענעם שאַל. בײַ אַ באַזונדער טישל האָט דער עולם נאָך די הספּדים געקענט אָנצינדן נשמה־ליכטלעך צו זײַן אָנדענק.
אַן עולם — נישט קליין, כאָטש אָן נעפּאַלער קרובֿים.
די רעדעס זײַנען געווען אויף ענגליש און העברעיִש, בכּבֿודיק, מענטשלעך. איידל. נישט פּאָליטיש. די צערעמאָניע האָט געדויערט אַן אָנדערהאַלבן שעה און זיך געענדיקט אָפֿיציעל מיט צוויי הימענס נאָך אַנאַנד, פֿאַרפֿלאָכטן ווי דער צופֿעליק־בשותּפֿותדיקער גורל פֿון די צוויי פֿעלקער און לענדער: ישׂראל און נעפּאַל.
דאָס לעצטע בילד אין מײַן זכּרון: אַ ייִד מיט לאַנגע פּאות וואָס פֿירט אַוועק דעם אָרון צו אַן אויטאָ.
די לעצטע קלאַנגען אין מײַן אויער: דער פּליוך פֿון געוויין פֿון נעפּאַלער פֿרויען, קלאָגערינס;
די האָפֿענונג פֿון איין הימען און די טאַנצנדיקע טענער פֿון דעם צווייטן.
אַזוי האָבן מיר אים אָפּגעגעבן דאָ אין ישׂראל דעם לעצטן כּבֿוד.
ביפּין דזשאָשי — אַ שטילער העלד, אַן אומבאַשריגענער קרבן.
לאָמיר אים געדענקען — אַ מענטש, גערצחנט אין עזה דורך עזהער, אָן קיין שום זינען און אָן קיין שום באַרעכטיקונג, לשם הריגה.
The post In memory of the quiet hero from Nepal, Bipin Joshi appeared first on The Forward.
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‘The church is asleep right now’: Ted Cruz calls on Christians to confront right-wing antisemitism
(JTA) — Sen. Ted Cruz used his keynote address at a major gathering for Christian supporters of Israel this week to warn of “a growing cancer” of antisemitism on the right, which he said church leaders are failing to address.
“I’m here to tell you, in the last six months, I have seen antisemitism rising on the right in a way I have never seen in my entire life,” Cruz said, speaking on Sunday at a megachurch in San Antonio, led by John Hagee, the founder of Christians United for Israel, which claims to have more than 10 million members.
He continued, “The work that CUFI does is desperately, desperately needed, but I’m here to tell you, the church is asleep right now.”
In the days around Cruz’s speech at Hagee’s 45th annual Night to Honor Israel, a cluster of conservative voices made similar appeals, arguing that antisemitism inside parts of the right can no longer be waved away as fringe. Essays in The Free Press and Tablet mapped how extremist figures and ideas have been normalized and the Jewish educational center and think tank Tikvah warned of a “clear faction” hostile to Israel and Judaism.
In The Free Press, conservative columnist Eli Lake published an essay titled “How Nick Fuentes Went Mainstream,” arguing that the far-right activist — long shunned for racist and antisemitic rhetoric — has lately been welcomed by a roster of popular podcasts and livestreams. In Lake’s telling, the “stigma” around Fuentes has “melted away,” an index of how the Overton window has shifted inside parts of the online right.
At Tablet, a first-person essay by a libertarian insider headlined “Hitler Is Back in Style,” traced what the author describes as a libertarian-to-alt-right pipeline that, over the past decade, normalized conspiratorial thinking about Jews and open flirtations with Hitler apologetics. The piece is both confessional and diagnostic, naming podcast ecosystems and ideological crosscurrents that, the author argues, have turned “antiwar” rhetoric into reflexive anti-Israel sentiment and a broader hostility to Jews.
Meanwhile, Tikvah, one of the most prominent right-wing groups in the Jewish world, noted in an email to supporters Thursday that it has tracked the same trend.
“Today, there is a clear faction of the right that is overtly hostile to Israel and to Judaism. And though small, it is no longer marginal or possible to ignore,” wrote Avi Snyder, a senior director at Tikvah.
The organization pointed to a body of essays it began publishing in 2023, warning that some on the right were reviving old suspicions about Jewish loyalty, casting the U.S.-Israel alliance as a trap, and disputing the moral superiority of the Allied fight in World War II.
In the background is the aftershock of Charlie Kirk’s assassination last month, which unleashed a torrent of conspiracies that quickly turned antisemitic in parts of the right’s online ecosystem. Fact-checkers documented a flood of false claims, while some influencers toyed with theories about Israeli or “Mossad” involvement — rhetoric with enough popular traction that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, felt compelled to issue a rebuttal. The swirl reinforced how fast fringe ideas migrate in today’s media sphere, even as prosecutors in Utah have charged a suspect and outlined a motive that has nothing to do with Israel.
In his speech, Cruz noted he has talked to Netanyahu about declining support for Israel on the right — and that the two men see the issue differently.
He recounted a recent conversation with the Israeli prime minister, saying that Netanyahu’s first instinct was to chalk much of it up to foreign amplification from places like Qatar and Iran — bots and paid misinformation networks.
Cruz pushed back: “I said, ‘Mr. Prime Minister, yes, but no. Yes, Qatar and Iran are clearly paying for it, and there are bots, and they are putting real money behind it, but I am telling you, this is real, it is organic, these are real human beings, and it is spreading.’”
Later in his address, Cruz highlighted the drift’s theological dimension. He warned of a resurgence of replacement theology, which he characterized as a “lie that the promises God made to Israel and the people of Israel are somehow no longer good, they are no longer valid.”
According to replacement theology, the Israelites were supplanted as God’s chosen people once the Christian church was founded.
Cruz didn’t blame anyone by name, but his comments come as figures with long records of inflammatory commentary toward Jews or Israel have continued to gain oxygen. Fuentes has rebounded from ostracism to high-visibility bookings; Tucker Carlson draws millions of viewers amplifying narratives that edge into Jew-baiting; and Candace Owens’ conspiratorial comments about Israel continue to pull audiences.
Together they form a feedback loop in which algorithmic reach and controversy reward edgier takes — and make it harder for party actors to draw lines.
Adding to the fray is last week’s Young Republicans leak, a Politico exposé of a Telegram chat where early-career GOP activists traded racist slurs, joked about gas chambers and praised Hitler. The episode prompted firings, the shutdown of state Young Republican chapters and bipartisan condemnation. But Vice President J.D. Vance downplayed the messages as immature “jokes” and urged critics to “grow up,” a stance that itself became part of the week’s debate over whether the right will police its own.
Soon after Kirk’s assassination, Rich Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a veteran of Republican politics, urged more policing on the right. In a post on X, he called on conservatives to stop booking Carlson, calling the former Fox News host’s posture toward Jews and Israel “a disease that is poisoning the Republican Party.”
He added, “It needs to be met with a decision by those we call ‘leaders’ to stop platforming him (and those who echo such vile sentiments).”
More than a month later, the most important right-wing leader in the country, Donald Trump, has yet to weigh in.
The post ‘The church is asleep right now’: Ted Cruz calls on Christians to confront right-wing antisemitism appeared first on The Forward.
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Our communal definition of Jewish security is too limited. We need a wider one.
On Saturday mornings, I walk through metal detectors on my way into synagogue. I’m aware of why they’re there, and I feel grateful they exist.
My husband, who works at a Jewish day school, is grateful too for the security and cameras keeping an eye on the campus. In 2025, our places of faith require us to invest thoughtfully in safety.
These actions make us more safe, but is that all we need to feel more secure? If you ask me, the way we talk about “security” falls short.
In July, Jewish leaders applauded when Congress approved $274.5 million in federal security funding for nonprofits, including synagogues and Jewish community centers. The applause was deserved. In an era of heightened antisemitism, these dollars matter.
And yet, if our definition of “Jewish security” starts at cameras and locks, and stops with security guards, then it is incomplete. True security must also mean that Jews can afford to see a doctor, put food on the table, and secure a living wage.
The same budget Congress passed in July also cost Jewish households billions of dollars in security, literally. Alongside countless cuts, the administration eliminated more than $1 trillion from healthcare programs that make it possible for millions of Americans to fill a diabetes prescription or access preventative care like a mammogram. The largest of those programs is Medicaid.
I remember when my grandfather’s care needs for his Alzheimer’s ramped up, and I wondered, who was paying for this? For so many families, including mine, the answer in that moment is Medicaid. Today, one in 11 American Jews relies on it. Medicaid is the insurance that provides Holocaust survivors with home health care aids, covers therapy for young queer Jews at Jewish Family Service agencies, and ensures Jewish babies are born without their parents adding the bill to their credit card debt. For more than 650,000 Jews, Medicaid is security. For them, a cut to Medicaid is not abstract; it’s a threat to their lives.
When I read the results of a new study on American Jewish finances, I had to read them again. Twenty-nine percent of Jews say they are struggling or just barely making ends meet, up from 20 percent in 2020. If you’re feeling stretched right now, it is not just you.
And painfully, while 66% of Jews with financial stability believe the community takes care of people in need, only 39 percent of low-income Jews agree. We are a community that prides itself on mutual responsibility, but we are falling short.
For generations, Jews were at the forefront of labor movements, fighting for fair wages and economic justice. Today, that spirit continues with groups like the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies, which organized for months against the healthcare cuts embedded in HR 1. But the issue seemed to be missing or swept aside from the radar of the broader Jewish community.
Despite our people’s history being marked by our lack of access to assets, I sometimes feel like I’m inside an antisemitic cartoon when I jokingly remind people that yes, low-income Jews do exist and at high rates. I myself grew up in a household that at times relied on government assistance like SNAP and free school lunch. I know how it feels to sit in synagogue and wonder if anyone sees you, and your or your friends’ financial fears.
As a former case manager, CEO of a national hunger organization, and now Jewish poverty expert, I have learned that change does not happen alone. Our rabbis, our philanthropists, our institutions, and yes, our government partners must all widen the definition of Jewish security.
We recently marked Sukkot, a holiday that puts front and center how fragile security can be. We should remember that our ancestors never defined security by walls alone. They defined it by covenant—by the promise that no one would be left to wander alone. As philosopher Michael Waltzer reminds us, “wherever you are, there too is Egypt,” a place where someone is oppressed and burdened.
Waltzer reminds us that a better world is possible, and the only way to get there is by joining together.
When I walk through those metal detectors on Shabbat, I’m grateful. And I know that for many, security requires not just protection but stability. Jewish security means that every person in our community can live with healthcare, access to a thriving Jewish life, and someone to call when things get hard. That is the covenant we renew each time we care for one another.
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The post Our communal definition of Jewish security is too limited. We need a wider one. appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.