A Boulder police officer patrols with a bomb smelling dog beside a makeshift memorial outside the Boulder Courthouse, days after an attack that injured multiple people in Boulder, Colorado, US, June 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mark Makela

This week, it emerged that a student at Nysmith School — a prestigious K-8 private school in Virginia — submitted a portrait of Adolf Hitler, no less, for a classroom project on “strong historical leaders.”

You might expect that the school would treat this as a serious misstep, an opportunity to teach boundaries and basic decency. Instead, they proudly displayed the artwork.

And when one Jewish student’s parents, understandably horrified, raised their concerns, the school’s response wasn’t an apology — it was dismissal. Their 11-year-old daughter, they were told, needed to “toughen up.”

Then, in a twist that belongs in some dark satirical novel, all three of that family’s children were expelled. Let that sink in. Expelled!

This wasn’t a college campus. It wasn’t a high school. And it wasn’t some anonymous post in a toxic online forum. This was an art and history assignment at an elite elementary and middle school.

And let’s be clear — this wasn’t an isolated incident or a momentary lapse in judgment. After October 7th, the school’s headmaster raised a Palestinian flag in the gym. Shortly after, according to a lawsuit, he canceled the Holocaust education event — because it might “inflame tensions.” Inflame tensions with whom, exactly?

When Jewish students were bullied — called “baby killers” and mocked about murdered relatives — they weren’t protected. They were allegedly punished for speaking up.

So let me say this clearly: what happened at Nysmith isn’t just a civil rights violation. It is a moral collapse. And yes — this is how it begins.

America, we’re told, is the safest place in the world for Jews. And maybe it is. Until it isn’t.

Because we’ve been here before. Babylonia was the best place for Jews. Until it wasn’t.

Spain, in its Golden Age, welcomed Jewish poets, scientists, and philosophers. Until it didn’t.

Medieval era France, the Rhineland, England — each of them was considered the best place for Jews. Until they weren’t.

The Ottoman Empire was once a safe haven. Until it wasn’t.

Poland was called Paradisus Judaeorum — the Paradise of the Jews. Until it wasn’t.

It doesn’t happen all at once. The shift is slow. Subtle. At first, you ignore it. Then you excuse it. Then it becomes undeniable. And by then, it’s usually too late.

This past week, at the Glastonbury music festival in the UK — a family-friendly event attended by thousands — British rapper Bob Vylan took the stage and shouted into the mic: “Death, death to the IDF!” The crowd roared in approval.

The BBC, which could easily have cut the live feed using the standard broadcast delay, did nothing. The chant was broadcast to millions.

Within hours, the clip went viral. Not on obscure fringe forums or dark corners of Telegram — but on TikTok, Instagram, and X. In just a few days, “Death to the IDF” has become the go-to slogan for every armchair antisemite with a smartphone.

To illustrate how far we’ve come down this road, had this happened at Glastonbury just a few months ago, it would have been shocking. Now it’s par for the course, and a chant that’s picked up and repeated around the world. Calling for the death of IDF soldiers has been mainstreamed and normalized. It’s the new rallying cry. That’s how fast the tide turns.

We are living through one of those moments when the tectonic plates shift beneath our feet — and we pretend it’s not happening. Or that it’s not as bad as it looks. We tell ourselves, It’s isolated. It’s exaggerated. It’s just performance art. It’s lunatic lefties. It’s radical Muslims. It’s fringe neo-Nazis. It’s just college campuses. It’s just Gaza.

Well, I’ve got news for you — it isn’t. And let me tell you something else: the Torah warned us about this from the very beginning of our national story.

In Parshat Chukkat, the Jewish people are finally ready to end their long journey. After 40 years of wandering, all they want is safe passage through the lands of their neighbors. No invasion. No demands. Just a straightforward request: let us pass.

Moshe sends messengers to Edom with a message that couldn’t be more respectful (Num. 20:14–17): “So says your brother Israel … we won’t touch your vineyards, we won’t drink your water. We just want to pass through — quietly and peacefully.” But Edom refuses. No reason given and no negotiation. Just a flat denial: “You shall not pass.”

So the Israelites try again, this time with the Emorites. They send the same message, with the same tone. And guess what, they get the same result. But here’s the remarkable part: the Israelites posed no threat. They weren’t armed for battle, and they weren’t looking for war. They simply wanted to walk through and get to the land of their heritage.

But that didn’t matter, because even then — even in the ancient world — there was something bubbling beneath the surface: a deep, irrational discomfort with Jews.

One ancient commentary, the Sifrei, notes that Edom’s refusal wasn’t about fear or self-defense. It was about something much more visceral: they couldn’t tolerate the idea of Jews moving through their land, even peacefully. Just their presence was too much.

This is the oldest pattern in world history — the “othering” of Jews. The automatic transformation of the Jew into a problem, then a threat, and then a scapegoat. Even when the only thing he’s doing is walking down the road.

American Jews, British Jews — in fact, Jews everywhere, including Israel — aren’t looking for conflict. We don’t want war. We don’t want to stir up trouble. We just want to live in peace with our neighbors and contribute to the societies we call home.

And we do contribute — far beyond our numbers. In science, in medicine, in education, in business, in culture, in public service — we are always at the front of the line.

And yet, scratch the surface, and the hatred bubbles up like lava from a volcano. The moment it becomes socially acceptable, antisemites pounce — eager to find a reason to target Jews and threaten their existence.

We’re starting to see it now, even in the United States. It starts small. One school expels Jewish children, after they were the ones who were targeted. And all the while, we keep telling ourselves: this is still the best place for Jews. And maybe it is. Until it isn’t.

Parshat Chukkat reminds us that even when you’re reasonable — even when you ask politely, play by the rules, and pose no threat — there comes a moment when the answer is “no.” When the people you thought were your neighbors, your colleagues, your classmates, your fellow citizens, suddenly say, “no.” And when that moment comes, the worst thing you can do is pretend it’s still business as usual.

To be clear: I’m not saying it’s time to pack our bags. I’m not a prophet, nor am I a panic merchant. I’m simply saying: wake up and open your eyes. Listen to the crowds chanting “Death to the IDF” and understand what they really mean. Watch what happens when Jewish children ask for protection — and instead get punished. Recognize the ancient pattern for what it is.

In Parshat Chukkat, the Israelites were denied passage, but they didn’t grovel. They didn’t beg a third time. They gathered themselves, stood tall, and faced their enemies head-on — until their enemies were no more. They marched forward, heads held up high, with God at their side. And maybe it’s time we did the same.

The post American Jews — and Jews Around the World — Need to Wake Up first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Severed pigs head staked on the gates leading to the residence of University of British Columbia president Benoit-Antoine Bacon. Photo: Screenshot

The English historian Edward Gibbon (1737 to 1794), wrote six volumes of The History of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. His conclusions have been disputed ever since. But he ushered in a new era of historical and social theory that has dominated Western thought for centuries.

We like to find simple easy explanations — which never work out exactly the way we think they will. We live in a hyper world of facile theories, both about what is happening in the world today and what is likely to happen in the future. A world divided between good and bad people, rival religions, Zionists and anti-Zionists, and almost every other conceivable human political division. Many of them claiming moral high ground and predicting sea changes within the tide of human history. Theories are fine. But they are not reality.

I was brought up in a culture where there were divisions and disagreements, hatreds, and prejudices. But there was a veneer of politeness and sensibility that acted as a safety net. “I might hate you, but I won’t say so in public.” Hypocrisy? Perhaps, but it made life livable. This has now been swept away by the vicious destructive banality and corruption of the media and their pathetic victims.

I always felt the antisemitism embedded in British and most of European societies. Whenever our Jewish school played non-Jewish schools, we were assailed by Jew hatred. The artsy world tended to side with the Palestinians. One of the most vociferous opponents of Israel at Cambridge in my day was an aspiring Jewish actress and of course there was Roald Dahl. Of course there were many good Britons who were if not Philo-semitic at least understood a Jewish point of view that saw autonomy rather than assimilation as a solution to its sense of alienation.

Similarly, in the United States, a vein of antisemitism has run through that society since Peter Stuyvesant tried to ban Jews from New York. In 1862, in the heat of the Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant expelled all Jews from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi. And Harvard had antisemitic restrictions until after the second World War.

Even so, for many Jews escaping the killing fields of Europe, America was a Goldene Medina. It is all relative. Let us not forget that the gates of the US were slammed shut before the Second World War. Jews were looked on as outsiders — and when they did come, were pressured to assimilate.

For a short period in American history, there was a time when the idea that the Jews deserved to have a homeland of their own was accepted — even if the US often refused to get involved or took an apathetic position to Israel. Yet now that seems to be backsliding — and support for Israel is in peril.

The issue now is not whether Israel is right or wrong, good or bad, whether one can criticize or excoriate it. But whether it has any right to exist at all.

In New York, which was once considered to be a Jewish city, the man who would be mayor believes Israel as a Jewish state needs to be obliterated. We have experienced shock after shock these past two years. Hamas and Iran, dedicated to killing Jews, are praised and glorified. Not only our enemies, but even from within our own ranks, opposition to the idea of a Jewish state is returning to the time during the last century when most American Jews were anti-Zionist.

Ideological opponents delight in the claim that there’s a fundamental change in American society. And nearly everybody (except Iran, of course) is anxious to say that they are not antisemitic, heaven forbid. It’s just that they object to Israel.

And here we come to the pig. The Bible says that kosher animals have to have a cloven hoof and chew cud. Cows have both. Pigs only have one. Why is the pig picked as the epitome of non-kosher more than any other animal?

The answer is that the pig could put forward its two feet and show that he must be kosher because he has  cloven hooves. But look further and you see that it doesn’t chew the cud. The pig may protest it is kosher. But it is not! The current wave of dogmatic liberals who are products of years of infiltration and indoctrination, still want to claim they are not antisemites heaven forbid.

Lord knows, throughout my career, I have criticized many aspects of the secular and religious Zionism of Israeli Society and Jewish life. I know full well what our faults, hypocrisies, and failures are, and wish we would not have war imposed on us with all its cruelties.

But when it comes to Israel as a Jewish state (in an imperfect world where nationalities still hold sway), the right to exist the way that we want to, is incorporated into most documents of human rights.

It remains rooted in the idea that we can choose how we want to live. And that includes the right of Judaism to a state of its own — predicated on the fact that no matter how the other nations of the world may have been polite, supportive, and helpful, there are within them, many who wish to see the destruction of the Jewish state and for that reason, they remind me of pigs. Yet most people love pigs.

Meanwhile, Israel continues to face an existential threat. The war in Gaza and its casualties continues. China is rearming Iran as fast as it can. North Korea and Pakistan are offering nuclear support. They are encouraging Iran to go on with its attempted genocide of Israel. Much of what is left of the Jewish community in Iran is either already dead or imprisoned. There is still no end to this. We have to stay strong.

Nothing remains static. That’s what we can learn from history. For all the fine theories, expert opinions, and predictions, we never know for certain how things will work out. And yet we soldier on. We cannot rest on our laurels. In the first battle the Israelites fought against Amalek it was Moshe holding his hands up high that made us realize that it is not by physical strength alone — but with spirit — that wars are won.

The author is a writer and rabbi in New York.

The post Why Pig Is Not Kosher and the Hidden Face of Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

A pro-Hamas demonstrator uses a bullhorn during a protest at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) on March 11, 2025. Photo: Daniel Cole via Reuters Connect.

In a stinging blow to the BDS campaign’s international drive to economically isolate Israel, University of California (UC) President Michael Drake said Wednesday in a letter to university chancellors across the entire UC system that student governments operating on UC campuses may not enact boycotts of companies “based on their association with a particular country.”

Noting that university polices “require that financial and business decisions be grounded in sound business practices including competitive bidding,” Drake stressed that the same principle applies to student governments within the UC system, one of the largest public university systems in the country.

“Actions by University entities to implement boycotts of companies based on their association with a particular country would not align with these sound business practices,” Drake wrote.

“The right of individuals and groups to express their views on public matters is distinct from the responsibility of University entities to conduct their financial affairs in a manner consistent with University policy and applicable law,” Drake continued. “This letter reaffirms both: the rights of students, faculty, and staff to express their views, and the university’s obligation to ensure that its units do not engage in financial boycotts of companies associated with a particular country.”

UC student governments have endorsed the BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) movement against Israel before, blurring distinctions in the public mind separating the stances of particular anti-Israel activists from official institutional policy. Such ambiguity is now a liability for any university whose budget is supplemented by taxpayer funds awarded by the federal government in the form of research grants and contracts. Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has ordered the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other entities to freeze funding to universities participating in a boycott of Israel, as well as those operating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs which practice racial discrimination.

Launched in 2005, the BDS campaign opposes Zionism — a movement supporting the Jewish people’s right to self-determination — and supports political demands that threaten Israel’s survival as as a Jewish state. It seeks to isolate the country internationally with economic, political, and cultural boycotts. Official guidelines issued for the campaign say that “projects with all Israeli academic institutions should come to an end” and delineate specific restrictions that its adherents should abide by, for instance denying letters of recommendation to students who seek to study in Israel.

In Feb. 2024, UCLA’s student government passed a resolution endorsing the BDS movement, as well as false accusation that Israel is committing a genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

“The Israeli government has carried out a genocidal bombing campaign and ground invasion against Palestinians in Gaza — intentionally targeting hospitals universities, schools, shelters, churches, mosques, homes, neighborhoods, refugee camps, ambulances, medical personnel, [United Nations] workers, journalists and more,” claimed the resolution, passed 10-3 by the UCLA Undergraduate Student Association Council (USAC). “Let it be resolved that the Undergraduate Student Association of UCLA formally call upon the UC Regents to withdraw investments in securities, endowments, mutual funds, and other monetary instruments … providing material assistance to the commission or maintenance of flagrant violations of international law.”

Only days earlier, the UC Davis student government passed legislation adopting BDS.

“This bill prohibits the purchase of products from corporations identified as profiting from the genocide and occupation of the Palestinian people by the BDS National Committee,” reads the measure, titled Senate Bill (SB) #52. “This bill seeks to address the human rights violations of the nation-state and government of Israel and establish a guideline of ethical spending.”

Such policies would be guided by a “BDS List” of targeted companies curated by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a list which includes Puma, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Airbnb, Disney and Sabra. The language of the legislation afforded the UC Davis student association the authority to add more.

Powers enumerated in the bill include veto power over all vendor contracts, which SJP specifically applied to “purchase orders for custom t-shirts,” a provision with implications for pro-Israel groups on campus.

“No ASUCD funds shall be committed to the purchases of products or services of any corporation identified by the BDS List as being complicit in the violation of the human rights guaranteed to Palestinian civilians,” read the bill.

Responding to the resolutions two months later, in April 2024, the UC System said in a statement that it has always opposed “calls for boycott against and divestment from” the state of Israel.

“While the University affirms the right of our community members to express diverse viewpoints, a boycott of this sort impinges on the academic freedom of our students and faculty and the unfettered exchanges of ideas on our campuses,” the statement declared. “Through careful management of the university’s retirement and endowment funds, UC investment provides a stable and growing revenue stream that benefits current and retired employees and supports the university’s education, research, and public service mission.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post University of California Bans Student Government Boycotts of Israel in Blow to BDS first appeared on Algemeiner.com.