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Golden Age of American Jewry May Be Ending, But Jews Thrive in Meritocracy

Reading from a Torah scroll in accordance with Sephardi tradition. Photo: Sagie Maoz via Wikimedia Commons.

The headlines seem bleak for Jews: “The Golden Age of American Jews is Ending”; “Jewish Erasure From American Life”; “The Vanishing.” The articles tell a consistent story: “Suddenly, everywhere you look, the Jews are disappearing”; “Antisemitism on the right and left threatens to bring to a close an unprecedented period of safety and prosperity for Jewish Americans …”

The data seem to support this assessment. Universities are rejecting Jewish applicants in numbers reminiscent of the days of quotas. Jewish representation in public offices is decreasing. Jobs in many areas seem to be closed to Jews in favor of other, more favored, minorities.

Honorific positions in elite cultural institutions — such as museums and orchestras — are being offered to leaders of other groups; university presidencies and deanships, which had been closed to Jews until the 1960s and then opened up to them in the 1990s, once again seem closed.

Academic prizes, such as MacArther and Guggenheim awards, have far fewer Jewish winners than in the past. Book publishers are rejecting Jewish authors. Even Hollywood, which was largely invented by Jews, is imposing quotas on Jewish filmmakers and other artists.

This trend, supported by precise numbers, is documented in an article by Jacob Savage in Tablet, and confirmed by several others, including a cover story in The Atlantic by Franklin Foer.

The facts, though, tell only part of a more complex phenomenon. They tell the part in which success is judged by how others — institutions and individuals — select the winners. They don’t, though, tell the equally remarkable story of persistent Jewish accomplishments in areas where success is not dependent on being picked by others — where success is self-determined and self-proving, in an open and free-market economy, without barriers to entry.

Jews are thriving in areas in which success is based entirely on meritocratic criteria, such as creativity, innovation, talent, and hard work. There has been no discernible reduction in Jewish inventors, musicians, investors, entrepreneurs, groundbreaking scientists, or chess champions.

Jewish doctors are still saving lives. Jewish lawyers are winning cases. Jewish comedians are making people laugh. Jewish podcasters are attracting large audiences. As long as the criteria is objective and identity-blind, Jews thrive.

The same is generally true of Asian Americans. Jews are a tiny percentage of the American population — between 2 percent and 3 percent, depending on the criteria — and so when their numbers exceed that percentage, Jews are accused of being “overrepresented“ and taking the rightful places of larger minority groups.

This was the same argument made in czarist Russia and other nations that imposed the notorious “numerus clausus.”

There are course limits to the kind of success that can be achieved in the face of discrimination by others who get to pick applicants for routes to success. Reduced Jewish admission to universities, reduced publication opportunities for Jewish authors, reduced scientific honors will eventually have an impact even on self-determined Jewish success. This was certainly true in past eras of anti-Jewish quotas.

As long as the United States has a free-market economic system with few barriers to entry, Jews — and others — denied admission to restricted organizations will be able to achieve a modicum of success. That success will enable them to fight against other discriminatory measures, as wealthy, self-made Jewish contributors are now doing with regard to universities.

So the water in the Jewish glass is lower than it has been during our “golden age.” It is, though, half full. Not half empty. It will remain at least half full as long as our free-market economy allows discriminated-against individuals to thrive in areas where meritocracy is rewarded with success.

Today’s culture, though, is determined to destroy what is left of meritocracy, because it is seen as undercutting the identity-oriented diversity, equity, and inclusion criteria for selection and success.

Alan M. Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law Emeritus at Harvard Law School, and is the author of “Guilt by Accusation” and host of the “The Dershow” podcast. Follow Alan Dershowitz on Twitter (@AlanDersh) and on Facebook (@AlanMDershowitz). A version of this article was originally published by The New York Sun.

The post Golden Age of American Jewry May Be Ending, But Jews Thrive in Meritocracy first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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‘With or Without Russia’s Help’: Iran Pledges to Block South Caucasus Route Opened Up By Peace Deal

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.

i24 NewsIran will block the establishment of a US-backed transit corridor in the South Caucasus region with or without Moscow’s help, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader was quoted as saying on Saturday by the Iran International website, one day after the historic peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

“Mr. Trump thinks the Caucasus is a piece of real estate he can lease for 99 years,” Ali Akbar Velayati said of the so-called Zangezur corridor, the establishment of which is stipulated in the peace deal unveiled on Friday by US President Donald Trump. The White House said the transit route would facilitate greater exports of energy and other resources.

“This passage will not become a gateway for Trump’s mercenaries — it will become their graveyard,” the Khamenei advisor added.

Baku and Yerevan have been at loggerheads since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous Azerbaijani region mostly populated by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. Azerbaijan took back full control of the region in 2023, prompting or forcing almost all of the territory’s 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia.

Yet that painful history was put to the side on Friday at the White House, as Trump oversaw a signing ceremony, flanked by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

The peace deal with Azerbaijan—a pro-Western ally of Israel—is expected to pull Armenia out of the Russian and Iranian sphere of influence and could transform the South Caucasus, an energy-producing region neighboring Russia, Europe, Turkey and Iran.

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UK Police Arrest 150 at Protest for Banned Palestine Action Group

People holding signs sit during a rally organised by Defend Our Juries, challenging the British government’s proscription of “Palestine Action” under anti-terrorism laws, in Parliament Square, in London, Britain, August 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jaimi Joy

London’s Metropolitan Police said on Saturday it had arrested 150 people at a protest against Britain’s decision to ban the group Palestine Action, adding it was making further arrests.

Officers made arrests after crowds, waving placards expressing support for the group, gathered in Parliament Square, the force said on X.

Protesters, some wearing black and white Palestinian scarves, chanted “shame on you” and “hands off Gaza,” and held signs such as “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action,” video taken by Reuters at the scene showed.

In July, British lawmakers banned Palestine Action under anti-terrorism legislation after some of its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged planes in protest against Britain’s support for Israel.

The ban makes it a crime to be a member of the group, carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.

The co-founder of Palestine Action, Huda Ammori, last week won a bid to bring a legal challenge against the ban.

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‘No Leniency’: Iran Announces Arrest of 20 ‘Zionist Agents’

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addresses a special session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, June 20, 2025. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

i24 NewsIranian authorities have in recent months arrested 20 people charged with being “Israeli Mossad operatives,” the judiciary said, adding that the Islamic regime will mete out the harshest punishments.

“The judiciary will show no leniency toward spies and agents of the Zionist regime, and with firm rulings, will make an example of them all,” spokesperson Asghar Jahangiri told Iranian media. However, it is understood that an unspecified number of detainees were released, apparently after the charges against them could not be substantiated.

The Islamic Republic was left reeling by a devastating 12-day war with Israel earlier in the summer that left a significant proportion of its military arsenal in ruins and dealt a serious setback to its uranium enrichment program. The fallout included an uptick in executions of Iranians convicted of spying for Israel, with at least eight death sentences carried out in recent months. Hit with international sanctions, the country is in dire economic straights, with frequent energy outages and skyrocketing unemployment.

In recent weeks Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi affirmed that Tehran cannot give up on its nuclear enrichment program even as it was severely damaged during the war.

“It is stopped because, yes, damages are serious and severe. But obviously we cannot give up of enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists. And now, more than that, it is a question of national pride,” the official told Fox News.

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