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Investigation into Conservative movement’s youth programs identifies ‘hypersexualized culture’
(JTA) – An investigation into sexual abuse and misconduct in the Conservative movement’s youth group programs over the past seven decades identified an “overly sexualized culture” and collected accounts of alleged abuse from 40 victims.
Most of the allegations included in the investigation took place between 1987 and 2019 in the New York City area, and the alleged perpetrators are no longer affiliated with the Conservative movement, according to the report. The report urges the movement to keep its current practices around protecting children in place. It also urges the movement to improve its implementation of safety measures and record-keeping, and to “advance a healthier culture for teens.”
The investigation commissioned by the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the movement’s umbrella organization for congregations, was based on documents and interviews with the victims. It turned up allegations of “wrongful sexual contact, reports of grooming, reports of an over sexualized culture, and other boundary-crossing behaviors” at programs run by the movement’s youth group, United Synagogue Youth, known as USY. (The Conservative movement’s network of Ramah camps is not under the United Synagogue’s auspices.)
One section of the 20-page report is dedicated to the culture of sexualization within the Conservative movement’s youth programs and includes reports of inappropriate games and pressure on teens to engage in sexual activity with one another. The report comes amid a time of reckoning over child sexual abuse in the Jewish world. It is the latest in a series of similar investigations commissioned by major Jewish religious organizations that examine sexual misconduct against teens in Jewish youth movements, camps, schools and other institutions.
The investigation did not corroborate the allegations and did not discover “widespread or systematic abuse,” according to the report, which was written by UCSJ and approved by Sarah Worley, the attorney hired to gather information and draft recommendations. No one implicated in the investigation currently works or volunteers in the movement, according to Worley’s investigation. Every adult accused of sexual misconduct has been barred from future participation.
The report doesn’t name anyone, victim or perpetrator. At least one former employee of the youth group, former USY Nassau County, Long Island, divisional director Ed Ward, is the subject of multiple lawsuits accusing him of sexual abuse of multiple teens. He worked for USY until 2020.
Following an initial report on one of the lawsuits in the Times of Israel in 2021, additional allegations against Ward emerged. USCJ is a co-defendant in that lawsuit. A second suit alleges that Ward’s abuse took place as recently as 2018. Days after those allegations were published, USCJ launched its investigation into misconduct at USY. The Times of Israel said Ward did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
“USY must ask itself what about its own identity allowed this to transpire, and what must it do to ensure that it can never happen again,” Rabbi Jordan Soffer, one of Ward’s alleged accusers, told the Times of Israel in 2021. Describing a time when he says Ward took him into a bathroom and masturbated in front of him, he said, “I came up with every excuse I could think of. I’m tired. I can’t. I’m embarrassed. I told him I wanted to leave. He told me to stay until he finished.”
Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, CEO of the USCJ, said in a statement on Wednesday’s report, “We fully condemn past misconduct as reported to Ms. Worley and we remain committed to providing a safe and enriching environment for our Jewish teens without exception.”
The bulk of recent misconduct reported to Worley took place in the New York City area and was allegedly committed by two perpetrators, while the programs on the West Coast saw more cases in earlier decades.
Among the cases summarized in the report was a victim who said that an adult staff member threatened to blackmail them with a graphic photograph while at camp in the 1980s. In the 1990s, one unnamed adult staff member allegedly sexually assaulted teens across four separate incidents. Five reports to Worley said that a single staff member encouraged teen campers to masturbate as a group in the 2000s, an allegation that was made against Ward in 2021. Allegations in the 2010s included groping of a teen by a staff member and sharing of a graphic video.
The report also describes a culture in which teens felt pressure to engage in sexual activity with each other. In particular, the report describes the “Point System,” in which participants in USY activities received a certain number of “points” for “hooking up” with another USY member, based on that member’s position in the youth group. Similar systems exist in other Jewish youth groups as well. “Multiple victim/survivors and others reported their concern with the Point System and offered it as an example of the hypersexualized culture that they believe pervades USY and its programs,” the report says.
“Some explained that sexualized ‘traditions’ had been developed and passed down over generations, and in some instances, victim/survivors said they felt torn between their reluctance to participate in these traditions and their sense that, as teens in the Conservative movement, their participation was expected,” the report says.
Only one of the allegations of sexual misconduct occurred since 2020. The misconduct involved an adult staff member grooming a teen through text messages.
The Conservative movement’s investigation overlapped with a similar reckoning taking place in the Reform movement, which carried out three investigations into sexual misconduct, including one that was focused on Reform youth programs.
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‘Path to Normalization’: Lebanese President Turns on Hezbollah, Calls for Israel Talks
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun looks on during a meeting with Cyprus’ President Nikos Christodoulides at the Presidential Palace in Nicosia, Cyprus, July 9, 2025. Photo: Petros Karadjias/Pool via REUTERS
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Monday accused Hezbollah of dragging Lebanon toward becoming a “second Gaza” with its rocket attacks on Israel and called for negotiating a full ceasefire with Jerusalem, saying the launches served “the Iranian regime’s calculations” and risked “collapsing” the country.
Aoun’s remarks, among the most direct criticism of Iran-backed Hezbollah by a Lebanese president in years, accused the Islamist terror group of launching rockets as an “obvious trap” to lure his country back into a conflict with Israel.
“Whoever launched those rockets wanted to secure the fall of the Lebanese state, under aggression and chaos, even at the price of destroying dozens of our villages and the fall of tens of thousands of our people. For the sake of the Iranian regime’s calculations,” Aoun told European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa in an online meeting.
Earlier this month, he added, the Lebanese government made “a clear and irrevocable decision” barring any military or security activity by Hezbollah.
An Israeli coalition of former diplomats, security experts, and business leaders called Aoun’s remarks a “courageous” and potentially “historic” opening by a Lebanese government seeking to disarm Hezbollah.
“Israel must seize the moment to create the necessary conditions for shaping a negotiated reality along the northern border — one that would constitute a significant strategic victory against Iran and further isolate it,” the Coalition for Regional Security said in a statement.
The group praised the “anti-Iranian Lebanese government” for seeking to disarm Hezbollah, but warned that “it is unable to accomplish this task alone.”
According to Lianne Pollak-David, the coalition’s founder, the current US-Israeli strikes on Iran were creating more space for Beirut to confront Hezbollah openly.
“The more Iran is weakened and isolated, the more the Lebanese government feels confident going directly and publicly against Hezbollah,” she told The Algemeiner.
But Pollak-David argued the Lebanese government could not disarm Hezbollah on its own and would need help from outside powers, including Israel. That, she said, would force Israel to walk a “very tricky fine line” to break Hezbollah on the one hand, without leaving Beirut to absorb the blowback by itself.
She called for “collaborating with the Lebanese government, leveraging all the regional coalition that has been formed around this war, and, under [US President Donald] Trump’s leadership, pushing for a new reality in Lebanon.”
Iran’s military and political incapacitation could even open the way to more regional peace agreements, she said.
“Everything is connected,” Pollak-David said. “The more Iran is isolated and the more its proxies are weakened, the more we’re seeing all the moderate forces in the region coordinating and collaborating,” increasing the chances of “Israel-Lebanese normalization and Israel-Arab normalization altogether.”
But Hezbollah expert Lieutenant Colonel (Res.) Sarit Zehavi offered a far more skeptical view, questioning whether Aoun’s remarks signaled any real change on the ground.
“I don’t see the difference between Aoun’s remarks now and his remarks when he was elected, except for the willingness to have direct negotiations with Israel,” she told The Algemeiner.
When Aoun took office in January of last year, he said Lebanon must eventually ensure weapons are held only by the state, but he also said repeatedly that this had to happen through dialogue, not confrontation.
“The biggest question at stake, which I don’t get an answer to, is whether Aoun’s army is willing to clash with Hezbollah, because that is what it will take to disarm it,” Zehavi said, noting Aoun’s fear that such a clash could lead to civil war.
She pointed to reports from Monday that Hezbollah operatives arrested while transporting weapons south were released almost immediately on token bail of $20, which she said showed how little appetite Beirut had demonstrated for a real confrontation with the terrorist group.
Zehavi, who founded the Alma Center — a research center that focuses on security challenges relating to Israel’s northern border — said Aoun would need to do far more than denounce Hezbollah or talk about state authority over weapons before Israel could treat his government as a real partner. The first step, she said, was for his government to formally outlaw Hezbollah and take concrete action against it.
“I will be much more convinced in Aoun’s good intentions if he designates Hezbollah as a terrorist entity,” she said. “Meanwhile, I don’t think we should negotiate with this Lebanese government.”
Until then, she said, Israel should keep up its attacks on Hezbollah, particularly south of the Litani River, located roughly 15 miles from the Israeli border.
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College Republicans Appoints Anti-Israel, Nick Fuentes Associate to Political Director Role
Kai Schwemmer speaks at pro-life rally. Photo: Screenshot
The largest Republican youth organization in the United States has named as its new political director a far-right social media personality and streamer with strong anti-Israel views and ties to antisemitic podcaster Nick Fuentes.
The move has fueled ongoing concerns that young Republicans are increasingly embracing antisemitic conspiracy theories and turning against Israel, the closest US ally in the Middle East.
College Republicans of America on Thursday announced that it tapped Kai Schwemmer to serve as the group’s next political director. The announcement was met with immediate backlash by many observers who have previously accused Schwemmer of advancing antisemitic and anti-Israel narratives.
We are proud to welcome @KaiSchwemmer as our new Political Director of CRA! pic.twitter.com/vvDJZgxm9e
— College Republicans of America (@uscollegegop) March 5, 2026
Despite the controversy, College Republicans of America President Martin Bertao defended the decision to hire the firebrand on X.
“Over the last day I have done a lot of reflecting on my decision to appoint Kai as CRA’s political director. And in that reflection I have came to the decision that I would like to apologize … to absolutely NOBODY, CRA will never back down to the WOKE mob!” he posted.
In the two and a half years following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, Schwemmer has established a reputation online as a staunch critic of the US relationship with the Jewish state. Schwemmer has appeared in and hosted various online debates over the US-Israel alliance.
In January, Schwemmer appeared in a debate hosted by popular right-wing commentator Michael Knowles, in which he argued that the so-called Zionist wing of the Republican Party (GOP) is not “concerned with what’s best for America.” He argued that the pro-Israel coalition within the GOP advances policies which strangle free speech to suppress dissent around Israel.
During another January debate against pro-Israel commentator Cam Higby, Schwemmer cast more doubt over the US relationship with Israel, claiming that “Jewish” and “Zionist” defense contractors benefit from striking lucrative arms deals with the Jewish state.
“And so you see a kind of collection of, you know, the contracts going back to Zionists in America who no matter what are going to be supportive of, whether it’s just militarily or monetarily, they’re going to support US involvement and US support for Israel, and so I think there’s a problem in in you know coalescing all of that funding into the same interests,” Schwemmer said.
“Are you telling me that the Jewish CEOs of Boeing, Raytheon, and other defense contractors are not looking out for Israeli interests? And do you think that’s not a part of their calculus?” Schwemmer asked during the debate.
He has also provoked criticism over his connections with Fuentes, an avowed antisemite and Holocaust denier. Schwemmer has complimented Fuentes multiple times, claiming that he agrees with his views and calling the white supremacist and 27-year-old self-described virgin as “cool.”
This is Kai Schwemmer, the new political director for the College Republicans of America, with Nick Fuentes.
The Republican Party should be put on notice that real conservatives will not tolerate groypers from taking over our party. pic.twitter.com/CjbrvVZCfZ
— Justin (@JustinUSA) March 9, 2026
Schwemmer has been spotted wearing a blue baseball cap emblazoned with the slogan “America First.” The cap and slogan were created by members of Fuentes’ fanbase to signal support for the antisemitic “Groyper” movement. In 2022, Schwemmer appeared as a featured speaker at Fuentes’s white nationalist “America First PAC.”
His presence at a Turning Point USA debate regarding Israel, hosted at the University of Delaware, drew protests over his connection to Fuentes.
“Schwemmer is a disciple of Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust-denying white nationalist who was a key leader of both the deadly ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville and the January 6 insurrection,” a flyer passed out at the event read.
In June 2025, Schwemmer criticized Israel’s strikes against Iran’s nuclear program and suggested that conservatives should sympathize with Tehran.
“There’s something extremely unsettling about all the conservative influencers saying things like ‘God Bless Israel today and in the coming days’ after seeing Israel’s preemptive strike on Iran. What should God be blessing them for? Starting a war?” he posted on X.
College Republicans, one of the oldest youth organizations affiliated with the Republican Party, plays an important role in the GOP ecosystem, serving primarily as a pipeline for future political staffers and campaign volunteers rather than a driver of party policy. The group helps recruit and mobilize young conservatives on college campuses and often supplies doorknockers and organizers to Republican campaigns coordinated with the Republican National Committee. Several prominent Republican figures, including former House Speaker Paul Ryan and longtime strategist Karl Rove, got their start in the organization, underscoring its role as a training ground for the party’s next generation of operatives.
Schwemmer’s ascendance comes as the GOP continues to reckon with a perceived rise in antisemitism among its youngest cohorts.
Last month, for example, a survey by Irwin Mansdorf, a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, and Charles Jacobs, president of the Jewish Leadership Project, found that 45 percent of Republicans under the age of 44 said Jews pose a threat to the “American way of life.”
In December, the Manhattan Institute, a prominent US-based think tank, released a major poll showing that younger Republican voters are much less supportive of Israel and more likely to express antisemitic views than their older cohorts.
According to the data, 25 percent of Republicans under 50 openly express antisemitic views as opposed to just 4 percent over the age of 50.
Startlingly, a substantial amount, 37 percent, of GOP voters indicate belief in Holocaust denialism. These figures are more pronounced among young men under 50, with a majority, 54 percent, agreeing that the Holocaust “was greatly exaggerated or did not happen as historians describe.” Among men over 50, 41 percent agree with the sentiment.
Last week, the Miami Dade County Republican Party came under fire after leaked group chats revealed extensive racism and antisemitism throughout membership. The local GOP, Turning Point USA, and College Republicans casually said “ni—er,” denounced women as “whores,” and spoke rapturously about Adolf Hitler.
Ian Valdes, the president of Florida International University’s chapter of Turning Point USA, wrote, “I would def not marry a Jew lmao.” Other participants referred to Jews as “k—kes.”
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Antisemitism in Switzerland Hits Alarming Levels as Online Incidents Surge, Reports Warn
A pro-Hamas demonstration in Zurich, Switzerland, Oct. 28, 2023. Photo: IMAGO/dieBildmanufaktur via Reuters Connect
Antisemitism in Switzerland surged to alarming levels last year, with two reports released on Tuesday warning that hostility and violence targeting Jews are intensifying across the country amid the broader fallout from war involving Israel in the Middle East.
On Tuesday, the Intercommunity Coordination Against Antisemitism and Defamation (CICAD) released its 2025 annual report on hate crimes, documenting a 36 percent rise in antisemitic incidents against the local Jewish community in French-speaking Switzerland compared to 2024.
With a total of 2,438 antisemitic acts last year, CICAD’s latest report marks the highest level of such incidents since the organization began monitoring them in 2003.
Based on the latest data, the association warned of a worsening trend, with incidents classified as “grave and serious” rising 16 percent — from 109 cases in 2024 to 127 in 2025.
This week, the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (SIG), in collaboration with the Foundation Against Racism and Antisemitism (GRA), also released their annual report on antisemitic outrages in German-, Italian-, and Romansh-speaking Switzerland for the past year.
Their latest data also shows that antisemitism “remains at a persistently high level” across the country, with tensions further fueled by the ongoing war in the Middle East.
“Since Oct. 7, 2023, the war in the Middle East has been the main long-term trigger for antisemitic incidents in Switzerland,” the organizations wrote in their report, referring to the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel more than two years ago.
“This influence remained significant in 2025. No return to pre-Oct. 7 levels has been observed to date,” they continued.
SIG and GRA’s latest report found the biggest surge of antisemitic activity in online spaces, with 2,185 incidents recorded in 2025 — an increase of nearly 37 percent from 1,596 the previous year.
Most incidents took place on the Telegram messaging app, with online newspaper comments coming in second, and the bulk of the reported content centered on conspiracy theories.
With such figures, the report warned that antisemitism is no longer an isolated occurrence but a structural issue, cautioning against the normalization of antisemitic rhetoric.
Even though the study found that real-world antisemitic incidents fell to 177 in 2025 from 221 in 2024 — a decrease of roughly 20 percent — the number remains about three times higher than levels recorded before the Oct. 7 atrocities.
The GRA and SIG urged local authorities to ensure the sustainable protection of Jewish life in Switzerland, calling for long-term security measures, increased investment in prevention and education, and a stronger commitment to monitoring antisemitic threats.
“Effectively combating antisemitism is not a one-off task, but an ongoing responsibility of the state and society,” the report said.