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Israel is turning 75. For American Jews, planning the birthday party has gotten complicated.
(JTA) – Like many synagogues have done over time, Congregation Kol Ami in Seattle is partnering with local Israelis to celebrate Israel’s birthday — a big one this year.
But Kol Ami won’t be holding a straightforward celebration for Israel’s 75th. Instead, it’s working with UnXeptable, a group of expat Israeli activists who have been protesting for months against the Israeli government’s plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary, for what they are calling a “family gathering honoring Israel’s democracy.” There, congregants will study Israel’s Declaration of Independence then sign a new copy to “rededicate” it.
“Most cities are just going to do a pareve 75th anniversary of Israel and not recognize the emotional reality of a lot of Israelis right now,” said Rabbi Yohanna Kinberg, using the Jewish term for food that contains neither meat nor dairy — in other words, a safe option.
“We have all these people in our communities who are worried about their friends and family, and we’re just going to be folk dancing and eating falafel?” she asked.
Such is the dynamic at play as Israel celebrates a milestone birthday under the shadow of political and cultural turmoil that people on both sides of the judicial reform fight say could change the country’s character forever — and that has altered the relationship between American Jews and Israel.
Long hesitant to weigh in on Israel’s domestic affairs, many American Jewish groups and leaders, including rabbis, spent the past several months openly criticizing the country’s right-wing government for its effort to sap the power of the Israeli Supreme Court.
Now, with the judicial legislation on pause, many of those groups have turned their attention to Yom Haatzmaut, this year celebrated starting the evening of April 25, and the 75th secular anniversary of Israel’s independence on May 14. Jewish Federations of North America is supporting its 146 local federations in convening “Israel @ 75” programming, while synagogues of all denominations have planned an array of parties, study sessions and special events.
People gather to watch performers from the Independent Women Dance Troupe during celebrations marking Israel’s 73rd Yom Haatzmaut (Independence Day) in New York City’s Times Square, April 18, 2021.(Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
The question facing all of them: With even Israel’s president warning of possible political violence, just how festive can this year’s birthday feel?
For Kinberg, the answer is clear: An uncomplicated party would be “sort of like celebrating the Fourth of July if we’re in the middle of a civil war.”
American Independence Day offers an instructive example for Rabbi Erez Sherman of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, too — but he has come to a different conclusion from Kinberg. He said his community celebrates Yom Haatzmaut the way most Americans mark the Fourth of July — without tailoring it to the current political headwinds.
“Are we going to spend it pointing at every challenge that Congress has?” he asked. “Or are we going to say, ‘This country is unique’?”
Temple Sinai is partnering with several local Jewish organizations, including the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, Pico Union Project and the Jewish Journal, for its weeks-long series of “Israel @ 75” events. Another sponsor is StandWithUs, a pro-Israel advocacy group that is involved in Israel-at-75 celebrations in several cities.
Together, the consortium will host concerts, history lectures, art exhibits and special Shabbat services — and even if the complicated present is expected to come up, it won’t be a focus.
“While we can understand challenges, there is also time for celebrations and birthdays,” said Sherman, who oversees Israel programming at his synagogue. “Israel is not perfect, but a world without Israel would be a lot less perfect than it is now.”
Thousands of Israelis protest against the planned judicial overhaul at the Azrieli junction in Tel Aviv, April 15, 2023. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
The balancing act has hit home this week for the umbrella group for North America’s Jewish federations, which is holding its annual convention in Israel next week — a plan that was set even before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was reelected and formed his right-wing government last fall. UnXeptable called for the group not to feature Netanyahu, who has sworn to restart his push to pass the judicial reform measures. But Jewish Federations of North America rejected the call on Monday, saying that “the opportunity to hear from Israel’s duly elected president and prime minister is a symbol of Israel’s achievement.”
What’s clear is that American Jews interested in engaging with Israel on its 75th birthday will have no shortage of options, from food festivals, children’s carnivals and concerts to headier fare. Experts on Israel are in high demand, with packed schedules of live and Zoom events offering up seemingly unending choices for people with all levels of familiarity with Israel’s history and politics.
For some American Jewish leaders, some of whom have expressed concern about Israel engagement in their communities, the very density and diversity of the offerings is itself a win.
“That’s great that we are in a Jewish community that has so many different forms of expression,” said Rachel Jacoby Rosenfield, executive vice president of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, a think tank that is organizing its own series of Israel-at-75 events that begins with a talk at New York City’s Central Synagogue titled “Dispatches from an Anxious Nation.”
For some Jewish communal organizers, celebrating Israel and discussing its future as a democracy go hand in hand, a dynamic eased by the landmark year and its invitation to hold multiple events.
In Cleveland, for example, the Jewish federation is mounting an “Israel Fest” headlined by a concert from the Shalva Band, a group of musicians with disabilities who appeared on an Israeli talent show. But the community is also hosting Israeli journalist Matti Friedman, who has been critical of the judicial reforms, as a guest speaker.
The federation is offering small grants to any Jewish Clevelanders looking to host their own Israel at 75 events, too, and is placing very few stipulations on their content.
If grantees want to use the opportunity to talk about the fight for Israel’s democracy or even debate matters related to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, they can, said Ilanit Gerblich Kalir, assistant vice president of external affairs at the federation. If they just want to host “blue-and-white-themed parties,” she said, they can do that too.
“We have to celebrate what we’re proud of Israel for. There’s a lot to be proud of,” Kalir said. “But at the same time, part of connecting with Israel and part of what’s going on is affected by this country right now.”
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Antisemitic AI Videos Target Children With Disney-Pixar Style to Push Holocaust Denial, Report Shows
AI-generated videos found on TikTok, Meta, YouTube, and X imitated popular animation styles from Disney-Pixar movies to present Holocaust denial and antisemitic tropes to children. The image of a child second from the left is from a trailer depicting Jewish children in a concentration camp during World War II. Photos: Screenshot collage from CyberWell report.
A pathbreaking report released this week reveals that online users have started exploiting AI video generators to weaponize the nostalgia of Disney-Pixar styles, wrapping venomous hate in a candy-coated shell to reach youth.
On Sunday, CyberWell, a Tel Aviv-based nonprofit focused on monitoring antisemitism on social media, published research tracking 307 identified pieces of AI-generated content targeting Jews on social media between January 2025 and February 2026. The group found that the images and videos received 30 million views and more than 2.8 million user interactions such as likes or reshares. They observed animations created with OpenAI’s Sora, Google’s Veo, X’s Grok, and Suno.
While TikTok accounted for the biggest chunk of the content at almost 36 percent, the popular video-sharing service also came through with the highest level of enforcement at more than 88 percent. Instagram drove the top rates of engagement, accounting for almost 65 percent while its total antisemitic posts reached nearly 25 percent.
The Meta platform saw a removal rate of 67 percent, notably higher than Alphabet’s YouTube (28 percent) and billionaire Elon Musk’s X platform (20 percent). Musk recently incorporated X, xAI, and its Grok chatbot into his rocket company SpaceX before an anticipated IPO in June.
CyberWell found three primary narratives across the videos: 33.2 percent portrayed Jews as greedy or money-obsessed, 21.5 percent involved the Holocaust, and 21.2 percent presented violent rhetoric against Jews inspired by a specific event, in this case the June 2025 Israel-Iran conflict and the viral video “Boom, Boom, Tel Aviv.” The video features such lyrics as “Boom, boom, Tel Aviv. This is what you get for all your evil deeds […] You brought this upon yourself, it’s your time to bleed […] Humanity never expected good behavior from you Jews.”
The researchers called mid-2025 a turning point in the rise of AI-driven antisemitic videos, with 98.4 percent of identified content originating from that point forward.
The report describes “a recurring pattern in which users package AI-generated antisemitic content in formats designed to appeal to younger audiences. The most common examples include fabricated Disney-Pixar-style movie trailers and gaming-related audio clips that promote Holocaust-related mockery, antisemitic conspiracy theories, and hate speech targeting Jews.”
One of the techniques users attempt to evade moderation is to label such videos with tags claiming “satire” and “dark humor.” Others will use the term “Caust” instead of “Holocaust.”
One example presented features a fabricated trailer for a “Caust” movie created with Sora in the Pixar style. Researchers described how “set in a concentration camp, the trailer portrays Adolf Hitler in a lighthearted manner while following a group of Jewish child prisoners attempting a dramatic escape. By presenting the Holocaust in a playful, animated format, the video turns atrocity into entertainment and diminishes the gravity of Jewish suffering.”
The AI videos also exploit kids’ love for video games.
One TikTok video created with Sora and titled “CAUST COMMANDER” received 66,500 views, 4,623 likes, and 3,619 reposts. According to the report, “the post portrays Adolf Hitler in a playful, stylized manner while depicting him killing those around him. The video makes light of the Holocaust and the mechanisms used to exterminate Jews by presenting them in a gamified, commercialized format, including the promotion of fake merchandise such as Zyklon B gas, themed outfits, and ‘back bling.’”
On March 24, OpenAI announced the decision to shut down Sora following months of reporting on antisemitic content proliferating across the platform. Analysts judged that the decision was reportedly motivated by a need to free up computational power for the training of new models so OpenAI could remain competitive as Anthropic’s Claude surges in popularity among coders and Alphabet’s Gemini draws away users.
The report emphasizes the deep extent to which antisemitism has penetrated AI systems.
“Many of the websites used in AI training datasets function as active hubs for antisemitic discourse, raising concerns about their inclusion in model development,” the report says. “For example, Reddit ranks among the most cited domains across major AI systems, while analyses of ChatGPT outputs indicate that Wikipedia alone contributes to roughly half of generated responses. The reliance of AI companies on these websites underscores the risk that antisemitic narratives circulating online may become embedded in model inputs and later disseminated at scale.”
CyberWell CEO and founder Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor warned that AI had turbo-charged both the speed and intensity of online antisemitism.
“Artificial intelligence has fundamentally changed the scale and speed at which antisemitism can be produced and distributed online,” Cohen Montemayor said. “Generative AI now allows bad actors to industrialize hate, producing high-impact content that can reach millions, with enforcement often coming only after it has already been widely amplified.”
Cohen Montemayor added that CyberWell’s latest report “examining the circulation of antisemitic AI-generated content on major platforms provides critical insights for how social media platforms can take on the abuse of generative AI tools to spread antisemitism in the digital universe.”
CyberWell found that while the Pixar-fied, disarming aesthetics targeted children, it was the videos openly glorifying violence that provoked the highest level of shares reaching 33 percent of content but 41 percent of engagement.
Cohen Montemayor called for the platforms to “move beyond disclosure and invest in systems that identify harmful narratives at scale, including those embedded in audio, visuals and coded formats that evade traditional detection.”
Warning that AI was “being weaponized at scale,” Cohen Montemayor explained that “by strengthening automated detection, investing in competent and transparent human moderation, auditing training data and partnering with specialized external stakeholders, platforms and AI developers can address the complex and fast-evolving forms of online hate through sustained collaboration between technology companies, policymakers and expert partners.”
In one of the most closely watched legal battles in artificial intelligence, a jury on Monday ruled against Musk in a lawsuit the billionaire filed to force OpenAI to revert fully to its original nonprofit mission. Jurors decided that Musk had filed his suit too late.
The world’s wealthiest man faces potentially more severe legal challenges in response to his AI business in France, where prosecutors said they intended to pursue criminal charges due to the Grok chatbot’s promotion of Holocaust denial and generation of child sexual abuse images.
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Yeshiva University Holds Conference Calling for ‘Social Science’ Study of Rising Antisemitism
A graduate wears a Star of David on her graduation mortarboard during the commencement ceremony for Yeshiva University in New York City, US, May 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
Vital new data, scholarship, and moral encouragement were exchanged during a national conference Yeshiva University held earlier this month to promote the study of antisemitism as a “social science problem,” several academics who attended the event told The Algemeiner in exclusive interviews.
The “Antisemitism Conference” brought some 200 academics to the institution’s campus in Manhattan, New York amid a moment many Jewish community advocates have described as a “crisis” of antisemitism. Across the US, Jews have faced discrimination, battery, and even death over their Jewish identity and for being Zionists. Having seen the situation plunge to unprecedented lows, Yeshiva University called on scholars from a range of fields to use their expertise to explore and report on the matter.
Following the conference, Raeefa Shams of the Academic Engagement Network (AEN) told The Algemeiner that the academic community was responsive and arrived at the event with a harvest of findings and insight.
“They presented research they are in the process of conducting or in the process of publishing,” Shams said. “For example, we had one faculty member who presented on the correlation between anti-Israel attitudes and conspiratorial, antisemitic thinking. There was another scholar who presented on the experience of Jewish students with antisemitism post-Oct. 7. We had somebody else present about antisemitism within the American Psychological Association. We had a clinical psychologist talk about antisemitism and traumatic invalidation.”
The Algemeiner has covered a wide range of antisemitic incidents which transpired on the streets and campuses of the US since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel unleashed a spike in global antisemitism. These included, among many other examples, a public-school principal inveighing against “Jew money,” an attempted arson at the Hillel International chapter in San Francisco, California, and the movement of some conservative students into the far-right ecosystem of antisemitism. In New York City, home to the world’s largest Jewish population outside of Israel, Jews have been targeted in the majority of all hate crimes this year despite comprising a small fraction of the total population.
The wave of hatred has changed how American Jews perceive their status in the US. According to the results of a previous survey commissioned by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Jewish Federations of North America, a striking 57 percent of American Jews believe “that antisemitism is now a normal Jewish experience.”
Higher education can lead the way in reversing this trend if it promotes the adoption of “trauma informed” policies, clinical psychologist Dr. Mari Bal-Halpern, told The Algemeiner.
“There needs to be a safe environment. That does not mean that we’re silencing voices, but it needs to be safe for everybody,” Bal-Halpern said, “We know how to do that; there are guidelines for how. Most universities say they are, but are they really following those guidelines? I doubt it.”
Antisemitic incidents in the US decreased overall in 2025, but violent attacks targeting American Jews remained at alarmingly high levels, according to the ADL’s latest Annual audit report. While antisemitic assaults increased by just 4 percent, from 196 in 2024 to 203 in 2025, perpetrators increased their use of “deadly” weapons by nearly 40 percent, the ADL said. Incidents of assault involving a deadly weapon increased to 32 in 2025 from 23 in 2024.
The advocacy group noted that the upward shift was reflected in the shocking murders of Jews in antisemitic attacks in the US for the first time since 2019. Two Israeli embassy staffers — a young couple set be engaged — were shot dead in Washington, DC last May, and weeks later a firebombing in Colorado claimed the life of an octogenarian. In both crimes, the alleged killers cited anti-Zionism as their motivating ideology.
Yeshiva University’s “Antisemitism Conference” was the first step toward amassing even more empirical data on this subject, another conference participant said.
“For all of us who are embarking on this area of research and investigation, we’re all dealing with this very large, amorphous, difficult to fully understand but very disturbing phenomena of rising antisemitism or rising anti-Israelism to the extent that there is a connection between them,” said Rutgers University psychology professor Dr. Kent Harber. “We’re trying to get some sense of the dimension and facets of it for our individual work.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Thomas Massie, Leading Anti-Israel Republican, Faces Trump-Backed Challenger on Primary Day in Kentucky
US Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) leaves a meeting of the House Republican Conference in the US Capitol on Wednesday, June 4, 2025. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
The heated Republican primary battle in Kentucky between incumbent Rep. Thomas Massie and Trump-backed challenger Ed Gallrein is set to come to a close on Tuesday in what has become one of the most closely watched congressional fights in the US, one which could have seismic ramifications for the future of the Republican Party’s relationship with Israel.
The race, now considered the most expensive House primary in US history, has evolved far beyond a local Kentucky contest. Instead, it has become a national referendum on the direction of the Republican Party under US President Donald Trump, the limits of ideological dissent within the GOP, and the growing divide between traditional pro-Israel conservatives and a rising faction of right-wing isolationists skeptical of American support for the Jewish state, Washington’s closest ally in the Middle East.
Though Massie was expected to cruise to reelection in the ruby-red Kentucky district, his quest to secure his seat has been made far more daunting after Trump made defeating Massie a personal political mission. Trump, accusing Massie of siding with Democrats to block his agenda and demoralizing the Republican base, has endorsed Gallrein, a retired Navy SEAL officer and spent months pummeling the incumbent with a barrage of public insults.
In a May 18 social media post, Trump lambasted Massie as “the worst congressman in the history of our country.”
“I’m in the Oval Office, and we’re in a fight with the worst congressman in the history of our country,” Trump said on Truth Social. “His name is Thomas Massie, he’s from Kentucky and I hope you’re going to put him out of business tomorrow, he is so bad.”
The Kentucky congressman, a libertarian-leaning conservative long known for opposing federal spending and challenging Republican leadership, broke sharply with Trump over several major issues in recent months, including Iran policy, foreign aid, and the administration’s posture toward Israel during escalating regional tensions in the Middle East.
Though Massie maintains an extensive history of voting down foreign aid to virtually every country, not just Israel, his sharp criticisms toward the Jewish state and its supporters have drawn the ire of many GOP voters. Massie has accused the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the premier pro-Israel lobbying group in the US, of deploying “babysitters” to monitor and police the votes of lawmakers and prevent dissent around issues regarding Israel and the Middle East. He has also accused Israel of targeting civilian infrastructure in its military campaigns, omitting that terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah repurpose these locations to store munitions or launch missiles.
Recently, Massie drew backlash from Jewish groups after he posed for a photo with an individual wearing a shirt emblazoned with the phrase “American Reich,” a direct reference to the Nazi regime. Massie has not commented on the incident or distanced himself from the individual.
Massie has also come under fire over an advertisement released by a pro-Massie super PAC targeting billionaire Republican donor Paul Singer, a prominent Jewish supporter of pro-Israel causes who has backed efforts to defeat the incumbent.
The ad characterizes Singer as a “pro-trans billionaire” and features a rainbow-colored Star of David behind his image while attacking Gallrein’s allies.
Massie’s criticism of US support for Israel and his resistance to interventionist foreign policy drew fierce backlash from pro-Israel organizations and Republican donors, many of whom quickly consolidated behind Gallrein, a relatively unknown Kentucky Republican who has embraced Trump’s America First movement while simultaneously affirming strong support for Israel and the US-Israel alliance. The attempt to unseat Massie has attracted roughly $19 million in outside spending, with pro-Israel advocacy groups, MAGA-aligned organizations, and conservative super PACs flooding Kentucky airwaves with ads portraying the Kentucky firebrand as increasingly out of step with Republican voters.
For many pro-Israel Republicans, the race represents an early test of whether the GOP will tolerate lawmakers who oppose robust American backing for Israel during a period of heightened regional instability. The race also comes at a time in which antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment have become points of contention within the GOP. Though older Republican voters continue to support Israel in substantial numbers, a growing number of polls indicate that younger Republican voters are far more skeptical of the US-Israel alliance, with many wanting to end aid to Israel and cease foreign military campaigns.
Massie has argued that his foreign policy views reflect constitutional conservatism and opposition to “forever wars.” But critics inside the Republican Party say his approach increasingly mirrors the isolationist wing of the American right that seeks to reduce US commitments abroad, including support for Israel.
Gallrein, by contrast, has framed the election as a battle for peace through strength, aligning himself closely with Trump’s aggressive posture toward Iran and emphasizing unwavering support for Israel’s security.
The primary also carries broader implications for Trump’s continued dominance over the Republican Party. Unlike many previous Trump critics who came from the GOP’s moderate wing, Massie is a staunch conservative with strong grassroots credibility among libertarians and Tea Party voters.
Though the race is expected to be very close, Gallrein has amassed substantial momentum in the closing stretch of the competition. A recent poll showed Gallrein leading Massie 53 percent to 45 percent among likely GOP voters in the state’s 4th Congressional District.
A Massie defeat would likely send a powerful message to Republicans nationwide that opposition to Trump — particularly on foreign policy and Israel — carries enormous political risk, even for deeply conservative incumbents.
A victory for Massie, however, could embolden a small but growing bloc of right-wing lawmakers skeptical of foreign intervention and willing to publicly challenge both Trump and the GOP’s traditionally hawkish pro-Israel establishment.
With polling tightening in recent days and turnout expected to be high, political observers across Washington, Jerusalem, and conservative media circles are watching Kentucky closely.