RSS
Proud, Uncancelable, and Unapologetically Jewish: The Power of Community Culture Over Cancel Culture
Supporters of Israel gather in solidarity with Israel and protest against antisemitism, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian terror group Hamas, during a rally on the National Mall in Washington, DC, Nov. 14, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis
At a time when identity is weaponized and loyalty to truth is punished, Jews and Zionists must stand taller, prouder, and louder than ever before. We are not just surviving history — we are shaping it. The secret to our endurance is not compliance with cultural fads or fear of social punishment. It is our devotion to something far more powerful: community culture.
Cancel culture has no true grip on us when we embrace who we are.
Jews — religious, secular, cultural, or ethnic — have always found safety, purpose, and power in community. Our story is one of resilience: each time we were targeted, silenced, exiled, or attacked, we turned inward to strengthen our people and outward to uplift our allies. That’s the antidote. The Jewish people don’t disappear under pressure — we double down on who we are.
We are people who embrace Zionism not only because of Jewish peoplehood, but because of values. Zionism is an inclusive movement, with not only Jewish Zionists, but Zionists of all faiths, ethnicities, cultures, and nationalities. People who understand that support for Zionism is supporting thoughtful peoplehood, and a desire to better the world for all people, because it is ingrained in Jewish values, which aim to help ourselves just as we help others at the same time.
That must be our strategy now, as anti-Zionist hysteria, masked as progressive virtue, spreads like wildfire. We are being told to be ashamed of our Jewishness. Ashamed of our commitment to Israel. Ashamed of our people. No more.
Zionism is not a dirty word. It is the indigenous liberation movement of the Jewish people in our ancestral homeland. It is justice, survival, and self-determination wrapped into one. And yes, it is still needed, because antisemitism still rages in every corner of the world — even in places that claim to fight bigotry. The venomous attacks we see today, often endorsed or excused by influencers, campus activists, and even elected officials, are not about human rights — they are about Jew-hatred. The attacks on Jews, Zionists, and Israel are all based on attacks against Jews.
The only time anti-Israel and anti-Zionist attacks are not anti-Jew are when those who believe in globalization are equally against every Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, and other nations with a religious or ethnic majority. But, that does not happen very often, does it?
When the attacks and condemnation are only against the Jewish movement of determination, safety, representation, peoplehood, indigenousness, and nationality — that is when anti-Zionism is antisemitism, when being anti-Israel is antisemitism.
Clear understanding and the ability to confront the hatred and moral hypocrisy of those who claim to be virtuous is necessary when condemning and battling those who hate us, discriminate against us, and try to eradicate us.
Historically, Jews have had problems when we are prominent and weak. We have seen it throughout every historical period across Europe and Arabia, in Christian and Muslim lands. Today, Jews have an option: we can either be less prominent and successful, stop surviving battles against us, and try to stay out of the public eye, or we can choose the option to not be weak, to be prominent, and strong. The second option troubles those who hate Jews and don’t like when we succeed. I chose the second option — be prominent and strong. It is why I focus not on fighting back, but fighting forward.
Jewish pride and Zionist pride are being redefined by those who hate us. And we are allowing them to win the public relations war. We are allowing them to control the narrative — the story of us is being told by those who hate us. How wild is that?!
And, when we fight forward, we are criticized for fighting for our very existence. When we win fights and battles, the haters try to dominate social media, traditional media, and public opinion, thereby criticizing us for daring to defend ourselves and fight for our rights and lives.
Let’s be clear: there is no moral equivalence between Israeli security measures and the terrorist atrocities committed by Islamist extremists. Even the most controversial Israeli policies are not in the same universe as the depravity of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or the governments that sponsor them. Zionist “extremism” is often little more than unapologetic Jewish pride. Islamist extremism, on the other hand, results in kidnapped hostages, public executions, honor killings, and the repression of women, LGBTQ+ people, religious minorities, and dissidents.
We must stop apologizing for being alive, for defending ourselves, for having a homeland, and for celebrating it.
Instead, let’s shift the conversation to action — real action. The anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, at its core, is antisemitic. Its goal is not peace or justice, but the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state. But here’s the silver lining: those boycott lists are also a roadmap.
Use the BDS hate lists as a Jewish pride guide. Support the businesses, brands, artists, and organizations targeted by them. These are the ones brave enough to stand with us. These are the ones who deserve our dollars and our voices. That’s community culture. Not cancellation — connection.
If someone wants to boycott a café because its owners are Israeli Jews or supporters of Israel, great — let’s flood that café with support. If an artist is blacklisted for performing in Tel Aviv, let’s amplify their work and make them heroes. Let’s create our own economy of values, rooted in dignity, not performative outrage.
This is not just about Jews. It is about anyone who believes in truth over propaganda, civilization over terror, and moral clarity over moral relativism. It is about our allies — Zionist Christians, Muslims, Hindus, atheists, LGBTQ+ individuals — and the people who are fighting against Islamic terror, who understand that Israel and Zionism protects them, too, such as Persians who fight against the Islamic Republic of Iran, Indians who battle against Islamism in Pakistan, Druze who fight against Islamic oppression in Arab nations, Christians in African and Middle Eastern nations who are being slaughtered by Islamist extremists, Eritreans who battle for their peoplehood, and Yazidis who struggle to survive amidst Islamist terror.
These are all people who know what is right and are brave enough to say it. These are our allies.
Jews have always been a people who rise. We have endured temples burning, inquisitions, pogroms, genocides, and exiles. And every time, we came back — not just to survive, but to thrive. The Jewish story is one of eternal return, and Zionism is the modern expression of that legacy.
We are uncancelable when we are unapologetic. When we choose pride over fear. When we lift each other up and put our values into action. And that is what the world needs right now — Jews and allies who know exactly who they are, and who refuse to back down.
Am Israel Chai.
Yuval David is an Emmy Award–winning journalist, filmmaker, and actor. An internationally recognized advocate for Jewish and LGBT rights, he is a strategic advisor to diplomatic missions and NGOs, and a contributor to global news outlets in broadcast and print news. He focuses on combating antisemitism, extremism, and promoting democratic values and human dignity. Learn more at YuvalDavid.com, instagram.com/Yuval_David_, x.com/yuvaldavid, youtube.com/yuvaldavid, and across social media.
RSS
US Sen. Tom Cotton Pushes IRS to Review CAIR’s Nonprofit Status, Citing Ties to Terrorist Groups
US Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) speaks during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, March 11, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Julia Nikhinson
US Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) has urged the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to launch an investigation into the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), claiming the nonprofit advocacy group has longstanding ties to terrorist organizations including Hamas.
In a letter to IRS Commissioner Billy Long dated Aug. 4, Cotton asserted that CAIR, which is registered as a nonprofit charitable organization that purports to protect the rights of American Muslims, has “deep ties to terrorist organizations.” Cotton pointed to what he described as “substantial evidence” from past government exhibits and public statements by CAIR officials, including its founding connections and remarks by its current leadership.
“Recent news and longstanding evidence demonstrate CAIR’s ties to terrorist organizations, including Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, and their activities,” Cotton wrote.
While Hamas is a US-designated terrorist organization, the Muslim Brotherhood has not been proscribed as such, although lawmakers in Congress recently introduced legislation to designate the global Islamist movement, which has been banned in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Austria.
In his letter, Cotton called on the IRS to conduct a full review of CAIR’s financial records, affiliations, and operations to determine whether the organization continues to meet the legal requirements of its tax-exempt status.
Citing a 2008 case, the largest terrorism-financing case in US history, Cotton said CAIR had been listed as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee. CAIR was infamously named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case. Politico noted in 2010 that “US District Court Judge Jorge Solis found that the government presented ‘ample evidence to establish the association’” of CAIR with Hamas. Cotton also referred to government trial exhibits indicating CAIR’s founders participated in meetings with Hamas supporters in Philadelphia.
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), “some of CAIR’s current leadership had early connections with organizations that are or were affiliated with Hamas.” CAIR has disputed the accuracy of the ADL’s claim and asserted that it “unequivocally condemn[s] all acts of terrorism, whether carried out by al-Qa’ida, the Real IRA, FARC, Hamas, ETA, or any other group designated by the US Department of State as a ‘Foreign Terrorist Organization.’”
Beyond past associations, Cotton pointed to more recent comments from CAIR’s executive director, Nihad Awad. In a 2023 speech following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, Awas said he was “happy to see” Palestinians “breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land.” Cotton cited the remark as evidence of CAIR’s alignment with violent extremist rhetoric.
“These connections are not mere historical footnotes,” Cotton wrote, accusing CAIR of engaging in activities inconsistent with its stated mission of civil rights advocacy. He argued that 501(c)(3) organizations should not be permitted to operate under tax-exempt status if they are involved in or supportive of terrorism.
The IRS has not publicly responded to Cotton’s letter.
CAIR did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story but replied to Cotton on the X social media platform.
“Is that the best you’ve got, Tom? We figured your handlers would have given you something better to work worth, not debunked conspiracy theories and half-baked legal arguments,” CAIR posted. “Unlike [Cotton], our civil rights organization defends the Constitution, including its guarantees of free speech and religious freedom. Also, unlike Tom Cotton, we oppose injustice here and abroad, from hate crimes to terrorism to ethnic cleansing to genocide. That’s why we speak out against the ongoing genocide in Gaza and why we spoke out against attacks on civilians in Israel on Oct. 7th. Receipts below. This is called moral consistency, Tom. You should try it. Make sure to ask AIPAC first, though.”
AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, is a prominent pro-Israel lobbying group in the US.
Cotton’s letter comes amid growing scrutiny of Middle Eastern and Muslim advocacy organizations as the Israel-Hamas war continues in Gaza and antisemitic hate crimes surge across the West.
The senator has spearheaded multiple efforts to tackle antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment within the US. Earlier this year, for example, Cotton introduced the “No Student Loans for Campus Criminals Act” and “Woke Endowment Security Tax (WEST),” legislation which would penalize students and universities that spread pro-terrorist ideologies.
RSS
Antisemitic Incidents Spiked in UK After Bob Vylan’s ‘Death to the IDF’ Chants at Glastonbury
Police officers block a street as pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather in protest against Britain’s Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s plans to proscribe the “Palestine Action” group in the coming weeks, in London, Britain, June 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
There was a recorded rise in antisemitic incidents in the United Kingdom the day after the English punk rap duo Bob Vylan called for the death of Israeli soldiers at the Glastonbury Festival in June, according to the Community Security Trust (CST), a nonprofit charity that advises Britain’s Jewish community on security matters.
CST on Wednesday published a new report detailing antisemitic incidents recorded from January to June 2025. The report stated that the highest daily total for such outrages in the first half of 2025 was 26 reported on June 29, 16 of which took place online.
On June 28, Bob Vylan vocalist Pascal Robinson-Foster led thousands in the audience to chant “Death, Death to the IDF,” referring to the Israel Defense Forces, during the band’s set at the Glastonbury music and arts festival in Somerset, England. The performance was livestreamed by the BBC.
CST said the 26 incidents reported to the charity on June 29 involved “anti-Jewish responses” to events at Glastonbury, and CST’s statement on X that described Bob Vylan’s anti-IDF chants as “utterly chilling” and “an expression of mass hatred.”
The second worst day for “anti-Jewish hatred” in the first half of the year was May 17, when 19 incidents were recorded just a day after Israel announced the expansion of its military operation in the Gaza Strip, according to CST’s new report.
“In all of these incidents, anti-Jewish language, motivation, or targeting was evident alongside the rhetoric linked to Israel or Zionism,” CST said. “Both of these cases [on June 29 and May 17] illustrate how sentiment and rhetoric towards Israel and Zionism influence, shape, and drive contemporary anti-Jewish discourse, online and offline, often around totemic events that grab mainstream public attention.”
Because of their anti-IDF comments, Bob Vylan was dropped by their talent agency, as well as festivals and concerts worldwide. The duo also had their US visas revoked, and police in the UK launched an investigation to see if the band’s anti-IDF comments are a criminal offense.
The BBC apologized for broadcasting Bob Vylan’s “offensive and deplorable behavior” in their Glastonbury performance, during which Robinson-Foster also complained about working for a “f—king Zionist” and chanted “Free, free Palestine.”
According to Wednesday’s report, the CST recorded 1,521 antisemitic incidents in the UK from January to June of this year. It marks the second-highest total of incidents ever recorded by CST in the first six months of any year, following the first half of 2024 in which 2,019 antisemitic incidents were recorded in the aftermath of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel.
Fifty-one percent of all antisemitic incidents in the first half of this year “referenced or were linked to Israel, Palestine, the Hamas terror attack (on Oct. 7, 2023) or the subsequent outbreak of conflict,” CST noted. The group also recorded 73 antisemitic assaults in the first half of the year – with an additional three physical attacks categorized as “extreme violence” – and 572 cases of online antisemitism.
RSS
Members of IDF’s New Ultra-Orthodox Brigade Complete Combat Training
Members of the Hasmonean Brigade during their beret ceremony at the Western Wall on Aug. 6, 2024. Photo: Screenshot
The first set of troops from the Israel Defense Force’s new ultra-Orthodox Hasmonean Brigade completed seven months of basic and advanced training on Wednesday morning, when they received their dark blue berets during a ceremony at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
“The army and the Torah go together, shoulder to shoulder. One strengthens the other, ” Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Boaz Bismuth wrote in a post on X, congratulating the troops. “I bless the ‘Hasmonean’ Brigade – the first ultra-Orthodox brigade in the IDF, which completed its training course today and, in an emotional ceremony at the Western Wall, received their beret. Only together will we triumph.”
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid also congratulated the troops, saying that “there is nothing more Jewish than defending the land of Israel.”
Israel’s Minister of Innovation, Science, and Technology Gila Gamliel added in a post on X that troops in the Hasmonean Brigade are “paving the way for combining faith with courage.”
“You are a symbol of dedication, mission, and contribution to the nation, and you light the path for all of us toward Israel’s unity,” she added. “Your brigade is proof that one can preserve identity while defending the homeland.”
The beret ceremony on Wednesday morning was attended by Shin Bet director and Maj. Gen. David Zini, who was crucial in the creation of the brigade, and brigade commander Col. Avinoam Emunah. Fifty ultra-Orthodox troops did a “beret march” that started in the hills of Jerusalem and ended at the Western Wall Plaza in the Old City of Jerusalem before the start of the ceremony. They blew shofars and sang songs calling for the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple, according to Israel’s Arutz 7.
Members of the brigade live a Haredi lifestyle both inside and outside the army and are given special accommodations, such as at least an hour of learning Talmud every day. Around 2,700 Haredim, or ultra-Orthodox Jews, have joined the army over the past year, according to Israeli media reports.