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The 10 most influential Jewish rappers of the past 50 years

(JTA) — Since the birth of hip-hop 50 years ago, plenty of Jewish rappers have picked up a microphone and rocked a crowd. They’ve spit rhymes in English, Hebrew, Yiddish, even Aramaic. Collectively, they’ve shattered stereotypes about what Jews look and sound like.

But hip-hop is hypercompetitive, so the question must be asked: Who are the Jewish artists who have made the biggest impact on the culture?

To try to answer that question, I solicited the help of some serious hip-hop heads: brothers Eric and Jeff Rosenthal, together known as ItsTheReal. They are New York City-based writers, sketch comedians and podcasters; their latest podcast, “The Blog Era,” tells the story of how anonymous kids on the internet helped obscure rappers become global superstars.

RELATED: From Rick Rubin to Doja Cat, Jews have helped shape the first 50 years of hip-hop

The rappers they chose for this list, which is organized alphabetically and actually includes 12 people (since the Beastie Boys were a trio), span generations and geographical regions. All of them have Jewish heritage, but they do not necessarily make use of it in their art. The only other traits they share, in the words of the Rosenthal brothers, are that “everyone loves hip-hop and everybody is authentically themselves.”

The Alchemist

The Alchemist performs with Boldy James at a festival in Oslo, Norway, Aug. 10, 2023. (Per Ole Hagen/Redferns/Getty Images)

Background: Born Alan Daniel Maman in Beverly Hills, CA; age 45; 3 solo studio albums, 15 albums as producer

Best known for: Producing songs for Nas, Eminem, Fat Joe, Mobb Deep, Jadakiss, The Lox, Action Bronson, among others

Most Jewish moment: In 2015, he released “Israeli Salad,” an instrumental album built around samples of Israeli songs that includes a track titled “Bone Thugs N’ Haifa.”

ItsTheReal says: “Alchemist is the guy who everybody looks up to like, ‘Oh, s—, that’s an actual cool Jew in this space.’ From his dress to his attitude to the music he makes, he exudes hip-hop. He lives in an apartment with his wife and kids on the westside of L.A., making beats for fun. He’s independent and lives in that persona. His journey from teenage rapper in Beverly Hills to essential production partner in the seminal Queens group Mobb Deep is genuine and way more impactful than being put in a box of ‘Jewish rapper who makes it big and sells out in some way or another.’”

Beastie Boys

The Beastie Boys, shown in an undated photo, were early rap pioneers. (L. Cohen/WireImage/Getty Images)

Background: Core members were Michael “Mike D” Diamond, Adam “MCA” Yauch, Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz, all born in New York City; active from 1981 to 2012 (Yauch’s death); 8 studio albums, 3 Grammys

Best known for: “(You’ve Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party),” “Intergalactic,” “Sabotage,” “No Sleep Till Brooklyn”

Most Jewish moment: In “Shadrach,” a song on their 1989 album “Paul’s Boutique,” the Beastie Boys compare themselves to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, three Jewish men who defied Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon, in the Book of Daniel.

ItsTheReal says: “The Beastie Boys are the blueprint. They came from a punk background. They were hanging out with Rick Rubin, and shifted their love of punk and anti-authoritarianism across cultural lines. They’re notable for being early, obviously, and being part of that blueprint, but also for taking hip-hop into such weird and crazy places, fusing it with skate life and being progressive heroes.”

BLP Kosher

BLP Kosher in his music video for “The Nac 3.” (Screenshot from YouTube)

Background: Born Benjamin Landy Pavlon in Broward County, Florida; age 23; begins a national tour (“The Dreidel That Never Stopped Spinning Tour”) in September

Best known for: “Special K,” “Jew on the Canoe,” his unique hairstyle (a combination of Orthodox Jewish and Haitian styles)

Most Jewish moment: Every part of his rap persona references Jewish culture, from his MC name, to his nickname (“Dreidel Man”), to the Star of David necklaces he’s always wearing, to the title of his new album, “Bars Mitzvah.”

ItsTheReal says: “BLP Kosher is the future. He doesn’t have a huge catalog. I don’t know who his music is for, or who the joke is supposed to be on, if there is a joke. Honestly, he seems sincere, so give him the benefit of the doubt. But his existence flies in the face of every other trend. We live in a time now where there are a lot of stereotypes, antisemitism, and violence, and for him to be proudly and outwardly Jewish, to be accepted by the rougher edges of Florida and to be out there on a stage calling yourself that, I respect that.”

Doja Cat

Doja Cat performs at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., Aug. 11, 2019. (Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)

Background: Born Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini in Los Angeles; age 27; Ashkenazi Jewish and South African heritage; 3 studio albums; in the top 50 most streamed artists in the world on Spotify

Best known for: “Say So,” “Get Into It (Yuh),” “Mooo!” and her combative social media persona

Most Jewish moment: In an episode of season 2 of the FX series “Dave,” the character played by Jewish rapper Lil Dicky matches with a character played by Doja Cat on a dating app. His father asks if she’s Jewish, and he confirms that she is after consulting her Wikipedia entry.

ItsTheReal says: “There’s a small number of Jewish rappers who have broken through, and there’s an even smaller number of Jewish women who rap. There’s a Jewish stereotype where you get painted as not tough, but Doja is extremely tough, brazen, confident. She is somebody who has built up this massive audience and isn’t afraid to lose them if they don’t follow her lead. That’s brave. That’s exciting. That’s very punk. Two spaces she occupies, L.A. and pop music, can be so soulless, but she is bringing a realness to both.”

Drake

Drake performs at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Dec. 9, 2022. (Prince Williams/Wireimage/Getty Images)

Background: Born Aubrey Drake Graham in Toronto; age 36; Ashkenazi Jewish and African American heritage; former child actor on “Degrassi: The Next Generation”; 8 studio albums, 5 Grammys; Spotify’s most streamed rapper, with more than 72 million monthly listeners

Best known for: “Hotline Bling” (1.9 billion views on YouTube), “God’s Plan” (1.5 billion views), and dozens of other hits

Most Jewish moment: It’s a tie between his 2014 SNL skit, “Drake’s Bar Mitzvah,” and his music video for “HYFR (Hell Ya F— Right),” which was filmed inside Miami’s Temple Israel.

ItsTheReal says: “He’s from Toronto, Canada, he’s half singing, half rapping, and he’s Jewish. Those are all these things that are traditionally outsider-ish. And for him to come on the scene, for him to be accepted the way that he has, and for his music to cross over and become as dominant as it has — that’s a testament to who he is. He weaves his Jewish identity and his sense of humor into his videos and his output in a very smart way. Today, Drake is still the goofy, fun-loving, boastful half singer, half rapper that he was at the very beginning.”

El-P

El-P, right, performs with Killer Mike as Run The Jewels at the Reading Festival in Reading, England, Aug. 28, 2022. (Simone Joyner/Getty Images)

Background: Born Jaime Meline in New York City; age 48; 3 solo studio albums, 2 albums with rap trio Company Flow, 4 albums with duo Run The Jewels

Best known for: “Legend Has It,” “Ooh LA LA,” producing songs for a variety of artists

Most Jewish moment: He has said he “grew up loving Jewish deli food” and was an investor in Frankel’s, a deli in Brooklyn that opened in 2016.

ItsTheReal says: “His whole movement is about independence: independent record label, not going along with the mainstream, really concerned with staying true to who he is. That influence is so much greater than any of his solo albums or any of his work in Run The Jewels, which by the way has been super successful. Today, with so many people doing it on their own, because now technology has caught up — you can record music on your own, you can distribute it on your own, you can publicize it on your own — there’s a lot more stuff that El-P was early on that you see the influence of today.”

Mac Miller

Mac Miller performs in Long Beach, California, April 29, 2018. (Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)

Background: Born Malcolm James McCormick in Pittsburgh; died of a drug overdose in 2018 at age 26; 6 studio albums; Spotify’s 19th-most-streamed rapper

Best known for: “Self Care,” “Best Day Ever,” his 2018 Tiny Desk concert (which has 105 million views)

Most Jewish moment: In a 2010 interview with his hometown Jewish newspaper, the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, he talked about his “chai” tattoo and said the best Hanukkah present he ever received was a keyboard. “But the worst, and every Jew can relate to this, was being all excited to open up the present, thinking it’s going to be something big, and it’s socks,” he said.

ItsTheReal says: “He was a generational talent, and there’s a reason why he’s been lionized, and it’s not only because of his death. At the beginning of his career he was looked at with skepticism because he’s a white rapper, a frat rapper, and he lived in that world. But he didn’t want to. Much like the Beastie Boys — whom Mac studied, just like he did Biggie and DJ Premier — he evolved. He decamped to L.A. and forged a tight and genuine community. His home became the hub for an emerging sound: Kendrick Lamar, ScHoolboy, Odd Future. Everybody wanted to work with him because he was talented and true. He used his powers for good.”

MC Serch

MC Serch, left, with the other members of 3rd Bass in New York City in 1989. (Al Pereira/Getty Images/Michael Ochs Archives)

Background: Born Michael Berrin in New York City; age 56; 1 solo studio album, 2 studio albums with rap trio 3rd Bass (with Pete Nice and DJ Richie Rich)

Best known for: “The Gas Face,” “Pop Goes the Weasel” (a 3rd Bass diss against Vanilla Ice), “Back To The Grill,” executive producing the classic Nas album “Illmatic”

Most Jewish moment: In a 2018 VLADTV interview, he talked about growing up in a Conservative family in the heavily Jewish Far Rockaway neighborhood of Queens. He recalled how he was asked to perform the duties of a Shabbos goy for his Orthodox neighbors. “To ask another Jew to break Sabbath because you don’t see them as being Jewish enough, it’s crazy foul,” he said. “I didn’t know until later that’s lashon hara, that’s crazy.”

ItsTheReal says: “White groups were so rare back then [in the late 1980s]. The Beastie Boys were the white crew, and then 3rd Bass showed up and they became the cool, white Jewish guys. Even more than the Beastie Boys, MC Serch lived all the early elements of hip-hop culture. He could battle somebody in a cypher and get busy on a dance floor. He’s gone on to have this career in lots of different lanes, including television and radio and as an executive, helping put Nas on.”

Mike Posner

Mike Posner performs in Cleveland, July 8, 2010. (Joey Foley/Getty Images)

Background: Born Michael Robert Henrion Posner in Detroit; age 35; 4 studio albums

Best known for: “I Took A Pill In Ibiza” (a remix of which has been streamed 1.7 billion times on Spotify); “Cooler Than Me”; writing songs for Justin Bieber, Maroon 5, and Big Sean, among others; walking solo across the continental United States “to remind people your life is now”

Most Jewish moment: During his Walk Across America in 2019, he told the Detroit Jewish News that his bar mitzvah speech was about the role Jews played during the civil rights movement.

ItsTheReal says: “Mike’s path was as unique as his sound — one that grew out of freestyling with his childhood friend Big Sean and turned into a rap/singing hybrid — and it hit at the right time. He was booked at college after college and earned such a loyal fan base. Unsurprisingly, Mike Posner copycats turned up by the dozens not long after. He wrote songs for a lot of people that he didn’t get recognized for, and his musical influence can still be heard today.”

Shyne

Shyne, born Jamaal Barrow, now serves in the Belize House of Representatives. (Royal Shyne/Flickr)

Background: Born Jamaal Barrow in Belize, he legally changed his name to Moses Michael Levi Barrow after converting to Orthodox Judaism in 2010; age 44; 2 studio albums; currently serves in the Belize House of Representatives

Best known for: “Bad Boyz,” his gravelly voice, his involvement in a 1999 nightclub shooting that resulted in his serving 9 years in prison

Most Jewish moment: Telling The New York Times in a 2010 interview in Jerusalem, where he was living at the time, “My entire life screams that I have a Jewish neshama [soul]” and “There’s nothing in the Chumash [text of the Torah] that says I can’t drive a Lamborghini.”

ItsTheReal says: “What a voice, what an attitude, what a swagger. He was sent to jail at the height of his superstardom. It’s hard to know how anyone could bounce back from that, evolve, reset. For Shyne, at life’s most trying intersection, he found Judaism. After he converted, there were lots of jokes — we made a lot of them — because it was so unlikely. But jokes aside, there’s no question that Shyne is the best Jewish rapper of all time.”


The post The 10 most influential Jewish rappers of the past 50 years appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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Brooklyn Woman Denied Bail, Claims She Didn’t Kill Anyone in Car Crash That Killed Jewish Mother, Two Daughters

An overturned auto in a car crash flipped on its roof landing on a mother and her three children, killing two children on March 29, 2025, in Brooklyn, New York. Photo: ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect

A Brooklyn woman denied killing anyone when she appeared in court on Thursday, less than a week after a Jewish woman and her two daughters died when she crashed her car into them at a crosswalk.

Miriam Yarimi, 32, appeared in Brooklyn Criminal Court via a video stream from her room in NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn, according to the New York Daily News. She is undergoing a psychological evaluation at the hospital following Saturday’s deadly car crash.

After the crash, Yarimi told first responders she was “possessed” and believed the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was following her. She has made similar claims about being pursued by the CIA on social media several times in the past, The Algemeiner previously reported.

Yamini, who is also Jewish, faces a slew of charges that include three counts of second-degree manslaughter, three counts of criminal negligent homicide, and four counts of second-degree assault.

“The devil is in my eyes. I am haunted inside. I didn’t kill anyone. I didn’t hurt anyone. Prove it. Show me the proof. You have no proof,” Yarimi said in a statement after Saturday’s crash, according to Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Nocella. “I need CT scans in my eyes. I need to get the scanning done now … Where’s my daughter? My daughter’s always in my heart.”

“People are out to get me,” added the single mother. “I need CT scans on my entire body. F— you. I need a whole work up to get whatever is in my body out of it. I did not hurt anyone. All the evidence is on my phone.”

Nocella called Yamini a flight risk and asked the judge that she be held without bail due to the “nature and severity” of the allegations, as reported by the Daily News. Judge Jevet Johnson agreed with Nocella and ordered Yamini to be held without bail. Nocella said prosecutors are prepared to present grand jury indictment on the manslaughter charges.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said his administration is “committed” to taking more action to prevent traffic violence and deaths following the fatal car crash that killed Natasha Saada, 35, along with her daughters Diana, 8, and Deborah, 5. Saada’s 4-year-old son Philip was injured in the crash and is still being hospitalized in critical condition.

Adams’ office announced on Wednesday that there were 41 traffic deaths during the first three months of 2025 — 24 fewer than last year and the second fewest since they started being recorded by the city. Despite the decline in traffic deaths, Adams admitted that more work needs to be done to keep New Yorkers safe on the streets, as evident by Saturday’s deadly car crash.

“In order to make New York City the best place to raise a family, we need to be safer at every level — including on our streets,” he said in a released statement on Wednesday. “Our administration’s investments in intersection safety improvements, treating traffic violence as the serious crime that it is, and our expanding automated camera enforcement are all helping ensure we’re leading the way toward a safer future for all New Yorkers — whether they are pedestrians, cyclists, or motorists.”

“We understand there is more work to do, as evidenced this past weekend’s tragic crash in Brooklyn because one lift [sic] lost to traffic violence is one life too many, but our administration remains committed to reducing traffic violence as much as any other form of violence,” Adams added.

On Saturday afternoon, Yarimi crashed her car into an Uber and then slammed into four members of the Saada family as they were trying to walk across the street at an intersection on Ocean Parkway in Midwood.

Yarimi was speeding at the time of the incident, “probably doing close to twice the speed limit,” and “ran a red light” just before the crash, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez revealed on Wednesday while speaking to Eyewitness News. Yamini was also driving on a suspended license and has accumulated almost 100 parking and camera violations, including 21 speed camera tickets and five red light tickets.

“It actually exceeds just being reckless, it’s almost being wanton, we’re not going to tolerate that,” Gonzalez told Eyewitness News. “Her vehicle had been ticketed many times by red light cameras and speed cameras, that car was a frequent violator of both speed laws and red-light laws, and there is no excuse for running a red light.”

Saada and her daughters were buried in Israel this week. Four-year-old Philip remains at the hospital for his injuries and is facing “tough straights,” Gonzalez said. “We expect him to make some kind of recovery, but it’s going to be a long road for him.”

The boy lost one of his kidneys during treatment at Maimonides Medical Center, according to New York City Comptroller Brad Lander. “It’s heartbreaking,” Lander said after he visited the home of the Saada family, according to the New York Post. “He’s still in critical condition. He lost one kidney but they are hopeful about his prognosis.”

Five people in the Uber hit by Yarimi’s car suffered minor injuries.

Supporters of a proposed state law that would stop repeat super speeders in New York have rallied together since the car accident on Saturday, calling for the passage of the bill that they said could have prevented the crash. The legislation would require speed limiters to be installed on vehicles owned by repeat reckless drivers, like Yarimi. The device automatically limits the vehicles to within 5 mph of the legal speed of the road. The “Stop Super Speeders” bill was sponsored by New York State Assembly Member Emily Gallagher and Senator Andrew Gounardes.

The New York City Comptroller, Brad Lander, supports the bill and criticized Adams for not already implementing such measures.

The post Brooklyn Woman Denied Bail, Claims She Didn’t Kill Anyone in Car Crash That Killed Jewish Mother, Two Daughters first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Hungary Announces Withdrawal From ‘Political’ ICC as Netanyahu Visits Country, Defying Arrest Warrant

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks to the media next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Budapest, Hungary, April 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo

Hungary on Thursday announced that it will withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) as the country welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the capital city of Budapest, defying an ICC arrest warrant against him over allegations of war crimes in Gaza.

Despite Hungary’s status as a signatory of the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, Netanyahu was not taken into custody upon his arrival in Budapest. Instead, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban welcomed his Israeli counterpart with full military honors.

Netanyahu’s visit to Hungary, which is scheduled to last until Sunday, is his first trip to Europe since the ICC issued an arrest warrant against him last year. In February, he made his first foreign trip altogether since the ICC’s decision to the United States, where he met with US President Donald Trump.

As Orban and Netanyahu met to discuss regional developments and bilateral cooperation, Hungarian Minister Gergely Gulyas released a statement announcing that “the government will initiate the withdrawal procedure” from the ICC, which could take a year or more to complete.

After their meeting, Orban said he believes the ICC is “no longer an impartial court, not a court of law, but a political court.”

“I am convinced that this otherwise important international judicial forum has been degraded into a political tool, with which we cannot and do not want to engage,” Orban said during a press conference.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar praised Budapest’s decision to withdraw from the international court, highlighting the country’s “strong moral stance alongside Israel and the principles of justice and sovereignty.”

“I commend Hungary’s important decision to withdraw from the ICC,” Saar wrote in a post on X. “The so-called ‘International Criminal Court’ lost its moral authority after trampling the fundamental principles of international law in its zest for harming Israel’s right to self-defense.”

In November, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, and now-deceased Hamas terror leader Ibrahim al-Masri (better known as Mohammed Deif) for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict. The ICC said there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant were criminally responsible for starvation in Gaza and the persecution of Palestinians — charges vehemently denied by Israel, which until a recently imposed blockade had provided significant humanitarian aid into the enclave throughout the war. Israel also says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, despite Hamas’s widely acknowledged military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.

After the court issued the warrant against Netanyahu, Orban rejected the decision by inviting the Israeli leader to Budapest and accusing the court of “interfering in an ongoing conflict for political purposes.”

During Thursday’s news conference, Netanyahu commended Hungary’s withdrawal from the ICC, calling it a “bold and principled action” as “the first state that walks out of this corruption and this rottenness.”

“The ICC directs its actions against us fighting a just war with just means,” Netanyahu said. “I think [this decision will] be deeply appreciated, not only in Israel but in many, many countries around the world.”

After the Israeli leader was welcomed in Budapest, Hamas issued a statement calling on the Hungarian government to reverse its decision and extradite Netanyahu to the ICC to stand trial, calling the decision an “immoral stance that shows collusion with a war criminal who is running away from justice.”

In a post on X, Israel’s top diplomat reiterated his support for Hungary’s decision, arguing that Hamas’s statement only proves the country is taking the correct stance in this matter.

“Whoever needed further proof as to how justified, moral and necessary Hungary’s decision to withdraw from the ICC is: Hamas just condemned it,” Saar wrote.

“Hamas is defending the politicized and twisted so-called ‘International Criminal Court.’ And that’s the whole story.”

After the ICC’s decision to issue the warrants, several countries, including Hungary, Argentina, the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, France, and Italy, have said they would not arrest Netanyahu if he visited.

US and Israeli officials issued blistering condemnations of the ICC move, decrying the court for drawing a moral equivalence between Israel’s democratically elected leaders and the heads of Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that launched the ongoing war in Gaza with its massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2o23.

The ICC has no jurisdiction over Israel as it is not a signatory to the Rome Statute. Other countries including the US have similarly not signed the ICC charter. However, the ICC has asserted jurisdiction by accepting “Palestine” as a signatory in 2015, despite no such state being recognized under international law.

The post Hungary Announces Withdrawal From ‘Political’ ICC as Netanyahu Visits Country, Defying Arrest Warrant first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Jewish Individualism Will Not Work, But Solidarity Must

The Western Wall and Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

During the events of Purim, Haman approached King Xerxes I and said, “There is a certain race of people scattered through all the provinces of your empire who keep themselves separate from everyone else. Their laws are different from those of any other people, and they refuse to obey the laws of the king. So, it is not in the king’s interest to let them live.”

Queen Esther’s solidarity with her dispersed people in Persia, and her profound loyalty to her Jewish identity, saved them from Haman’s genocide and secured their self-defense when she courageously revealed her heritage to Xerxes I.

Today, Israeli Jews are once again fighting for their Jewish and Zionist survival. Since Oct. 7, 2023, this Jewish Armageddon has extended anew to Diaspora Jews, who have felt the past’s chilling draft. Antisemitism has reawakened, infecting non-Jews and Jews alike. Few people contribute to antisemitic attitudes more than “self-loathing” Jews. These “self-loathing” Jews, who cynically reveal only the negative aspects of their Jewishness, believe they can avoid antisemitic attacks if they condemn Israel. But they achieve only self-betrayal, gaining neither acceptance nor respect from those who hate all Jews. Jews are a nation of people who question, not people who answer.

Questions pervade the Jewish mind to such a degree that the adage, “two Jews, three opinions,” has become a common characteristic of Jewish identity. Moreover, the pursuit of an answer often serves as a springboard for further inquiry. For us, as Jews, the ultimate answer, akin to the messianic ideal, remains a distant, undefined future. This traditional perspective has granted Jews a sort of perpetual license to disagree. Jews enjoy engaging in debate with others, but they sometimes find particular delight in debating amongst themselves, which allows their intellects to roam and their sardonic wit to playfully engage with each other’s vulnerabilities, finding humor without causing offense.

This love for discourse, for questioning everything in sight, including Hashem himself, is by no means the only puzzle that makes up our Jewish identity. Another crucial element of our makeup is solidarity. In times of major upheavals, we have always stood together against the masses who rose against us. To our enemies, we Jews — atheists, nihilists, Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Haredi, religious Zionists, non-religious Zionists, or undecided — look, taste, and feel the same. They care nothing for our ingrained liberalism. Our enemies seek cracks within our communities in order to break us apart and cause irreparable damage.

Years of relative peace and prosperity since the Holocaust have allowed us to gather again and engage in countless polemics over the fate of Israel, Jews, Judaism, and Zionism. However, we have failed to notice that we are at war again, and that our enemies eagerly exploit the divisions within a nation that comprises only 0.2% of the world’s population. These enemies — radical Islamists and progressive Western leftists who view Jews and Israel as white oppressors and colonizers — avidly listen to Jewish internal squabbles and criticisms of the Israeli government.

Despite the significant progress the Shin Bet and IDF have made in dismantling much of Hamas’s leadership and terrorist infrastructure, destroying its complex network of tunnels and command centers, and weakening Hezbollah, in addition to eliminating tens of thousands of Hamas terrorists, many Jews remain critical of, and disagree with, what Israel represents today. Aware of government problems, Israelis desire improvement. However, their rage and almost addictive pattern of anti-government protests have provided their adversaries with more opportunities to exploit perceived weaknesses.

This has resonated with some Jews worldwide. In New York, some Jewish intellectuals have defended “free-Palestine” and pro-Hamas protesters harassing Jewish students, invoking freedom of speech. They appear to have fallen prey to what they perceive as the lies of progressive anti-Zionist media, which systemically omits crucial facts about Israel. This includes the IDF’s efforts to minimize civilian casualties, and its role in eliminating thousands of Hamas terrorists and dismantling their terror network, which posed a significant threat to Israel (and innocent Palestinians themselves).

These “romantic” progressive Jews also forget that no matter how critical they are of that “brutal” IDF, it is still fighting on their behalf, because it is fighting on behalf of every Jew. Civilian deaths do occur, but they are either unfortunate incidents of war or, more often, a direct result of Hamas’s cruelty, as Hamas terrorists purposefully embed themselves within the civilian population. I once sat at dinner in Israel with a wealthy American Jewish couple who came on a sympathy tour a few months after Oct. 7. Nevertheless, the husband was convinced that the IDF was deliberately killing Palestinian children.

Those were wealthy, educated American Jews who thought they were charitable because they donated to Jewish causes, and therefore, believed they had the right to express their views on everything. This is where I, a Soviet Jew who grew up deprived of Judaism yet targeted by antisemitism, felt differently. To begin with, the husband was completely wrong. Second, in times of existential crisis, we, as Jewish people, must set aside our irresistible urge to disagree and criticize Israel on basic premises such as Israel’s fight to ensure Jews don’t live through a second genocide. The freedom to speak our minds has been ours for thousands of years. We conversed with Hashem, we obeyed Him, we sacrificed for Him, and then we quickly learned to disobey and question Him, even before we began arguing amongst ourselves.

Still, throughout our dotted and punctured history, it wasn’t our tongues or our disagreeable minds that kept our small nation together; it was our solidarity. In solidarity, we walked out of Egypt. In solidarity, tens of thousands of Eastern European Jews came to their promised land as early as the 1920s and began to build from nothing. In solidarity with his orphans, Dr. Janusz Korczak, despite being given the chance to save himself, chose to march with them, hand in hand, through the ghetto to the deportation point, on their way to Treblinka, where they met their final hour. In solidarity with other Jews across the Soviet Empire, Soviet Jews secretly tried to remember who they were, despite years of persecutions and purges.

In solidarity with their Soviet brethren, powerful American Jewry fought for Russian Jews to be able to emigrate to Israel and the United States. One of the main reasons our small nation has not disappeared into the abyss is because, in Diaspora, across oceans, and through impenetrable iron curtains, we never ceased to support one another. We knew we could not afford the luxury of neglecting our faith, traditions, and, most importantly, we could never abandon defending ourselves against our enemies.

Caesar’s “Divide et impera” (“Divide and Conquer”), though a cliché, is particularly relevant here. Seeing fractures within our communities, our enemies have intensified these divisions through incessant anti-Zionist and antisemitic propaganda and violence. Therefore, only as an undivided people, united by a single purpose — eradicating our enemies and protecting our promised land — do we stand a chance of survival. Perhaps only then will the day come when Jewish people gather on virtual street corners to argue and ask questions to which they seek no answers.

Anya Gillinson is an immigration lawyer and author of the new memoir Dreaming in Russian. She lives in New York City. More at www.anyagillinson.com.

The post Jewish Individualism Will Not Work, But Solidarity Must first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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