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The Rebbe’s Radical Approach to Anti-Israel Jews? More Love

Menachem Mendel Schneerson — the Lubavitcher Rebbe — at the Lag BaOmer parade in Brooklyn, New York, May 17, 1987. Photo: Mordecai Baron via Wikicommons.

JNS.orgIn the heavily Orthodox neighborhood of Borough Park on Feb. 18, a shockingly violent event took place. Scores of anti-Israel protesters marched through the streets, banging on drums, chanting slogans such as “There is only one solution. Intifada revolution!” and “How many kids did you kill today?” After physical assaults against Jews ensued, the police were called, and arrests were promptly made. Videos flooded the Internet late into the night capturing the melee.

The marching protesters claimed to represent an effort to “Free Palestine,” but after 16 months of watching similarly hateful gatherings around the world, it is abundantly clear that the only cause they are promoting is antisemitism. For local residents of Borough Park and Jews around the world, this outpouring of venom was especially painful as earlier in the day, news circulated about the murders of Israeli hostages Shiri Bibas and her two young children, Ariel and Kfir, at the hands of Hamas.

On Oct. 7, the Bibas mother and babies were kidnapped not by Hamas but by Palestinian civilians, the very ones that the mindless protesters wish to “free.” Additionally, the keffiyeh-clad activists seem to have missed the obscene Hamas ceremonies of the last few weeks when freed hostages were paraded on a stage, given certificates and goody-bags and perversely made to thank their captors.

Adding shock to horror is the fact that the “Free Palestine” cause has attracted a non-insignificant amount of Jews—from college campuses to staff at the White House. Whether it has been Jewish students at Columbia University holding a “liberation seder” at the pro-Palestinian encampment or progressive rabbis draped in tallitot protesting against Israel in the Capitol, our collective heart sinks to see such a basic betrayal of Am Yisrael. And reality.

After nearly a year and a half since the world turned upside down on Oct. 7, I wish to propose a radically new approach based on this week’s Torah portion and the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson.

We need to pour love, not hate, towards the members of our community who have chosen the path of the meshumad, a Jew who has strayed from the Jewish tradition. Instead of the justified rage and pain that they evoke in us by promoting terrorism against Israel and Jews, we need to understand that they are indeed victims—victims of suicidal self-hate, of disinformation, propaganda and simplistic binary thinking.

Our collective shock and horror naturally have caused many of us to shun, ignore or perhaps engage in counter-protest against these individuals. However, this has not helped bring any of them closer to understanding the truth or defending the Jewish people. I suggest that it is time for a radical reset. The Rebbe taught that for wayward, self-hating or uninformed Jews, we must bring them closer with love, instead of driving them away with hate.

The Rebbe drew inspiration from previous Jewish sages who preached reaching out with open hearts and inclusion, such as the Rambam (Maimonides), the 12th-century codifier of Jewish law, and Saadia Gaon, the great ninth-century Jewish philosopher and theologian. The Rambam advised that the only effective way to bring wayward Jews back to Judaism was through non-judgmental love and acceptance (Mishna TorahMamrim, 3:3). Saadia Gaon was similarly quoted as saying that rebellious Jews are considered “kidnapped,” or Tinok Shenishba, literally children captured from our Jewish community and raised in captivity (Chezkuni on Exodus 2:15).

It is incumbent upon us to treat anti-Israel Jews the same way as previous Jewish generations treated the Tinok Shenishba or the meshumad.

If a child is tragically kidnapped or goes off the path, we should love that child and desire to bring them back because they are part of us; they are family members who should be redeemed. We need to adapt this approach to those Jews who harbor distorted and dangerous beliefs, even as they inflict pain upon themselves and our people.

Another way to look at it is that Jewish anti-Israel activism is a manifestation of Jewish anxiety over antisemitism. Our Hamas-supporting brothers and sisters are acutely aware of the threat of antisemitism; however, by siding with our enemies, they hope to escape being targeted. Sadly, they haven’t learned the lesson that history teaches us: Just as the Nazis killed Jews indiscriminately, anti-Israel Jews are targets as surely are Israel-loving ones.

This week’s Torah portion, Mishpatim, meaning “statutes” or “laws,” also provides fresh guidance for our present crisis for “lost Jews.”

Mishpatim discussed the various commandments related to interpersonal human relations, especially the relationships between parents and children.

Interestingly, from Chapter 21, verses 15-17, the laws about dealing with one who kidnaps another individual are sandwiched between laws for children who insult or strike their parents. The Saadia Gaon comments on this curious juxtaposition.

He posits that for a child to turn their back on their parents, they must have been kidnapped—not necessarily in a physical sense but in a spiritual, psychological or emotional sense. There is simply no way that a normal child would inflict harm on their parents under normal circumstances; a child who strikes or defames a parent is because they were absent in the formation of their Jewish identity, as if the child were kidnapped.

These are strong words, perhaps even harsh. But we must consider their value.

Few among us have the inner fortitude to engage in a debate with Jewish haters of Israel. Many will understandably regard them as a lost cause or see their behavior as akin to Hamas, but we must have compassion for them, for our sages tell us that they are akin to one who was kidnapped. Our love for them must transcend any of their suicidal and misguided rhetoric.

Is this easy? Absolutely not! The sight of Jews, including those who wear the garb of the ultra-Orthodox, shouting for Israel’s destruction is stomach-churning. The only way to heal the rupture in our people is to see anti-Israel Jews as being held in captivity, held in a proverbial “Gaza of the mind,” themselves victims of kidnapping, broken in mind, body and soul.

The approach of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement would be to put on tefillin with them or invite them for Shabbat dinner, but that’s not the only way. The next time you encounter an anti-Israel Jew, try to let kindness and civility inform your interactions with them, despite how difficult or excruciating this may be. The timeless words of “love your neighbor as yourself” ring true.

In this fraught environment, let us bond together as one people. Let us love one another even when it feels impossible, and from that unity, miracles will happen.

The post The Rebbe’s Radical Approach to Anti-Israel Jews? More Love first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Hamas Releases New Hostage Body It Claims Is Shiri Bibas

Israelis sit together as they light candles and hold posters with the images Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas and her two children, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, on the day the bodies of deceased hostages, identified at the time by Palestinian terror groups as Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas, and her two children, were handed over under the terms of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Itay Cohen

Hamas released a body on Friday it claimed to be that of Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas, whose misidentification in a handover this week threatened to derail the fragile Gaza ceasefire deal.

Israeli medical authorities said forensic teams were preparing to examine the body, which Hamas transferred via the Red Cross, and confirm its identity.

The Palestinian terrorist group had agreed to hand over the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons Kfir and Ariel along with the remains of a fourth hostage on Thursday under the ceasefire that has halted fighting in Gaza since last month.

Four bodies were delivered and the identities of the Bibas boys and the other hostage, Oded Lifshitz, were confirmed.

But Israeli specialists said the fourth body was that of an unidentified woman and not Shiri Bibas, who was kidnapped along with her sons and her husband, Yarden, during the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said “unfortunate mistakes” could occur, especially as Israeli bombing had mixed the bodies of Israeli hostages and Palestinians.

“We confirm that it is not in our values or our interest to keep any bodies or not to abide by the covenants and agreements that we sign,” he said in a statement.

The failure to hand over the correct body and the staged public handover of the four coffins on Thursday caused outrage in Israel and drew a threat of retaliation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We will act with determination to bring Shiri home along with all our hostages – both living and dead – and ensure Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and evil violation of the agreement,” he said in a video statement.

Hamas said in November 2023 that the children and their mother had been killed in an Israeli air strike. Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, said Netanyahu “bears full responsibility for killing her and her children.”

But the Israeli military said intelligence assessments and forensic analysis of the bodies of the Bibas children indicated that they were deliberately killed by their captors. Chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the boys were killed by the terrorists “with their bare hands,” but gave no details.

The UN Human Rights Office said it had no information of its own on the hostage deaths and called for an effective investigation into the causes.

“The return of the remains of the deceased is a basic humanitarian goal,” the office said.

The incident underscored the fragility of the ceasefire agreement reached with US backing and with the help of Qatari and Egyptian mediators last month.

SATURDAY EXCHANGE

Six living hostages were due for release on Saturday in exchange for 602 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, according to Hamas, and the start of negotiations for a second phase of the ceasefire was expected in the coming days.

“Hamas must return the hostages as agreed in the ceasefire – the living and the deceased,” Israeli military spokesperson Nadav Shoshani said in a statement on social media platform X. “They have to bring Shiri back, and they have to release the 6 living hostages expected tomorrow.”

Netanyahu’s office confirmed it had been officially informed of the names of the six hostages to be released, which Hamas sources said was expected at around 8:30 am (0630 GMT).

As the tension over the Gaza ceasefire rose, Netanyahu ordered the Israeli military to intensify operations in another Palestinian territory, the West Bank, after a number of explosions blew up buses standing empty in their depots near Tel Aviv.

No casualties were reported but the explosions were a reminder of the campaign of suicide attacks on public transport that killed hundreds of Israeli civilians during the Second Intifada in the early 2000s.

‘THEY MAKE A JOKE OF US’

Both Israel and Hamas have repeatedly accused the other of ceasefire violations, with Hamas threatening to delay the release of hostages over what it said was Israel‘s refusal to allow housing materials and other aid into Gaza, a charge Israel denied.

The Red Cross told Reuters it was “concerned and unsatisfied” that the handover of the bodies had not been conducted privately and in a dignified manner.

“It’s like they make a joke of us,” said 75-year-old Israeli Ilana Caspi. “We are so in grief and this is even more.”

One of the main groups representing hostage families said it was “horrified and devastated” by the news that Shiri Bibas’ body had not been returned but called for the ceasefire to continue to bring back all 70 hostages still in Gaza.

“Save them from this nightmare,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.

Despite the outrage over Shiri Bibas, there was no indication that Israel would not take part in talks over a second phase of the ceasefire deal.

The Israel Hayom newspaper reported that Israeli negotiators were considering seeking an extension of the 42-day ceasefire, to delay moving to a second phase, which would involve talks over hard-to-resolve issues including an end to the war and the future of Hamas in Gaza.

The post Hamas Releases New Hostage Body It Claims Is Shiri Bibas first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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US Rep. Nancy Mace Torches Colleague Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Suggesting Cuts to Israel Military Aid

Nancy Mace (R-SC) (Source: Reuters)

US Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC). Photo: Reuters

US Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) has lambasted fellow Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) over her previous suggestions that the United States cut funding to Israel for humanitarian purposes. 

Mace posted on social media that she is currently visiting Israel to witness the aftermath of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks which left roughly 1,200 dead and 250 abducted.

“I’m in Israel where last night 3 buses were bombed. I’m here to see the evil that invaded Israel and deeply harmed her Jewish people on 10/7,” Mace wrote.

“We gave $9 billion in humanitarian and disaster aid for Gaza last year – at least half of which, $4.5 billion since AOC can’t count, ended up funding terrorism. Our resources have enabled mass terrorism in Gaza and elsewhere. See UN and USAID as additional examples,” Mace continued. “Also – what’s democracy to terrorists who want to kill all Jews and Christians. Move to Gaza since you and your caucus love Hamas so much.”

Observers have argued that humanitarian funding for Gaza, including money from the US, often ends up going to the Hamas terrorist group, the most powerful and organized faction in the Palestinian enclave. Many countries, including the US, have paused funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which is responsible for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, for harboring close ties to Hamas terrorists. The Israeli government and research organizations have publicized findings showing numerous UNRWA-employed staff, including teachers and school principals, directly participated in the Oct. 7 attacks.

Mace was responding to an April 2024 clip from “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” in which Ocasio-Cortez accused Israel of inflicting a famine on Gaza as revenge for Oct. 7. The firebrand progressive accused Israel of “human rights” violations in Gaza and argued that the Jewish state has undermined Palestinian “civil rights.” Ocasio-Cortez lamented that “US taxpayer assistance” has helped facilitate what she considers a dereliction of American values. 

“It’s not just about Israel. It’s not just about Gaza. This is about us, because this is US taxpayer assistance and what is being financed with our resources, and if any conflict is going to have US resources, then it does become a matter of our values,” Ocasio-Cortez said to Stephen Colbert. 

She then called on the United States to reaffirm its “commitment to human rights, to the sanctity of civil rights, to the rules of war” by canceling arms transfers to Israel. 

Over the past year, Ocasio-Cortez has repeatedly condemned the Jewish state’s response to the Hamas terrorist group’s brutal Oct. 7 slaughter of roughly 1,200 people throughout southern Israel. She has accused the Jewish state of committing a “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza, arguing that the conflict has been “generationally radicalizing” for young Americans. She has also boasted of leading a “whip operation” to garner votes from fellow Democrats to block aid to Israel. 

Since entering Congress in 2021, Mace has often defended Israel. Earlier this week, Mace repudiated Palestinian American supermodel Bella Hadid for holding a map that depicts the elimination of Israel. In May 2024, Mace defended Israel’s military conduct in Gaza as “biblical warfare,” and she has slammed her Democratic colleagues for not being more outspoken about the widespread rapes of Israeli women during the Hamas-led Oct. 7 rampage.

“I can’t think of anything more shameful than to see these women’s groups, to see women on the left, women in the House, my colleagues on the left who refuse to say what this is, which is shameful. It’s disgusting. It’s barbaric,” she said. “And we ought to be condemning it from every corner of our country. Every woman should be condemning this. And I think it’s shameful.”

The post US Rep. Nancy Mace Torches Colleague Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Suggesting Cuts to Israel Military Aid first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Swarthmore College Suspends Students for Justice in Palestine Over Building Takeover

Illustrative: 2023-2024 anti-Israel encampment installed on the Swarthmore College campus in Pennsylvania. Photo: Screenshot

Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania has temporarily barred Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) from operating on its campus while school officials investigate the group’s surprise but unsuccessful attempt to take over an administrative building earlier this week.

“We cannot ignore the ways in which some of the behavior we experienced Wednesday put the safety and well-being of our community at risk,” college president Valerie Smith, the school’s highest ranking official, said in a statement. “Wednesday’s actions constitute significant, numerous violations of the Student Code of Conduct, and individuals found responsible for violating college policies will be held accountable.”

She continued, “We have notified Swarthmore’s SJP chapter that the group is on an interim suspension effective immediately. During this interim period, SJP will be unable to access college funs, schedule or host events on campus, or access any other college resources available to student organizations.”

As previously reported by The Algemeiner, SJP raided the college’s Parrish Hall dressed like Hamas fighters, their faces wrapped with and concealed by keffiyehs. The move came as a surprise. While the group had announced an “emergency rally” scheduled for noon that day, there was little indication that it planned on commandeering the building and remaining inside of it indefinitely.

By the time the college formally warned the students that their behavior would trigger disciplinary measures, they had shouted slogans through bullhorns, attempted to break into offices that had been locked to keep them out, and pounded the doors of others that refused to admit them access. Meanwhile, SJP collaborators reportedly circumvented security’s lockdown of the building to smuggle food inside. Several students then grew impatient and attempted to end the lockdown themselves by raiding the building, and in doing so caused a physical altercation with security, whom they proceeded to pelt with expletives and other imprecations.

“What the f—k is your problem?” a female student, captured in video shared by The Phoenix, the official campus newspaper, can be heard screaming at an official who used his body to block a protester from forcing his way inside. “B—ch! F—k you! Stop f—king touching people, bruh!”

The protest lasted 11 hours, according to The Phoenix, after which communications vice president Andy Hirsch suggested that no one would be punished over the incident because SJP evacuated the building before an 11pm deadline set by student affairs vice president Stephanie Ives.

Smith’s latest statement on the incident walked back Hirsch’s, stressing that SJP committed egregious infractions of the school’s code of conduct.

“SJP organized and led the actions described above, creating an untenable learning, living, and working environment that no member of our community should have to endure. The group’s alleged behavior runs counter to the college’s values and our commitment to inclusivity and well-being,” she said. “As we uphold and promote the important role of peaceful protest and dissent, I hope we will do so in ways that result in meaningful, productive dialogue rather than deeper divisions.”

Swarthmore College is not the first US college or university to see the attempted takeover of school property this semester, and it is one of several to levy sanctions against either an entire chapter or its individual members.

Earlier this month, SJP installed an encampment inside Bowdoin’s College Smith Union to demand a boycott of Israel and signal its opposition to US President Donald Trump’s proposing that Gazans be resettled elsewhere while the Palestinian enclave is transformed into a hub for tourism and job creation under American control. Bowdoin, moving quickly to quell the disruption, persuaded its students to abandon the effort after just four days by levying interim suspensions on several dozen of them and notifying their families.

Days before, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) suspended both Students for Justice in Palestine and Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine following their vandalizing the home of a Jewish member of the Board of Regents, the governing body for the University of California system.

According to The Daily Bruin, on Feb. 5 roughly 50 of the groups’ members amassed on the property of UC Regent Jay Sures and threatened that he must “divest now or pay.” As part of the demonstration, the students imprinted their hands, which had been submerged in red paint to symbolize the spilling of blood, all over Sures’ garage door and cordoned the area with caution tape.

The behavior crossed the line, UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk said in an email, portions of which were quoted by The Bruin and can be found online, sent to the entire student body.

“Rigorous, healthy dialogue is central to everything we do to advance knowledge,” he explained. “What there should never be room for is violence. No one should ever fear for their safety. Without the basic feeling of safety, humans cannot learn, teach, work, and live — much less thrive and flourish. This is true no matter what group you are a member of — or which identities you hold. There is no place for violence in our Bruin community.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post Swarthmore College Suspends Students for Justice in Palestine Over Building Takeover first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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