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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.org – In 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 Torah, Mamrim, 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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US Clamps Sanctions on Israel-bashing UN Rights Monitor Albanese
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, attends a side event during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
The Trump administration has imposed sweeping sanctions against Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, citing the UN official’s lengthy record of singling out Israel for condemnation.
In a post on X, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions under a February executive order targeting those who “prompt International Criminal Court (ICC) action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.” He accused Albanese of waging “political and economic warfare” against both nations and asserted that “such efforts will no longer be tolerated.”
“Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt [International Criminal Court] action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives,” Rubio announced on X/Twitter.
“Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,” declared the Trump administration’s top foreign affairs official. “We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.”
Rubio concluded: “The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare and protect our sovereignty and that of our allies.”
The decision to impose sanctions on Albanese marks an escalation in the ongoing feud between the White House and the United Nations over Israel. The Trump administration has repeatedly accused the UN and Albanese of unfairly targeting Israel and mischaracterizing the Jewish state’s conduct in Gaza.
Albanese, an Italian lawyer and academic, has held the position of UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories since 2022. The position authorizes her to monitor and report on alleged “human rights violations” by Israel against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
Last week, Albanese issued a scathing report accusing companies of helping Israel maintain a so-called “genocide economy.” She called on the companies to cut off economic ties with Israel and warned that they might be guilty of “complicity” in the so-called “genocide” in Gaza.
Critics of Albanese have long accused her of exhibiting an excessive anti-Israel bias, calling into question her fairness and neutrality.
Albanese has an extensive history of using her role at the UN to denigrate Israel and seemingly rationalize Hamas’ attacks on the Jewish state.
In the months following the Palestinian terrorist group’s atrocities across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Albanese accused the Jewish state of perpetrating a “genocide” against the Palestinian people in revenge for the attacks and circulated a widely derided and heavily disputed report alleging that 186,000 people had been killed in the Gaza war as a result of Israeli actions.
The action comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington, where he has received a warm reception from the Trump administration. Netanyahu has been meeting with US officials to discuss next steps in the ongoing Gaza military operation.
Gideon Sa’ar, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Israel, commended the Rubio announcement with his own post on X/Twitter, exclaiming: “A clear message. Time for the UN to pay attention!”
The post US Clamps Sanctions on Israel-bashing UN Rights Monitor Albanese first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hardball: Trump Administration Reports Harvard to Accreditor Over Antisemitism Allegations
US President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
The Trump administration escalated its showdown against Harvard University on Wednesday, reporting the institution to its accreditor for alleged civil rights violations resulting from its weak response to reports of antisemitic bullying, discrimination, and harassment following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 massacre across southern Israel.
The US Department of Education (DOE) announced the action on Wednesday. Citing Harvard’s admitted failure to treat antisemitism as seriously as it treated others forms of hatred in the past, the DOE called on the New England Commission of Higher Education to review and, potentially, revoke its accreditation — a designation which qualifies Harvard for federal funding and attests to the quality of the educational services its provides.
“Accrediting bodies play a significant role in preserving academic integrity and a campus culture conducive to truth seeking and learning,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Part of that is ensuring students are safe on campus and abiding by federal laws that guarantee educational opportunities to all students. By allowing anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination to persist unchecked on its campus, Harvard University has failed in its obligation to students, educators, and American taxpayers.”
The DOE, McMahon added, “expects the New England Commission of Higher Education to enforce its policies and practices, and to keep the Department fully informed of its efforts to ensure that Harvard is in compliance with federal law and accreditor standards.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Harvard’s Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism has acknowledged that the university administration’s handling of campus antisemitism fell well below its obligations under both Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its own nondiscrimination policies.
In a 300-plus-page report, the task force compiled a comprehensive record of antisemitic incidents on Harvard’s campus in recent years — from the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee’s endorsement of the Oct. 7 terrorist atrocities to an anti-Zionist faculty group’s sharing an antisemitic cartoon depicting Jews as murderers of people of color. The report identified Harvard’s past refusal to afford Jews the same protections against discrimination enjoyed by other minority groups as a key source of its problem.
Coming several weeks after President Donald Trump ordered the freeze of $2.26 billion in federal research grants and contracts for Harvard, the task force report found it was “clear” that antisemitism and anti-Israel bias have been fomented, practiced, and tolerated not only at Harvard but also within academia more widely.”
The university is now suing the federal government over the funding halt.
President Trump has spoken scathingly of Harvard, calling it, for example, an “Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institute … with students being accepted from all over the world that want to rip our Country apart” in an April post to his Truth Social platform.
In recent weeks, however, both Trump and McMahon had commended Harvard’s constructive response in negotiations over reforms the administration has asked it to implement as a precondition for restoring federal funds. The requested reforms include hiring more conservative faculty, shuttering diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI] programs, and slashing the size of administrative offices tangential to the university’s central educational mission.
The administration has since changed its tone in the wake of a report by The Harvard Crimson that interim Harvard President Alan Garber has said “behind closed doors” that he has no intention of doing anything that would make Harvard more palatable to conservatives.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism issued Harvard a formal “notice of violation” of civil rights law. Charging that Harvard willfully exposed Jewish students to a flood of racist and antisemitic abuse both in and outside of the classroom, it threatened to strip whatever remains of Harvard’s federal funding.
“Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,” wrote the federal officials comprising the multiagency Task Force. “Harvard may of course continue to operate free of federal privileges, and perhaps such an opportunity will spur a commitment to excellence that will help Harvard thrive once again.”
In Wednesday’s announcement, US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Harvard’s conduct “forfeits the legitimacy that accreditation is designed to uphold.”
“HHS and Department of Education will actively hold Harvard accountable through sustained oversight until it restores public trust and ensures a campus free of discrimination,” he said.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Hardball: Trump Administration Reports Harvard to Accreditor Over Antisemitism Allegations first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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IDF Strikes Hezbollah Sites in South Lebanon as Terror Group Pushes to Rebuild Amid US Disarmament Talks
IDF operating in southern Lebanon. Photo: IDF Spokesperson
Israeli forces uncovered and destroyed Hezbollah weapons caches in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, as a new report indicated that despite ongoing U.S.-led efforts to secure a disarmament deal, the Iran-backed group is making repeated, largely concealed attempts to rebuild its military presence in the area.
Troops carried out several operations targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon on Wednesday morning, destroying weapons depots, explosives and multibarrel launchers concealed in forested terrain, the IDF said, in violation of the November ceasefire, which requires Hezbollah to withdraw its forces 20 miles from the Israeli border.
A new report released this week by the Alma Research and Education Center found that Hezbollah is focused on rebuilding in three areas: operational deployment, weapons acquisition, and financial recovery.
“Hezbollah didn’t give up its resistance narrative and motivation,” Alma’s director, Lt. Col. (Res.) Sarit Zehavi, told The Algemeiner.
“It wants to rebuild its capabilities and infrastructures, whether it’s the villages that will be used as human shields or the military infrastructure in South Lebanon and in Lebanon in general.”
According to Zehavi, Hezbollah is attempting to return Radwan fighters to positions south of the Litani River as part of a wider plan to restore its elite forces to operational readiness. The IDF on Monday killed Radwan commander Ali Abd al-Hassan Haidar in a targeted strike. The action came hours after US Special Envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut to discuss a long-term deal that would include an Israeli withdrawal and complete disarmament of Hezbollah.
Barrack described the Lebanese response to the proposal as positive. Later, he issued a blunt warning to Hezbollah in response to a vow by the terror group’s leader, Naim Qassem, not to lay down its arms. “If they mess with us anywhere in the world, they will have a serious problem with us,” Barrack said in an interview with Lebanese news network LBCI. “They don’t want that.”
Zehavi said it was premature to predict the outcome of the diplomatic efforts. She warned that the challenge of disarming Hezbollah remains enormous and emphasized that the Lebanese Armed Forces have not demonstrated the capability or willingness to confront the group.
“It’s too soon to be optimistic or pessimistic,” she said, noting that no firm commitments have emerged from the Beirut talks.
Hezbollah’s efforts to smuggle and manufacture weapons have been complicated by both Israeli strikes and the regional realignment over recent months. While Israeli strikes have disrupted many supply routes, according to Zehavi, Syrian authorities have intercepted far more Hezbollah-bound weapons than the Lebanese Army, which claims to have uncovered 500 arms caches but has provided no evidence.
The financial front marks the third aspect of Hezbollah’s rebuilding effort. Last week, the group halted cash payments to Shiite civilians whose homes were damaged in the war, citing liquidity problems. Zehavi attributed the shortfall to disruptions in Iran’s funding networks — an outcome of the 12-day war against the regime in Tehran — and said the constraints would likely hamper Hezbollah’s ability to compensate its base and sustain operations.
“I hope they will continue to have problems with the cash flow, that way it will be very difficult for them to recover,” she said.
The post IDF Strikes Hezbollah Sites in South Lebanon as Terror Group Pushes to Rebuild Amid US Disarmament Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.