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US Jews Shouldn’t Give Up on America
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
In recent weeks, a growing chorus of prominent pro-Israel advocates have been urging Jewish Americans to leave the US and immigrate to Israel. Since the October 7 massacre, a surge in antisemitic attacks — coupled with shocking scenes of packed protests in US cities calling for violence against Jews — has heralded a discussion on the fate of Jewish Americans, and whether the era of prosperity and safety under which Jews have flourished has come to an end.
The well-intentioned efforts of those telegraphing the dangers associated with staying in America represent a justified concern, steeped in public scenes and statistics confirming the cultural, political, and academic corrosion infecting American institutions.
While encouraging a return to our ancestral homeland will remain a cornerstone of the Jewish American project, particularly in Modern Orthodox communities, approaching aliyah through the prism of fleeing antisemitism in America rather than fulfilling the ultimate mitzvah of living in the Holy Land discounts the importance of having a robust Diaspora, and dismisses the established idea that upholding western civilization rests on preserving US exceptionalism.
Eric Cohen, Executive Director of the Tikvah Fund, addressed some of these sentiments in an interview last month. Indeed, Cohen correctly notes, “As goes America, so goes the West and arguably the world,” and further cites that US Jews hold a unique role in restoring America to its place as protector of Western interests and values.
Historically, Jewish Americans, both individually and collectively, have been crucial to advancing US support for Israel, and explaining to Americans why a democratic Israel benefits the United States. More than 75 years after the US officially recognized Israel, stories surrounding US Jewish businessman Eddie Jacobson talking to his old friend, President Harry Truman, and having him agree to meet Chaim Weizmann upon the Zionist leader’s visit to America, was the beginning of this bond.
Last month, mobilization efforts in New York’s 16th Congressional District helped unseat, albeit belatedly, antisemitic Squad Rep. Jamaal Bowman — both for his assault on Israel, Jews, and many other values antithetical to those of his constituents. Another radical progressive, Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-MO), may soon find a similar fate in her primary race next month, as polls show the lawmaker trailing the more moderate Democrat, St. Louis County prosecuting attorney Wesley Bell.
In both cases, Jewish voters helped lead grassroots campaigns and devoted critical resources to assist in centering the far-left lurch of the Democratic Party. Last fall’s slaughter in Israel and domestic developments here in the US have reawakened a segment of the Jewish population who are looking more seriously at the positions of politicians, with many concluding that the anti-Jewish animus that they have long tied only to the far-right is wedded to outdated assumptions.
At the same time, blue-state metropolises such as New York and Los Angeles have become epicenters where steady drumbeats of pro-Hamas sympathizers chanting for the destruction of Israel — and violence against Jews — are prompting some US Jews to make their home in other parts of the country.
Prescriptive approaches to conserving America’s future may entail retooling Jewish sensibilities to meet existing challenges. That areas where Jews face the most significant threats from the political left are primarily governed by elected officials who resist punishing antisemitic perpetrators suggests that the US Jewish center of gravity could soon shift from left-wing bastions such as Brooklyn to more conservative neighborhoods like Boca Raton.
Moreover, a strong America stands to benefit the security of the entire free world — including in Israel, and for Jews in other parts of the Diaspora.
Maintaining Israel’s qualitative military edge is rooted in the US retaining its strategic footprint in the region and assisting Israel in deterring its detractors. A diminished US security posture that rejects Israel may also compel the countries in the region to form alliances with unsavory actors, such as China and Russia. Jewish Americans have a responsibility to revive America out of its decline and abet in stemming the inevitable terror such descent spreads to Jews in Israel.
My daughter, who graduated high school in June, recently remarked that should the US become uninhabitable for Jews, America ceases being America. Defending US exceptionalism is inextricably linked to preserving the security of our allies across the globe, including Israel. Jewish Americans must assert their energies and unite in repelling the destructive ideologies that seek to destroy the foundational Judeo-Christian tenets upon which our country was founded. Perpetuating a narrative that embraces America’s irreparable doom ignores the country’s indispensable role as a bulwark for liberty that stretches beyond our borders and demotes much of the good that remains at the core of the American spirit.
Irit Tratt is an American and pro-Israel advocate residing in New York. Follow her on X @Irit_Tratt.
The post US Jews Shouldn’t Give Up on America first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul Faces Backlash Over Endorsement of ‘Raging Antisemite’ Zohran Mamdani for NYC Mayor
Candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks during a Democratic New York City mayoral primary debate, June 4, 2025, in New York, US. Photo: Yuki Iwamura/Pool via REUTERS
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) is facing sharp criticism after endorsing far-left state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City, with some US lawmakers describing the Democrat from Queens known for his fierce criticism of Israel as a “communist” and antisemitic.
Amid mounting pressure from progressive Democrats, Hochul endorsed Mamdani’s mayoral campaign in a New York Times op-ed on Sunday. The governor cited Mamdani’s emphasis on “public safety and making “New York City affordable.”
“We discussed the need to combat the rise of antisemitism urgently and unequivocally,” Hochul wrote. “I’ve been glad to see him meet with Jewish leaders across the city, listening and addressing their concerns directly.”
In the immediate aftermath of the endorsement, Hochul faced a withering denunciation from US Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who argued that the governor now supports a “raging antisemite communist.” She asserted that Hochul now “owns” Mamdani’s left-wing positions to “defund the police, abolish our law enforcement, abolish prisons, abolish private health-care insurance.”
Stefanik also accused Hochul of lending credibility to Mamdani’s “antisemitism, which put New York at risk and is a danger to the Jewish community in New York City.”
Stefanik, who serves on the House Republican leadership, is widely expected to run for governor of New York in 2026. Though a recent Sienna College poll shows Hochul maintaining a formidable lead over Stefanik, the margin has decreased from 23 points in June to 14 points in August.
US President Donald Trump also ripped into Hochul for endorsing Mamdani.
“Governor Kathy Hochul of New York has endorsed the ‘Liddle Communist,’ Zohran Mamdani, running for Mayor of New York,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “This is a rather shocking development, and a very bad one for New York City. How can such a thing happen? Washington will be watching this situation very closely. No reason to be sending good money after bad!”
US Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) also chimed in, calling Hochul’s endorsement of Mamdani “a complete and total disaster for our state and for the country.”
In previous elections, Hochul has enjoyed robust support from Jewish communities in Crown Heights, Borough Park, and the Five Towns. Some observers have speculated that her embrace of Mamdani threatens to fracture her base of support among Jewish voters.
A little-known politician before this year’s Democratic primary campaign, Mamdani is an outspoken supporter of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward its eventual elimination.
Mamdani has also repeatedly refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, falsely suggesting the country does not offer “equal rights” for all its citizens, and promised to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York.
Mamdani also initially defended the phrase “globalize the intifada” — which references previous periods of sustained Palestinian terrorism against Jews and Israels and has been widely interpreted as a call to expand political violence — by invoking the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising during World War II. However, Mamdani has since backpedaled on his support for the phrase, saying that he would discourage his supporters from using the slogan.
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Leading Nonprofit Holds ‘Antisemitism Symposium’ in Washington, DC for College Administrators
Visitors enter the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, MA on June 3, 2025. Photo: Jason Bergman/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
College administrators from across the US will amass in Washington, DC, this week for a three-day symposium on combating campus antisemitism, a sign of growing recognition that anti-Jewish hatred threatens not only Jewish students but all of higher education.
Organized by the Academic Engagement Network (AEN), which promotes academic freedom unfettered by boycotts and ideology, the event will be attended by administrators representing dozens of institutions such as Harvard University, Barnard College, and George Washington University, all of which have drawn scrutiny for responding to campus antisemitism in ways that critics — including Jewish community leaders and senior US officials — have described as insufficient if not dismissive.
Dozens of conversations and seminars will be held over the three-day “Antisemitism Symposium,” with many being led by AEN faculty, as well as staff from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and experts from the Jewish Federations of North America and the American Jewish Committee.
“College administrators are the ones tasked with recognizing and addressing antisemitism on campus, as well as setting the tone for behavioral expectations and campus culture,” Miriam Elman, executive director of AEN, said in a statement. “Today’s antisemitism, though, often takes forms that can be less familiar or harder to identify, making it all the more important to provide campus leaders with the tools, training, and support they need to recognize and respond effectively.”
She continued, “By hosting this convening and bringing these administrators together for a yearlong learning journey, we ensure they are not tackling these unique challenges in isolation, but as part of a national network committed to fostering welcoming, inclusive, and safe learning environments for all.”
The AEN symposium comes amid a concerted effort by American Jewish and allied organizations to persuade higher education leaders of the importance of taking steps to deter, or quell, antisemitism in the early weeks of the new academic year.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Jewish Federations of North America, Hillel International, and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations issued a joint statement calling for action in August, putting forth a policy framework that they say will quell antisemitism if applied sincerely and consistently. It included “enhanced communication and policy enforcement,” “dedicated administration oversight,” and “faculty accountability” — an issue of rising importance given the number of faculty accused of inciting discrimination.
“These recommendations aren’t just suggestions; they’re essential steps universities need to take to ensure Jewish students can learn without fear,” ADL chief executive officer Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement at the time. “Jewish students are being forced to hide who they are, and that’s unacceptable — we need more administrators to step up.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, colleges campus across the US erupted with effusions of antisemitic activity following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, an uprising which included calling for the destruction of Israel, cheering Hamas’s sexual assaulting of women as an instrument of war, and numerous of incidents of assault and harassment targeting Jewish students, faculty, and activists.
At the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), anti-Zionist protesters chanted “Itbah El Yahud” at Bruin Plaza, which means “slaughter the Jews” in Arabic. At Columbia University, Jews were gang-assaulted, a student proclaimed that Zionist Jews deserve to be murdered and are lucky he is not doing so himself, and administrative officials, outraged at the notion that Jews organized to resist anti-Zionism, participated in a group chat in which each member took turns sharing antisemitic tropes that described Jews as privileged and grafting. At Harvard University, an October 2023 anti-Israel demonstration degenerated into chaos when Ibrahim Bharmal, former editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review, and Elom Tettey-Tamaklo encircled a Jewish student with a mob that screamed “Shame! Shame! Shame!” at him while he desperately attempted to free himself from the mass of bodies.
More recently, Eden Deckerhoff — a female student at Florida State University — allegedly assaulted a Jewish male classmate at the Leach Student Recreation Center after noticing his wearing apparel issued by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
“F—k Israel, Free Palestine. Put it [the video] on Barstool FSU. I really don’t give a f—k,” the woman said before shoving the man, according to video taken by the victim. “You’re an ignorant son of a b—h.” Deckerhoff has since been charged with misdemeanor battery.
Majorities of Jewish students continue to describe their campuses as hostile environments.
According to a recent Spring Campus Poll conducted by The Daily Northwestern, the official campus newspaper of Northwestern University, 58 percent of Jewish students reported being subjected to antisemitism or knowing someone who has. An even higher 63.1 percent said antisemitism remains a “somewhat or very serious problem.”
Meanwhile, a Columbia University “climate survey” conducted last academic year found that 53 percent of Jewish students have been subjected to discrimination because of being Jewish, while another 53 percent reported that their friendships are “strained” because of how overwhelmingly anti-Zionist the student culture is. Additionally, 29 percent of Jewish students said they have “lost close friends,” and 59 percent, nearly two-thirds, of Jewish students sensed that they would be better off by electing to “conform their political beliefs” to those of their classmates.
Nearly 62 percent of Jewish students reported a low “feeling of acceptance” at Columbia on the basis of their religious identity, and 50 percent said that the pro-Hamas encampments which capped off the 2023-2024 academic year had a negative “impact” on their daily routines. Also, Jewish students at Columbia are more likely than their peers to report these negative feelings and experiences, followed by Muslim students.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Anti-Israel Activism Takes Center Stage at Emmy Awards After Paramount Condemns Boycott of Israeli Film Companies
Javier Bardem at the 2025 Emmy Awards. Photo: REUTERS/Daniel Cole
Several members of Hollywood promoted their pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel activism on Sunday night at the 77th Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
Actor Javier Bardem – who stars in “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” – wore a Palestinian keffiyeh around his neck to the ceremony and talked on the Emmys red carpet about his decision not to work with Israeli institutions and companies.
The Emmy nominee told The Hollywood Reporter that he “will never work with some company now [who] are not condemning the genocide in Gaza.” If his decision impacts the number of jobs he gets, he said, “Me not getting jobs is absolutely [ir]relevant compared to what is going on there.”
The “F1” actor also told Variety on the Emmys red carpet: “I cannot work with someone that justifies or supports the genocide. I can’t. It’s as simple as that. And we shouldn’t, in this industry and in any other industry. What we are witnessing is a genocide on a daily basis.”
Also on Sunday, in Bardem’s home country of Spain, a major cycling race was shut down after thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators clashed with police while protesting an Israeli team’s participation in the race. Bardem mentioned the shutdown while speaking on the Emmys red carpet and said Israel’s inclusion in the race is an example of “whitewashing” the “genocide” Israel is supposedly perpetrating in Gaza.
“We ask for a commercial and diplomatic blockade, and sanctions on Israel to stop this genocide. Free Palestine,” Bardem said.
Earlier this month, thousands of members of the Hollywood film industry signed a pledge by Film Workers for Palestine to boycott any Israeli film institutions and companies that are “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.” More than 1,300 filmmakers, actors, and other creatives signed the pledge.
The film production giant Paramount criticized the boycott in a released statement on Sept. 12.
“At Paramount, we believe in the power of storytelling to connect and inspire people, promote mutual understanding, and preserve the moments, ideas, and events that shape the world we share. This is our creative mission,” read a statement issued by Paramount chief communications officer Melissa Zukerman.
“We do not agree with recent efforts to boycott Israeli filmmakers,” the statement continued. “Silencing individual creative artists based on their nationality does not promote better understanding or advance the cause of peace. The global entertainment industry should be encouraging artists to tell their stories and share their ideas with audiences throughout the world. We need more engagement and communication — not less.”
Bardem responded to Paramount while speaking to The Hollywood Reporter at the Emmys.
“It’s also important to clarify to Paramount that we do not target individuals by their identity. That’s absolutely wrong. Don’t send that message; that is a wrong thing,” he said. “What we target are those complicit film companies and institutions that are involved in whitewashing or justifying the genocide of Israel in Gaza and its apartheid regime. And we stand with those who fight and stand in solidarity with the oppressed.”
Jewish-American actress and “Hacks” star Hannah Einbinder was among those who signed the anti-Israel pledge by Film Workers for Palestine. On Sunday night, Einbinder won the Emmy for best actress in a comedy series and concluded her acceptance speech by cheering the Philadelphia Eagles, calling out immigration raids by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and declaring “Free Palestine.” Backstage in the press room after her first Emmy win, she told reporters that the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza is “an issue that’s very close to my heart.”
“I have friends in Gaza who are working as frontline workers, as doctors, right now in the north of Gaza to provide care for pregnant women and for school children to create schools in refugee camps,” Einbinder said. “I feel like it is my obligation as a Jewish person to distinguish Jews from the state of Israel because our religion and our culture is such an important and longstanding institution that is really separate to this ethnonationalist state.”
She also explained why she signed the Film Workers for Palestine pledge.
“It’s like many movements — boycotting is an effective tool to create pressure on the powers that be to meet the moment,” she said. “The Film Workers for Palestine boycott does not boycott individuals; it only boycotts institutions that are directly complicit in the genocide. So, it’s important to me and I think it’s an important measure and I was happy to be a part of it.”
Fellow “Hacks” star Megan Stalter walked the Emmys red carpet wearing a white T-shirt and jeans that she paired with a black handbag featuring a message that read, “Cease Fire!” which seemed to be a reference the war in Gaza. There were some members of the audience inside Peacock Theater who were also seen wearing the Artists4Ceasefire red pins that call for an end to Israel’s military actions in the Gaza Strip. “White Lotus” actress Aimee Lou Wood, “Hacks” director Lucia Aniello, “Abbott Elementary” actor Chris Perfetti, and “Presumed Innocent” actress Ruth Negga were among the celebrities who wear the pins on the red carpet on Sunday.
Film Workers for Palestine responded to Paramount’s criticism of its anti-Israel boycott by saying that it hopes the studio is not “intentionally misrepresenting the pledge in an attempt to silence our colleagues in the film industry.”
“Such a move would only shield a genocidal regime from criticism at a time when global outrage is exponentially growing and while meaningful steps towards accountability are being taken by many,” Film Workers for Palestine wrote in a statement posted on social media. “Should Israeli film institutions wish to continue working with pledge signatories, their choice is clear: end complicity in Israel’s genocide and apartheid, and endorse the full rights of the Palestinian people under international law, in line with Palestinian civil society guidelines.”