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Young Jews Are Turning Away from Israel. What Will Get Them to Turn Back?
Last Sunday, at the final seminar of the semester for the Write On For Israel class of 2022, a piece of heartfelt but troubling advice to the students from one of the guest speakers drove home for me the depth and seriousness of anti-Israel sentiment in our society today.
The speaker, a former college admissions officer, is an alum of Write On, the two-year Jewish Week program that has helped educate and prepare high school students for the Mideast debate on campus since 2002. (Nearly 1,000 students from public, private and Jewish day schools have graduated from the program; founded with the support of the Avi Chai Foundation, its chief sponsor today is the Paul E. Singer Foundation.)
In responding to a question about whether the students, currently juniors in high school, should highlight their involvement with Write On and deep engagement with Israel in their college admissions essays, she began: “I hate to say this … it’s not what I’ve been telling Write On students the last six years when I speak to the group, and I would not have said this two weeks ago, but I think you should avoid controversy in your essays.”
She went on to explain that in the current climate, “it’s not just Israel, but any topic that is highly controversial” might have a negative effect on admissions staffs in the highly competitive quest for placement.
Clearly pained by her own advice, the woman, who in the past encouraged students to “write your truth,” said that if students “feel the need to write about Israel,” they should focus on how they have learned to engage in difficult conversations in a respectful manner, acquired qualities of leadership, and shown willingness to embrace diversity and be open-minded.
One key question that admissions officers ask themselves in reading college essays, she said, was “can you be a good roommate? That’s the litmus test.”
The speaker was being sincere, honest and focused on helping students gain acceptance into the colleges of their choice. But I was left with the lingering question: Can you be a good roommate if you’re a Zionist?
More and more, and especially in the wake of the most recent Israel-Hamas conflict, the answer for many college students may well be “no.”
I shouldn’t have been surprised.
For some time now, we’ve been aware that Jewish students – not just Zionists – are being marginalized from a variety of liberal activities on a relatively small but influential number of U.S. campuses.
“Intersectionality” is the term du jour, meaning that categories of race, class and gender are seen as “overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination and disadvantage,” according to the dictionary. In practical terms, groups that promote progressive causes, minorities, social justice, LGBTQ students, etc. tend to perceive Jewish students as “privileged” and “white,” and thus excluded. The Israel-Palestinian conflict only heightens the tensions.
According to the new Pew Research Center study on American Jews, younger Jews are less inclined to come to the defense of the Jewish State than their elders.
The troubling trend is not new, but it is increasing.
Young Jewish adults (ages 18-29) “are less emotionally attached to Israel than older ones,” the report found. “As of 2020, half of the Jewish adults under age 30 describe themselves as very or somewhat emotionally attached to Israel (48 percent), down from 60 percent in 2013.
In addition, 13 percent of young Jews support BDS (the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel).
There are numerous reasons one can cite for these disturbing statistics, ranging from the fact that younger people in general are moving further left, to the policies of an increasingly right-wing Israeli government led for the last 12 years by a prime minister on trial for fraud and bribery and closely associated with Donald Trump.
In recent days we are seeing that many Americans, including Jews, see direct parallels between the struggles of African Americans in the U.S. and Palestinians in the Mideast. They get most of their information – and misinformation – from social media, which is subject to false narratives and emotional videos that portray the suffering of Gazans without explaining that Hamas, whose charter calls for the death of Israel and all Jews, initiated the conflict.
In an increasingly binary and toxic atmosphere, you are either pro-Palestinian or pro-Israel; there is no room for historical facts, complexity, nuance or appreciating that one can be both a fervent supporter of the Jewish state and critic of some of its policies – just as many Americans love their country while disagreeing with the administration in Washington.
‘Fervent Debate is Good for Israel’
Another critical factor is that the great majority of young American Jews are woefully under-educated about modern Israeli history and culture.
John Ruskay, former CEO of UJA-Federation of New York, believes the Jewish community is too focused on Israel advocacy and not enough on Jewish education. In a paper he wrote recently for the Jewish Policy Planning Institute, a Jerusalem-based think tank, he asserted that “the conflation of Israel advocacy and Israel education has resulted in growing numbers of North American Jews ill prepared to understand and negotiate the complexity of contemporary Israel.”
Ruskay adds that “leadership avoids investing in substantive Israel education and as a result, the drift continues, gulfs widen, large numbers turn away.”
He told me the issue calls for “massive investment” from Israel and American Jewish organizations and foundations, beyond funding. The goal would be to convince the community that “fervent debate is good for Israel” and can “strengthen connection and engagement.”
Students and faculty meet online for the final seminar of the semester for the Write On For Israel class of 2022, May 23, 2021. (WOFI)
Avoiding the difficult and complex issues and only presenting one side of the Israel narrative results in more and more young American Jews hearing “the other side” for the first time on college campuses, leading them to often ask, “why didn’t they tell us?”
Ruskay acknowledges that in encouraging debate over “core assumptions and policies” regarding Israel, the process will be “messy and noisy,” but he believes it will lead people to develop their own visions of “what Israel can and should be.” Otherwise, he worries, “more and more Jews turn away – not in anger, not as opponents – but because there is simply no place within our community to grapple with the complexity and contemporary Israel.”
Wonders and Dilemmas
Write On For Israel, committed to that struggle, has walked a fine line between advocacy and education from its beginning, in 2002, at the height of the Second Intifada. At the time, with suicide bombers killing Jewish men, women and children at an alarming rate, the issues seemed more stark, and advocacy was strong. Over the years, though, as events made Israeli life less dramatic but more complicated, Write On has championed education as primary. There has been a recognition that tough issues must be confronted rather than avoided. Visits to Israel, which are part of the Write On curriculum, have focused on both the wonders and dilemmas of the Jewish State.
“The challenges have increased, but so have the rewards,” noted Linda Scherzer, who has directed Write On from the beginning. “We continue because it’s important,” noting that she still hears from early graduates of the program, now in their mid-30s, who describe the two-year experience as pivotal to their Jewish identity.
But the goal is always to find a balance between love of Zion and the realities of Israeli society, understanding and appreciating both.
During the Write On session last Sunday, which was on Zoom, an instant poll found that 94 percent of the students said they were getting most of their Mideast news on social media, much of it critical of Israel, and that only a small percentage were responding to it.
Should they be more engaged?
Charlotte Korchak, an American-born senior educator of StandWithUs, an Israel advocacy program, provided context on the conflict and advice on how to counter some of what she called “the overwhelming onslaught” of accusations on social media – including from popular celebrities like Trevor Noah and John Oliver – that portray Israel as an apartheid state, guilty of racism, colonialism and ethnic cleansing. She also said the students could be most effective in engaging friends who spout these false views on social media by sending them private messages offering to talk about the issues. “Explain that you can be pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel,” she said.
In an end-of-year wrap-up in the closing moments of the three-and-a-half-hour program, several Write On students reported that they appreciated feeling encouraged, as one girl said, “to make room for other voices, see both sides and advocate our own views.”
That was deeply satisfying to hear, but the road is long and steep, and the trend lines are going the other way. The time for communal action is now.
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The post Young Jews Are Turning Away from Israel. What Will Get Them to Turn Back? appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Rubio Condemns Mass Killings of Alawites in Syria, Says US Stands With Country’s Minority Communities
Marco Rubio speaks after he is sworn in as Secretary of State by US Vice President JD Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday denounced the mass killing of more than 1,000 people, mostly civilians from the Alawite minority group, in Syria, calling on the newly installed Syrian government to hold the perpetrators “accountable” for the massacres.
“The United States condemns the radical Islamist terrorists, including foreign jihadis, that murdered people in western Syria in recent days,” Rubio said in a statement. “The United States stands with Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities, including its Christian, Druze, Alawite, and Kurdish communities, and offers its condolences to the victims and their families. Syria’s interim authorities must hold the perpetrators of these massacres against Syria’s minority communities accountable.”
In a series of clashes beginning on Thursday, fighters allied with the new Syrian government carried out mass executions of Alawite Muslim civilians in the coastal towns of Latakia and Tartus. According to Syria’s interior ministry, the pro-government fighters conducted “sweeping operations” in the towns to dismantle the remaining “remnants” of the regime of former President Bashaar al-Assad, targeting primarily adult men.
According to Syrian officials, the fighting started when a group of Alawite fighters loyal to Assad killed their forces in a premeditated attack.
The ensuing mass killing of Alawites, who comprise roughly 10 percent of the Syrian population, highlights growing concerns over the safety of minority groups in the country.
Syria’s interim President Ahmed Sharaa decried the massacres, claiming they undermined his efforts to unite the country and vowing to seek retribution for the violence.
“Syria is a state of law. The law will take its course on all,” Sharaa told Reuters. “We fought to defend the oppressed, and we won’t accept that any blood be shed unjustly, or goes without punishment or accountability, even among those closest to us.”
In late January, Sharaa became Syria’s transitional president after leading a rebel campaign that ousted Assad, whose decades-long Iran-backed rule had strained ties with the Arab world during the nearly 14-year Syrian war.
The collapse of Assad’s regime was the result of an offensive spearheaded by Sharaa’s Sunni Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, a former al-Qaeda affiliate.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz denounced the Syrian president as a “terrorist” who “switched his robe for a suit and presented a moderate face.”
“Now he’s taken off the mask and exposed his true face: A jihadist terrorist of the al-Qaeda school who is committing horrifying acts against a civilian population,” Katz said in a statement. “Israel will defend itself against any threat from Syria.”
Following Assad’s fall in December, Israel moved troops into a buffer zone along the Syrian border to secure a military position to prevent terrorists from launching attacks against the Jewish state. The previously demilitarized zone in the Golan Heights was established under the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement between Damascus and Jerusalem that ended the Yom Kippur War. However, Israel considered the agreement void after the collapse of Assad’s regime.
Syria’s new government has called for Israel to withdraw its forces.
Alawite leaders in Syria have also issued a statement to Israel, calling on the Jewish state to deploy forces in the country to protect its minority civilians.
“Following the fall of Assad’s regime, and after the massacres that took place in Alawite areas against our people, we call on the Israeli government to provide protection, assistance, and support,” the leaders wrote, according to i24 News.
The leaders lamented that “the world is silent about the massacres happening in Syria” and that if the Jewish state offered help, the Alawite Muslims “will be your most loyal and good friends.”
The post Rubio Condemns Mass Killings of Alawites in Syria, Says US Stands With Country’s Minority Communities first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘Inflection Point’: UCLA Announces Initiative to Combat Antisemitism
Anti-Israel protesters set up camp on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles, CA on April 25, 2024. Photo: Alberto Sibaja via Reuters Connect.
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) announced on Monday an “Initiative to Combat Antisemitism,” a move that follows a series of incidents which have fueled allegations that the campus has become a hub of anti-Jewish discrimination.
“With honest reflection, it is clear that while we have made progress in addressing antisemitism, we have more to do in our shared goal of eradicating it in its entirety,” UCLA chancellor Julio Frenk said in a statement. “Through this initiative, UCLA will implement recommendations of the Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias.”
He continued, “These recommendations include: enhancing relevant training and education, improving the complaint system, assuring enforcement of current and new laws and polices, and cooperating with stakeholders.”
“This is an opportunity for UCLA to rise to the challenge of being an exemplary university,” Frenk concluded.
The Initiative to Combat Antisemitism is the second stage of a process begun by UCLA when it created an antisemitism task force in February 2024. Commissioned to study the problem and issue recommendations, the task force last year issued a report which noted, among other things, that two-thirds of Jewish UCLA students believe that antisemitism on the campus “is a problem or a serious problem,” and a higher share of them, 70 percent, attributed the atmosphere of hatred to the university’s decision to allow a “Gaza encampment” protest during the final days of the 2023-2024 spring semester.
That decision proved fateful, as it prompted a lawsuit accusing UCLA of fostering a discriminatory learning environment. Filed by several students, the complaint argued that the encampment was a source of antisemitism from the moment pro-Hamas agitators installed it. Students there chanted “death to the Jews,” the complaint recounted, set up illegal checkpoints through which no one could pass unless they denounced Israel, and ordered campus security assigned there by the university to ensure that no Jews entered it.
Alleging that UCLA refused to clear the encampment despite knowing what was happening there, the complaint charged that administrators put on a “remarkable display of cowardice, appeasement, and illegality,” and in doing so, allowed a “Jewish Exclusion Zone” on its property, violating its own policies as well as “the basic guarantee of equal access to educational facilities that receive federal funding” and other equal protection laws.
In addition to students, university officials have also been targeted by pro-Hamas activists — as The Algemeiner has previously reported.
On Feb. 5 some 50 members of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the allied campus group Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine amassed on the property of Jay Sures — a Jewish member of the Board of Regents, the governing body for the University of California (UC) system — 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, Frenk said in an email sent to the entire student body, and he suspended both groups while commissioning the school’s Office of Student Conduct to complete a thorough investigation into the incident. Defying the disciplinary measures, an estimated 150 people — including members of Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP), among other anti-Israel groups — the next day marched through the campus demanding that SJP’s punishment be repealed while arguing it is they and not Sures who are victims of racism.
“If you look at who actually experienced violence, it’s overwhelming our own students, and that was the fault of our university administration” Michael Chwe, a professor of political science and member of FJP, was quoted by The Daily Bruin as saying. “For them to be claiming that our students are violent is completely backward.”
That same month, a Jewish faculty group at the university issued an open letter calling attention to a slew of indignities to which they have been subjected in recent months. The missive enumerated a litany of falsehoods spread about Jews by a task force created to study anti-Arab bigotry on the campus — including that Jewish faculty have conspired to undermine academic freedom with “coordinated repression,” promoted the interests of conservative groups, and harmed minority students by opposing “racial justice.”
The group added that discrimination at the David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM) has wreaked demonstrable harm on Jewish students and faculty. Student clubs, it said, are denied recognition for arbitrary reasons; Jewish faculty whose ethnic backgrounds were previously unknown are purged from the payrolls upon being identified as Jews; and anyone who refuses to participate in anti-Zionist events is “intimidated” and pressured.
In Monday’s announcement, Frenk called for reforming UCLA’s culture to ensure that all are accepted, regardless of race, ethnicity, and creed.
“UCLA is at an inflection point,” he said. “Building on past efforts and lessons, we must now push ourselves to extinguish antisemitism, completely and definitively. The principles on which UCLA was founded — and which we continue to advance — point us toward a clear course of action: We must persevere in our fight to end hate, however it manifests itself.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post ‘Inflection Point’: UCLA Announces Initiative to Combat Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Connecticut Men Charged With Hate Crime for Vandalizing Menorah
Illustrative: A menorah knocked to the ground by an antisemitic vandal who attacked a Jewish educational center in eastern Moscow. Photo: SHAMIR.
Police in Guilford, Connecticut have arrested and charged Steven Prinz Jr., 25, and Troy Prinz, 22, for allegedly vandalizing a menorah set up for public display.
The menorah’s owner reported the damage to law enforcement on Jan. 13 and provided surveillance video of the Jan. 5 crime. The suspects hid their faces, one with a gas mask and the other with fabric, and knocked over the menorah before stomping it on the ground, breaking multiple parts. Before discovering the footage, the owner had originally reported that wind had knocked down the menorah.
The two brothers, who were arrested on Wednesday, face charges of second-degree intimidation based on bigotry or bias, second-degree conspiracy to commit intimidation based on bigotry or bias, first-degree criminal mischief, and first-degree conspiracy to commit criminal mischief. Police released both men after they posted $25,000 court-set bonds.
The Guilford Police Department’s Lt. Martina Jakober said in a statement that the investigation “involved significant cooperation between the police and members of our community in order to locate and preserve the essential evidence needed to properly identify these suspects.”
Jakober added that “the men and women of the Guilford Police Department wish to extend our deepest appreciation to all who live and work in the community” and that “our collective efforts, as the police and the community, ultimately resulted in their identification and arrest.”
Rabbi Yossi Yaffe, director for Chabad-Lubavitch of the Shoreline which had set up the menorah, released a statement following the arrests.
“This aberration does not represent the Guilford community. For 25 years, Chabad of the Shoreline’s menorah has illuminated Guilford without incident,” Yaffe stated. “Throughout the years, many residents from different faith communities and from across the political spectrum have expressed their appreciation and pride in having a menorah on the Guilford town green. With G-d’s help, we will continue to share the menorah’s light for many years to come!”
Yaffe announced that the hate crime targeting the menorah had inspired the community to increase its efforts to promote the holiday, with plans to increase displays and distribution of menorahs next Hanukkah.
Jakober said that the police department intends “to reflect on this incident and continuously work to figure out an ever-strengthening partnership with the community.” She added that “together, we can be sure that acts of hate or bias have no place in Guilford.”
Last week, the legal system made further efforts to counter alleged hate crimes in New York and Florida.
In Manhattan on Thursday, prosecutors said that Utah man Luis Ramirez, 23, allegedly proclaimed himself “Hitler reincarnated,” threatened to kill “as many Jews as I killed in [World War II],” and targeted New York City’s Central Synagogue. The judge denied bail for Ramirez and required him to undergo a psychological evaluation.
Prosecutors said that Ramirez had shown signs of paranoia and delusion which included calling himself by the names of “biblical characters.” Court documents stated that Ramirez had been diagnosed as “schizophrenic, suffering from hallucinations, delusions, and not being connected to reality.” A military officer cadet training school had reportedly discharged Ramirez for psychological reasons. Photos from Ramirez’s court appearance show him grinning.
Ramirez faces as much as 15 years’ imprisonment for a terrorism charge. “He is now charged with significant terrorism and hate crime charges and was remanded into custody,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said. “Any form of antisemitism is despicable, and I want Manhattan’s Jewish community to know we are remaining extremely vigilant.”
The judge scheduled Ramirez’s next court appearance for March 20.
Meanwhile, in Florida on Wednesday, the Boynton Beach Police Department arrested Adam Elshazly, charging him with allegedly targeting his former employer with violent and antisemitic threats via texts on July 2, 2024. The messages included antisemitic images and threats of violent sexual abuse against the victim’s wife and daughter. The victim told police that he had hired Elshazly 10 years ago for a job and fired him three days later for poor performance, not to hear from him again until receiving the text messages.
Police charged Elshazly with a count of intimidation with prejudice while committing an offense and released him the next day following the posting of a $30,000 bond. A judge scheduled his arraignment for Thursday.
The post Connecticut Men Charged With Hate Crime for Vandalizing Menorah first appeared on Algemeiner.com.