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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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Amid Rising Antisemitism, American Jews Make Aliyah to Israel Seeking Safety, Community, Impact
Olim gather at JFK Airport in New York, preparing to board Nefesh B’Nefesh’s 65th charter flight to Israel. Photo: The Algemeiner
NEW YORK/TEL AVIV — Confronted with rising antisemitism and unease in the United States, a growing number of American Jews are choosing to make aliyah, embracing the risks of war in the Middle East for the chance to build new lives and foster meaningful communities.
On Wednesday, 225 new olim arrived in Tel Aviv on the first charter aliyah flight since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Aliyah refers to the process of Jews immigrating to Israel, and olim refers to those who make this journey.
Nefesh B’Nefesh (NBN) — a nonprofit that promotes and facilitates aliyah from the US and Canada — brought its 65th charter flight from New York, which The Algemeiner joined.
Founded in 2002, NBN helps olim become fully integrated members of Israeli society, simplifying the aliyah process and providing essential resources and guidance.
In partnership with Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, the Jewish Agency for Israel, Keren Kayemeth, and the Jewish National Fund, NBN has helped nearly 100,000 olim build thriving new lives in Israel.
Shawn Fink is one of the 225 people who embarked on the life-changing journey earlier this week, leaving Cleveland, Ohio, with his wife, Liz, and their son.
For Fink and his family, making aliyah was driven not only by their love for Israel and desire to build a new community, but also by the escalating threats and uncertainties facing Jewish communities abroad since the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
“Mostly, we were frustrated with the direction the United States is taking, and the rise in antisemitism was a major concern for us,” Fink told The Algemeiner.
Like many countries around the world, the US has seen an alarming rise in antisemitic incidents and anti-Israel sentiment since the Oct. 7 atrocities.
According to the latest data issued by the FBI, hate crimes perpetrated against Jews increased by 5.8 percent in 2024 to 1,938, the largest total recorded in over 30 years of the federal agency’s counting them.
A striking 69 percent of all religion-based hate crimes that were reported to the FBI in 2024 targeted Jews, who constitute just 2 percent of the US population, with 2,041 out of 2,942 total such incidents being antisemitic in nature. Muslims were targeted the next highest amount as the victims of 256 offenses, or about 9 percent of the total.
Fink explained that the increasing costs of living a Jewish life in the US — from education to kosher food — weighed heavily on his family’s decision to make the move to Israel.
While they first considered making aliyah five years ago, Fink and his family had to put the plans on hold for personal reasons — returning to the idea only in the past few months when the timing finally worked in their favor.
“We started planning it seriously in November and began the entire process with Nefesh B’Nefesh,” Fink told The Algemeiner. “It’s been a nonstop whirlwind ever since.”
For them, the current war did not stop their plans, but it did influence the cities they explored for their new home.
“The war really reinforced for us the importance of supporting Israel and our community,” Fink said. “By making aliyah, we felt we could do even more to help.”
Even though it is difficult to leave behind family and close friends, they look forward to reconnecting with friends in Israel, making new connections, and building a vibrant new community.
“Making aliyah in less than six months has been a whirlwind. I’d encourage anyone considering it to give themselves at least twice as much time, double the budget, and be prepared for plenty of unexpected starts and stops along the way,” Fink told The Algemeiner.
Nefesh B’Nefesh provides assistance to families throughout their entire aliyah journey, offering guidance before relocating and continued support once in Israel.
The Israeli government also complements these efforts with resources and financial incentives to help newcomers settle and ease their transition into their new lives.
“Once the ticket is finally in your hand and you’re waiting to board the plane, you realize that all the challenges and obstacles along the way were worth it,” Fink said.
Veronica Zaragovia was also one of the 225 olim who joined the flight earlier this week.
Similarly to Fink and his family, Zaragovia decided to make aliyah, driven not just by her love for Israel, but also by the increasing challenges of being Jewish abroad and the hope of making a meaningful impact by serving her community.
From Florida, she embarked on the journey alone, excited for all the new opportunities and possibilities that awaited her in her new home.
“I want to take pride in being Jewish and in Israel — that’s why I’m making aliyah,” she told The Algemeiner, reflecting on the move she has been planning for the past two years.
“It’s a huge concern for me that in some places in the US, I can’t — or maybe shouldn’t — wear my Star of David necklace,” she said. “I don’t feel that Jews can be fully safe anywhere in the country. The rise in antisemitism has been truly shocking and deeply concerning.”
Zaragovia, who worked as a journalist in the US, said her love for storytelling and uncovering the truth played a key role in her decision to make this move.
“After Oct. 7, I felt that the way my colleagues and other journalists were covering Israel was wrong and unfair,” she said.
“As someone whose career is built on facts and truth, I didn’t see that reflected in their reporting. That’s why I decided to make a difference by being there myself,” she continued.
Rather than deterring her decision to make a change, Zaragovia explained that the current war only reinforced it.
“It became clear that I needed to go, be there with my people, and make a difference through my work,” she said. “I couldn’t have done this without Nefesh B’Nefesh. They’ve been incredible, guiding me every step of the way from start to finish.”
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Mike Huckabee, Israeli Government Push Back Against Claims of ‘Famine’ in Gaza
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli government and the US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, are pushing back against international criticism after a UN-backed authority declared a famine is taking place in Gaza.
“To the uninformed who claim Israel is starving Gaza, get the facts & read the thread below,” Huckabee said on X on Friday. “Tons of food has gone into Gaza but Hamas savages stole it, ate lots of it to become corpulent, sold it on [the] black market but they didn’t give it to the hostages.”
His comments came hours after the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the global body that monitors hunger crises, reported that famine thresholds had been met in Gaza City and surrounding areas, with more than half a million people already experiencing catastrophic levels of hunger. The IPC warned that the number could rise to 641,000 by the end of September if conditions do not improve.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a post on X, dismissed the IPC’s conclusions as “an outright lie,” insisting Israel “does not have a policy of starvation” but rather “a policy of preventing starvation.” Israeli officials note that thousands of aid trucks have entered Gaza and blame the ruling Hamas terror group for diverting supplies.
Huckabee’s remarks echoed that position, framing the Islamist group as the central cause of hunger. Israeli leaders and their allies accuse Hamas of stealing food, hoarding aid, and reselling goods on the black market at inflated prices instead of distributing them to civilians or releasing Israeli hostages.
The United States and Israel set up the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) earlier this year to coordinate aid deliveries outside of UN channels, after accusing Hamas of exploiting international assistance. The group says it delivers more than a million meals a day, but humanitarian organizations counter that the aid falls far short of what is needed.
Distribution sites have often descended into chaos, with starving crowds surging around convoys. Human rights groups have described the alleged famine as a “man-made catastrophe” and accused Israel of weaponizing hunger.
Israel recently increased the flow of humanitarian supplies into Gaza, after imposing a temporary embargo in an effort to keep them out of the hands of Hamas. While facilitating the entry of thousands of aid trucks into Gaza, Israeli officials have condemned the UN and other international aid agencies for their alleged failure to distribute supplies, noting much of the humanitarian assistance has been stalled at border crossings or stolen. According to UN data, the vast majority of humanitarian aid entering Gaza is intercepted before reaching its intended civilian recipients.
Last week, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) released a report saying that Hamas has been inflating the death toll of Palestinians due to malnutrition and that most of those verified to have died had preexisting medical conditions.
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Italian Hospital Staff Discard Israeli-Made Medicine as Concerns Mount Globally of Antisemitism in Health Care
In Italy, Dr. Rita Segantini and nurse Giulia Checcacci throw products of the Israeli company Teva Pharmaceutical in the garbage in protest against Israel. Photo: Screenshot
Two medical workers in Italy filmed themselves discarding Israeli-made medicine in protest against the Jewish state at their workplace, fueling global concerns of antisemitism in health-care facilities as a doctor in the United Kingdom who praised Adolf Hitler was allowed back to work this month.
A doctor and a nurse who work at a community hospital in Pratovecchio Stia, near Arezzo in Tuscany, recently posted on social media a video of themselves dramatically throwing away products from Teva Pharmaceuticals, an Israeli company.
Italy
Throwing Israeli drugs in the binAt the Casa della Salute in Pratovecchio Stia, two public employees – Dr. Rita Segantini and nurse Giulia Checcacci – film themselves throwing away drugs manufactured by TEVA.pic.twitter.com/nQhc3TIQT3
— Hamas Atrocities (@HamasAtrocities) August 20, 2025
Dr. Daniel Radzik, a senior member of the Italian Jewish Medical Association, told Ynetnews that his organization is “very concerned about the event.”
“It’s evident that this act was not accidental, but carried out with the intention of encouraging the boycott of medicines produced in Israel,” he added.
Dr. Rita Segantini and nurse Giulia Checcacci apologized for the video following backlash, saying, “We apologize to anyone offended by the video. It was a symbolic gesture for peace. We did not actually throw away any medicine.”
In Italy, Dr. Rita Segantini and nurse Giulia Checcacci throw products of the Israeli company Teva Pharmaceutical in the garbage in protest of Israel. Photo: Screenshot
However, the Italian Jewish Medical Association was skeptical of the apology.
“They tried to explain in a very naive way. Because they say that their act was only symbolic, made for peace and that the medicine was only integrator and they don’t want really to throw them to the rubbish,” Radzik said.
The doctor and nurse claimed the items were not medications purchased by the hospital, but rather items such as wet wipes that are given out for free, and that they removed them from the trash after filming. Additionally, they claimed the video was filmed after working hours.
Meanwhile, a doctor in the UK was allowed to return to work this month after praising Hitler during an antisemitic rant and making racist comments about a colleague.
“All this antisemitism … if Hitler was around today, I would support him as he got rid of horrible f—kers like him,” Dr. Mili Shah said in reference to a colleague in 2021, according to British media.
In response, Shah was reportedly suspended for four months. However, a review by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in July concluded Shah, who is no longer employed by NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group, is fit to return to work.
These recent incidents come as concerns mount globally over antisemitism in health-care spaces, with Jews feeling unsafe due to medical professionals expressing antisemitism or even outright death threats against Israelis.
In the UK, for example, the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH Trust) issued an apology this past week following a patient’s complaints about the placement of anti-Israel posters at a facility. These posters — which read “Zionism is Poison,” called for a “Free Palestine,” and accused Israel of wantonly starving and killing Palestinians — led a patient to reach out to the group UK Lawyers for Israel, expressing fear of receiving subpar treatment if the hospital staff discovered she was Jewish. The chief executive of UCLH Trust released a statement apologizing for the posters.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident, midwife Fatimah Mohamied, who resigned from her position after UKLFI highlighted her anti-Israel social media posts, has now filed a claim against Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, alleging a violation of her rights. Mohamied’s posts included her defending and celebrating the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion and massacre across southern Israel.
Other Western countries have seen health-care providers’ antipathy toward Israel manifest as violent threats.
In the Netherlands, police opened an investigation into Batisma Chayat Sa’id, a nurse who allegedly stated she would administer lethal injections to Israeli patients.
Although Sa’id denied making the comments, claiming someone was “pretending to be me,” an account under her name also posted threatening messages aimed at Jewish people last year, including “Your time will come — don’t spare anyone,” and another in which she described the burial of Israelis in Gaza as “a dream come true.”
The nurse’s alleged threat mirrors a similar incident in Australia, in which video showed two nurses — Ahmad Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh — posing as doctors and making inflammatory statements. The widely circulated footage showed Abu Lebdeh declaring she would refuse to treat Israeli patients and instead kill them, while Nadir made a throat-slitting gesture and claimed he had already killed many.
“Now they actually brag online about killing Israeli patients,” Shira Nussdorf, a US-born Jewish woman who moved from Israel to Australia six years ago, told The Algemeiner earlier this year when the video first emerged. “I don’t know how safe I would feel giving birth at that hospital.”
Following the incident, New South Wales authorities in Australia suspended their nursing registrations and banned them from working as nurses nationwide. They were also charged with federal offenses, including threatening violence against a group and using a carriage service to threaten, menace, and harass. If convicted, they face up to 22 years in prison.
The issue of antisemitism in medical facilities also extends to North America.
A December 2024 study by the Data & Analytics Department of StandWithUs, a Jewish civil rights group, found that 40 percent of 645 Jewish American health-care professionals surveyed reported experiencing antisemitism in the workplace. A similar study of Canadian Jewish health workers conducted last year reached 80 percent.