The Matan nonprofit for disability awareness is inviting Jewish institutions across the US to participate in a new initiative to enhance accessibility for the disabled, citing lingering areas where improvement is needed to ensure that the door to community, faith, and learning is open to all comers.

The reform effort, titled the “Matan Alliance for Disability Inclusion,” comes amid a new report by its researchers containing copious evidence of what it describes as “major accessibility gaps across Jewish life” that is dividing some segments of the community to a degree that is harmful but preventable. Some troubling data points featured in the report include survey results which found that 20 percent of Jews report having “been turned away from activities” because of inaccessibility and only 15 percent of disabled Jews said they “can name a disabled leader in their faith institutions.”

Matan says that Jewish institutions need a designated office for disability oversight, noting that over 80 percent do not have one and 70 percent lack “formal policies” for inculcating disability awareness and accessibility as an inveterate cultural force. Having received an implicit signal of being unwelcome, many families and individuals “leave Jewish institutions because their needs cannot be met,” says Matan, which is based in New York City.

The group stresses that it is not drawing attention to this issue to condemn Jewish institutions but to partner with them for work which draws on Jewish values. Remedying the issue now would extend into the private sphere progress on disability accessibility that began almost 36 years ago, when US President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act in July 1990 in response to his own personal convictions and a wave of popular and bipartisan support for addressing a blind spot in anti-discrimination law.

“Historically, Jewish institutions are not bound by law in the same way that secular organizations are, and the result is that not only Jewish institutions but many faith-based organizations are behind when it comes to disability inclusion,” Meredith Polsky, co-founder and executive of Matan, director told The Algemeiner during an exclusive interview. “Matan focuses specifically on the Jewish community and really helping the Jewish community understand this, not really as a legal mandate, but as a moral imperative.”

To that end, the Alliance for Disability Inclusion invites organizations to enroll as “affiliates” and participate in a tiered program which sees them progress from being a “Matan Ally” to a “Matan Leader.” At “Level 1,” institution officials attend Matan’s “virtual onboard training” and receive an evaluation of existing practices, the result of which is help with enacting necessary policies. Matan provides coaches, learning modules, and other methods of development throughout the process. The final level sees the emergence of fully certified “Matan Leaders,” who Matan says will “serve as “field-wide models of inclusive excellence and accountability.”

More information about the program will be shared on April 19, when Matan holds the “Pathways to Inclusion” event in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. Rebecca Alexander, author and disability rights advocate, will headline as the keynote speaker.

With assaults on Jewish life coming from across the ideological spectrum, demolishing barriers to inclusion to promote universal membership in Jewish institutions is paramount, Polsky said.

“You know, in the Jewish community we have a lot of goodwill about this, but we’re not doing as much as we could concretely, so we’re hoping that this is a way to move the needle to an extent that hasn’t been achieved before,” Polsky continued. “Progress feels slow, and one of our goals is to look at the work that we have been doing over time, seeing what the needs are, and figuring out how we can help catalyze these efforts a bit more.

She added, “For so long disability has been overlooked. People fear saying or doing the wrong time or the effort required seems so expansive. It’s hard to know where to start and organizations don’t necessarily start anywhere.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

More Jews were killed in antisemitic attacks around the world in 2025 than in any other year in the previous three decades, according to an annual study released by Tel Aviv University on Monday.

The 20 deaths comprised 15 Jews murdered on Dec. 14 at Bondi Beach in Australia, two killed on Oct. 2 during an attack on a Manchester synagogue in the United Kingdom, the two Israeli embassy employees shot on May 21 in Washington, DC, and an 82-year-old Holocaust survivor who succumbed to her injuries after a Molotov cocktail attack on a rally in Colorado on June 1.

No year has been deadlier for Jews in the diaspora since 1994, when the bombing of a Jewish community center in Argentina killed 85 people and wounded more than 300. Argentine investigators have blamed Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah for the attack.

Tel Aviv University’s Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry and the Irwin Cotler Institute for Democracy, Human Rights, and Justice said their data was based on dozens of police departments, specialized agencies, organizations that monitor and combat antisemitism, Jewish community organizations, activists, media reports, and field observations.

“The data raise concern that a high level of antisemitic incidents is becoming a normalized reality,” said Prof. Uriya Shavit, the editor-in-chief of the 152-page report. “The peak in the number of incidents was recorded in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack, after which we began to see a downward trend – but unfortunately, that trend did not continue in 2025. The steep increase in the number of cases of severe violence is not surprising. The rule that applies to all types of crime applies here as well: when law-enforcement authorities are indifferent to small crimes, the result is big crimes.”

Many countries around the world have recorded historic and ongoing surges in antisemitic incidents, including violent attacks, following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.

“While in several countries the total number of incidents moderately decreased in 2025 in comparison to 2024, in several other countries, including Britain, Australia, Italy, and Belgium, it moderately increased,” the report stated. “In several countries that saw a decrease in the total number of incidents in comparison to 2024, including France, the number of incidents that involved physical assaults increased. Across the globe, the number of antisemitic incidents remained dozens of percent higher than in the period before the war.”

The researchers provided a thorough breakdown of incidents by country including locations with tiny Jewish populations, such as Norway (1,300 Jews, 40 incidents,) Luxembourg (700 Jews, 115 incidents), Bulgaria (2,000 Jews, 55 incidents), the Czech Republic (3,500 Jews, 31 criminal incidents), and New Zealand (7,500 Jews, 143 incidents).

One part of the report focused on antisemitism in medical settings and cited a study of Jewish health-care providers in which 39.2 percent of respondents said they had experienced antisemitism on the job while 26.4 percent said they felt threatened. Another analysis found that the likelihood of a Jewish doctor or nurse experiencing antisemitism went up 381 percent if working in an academic medical center or 241 percent for those choosing private practice.

Australia’s special envoy to combat antisemitism contributed an analysis of the events which led up to the Bondi Beach terrorist attack, describing a loss of faith in the government’s ability to counter the threat.

“In January 2025, a childcare center near a synagogue in suburban Sydney was firebombed. Graffiti, vandalism, and threats became the norm. Many in the wider community, as well as in the Jewish community, felt that all levels of government had lost control of the situation,” wrote Jillian Segal, a former president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. “A joint federal and state terrorism police taskforce was established by the federal and state governments and the states engaged in law reform, but it was a case of too little, too late.”

Following the report’s first section which provided an overview of incidents around the world, the second included an essay titled “The Fading Voice of Buckley” by analyst Carl Yonker in which he described the role of the late William F. Buckley, Jr. in combating conspiracism and antisemitism on the American political right during the 20th century.

“As editor of the National Review and intending to shape the future of the conservative movement, Buckley treated antisemitism less as an embarrassing eccentricity than as a kind of poison destroying the movement’s claims to seriousness, and – worse – its ability to agree on what was real,” Yonker wrote before describing Buckley’s efforts against the promotion of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in the 1950s and Holocaust deniers in the 1980s.

“What makes the Tucker Carlson moment so haunting is that it looks like a movement returning to the same moral problem under conditions that make the old remedy – editorial discipline – harder to apply,” Yonker explained.

In an interview with Shavit included in the report, renowned Holocaust historian Christopher Browning warned that “ultimately, Jews are one of the minorities. I mean, if you can trash Haitians and trash Somalis, eventually you’ll get to attacking Jews as well.” He argued that US President Donald Trump creates a “permission structure” that “allows people to freely express their prejudices with absolutely no criticism, no restraint, no inhibition.”

In a separate report published to coincide with Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, which began Monday evening and will end on Tuesday evening, the Israeli Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism released a 14-page report showing the highest number of antisemitic acts last year, by its tally, occurred in the United States (301), the United Kingdom (140), and France (58).

Worldwide, each month saw an average of 74 incidents with peaks in April (118) and August (110), including a wave of vandalism and arson attacks fueling the summer surge. Violence against Jews (27.2 percent of recorded incidents) averaged 11.5 occurrences monthly with August also serving as a flashpoint.

According to the report’s authors, the August uptick “may be associated with heightened discourse surrounding allegations of a deliberate famine in Gaza, alongside official Israeli statements concerning the potential for a full occupation of the territory.”

The report called vandalism and property damage (38.4 percent of incidents) the “most frequent mode of attack” before identifying synagogues, cemeteries, and storefronts as the top targets.

The report also documented a seasonal trend in incidents, with a month-after-month rise from April through August before a sharp drop in September and through autumn. One potential explanation offered for this pattern could be that “the summer vacation period, during which increased international travel by Israelis may lead to greater interaction — and potential friction — with local populations.”

“What begins as incitement online continues directly into attacks against Jewish communities,” said Amichai Chikli, the minister for diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism.

Avi Cohen-Scali, the ministry’s director general, concurred: “Governments must uproot antisemitism, adopt policies to combat it, and invest in enforcement, legislation, and education.” He vowed that “Israel will act with all available tools to protect Jews everywhere in the world.”

The Tel Aviv University report chided the Israeli ministry for combating antisemitism, arguing it “has not contributed in any meaningful way to the cause.”

Suggesting more funds to Israel’s Foreign Ministry, the report argued that “only diplomatic missions have the capacity to engage in the kind of in-person contacts with Jewish communities, public officials, and civil society activists that are necessary for impacting and adjusting counter-antisemitism policies.”

Far-right podcaster Tucker Carlson repudiated US President Donald Trump as a “slave to Israel” in his morning newsletter on Monday, the latest rhetorical escalation in a growing public feud between the controversial podcaster and the commander-in-chief.

“President Trump is a slave to Israel,” Carlson wrote in his newsletter. 

Carlson lambasted Trump for comments he made in a Sunday interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, in which the president condemned the Iranian regime for its reluctance to accept American conditions in ending the US-Israeli war with Iran. Carlson further criticized Trump for maintaining consistent communication with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the ongoing negotiation efforts with Iranian officials and accused the White House of presenting Tehran with an unfavorable set of demands. 

“Reporting that uncomfortable fact brings us great pain, but it is the tragic truth. This weekend alone, America’s leader parroted Israeli talking points on Fox News,” Carlson wrote. 

In the Fox News interview, Trump identified Iran’s unwillingness to abandon its nuclear program as the key sticking-point in negotiations between the two nations. Trump warned that Iran armed with a nuclear weapon would “use it on Israel and the Middle East.” Trump also lauded the “incredible partnership” between the US and Israel. 

Carlson went on to criticize Trump for having purportedly “continued his daily ritual of reporting war updates to Benjamin Netanyahu as an employee does to their manager,” seemingly implying that the US was waging war with Iran under Israel’s direction.

Former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren recently said the argument that Trump had been pushed into war by Israel ignored decades of Iranian hostility and repeated attacks on Americans.

“Every day since 1979, the Iranian regime swore to destroy the United States and, in pursuit of that pledge, sought to develop strategic weapons while committing hundreds of acts of war against Americans,” Oren told The Algemeiner last month. “President Trump did not need to be dragged into defending the American people from this looming threat and certainly not by a purportedly cunning Israeli leader.”

“Suggestions to the contrary … are deeply insulting to the president and patently antisemitic,” he added.

Still, anti-Israel commentators such as Carlson have repeatedly claimed that Israel “dragged” the US into the war with Iran.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the Trump administration was providing daily updates to him about the war, noting that, the prior day, US Vice President JD Vance provided “in detail” the latest information on peace talks with Tehran. Critics of Israel immediately framed Netanyahu’s statement as evidence that the US government operates in a position of subservience to Israel, despite the fact that allies regularly maintain consistent lines of communication during wartime.

In his newsletter, Carlson said the White House “deployed JD Vance to present Iranian negotiators with peace demands everyone knows they would never accept.”

The White House has outlined a wide-ranging set of priorities in negotiations with Iran in exchange for winding down military operations, including that Tehran cease uranium enrichment efforts, reopen the Strait of Hormuz without installing any toll booths, implement restrictions on its ballistic missiles program, and end support for terrorist proxy organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. 

Carlson’s comments came after Trump described the podcaster, one of his longtime supporters turned outspoken critic, as unintelligent.

“Tucker’s a low-IQ person that has absolutely no idea what’s going on,” Trump said last Tuesday in an interview with New York Post national security reporter Caitlin Doornbos when asked about Carlson’s condemnations of his Easter message promising massive destruction on Iran.

“He calls me all the time; I don’t respond to his calls. I don’t deal with him,” Trump said of Carlson. “I like dealing with smart people, not fools.”

Two days later, Trump lambasted Carlson as well as other far-right podcasters critical of his support for Israel and tough stance on Iran as “stupid” people who support the regime in Tehran.

Carlson’s comments also came after a Newsmax interview in which he also called Trump a “slave” to Israel.

“I’ve always liked Trump and still feel sorry for him, as I do for all slaves,” the former Fox News host said during the Friday interview, adding that Trump “can’t make his own decisions” and that he is “hemmed in by other forces.”

During an interview with the BBC on Sunday, Carlson seemingly doubled down on his suggestion that Trump is operating at the behest of the Jewish state, saying, “I don’t think it is as simple as ‘he is under the control of Netanyahu,’ but you could certainly summarize it that way and you wouldn’t be totally inaccurate.”

Following 21 hours of negotiations in Islamabad, Pakistan, last week, Vance announced that ceasefire discussions broke down after Iran refused to agree to Washington’s set of demands.

Carlson, one of the most popular conservative pundits in the US, has reinvented himself as a preeminent critic of Israel in the years following his unceremonious firing from Fox News.

Since launching his podcast, Carlson has relentlessly condemned Israel, issuing a series of blistering and false accusations that the country oppresses Christians, exerts immense influence over US politicians, and has committed “genocide” in Gaza. The provocateur has accused Israel of killing tens of thousands of children in Gaza “on purpose” without providing any evidence.

Carlson has also hosted a seemingly unremitting parade of anti-Israel figures on his podcast while rejecting offers by pro-Israel figures to appear as guests. He especially drew backlash for conducting a friendly interview with fellow podcaster Nick Fuentes, an avowed antisemite and Holocaust denier.

Carlson’s anti-Israel career pivot has drawn the ire of many of his former fans, including US Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). In public remarks, Cruz accused Carlson of spearheading efforts to normalize antisemitism within the Republican Party and has called on fellow Republicans to distance themselves from the podcaster. 

Further, Carlson has seen his once-chummy relationship with Trump publicly deteriorate. 

The president issued sharp condemnation of Carlson, along with other Israel-critical personalities Candace Owens, Alex Jones, and Megyn Kelly, in comments made on Truth Social. 

Trump called Carlson a “broken man,” adding that he has “never been the same” since his 2023 firing from Fox News. 

“These so-called ‘pundits’ are LOSERS, and they always will be!” Trump added. 

The public fallout between Trump and Carlson comes as the pundit has sharpened his criticisms of the president. Last week, Carlson rebuked Trump for purportedly offending Muslims, suggesting that his conduct was unbecoming for a world leader. 

Although Carlson’s podcast remains highly popular, his ideological shift seems to have come at the cost of his reputation in the Republican Party. A recent YouGov poll revealed that Carlson’s approval rating within the GOP has cratered, falling from +54 favorability in March 2024 to only +7. This timeline aligns with Carlson’s intensifying attacks on Israel and Republican lawmakers.