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A Bay Area billboard battle breaks out between Jews over branding of anti-Zionism
(JTA) — Within two weeks, a series of Bay Area billboards equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism were targeted by activists. In the first incident, an unknown group of culprits wrote “Free Palestine” on them, leading the billboards’ sponsor to replace them and call the graffiti “a hate crime.”
The second time they were targeted, a group of Jews took the credit.
On Tuesday night, a group of self-proclaimed “anti-Zionist Jews” papered over three billboards paid for by the New Jersey-based group JewBelong. It was a further escalation in a national debate over anti-Zionism, antisemitism and whether and how Jews and non-Jews alike should criticize Israel.
“We are part of a growing number of Jews across the United States who know that opposing Israeli apartheid and occupation has nothing to do with antisemitism, and that the biggest threat to Jews in this country comes not from those supporting Palestinian rights, but from white, Christian nationalists,” the collective, who identify themselves on the billboards as “Jews4FreePalestine,” told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in a statement.
The original billboards read, “You don’t need to go to law school to know that anti-Zionism is antisemitism.” It was JewBelong’s tongue-in-cheek reference to a recent controversy at the University of California-Berkeley law school, in which some student groups signed a statement pledging not to invite “speakers that have expressed and continued to hold views … in support of Zionism, the apartheid state of Israel, and the occupation of Palestine.”
The bylaws attracted national attention after Ken Marcus, founder of the pro-Israel legal group Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, declared that Berkeley was erecting “Jew-free zones.” Later, allegations against the law students prompted an investigation from the U.S. Department of Education. The episode caught the attention of a right-wing group, which drove trucks displaying Adolf Hitler through the Berkeley campus and intimidated some of the anti-Zionist petition signers at their homes out of state. Meanwhile, attempts by Berkeley students to pass a resolution condemning antisemitism failed to pass when some student senators did not show up for the vote.
Targeting the billboards, the anonymous group of self-proclaimed “anti-Zionist Jews” changed the word “antisemitism” to “anti-racism.” They added other messages: “Jews for a free Palestine” and “End Israeli apartheid.”
Declining to provide their names, the group said only that they are “organizing ad-hoc in response to the billboards from JewBelong” and that they numbered more than two dozen. Though spokesperson Joe Rivano Barros said the group was not responsible for the first tag, the group defended the anonymous first group against JewBelong’s hate-crime allegations, calling the labeling “dishonest.”
Online, the altered billboards were being promoted by the Jewish Voice for Peace anti-Zionist group, an editor of the anti-Zionist website Electronic Intifada and a Jewish former Google employee who has organized against some of the company’s business dealings with Israel.
The group also directly went after JewBelong — which it said “has long equated anti-Zionism with antisemitism in order to normalize Israeli apartheid” — and its co-founder, Archie Gottesman, whom they said “has an appalling history of making racist and genocidal statements.” Originally founded as a public relations movement to promote Jewish pride, JewBelong pivoted in 2021 to focus on combatting antisemitism, aligning itself with staunchly pro-Israel influencers.
Gottesman sits on the board of Democratic Majority for Israel, a lobbying group that pushes Democratic Party lawmakers to adapt more pro-Israel stances. She tweeted in 2018 that Gaza was “full of monsters” and that it was “time to burn the whole place,” statements for which she has since apologized.
“We stand by our billboards,” Gottesman told JTA in a statement in response. “The vast majority of American Jews are Zionists. The billboards appear to have been defaced by a fringe group trying to create a Jew vs Jew fight at a time when we should all be united against the larger issue, which is growing antisemitism in the US.”
While Berkeley Law’s own Jewish dean, Erwin Chemerinsky, has called the law students’ bylaws antisemitic, he has also criticized JewBelong’s billboards, saying they are not “contributing to useful discourse.” After they were graffitied over the first time, Chemerinsky said the culprits were infringing on JewBelong’s First Amendment rights.
Since the recent Israeli elections bringing to power the country’s most right-wing government in generations, a growing number of influential Jews around the world have increased their criticism of the government and stated that such criticism should not be conflated with antisemitism.
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The post A Bay Area billboard battle breaks out between Jews over branding of anti-Zionism appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Pope Leo meets with Erdogan, says two-state solution is the ‘only’ path forward in Middle East
(JTA) — Following a visit in Turkey last week, Pope Leo XIV said that he had spoken with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about their shared support for a two-state solution, which Leo called the “only solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Leo’s comments to reporters Sunday came while he traveled from Turkey to Lebanon on the papal plane as part of his first international tour since being elected to the papacy in May.
During his address, Leo thanked Erdogan, who has consistently voiced support for Hamas and fostered hostile relations with Israel, for helping coordinate the trip and for hosting him on his personal helicopter.
Asked by a reporter whether he had spoken with Erdogan about the conflict in Gaza, Leo said that the Turkish leader was “certainly in agreement” about the proposal for a two-state solution, adding that he believed that Turkey has an “important role that it could play in all of this.”
Leo also said that he hoped to play a “mediating role” in the conflict and criticized Israel for rejecting a two-state solution. (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long rejected Palestinian statehood, and the U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas does not include provisions for a Palestinian state, though it positions itself as part of a roadmap to statehood.)
“We all know that at present Israel still does not accept this solution, but we see it is the only solution that could offer, let us say, an answer to the conflict they continue to live,” Leo said in Italian to reporters. “We are also friends of Israel, and we are trying to act as a mediating voice for both sides, helping to bring about a solution that is fair for everyone.”
In September, Leo met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and told the leader that he believed the two-state solution was the only way out of the conflict in Gaza.
Leo’s remarks echoed similar appeals he made shortly after his election. In May, he made two public addresses where he called for a ceasefire in Gaza and decried the suffering of families in the enclave during the conflict.
On Thursday, Erdogan praised Leo’s advocacy for Palestinians and called for a Palestinian state based on the “1967 borders,” which refer to a state in the West Bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem as its capital.
“We commend (Pope Leo’s) astute stance on the Palestinian issue,” Erdogan said during an address in Ankara. “Our debt to the Palestinian people is justice, and the foundation of this is to immediately implement the vision of a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders. Similarly, preserving the historic status of Jerusalem is crucial.”
Leo’s trip to the region comes the same week that the “popemobile” that belonged to his predecessor, Pope Francis, debuted in Gaza in its retrofitted version as a mobile pediatric health clinic.
The post Pope Leo meets with Erdogan, says two-state solution is the ‘only’ path forward in Middle East appeared first on The Forward.
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Meet Zevi Eckhaus, the Jewish college football bowl-bound quarterback who prays at the 18-yard line
(JTA) — After a game, it’s not uncommon for football players to kneel in a prayer circle at midfield. But Zevi Eckhaus, the Washington State Cougars’ Jewish starting quarterback, tends to do so in a particular spot on the gridiron.
“Every game, I go to the 18-yard line, get down on a knee, and pray,” Eckhaus said, referring to the number that has a special place in Jewish tradition.
“Every time I put on my pads and go outside and throw a football, I know that’s with God’s help,” the 6-feet, 209-pound quarterback told The Cholent, a newsletter in Seattle, in a recent interview.
On Saturday, Eckhaus led the Cougars’ offense to a 32-8 win, clinching a berth in a Division I college football bowl game. That game will be the final one at the collegiate level for Eckhaus, a redshirt senior.
“I’d love to play football as long as I possibly can,” Eckhaus told The Cholent. While there’s been no buzz around Eckhaus as an NFL prospect, the Canadian Football League’s Montreal Alouettes have secured his negotiation rights, should he choose to go north of the border.
Eckhaus was raised in an Orthodox Jewish household, attending the Chabad-affiliated Cheder Menachem Los Angeles through elementary and most of middle school. Students at Cheder Menachem learned Jewish text for most of the school day, then crammed “two hours of what they called English, which was essentially math, science, everything kind of in a bunch,” he told Cougfan.com last year. (The school’s website says it provides “an exemplary well rounded Judaic and general academic education.”)
Eckhaus said he “started davening with tefillin” when he was 13. He went away from it for a while, but said that, “Thankfully, I’ve had interactions in my life that brought me back to davening every single day with Rashi and Rabbeinu Tam” — that is, the two distinct sets of tefillin worn by Chabad and other particularly stringent Orthodox movements.
Eckhaus said the student-athlete lifestyle doesn’t lend itself to being observant.
“Shabbos is still tricky because we play on Saturdays,” he said in the recent interview. “Eating kosher all the time is also hard because of the cafeteria and being at the facility most of the day.”
But Eckhaus said he’s found a balance between the rigorous schedule as a Division I quarterback and finding time for prayer and Jewish community.
“I wake up every morning and put on tefillin. I read mishnayos every week,” he said, referring to the foundational collection of Jewish legal theory. “There’s a small Hillel group here I can meet with sometimes. I try to keep as much as I can with my religion.”
There’s not much of a Jewish community in Pullman, Washington, but Eckhaus said the rabbi from nearby Spokane occasionally comes to town and organizes events.
“If he does that, I usually try to get involved with that,” he told Cougfan.com. “The Jewish students I stay in contact with, I try to get involved with them.”
Last season, the Cougars played against Fresno State on Yom Kippur. Eckhaus was not yet the starting quarterback, but was still present on the sidelines — and still observing the sacred day.
“I didn’t have any form of technology,” he told Cougfan.com later that year. “I didn’t eat or drink for 25 hours, and Coach [Jake] Dickert even went out of his way to have a private room set aside for me after the game for me to finish out the final prayer.” This year, Eckhaus said he was cleared to miss a practice held during Yom Kippur.
While the schedule can at times conflict with his religious observance, Eckhaus said he’s gotten no trouble from his teammates.
“Everybody comes from different backgrounds, families, upbringings, religions,” he said. “There are so many differences on a football team, yet still so much love, trust, and connection because of what you go through together.”
Eckhaus has previously been teammates with two Palestinian offensive linemen, and said “those guys were some of the nicest to me.”
“There’s no bickering or tension around religion, at least not in my experience,” Eckhaus told The Cholent.
After spending three years at Bryant University in Rhode Island — during which he was named the conference’s 2023 Offensive Player of the Year — Eckhaus transferred to Washington State in 2024. A backup all season, Eckhaus was thrust into the starting role for last year’s Holiday Bowl because the Cougars’ starter entered the transfer portal.
“It’s pretty cool that this game will be on Hanukkah,” Eckhaus said ahead of that bowl game, which they went on to lose 52-35 to the Syracuse Orange.
There are few Jewish players in NCAA Division I football. The most notable among them currently is Jake Retzlaff, the former quarterback at Brigham Young University, affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Retzlaff transferred to Tulane after he drew a suspension for violating the school’s famously strict honor code. The suspension followed allegations of sexual assault in a civil lawsuit that was later dismissed and Retzlaff’s admission that he had engaged in premarital sex, which BYU prohibits. Tulane is currently ranked 24th in the country.
Sam Salz, meanwhile, became likely the first Orthodox player to appear in a Division I NCAA football game last year, and spent three years as a walk-on with the Texas A&M Aggies.
Eckhaus took over the Cougars’ starting quarterback role four weeks into this season, and has registered 1,760 passing yards, 20 total touchdowns and nine interceptions. The date and opponent of Washington State’s bowl game will be announced Dec. 7.
The post Meet Zevi Eckhaus, the Jewish college football bowl-bound quarterback who prays at the 18-yard line appeared first on The Forward.
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Trump Invites Israel’s Netanyahu to White House, Prime Minister’s Office Says
US President Donald Trump talks with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset, Oct. 13, 2025, in Jerusalem. Photo: Evan Vucci/Pool via REUTERS
US President Donald Trump has invited Israel‘s Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House in the “near future,” the prime minister’s office said on Monday, shortly after Trump said Israel should maintain a strong and true dialogue with Syria.
A visit to the White House would mark the Israeli prime minister’s fifth since Trump returned to office in January. The two leaders have publicly projected a close relationship, though US and Israeli sources have said Trump has at times expressed frustration with Netanyahu.
The prime minister’s office said Netanyahu and Trump discussed disarming Hamas and demilitarizing Gaza. Trump in September announced a plan to end the Gaza war and a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has been in place since October.
TRUMP PUSHES ISRAEL-SYRIA DIALOGUE
Trump earlier said in a statement that it was very important that Israel maintained a “strong and true dialogue” with neighboring Syria, and that “nothing takes place that will interfere with Syria’s evolution into a prosperous state.”
“Syria and Israel will have a long and prosperous relationship together,” said Trump, whose administration is trying to broker a non-aggression pact between the two states.
Syria does not formally recognize Israel, which following the fall of longtime Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in December 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, a strategic region on Israel’s northern border previously controlled by Syria and later annexes by Israel, 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.
Trump has backed Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, while Israel voiced hostility over his past links to Islamist militancy and has lobbied Washington to keep Syria weak.
An Israeli raid in southern Syria on Friday killed 13 Syrians, Syrian state media reported. The Israeli military said it had targeted a Lebanese Islamist terror group there.
The call with Trump also came a day after Netanyahu asked Israel‘s president for a pardon in his long-running corruption trial. Trump has publicly voiced support for pardoning Netanyahu and sent a letter last month urging President Isaac Herzog to consider it.
The prime minister’s readout of the call made no mention of the pardon. Israeli opposition politicians have come out against the request and called on Netanyahu to instead resign.