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Actually, I’d love for Chabad to ask me if I’m Jewish
I was waiting with my friend for a train in New Jersey when we were approached by a young missionary from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Unaware of the fact that we were currently on our way back to New York from a Sukkot party, he asked if we’d like to attend church with him on Sunday. When we told him we were Jewish, he politely responded, “I respect that. G-d bless you.” Probably the nicest ending to a proselytizing interaction one could hope for.
Once the missionary left, my friend told me he was reminded of being incessantly approached by religious devotees from Chabad, asking him to shake the lulav and etrog. Although he talked about this barragement as an annoyance, I saw it as a privilege.
As a Black woman, I don’t exactly fit the model for the types of people Chabad profiles and have never been approached. It doesn’t happen to me in New York, where a Mitzvah Mobile is a common sighting. It didn’t happen to me on the main walkway of my college campus, where the local Chabad chapter would set up a table as a holiday would approach.
One Rosh Hashanah in college, I decided that if I wanted to be recognized as Jewish (and get the free apples and honey Chabad was handing out) I would have to take matters into my own hands. I approached the table and said “Chag Sameach.” They greeted me warmly, if with surprise, and invited me to their services. I approached them in the same way at Sukkot, and got invited into their sukkah to shake the lulav and etrog.
I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who envy my position — a Jew who gets to fly under the radar and not get stopped every few blocks. But I felt like I was being left out from something every other Jew got to experience (even if they experience it begrudgingly).
I don’t totally hold it against the members of Chabad that they target a certain subset of people. With limited resources, you can’t approach everyone. Statistically speaking, in America, the vast majority of Jews are white, with an estimated 12-15% being Jews of color. However, it does seem counterintuitive to not cast as wide a net as possible when hoping to talk to as many Jews as you can.
The assumptions don’t go both ways. Chabad opens with the question “Are you Jewish?”, acknowledging that religious diversity exists among white people. But they often overlook that the Jewish community itself is diverse enough to warrant asking people of color that question.
But haven’t I been guilty of profiling, too?
The year after the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue, I became the Youth Representative on my hometown synagogue’s board. Every year, all members of the board are required to volunteer as ushers for High Holy Day services, but that year there was an extra requirement: attend a security training to learn what to do in an active shooter situation. In addition to being taught which stairwells to lead people down and how to barricade doors, we were instructed to identify individuals who looked out of place or who we didn’t recognize. What you should do, the former SWAT member leading the training told us, was go out of your way to welcome them as they entered the synagogue, ask them seemingly benign questions about what was bringing them there, see if you could sense whether they were friend or foe.
This instruction primarily led ushers to cautiously approach bald white men (potential skinheads) or particularly hairy white men (possible members of a white supremacist biker gang) and chat them up. Thankfully, all of these men ended up being either synagogue members or family visiting from out of town.
Looking back, it feels embarrassing. It’s definitely discriminatory. But at the time, it also felt necessary.
Profiling people for security purposes is obviously very different from doing it to decide who is eligible to light shabbat candles, but they both involve making assumptions about who belongs. My liberal impulse is to shun this behavior, but the dynamics of determining belonging have complexities beyond what our political ideals might be.
However, society never stays stagnant. As the number of Jews of color grows, perceptions of what being Jewish looks like will have to expand. And maybe one day we’ll be able to live in a world where trying to guess if a new face belongs to a white supremacist won’t feel like a requirement to pray in peace. Hopefully, it will also be a world where everyone has lulavs shoved in their faces too.
The post Actually, I’d love for Chabad to ask me if I’m Jewish appeared first on The Forward.
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Kanye says he wants to ‘make amends’ with Jews, meets with Orthodox celebrity rabbi
(JTA) — After years of virulent antisemitic comments, the American rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, told an Orthodox rabbi on Tuesday in New York that he was ready to “make amends” for his actions.
“I feel really blessed to be able to sit here with you today and just take accountability,” Ye told Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto in a video posted on social media.
Pinto is an Israeli rabbi who serves as the chief rabbi of Morocco. He has previously counseled celebrities including Lebron James and was jailed in Israel in 2016 for bribery.
Ye first appeared to distance himself from his antisemitic record, which included a song praising Hitler and several tirades on X that included a 2022 vow to “go death con 3 ON JEWISH PEOPLE,” in May when he declared on social media that he was “done with antisemitism.”
Since then, the incendiary rapper has been relatively quiet on social media. During his meeting with Pinto, he appeared to cast blame for his actions on his struggle with bipolar disorder.
“I was dealing with some various issues, dealing with bipolar also, so it would take the ideas I had and taking them to an extreme where I would forget about the protection of the people around me or and myself,” Ye said as the two men held hands.
Explaining his experience with bipolar disorder to the rabbi, Ye said it was like someone “left your kid at the house and your kid went and messed up the kitchen,” adding that it was his responsibility to “go clean up the kitchen.”
“It’s a big deal for me as a man to come and take accountability for all the things that I’ve said, and I really just appreciate you embracing me with open arms and allowing me to make amends,” Ye said. “And this is the beginning and the first steps, and the first brick by brick to build back the strong walls.”
Following Ye’s appeal, Pinto responded through a translator, who told Ye, “The Jews live on this way of if someone did something wrong, you can regret and fix it,” adding, “From now on, strong things and good things, you are a very good man.”
The two men then stood from their chairs and hugged.
“A person is not defined by his mistakes, but by the way he chooses to correct them. This is the true strength of man: The ability to return, to learn, and to build bridges of love and peace,” wrote Pinto in a post on Instagram of the interaction.
Two hours before Ye reposted the meeting with Pinto on his X account, he posted an advertisement for a planned concert this January in Mexico City. The post was his first since making an identical announcement in September.
The post Kanye says he wants to ‘make amends’ with Jews, meets with Orthodox celebrity rabbi appeared first on The Forward.
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Kazakhstan set to join Abraham Accords as Trump seeks to reinvigorate initiative
(JTA) — Kazakhstan is expected to announce Thursday that it will join the Abraham Accords during President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s White House meeting with President Donald Trump, Axios and other media outlets reported, citing unnamed U.S. officials.
The move is reportedly aimed at reinvigorating the framework established during Trump’s first term linking Israel with Arab and Muslim-majority states after momentum stalled during the Gaza war.
While the step would expand the accords on paper, it won’t establish new ties: Israel and Kazakhstan have maintained full diplomatic and economic relations since 1992.
Tokayev is in Washington with four other Central Asian leaders as the United States courts a region long influenced by Russia and increasingly engaged by China.
Trump has sought to grow the accords to include Saudi Arabia, though Riyadh continues to condition normalization on a credible path to Palestinian statehood. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is slated to visit Washington later this month.
Kazakhstan served as a haven for Soviet Jews during the Holocaust. Today, its Jewish community of an estimated 2,500 is small, decentralized and largely led by Chabad. During unrest in 2022, synagogues temporarily shut their doors as the community tried to steer clear of politics and waited out the violence.
A Jewish comedian, Sacha Baron Cohen, thrust the country into pop culture prominence in 2006 with the release of his mockumentary “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” The movie portrayed the country as backward and antisemitic and spurred a backlash from the government. Later, as the movie contributed to a tourism boost, the government embraced its association with Borat.
The post Kazakhstan set to join Abraham Accords as Trump seeks to reinvigorate initiative appeared first on The Forward.
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Austria Uncovers Hamas-Linked Weapons Cache Amid Surge in Anti-Jewish Incidents
A pro-Hamas demonstration in Vienna. Photo: Reuters/Andreas Stroh
Austrian authorities have uncovered a weapons cache linked to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas intended for attacks on Jewish communities in Europe, amid a surge in antisemitic incidents and a government warning that anti-Jewish hate is on the rise.
On Wednesday, the Antisemitism Reporting Office of the Jewish Community of Vienna (IKG) released its new report on anti-Jewish outrages, recording 726 incidents in Austria in the first half of 2025.
The Jewish community in Austria has faced a troubling surge in antisemitic incidents and anti-Israel sentiment since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Austrian Jewish leaders have consistently called on authorities to take swift action against the rising wave of targeted attacks and anti-Jewish hate crimes they continue to face.
According to the newly released report, antisemitic incidents peaked at 808 from the first six months of 2024, with this year’s first-half total slightly lower but on pace once again to far surpass pre-Oct. 7, 2023, figures if current trends continue.
In 2023, before the Oct. 7 atrocities, 311 cases were documented, with current figures having more than doubled since then.
Of the incidents reported this year, five involved physical assaults, eight were threats, 78 involved property damage, 203 were hate-related communications, and 432 involved offensive behavior. The vast majority of the incidents were classified as “Israel-related antisemitism,” with roughly half the total outrages involving either Holocaust denial/distortion or antisemitic “othering,” defined as treating Jews as outsiders.
In the face of a growing wave of anti-Jewish hatred and a hostile climate, the Austrian government is set to unveil its revised National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism next week.
“If we are to preserve Jewish life in Austria, it demands protection, solidarity, and a firm stance every single day,” Secretary of State Alexander Pröll said in a statement.
“We need to send a clear message – the current statistics are a wake-up call,” he continued. “Antisemitism is still deeply ingrained in Austria and is becoming more and more normalized.”
The new report also warns that the declining willingness to report antisemitic incidents, with those affected “increasingly suppressing their complaints,” suggests the actual extent of the issue may be far greater than what is currently documented.
“We need to confront violence, hatred, and incitement with greater resolve,” Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger said in a statement.
“Antisemitism targets not only Jewish people but also the core values of our democracy,” she continued.
Meanwhile, Vienna authorities on Thursday uncovered a hidden arsenal linked to Hamas, reportedly intended for “potential terrorist attacks in Europe” targeting Jewish communities.
The Austrian government confirmed that the Directorate for State Security and Intelligence Service (DSN) has been conducting an internationally coordinated investigation into a global terrorist network with ties to Hamas.
During the investigation, Austrian authorities uncovered evidence suggesting that this group had brought weapons into the country for potential terrorist attacks in Europe, and identified a possible suspect.
Earlier this week, London police arrested a 39-year-old British citizen who allegedly has “close ties to the weapons cache,” the British Interior Ministry confirmed in a statement.
“According to the current state of the investigation, Israeli or Jewish institutions in Europe were likely to be the targets of these attacks,” the statement read.
Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner praised the investigation, saying, “The mission is clear: zero tolerance for terrorists.”
“The current case shows once again that the Directorate for State Security and Intelligence has an excellent international network and takes consistent action against all forms of extremism,” he said.
Hamas issued a statement denying any connection to the criminal network, calling the allegations of its involvement “baseless.”
Last month, West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center released a study detailing how Hamas leaders in Lebanon have been directing operatives to establish “foreign operator” cells across Europe, collaborating with organized crime networks to acquire weapons and target Jewish communities abroad.
According to the report, the Palestinian terrorist group has expanded its operations beyond the Middle East, exploiting a long-established network of weapons caches, criminal alliances, and covert infrastructure that has been quietly built across Europe for years.