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Behind the scenes of Justin Jones’ viral ‘tikkun olam’ encounter with Jewish teens in DC
(JTA) — Sam Rosen and Noah Segal were sitting with their friends on the steps of the Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., on Monday when they spotted one of America’s most talked-about politicians.
Justin Jones, a Democratic lawmaker in Tennessee whom Republicans kicked out of the state’s legislature in retaliation for a gun-violence protest, was walking by in his signature white suit.
“I remember me and my friend looking at him and being like, ‘Is that him? Is that really one of the Tennessee Three?’” Rosen recalled on Wednesday from his home in Dallas. “To me, he’s kind of the face of upholding democracy right now, so it was very cool to see that.”
Jones waved at their group, this year’s crop of Bronfman Fellows, a prestigious leadership program that aims to empower Jewish teens. That initiated an encounter steeped in Jewish lingo that went viral after a liberal news outlet in Tennessee shared a video on social media.
“Can I shake your hand?” Segal, a high school senior from Ardsley, New York, asked Jones. Several of the other teens introduced themselves, too, and one explained that they were all Jewish teens from across North America.
“This is a Jewish program?” Jones asked after giving a brief pep talk about getting more young people involved in politics, drawing an affirmative response.
“Tikkun olam,” Jones ventured, seemingly testing whether he had correctly named the Hebrew term meaning “repair the world” that has come to signify social justice in progressive circles.
“Yes,” the teens replied in unison, many of their faces lighting up with excitement. “We just talked about that!” Rosen said, with apparent delight. After chatting with the group for a few more minutes, Jones said he had to head off for a White House meeting with President Joe Biden — but he took the time first to pose for a picture with the group.
For many of the people who saw and shared the video, produced and posted Tuesday by the Tennessee Holler news site, the exchange offered an example of cross-cultural solidarity at a time of polarization. The video has been seen well over 2 million times on Twitter and more on other platforms.
“It seems like it resonated because it was a genuine, uplifting moment that showed how impactful it can be to have young leaders showing other young people the way forward — and because it crossed lines. Racial lines. Religious lines. Geographic lines. It shows how essential it is to come together,” Justin Kanew, Tennessee Holler’s founder and editor, told JTA. (The site was the first to report that a Tennessee school board had banned the Holocaust novel “Maus” last year.)
Kanew added: “Also: Justin Jones is the real deal. Sincere, and inspirational. So that helps.”
Jones burst onto the national scene last month when he and another Tennessee lawmaker were ejected from the state legislature after staging a protest over the Republican-led body’s inaction after a school shooting in Nashville. Both men are Black; a third lawmaker who protested is a white woman and she was not ejected. The racial disparity in the lawmakers’ treatment drew widespread criticism, even after local elected officials in Nashville and Memphis reversed the ejections.
The saga has made Jones into a folk hero among progressives, as well as an inspiration to those who want to see young adults — he is 27 – play an active role in shaping the country.
“Thank you for being a role model for the young,” Dan Libenson, the head of a Jewish education philanthropy who teaches in the Bronfman program, tells Jones in the video.
WATCH: “Thank you for being a role model for the young.”
As the #TennesseeThree arrived at the White House a group of Jewish students from across were there on a tour, and they were thrilled to meet @brotherjones_. #TikkunOlam pic.twitter.com/vii89sTsIp
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) April 25, 2023
Libenson told JTA that it had taken the group a moment to realize that the man in the white suit was in fact Jones, as the group had been sequestered at a Jewish retreat center in Maryland and had not heard about Jones’ visit, or about the backlash from some conservatives against it.
“As you can see from the video, as soon as it registered, we all rushed down to greet him,” Libenson told JTA in an email. “It’s clear that Gen Z has been traumatized by the mass shootings that seem to happen every day, and I think many of the fellows see Justin Jones as a hero for not taking no for an answer with regard to the safety of young people like them.”
Said Segal, “The whole seminar theme was vision and the future, so it was random and funky and cool to see someone who is right there making a change.” About Jones’ invocation of tikkun olam, he said, “I was impressed with him before that and impressed with him after that.”
The Bronfman Fellows program is not partisan, and participants hold a wide range of political views, according to Becky Voorwinde, the group’s CEO. But she noted that applicants for the fellowship must write about a contemporary issue that matters to them, and many choose gun violence. “It cuts across political viewpoints,” she said. “They grew up after Sandy Hook. This is their reality.”
Asked whether the issue was one he thought a lot about, Rosen answered, “How can it not be?”
He went on, “It’s not like it’s one awful shooting a year. It’s every day. It seems like it’s only a matter of time before it’s me. It’s not something that controls my entire life, but it’s always in the back of my mind.”
What the Bronfman Youth Fellows’ group photo with Tennessee Rep. Justin Jones looked like from the vantage point of where they’d been sitting before they spotted the prominent lawmaker. (Courtesy of Becky Voorwinde)
Segal said that he, too, viewed the threat of gun violence, alongside climate change, as one of the widest problems facing young people. In fact, he said, for part of a final project in the fellowship, he’d facilitated a discussion about what it means to fight antisemitism for a generation surrounded by mass shootings.
The Washington trip was a closing activity for the cohort of Bronfman Fellows, who first spent five weeks together last summer before getting together throughout the year virtually and in person. Before running into Jones, the group had been meeting with four Jewish White House staffers; afterward, they broke into small teams to meet with past fellows working in a wide array of jobs in the area.
The day before the viral encounter, the group visited a haredi Orthodox yeshiva in Baltimore. There, too, tikkun olam came up in discussion — but the head of the yeshiva seemed to dismiss it as a meaningful framework for Jewish life compared to the commandments of traditional Jewish law.
Rosen, who belongs to a Reform synagogue in Dallas and is headed to Brandeis University in the fall, pushed back.
“I said, ‘Rabbi, this is an obligation that we all uphold in our community. It’s a core value of Judaism and who I am,’” he recounted. “To me, that’s why it was so cool that Justin Jones said that.”
The entire encounter with Jones, Rosen said, felt authentic and empowering. And that feeling, Kanew said, could be contagious.
“Everything we need to save this country from descending into a dark place was right there in that exchange,” Kanew said. “And the beauty of it is everything that moment represents will inevitably come to fruition if people stay engaged and keep fighting for it. So it’s an incredibly hopeful moment, and hope is what people are looking for right now.”
—
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Syria Will Stay Out of Iran conflict Unless It Faces Aggression, President Says
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa attends the Ministry of Awqaf conference titled “Unity of Islamic Discourse” at the Conference Palace in Damascus, Syria, Feb. 16, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Tuesday that his country will stay out of the US-Israeli war against Iran unless Syria is subject to aggression and has no diplomatic solutions.
“Unless Syria is targeted by any party, Syria will remain outside any conflict,” the Syrian president said at an event hosted by think tank Chatham House in London.
“We do not want Syria to be an arena of war. But unfortunately, today, things are not governed by wise minds. The situation is volatile and random,” the president said.
The month-long conflict has spread across the region, killing thousands, disrupting energy supplies, and threatening to send the global economy into a tailspin.
“We want Syria to have ideal relationships with the entire region, with Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and world powers like the UK, France, Germany, and the US. I think that Syria is qualified to start a strategic relationship network,” he said, responding to a question on whether Syria would stay neutral while the conflict goes on.
Syria has been keen to stay on the sidelines of the regional conflict that has pulled in neighboring countries, including Lebanon, where armed group Hezbollah is locked in fighting with Israeli ground troops, and Iraq, where Iran-aligned factions have launched drone and rocket attacks.
Syria sent thousands of troops to its western border with Lebanon and its eastern border with Iraq earlier this month. Syria‘s defense ministry said the deployment was part of efforts to “protect and control the borders amid the escalating regional conflict.”
“We had enough war. We paid a large bill. We are not ready for another war experience,” Syria‘s president said.
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Europe Shows Unwillingness to Help With Iran War, Pushes Back on Some US-Israeli Military Operations
US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron react on the day of a press conference, at the White House in Washington, DC, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
France and Italy have pushed back against some US-Israeli military operations, sources said on Tuesday, as US President Donald Trump criticized NATO allies in Europe as unhelpful in the month-long war in Iran, highlighting divisions.
The decisions came against a backdrop of tensions between Washington and key partners over the war. Earlier this month, Trump called longtime NATO allies “cowards” over their lack of support. On Tuesday, he slammed countries that did not help in the US-Israeli strikes.
FRANCE SAYS NO
Trump accused France of blocking aircraft carrying military supplies to Israel from flying over its territory, writing on Truth Social that France had been “VERY UNHELPFUL.”
The French presidency said it was surprised by the post and said its decision was consistent with France’s policy since the conflict began.
A Western diplomat and two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters earlier that the refusal, which happened at the weekend, was the first time France had done this since the start of the conflict on Feb. 28.
The sources said Israel had wanted to use France’s airspace to transport US weapons to be used in the war against Iran.
Israel’s defense ministry accused France of actively obstructing the transfer of munitions to Israel, according to a statement.
It said the French ban was imposed despite prior coordination and assurances that the munitions were intended solely for use against Iran, adding that the effort was critical to European security.
The ministry said Israel would cut all defense procurement from France and would have no new engagement with the French military. French arms sales to Israel are relatively small, and it was unclear whether the move would affect French troops serving with UN peacekeepers in Lebanon.
ITALY DENIES PERMISSION
Italy last week denied permission for US military aircraft to land at the Sigonella air base in Sicily before heading to the Middle East, sources said.
According to the Corriere della Sera daily, which first reported the news, “some US bombers” had been due to land at the base in eastern Sicily before flying on to the Middle East.
Italy’s Defense Minister Guido Crosetto later denied any rift with Washington or any change in policy. He posted a message on X to say that US airbases remained active, but that Washington needed special permission for uses outside existing agreements.
SPAIN IS MOST VOCAL AGAINST WAR
Meanwhile, Spain defended its decision to fully close its airspace to US planes involved in attacks on Iran.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has been among the most vocal critics of the US and Israeli strikes and Defense Minister Margarita Robles said Spain will only allow for the use of its bases for the collective defense of NATO allies.
Trump also singled out Britain as being unhelpful, just as Buckingham Palace confirmed King Charles and Queen Camilla will pay a state visit to the US in late April.
He wrote on Truth Social: “All of those countries that can’t get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom, which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, I have a suggestion for you: Number 1, buy from the US, we have plenty, and Number 2, build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT.”
The United States, France, Italy, Spain, and Britain are all NATO members, as is Germany, which hosts Ramstein, the largest US base in Europe.
Germany said early in the war there were no restrictions on the US using the base, though the issue has been debated after President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he believed the war was illegal.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declined on Tuesday to reaffirm Washington’s commitment to NATO’s collective defense, saying that would be up to President Donald Trump after key European allies refused to stand with the United States in the war against Iran.
Asked by Reuters at a news briefing if the US is still committed to NATO’s collective defense, Hegseth said: “As far as NATO is concerned, that’s a decision that will be left to the president. But I’ll just say a lot has been laid bare.”
In apparent reference to tensions with NATO allies France, Italy, Spain and Britain, Hegseth said “when we ask for additional assistance or simple access, basing and overflight, we get questions or roadblocks or hesitations.”
“You don’t have much of an alliance if you have countries that are not willing to stand with you when you need them. [Trump is] simply pointing that out, and ultimately, it’ll be his decision of what that looks like,” Hegseth said.
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Toronto Police Allow Anti-Israel Protests Outside Synagogue, Other Jewish Sites
Illustrative: Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters, primarily university students, rally at Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square on Oct. 28, 2023. Photo by Sayed Najafizada/NurPhoto
Protesters in Toronto this past weekend demonized the Jewish state through provocations such as chanting accusations of terrorism outside of a synagogue and destroying an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a noose around his neck.
Israel’s consul general in Toronto, Idit Shamir, blasted Toronto police, charging they had failed to follow a recent pledge to prevent demonstrations outside of Jewish institutions.
“One week ago, Toronto Police banned pro-Palestinian protests at Bathurst and Sheppard, the heart of Toronto’s suburban Jewish community, after two years of documented harassment and antisemitic displays targeting the people who live, pray, and send their children to school there,” Shamir wrote on X. “Today, one week later, police escorted a pro-Palestinian protest through that same intersection.”
Shamir described how the anti-Israel advocates marched “past Darchei Noam Synagogue. Past the Toronto Heschel School. Past the L’Chaim Seniors Residence. Masked demonstrators chanted that Zionists are racists and terrorists.” He added that “small groups broke off onto side streets to reach Jewish residents more directly. No arrests. The ban held exactly as long as the gap between demonstrations.”
In making his statement, Shamir shared a video posting from lawyer Caryma Sa’d, a journalist and self-described satirist running a “Protest Mania” website whose footage vividly documented the events. The video features a man saying to Toronto police, “You gotta start enforcing the law. I don’t know who gives you your mandate, but start enforcing the law.”
Concluding his statement, Shamir wrote: “In Hebrew, there is a word for this: hefker. הפקר Ownerless. Abandoned. Beyond protection. Every generation of Jews has known a city where that word became real. I did not expect Toronto to be mine.”
In analyzing the event, the Combat Antisemitism Movement said that “Toronto Police have not explained why the march proceeded along this route. The gap between policy and enforcement remains clear — and so do the questions about whether Jewish residents are being protected in practice.”
In further videos shared by Sa’d, demonstrators and pro-Israel counter-protestors exchanged profane insults on Sunday with accusations of “Rape supporters!” and vulgarities like “Dirty c—t! F—k you, f—king losers!” A video of activists on Saturday shows one man who calls a yellow-jacketed police officer a “dumb f—k.”
The Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation (CAEF) stated that “Toronto Police would not tolerate a white supremacist parade up and down Jane St. between Finch and Steeles. So why are Toronto’s Jews required to tolerate a hate parade in the part of the city where we make our homes and community?”
Toronto’s law enforcement defended the decision to sanction the protestors’ route. “Officers ensured the group did not enter residential streets, and no arrests were made,” a police spokesperson said.
The spokesperson explained that the ban “does not apply to lawful demonstrations at the main intersection and along major roadways. Demonstrations have taken place at this intersection for several years. They can be tiring, disruptive, and distressing – but that does not make them illegal. Demonstrations are protected under Canadian law, and enforcement action is taken when there are reasonable grounds to believe a criminal offence has occurred.”
Another report of a Toronto protest over the weekend said that demonstrators burned Israeli and American flags. One individual took an effigy of a noosed Netanyahu and spit on its head before stomping the symbol of Israel’s leader.
According to Israel National News, demonstrators proclaimed, “We will sacrifice our souls and our blood for Al-Aqsa and Palestine.” Other chants asserted that “resistance is justified when a people lives under occupation” and declared that “the only solution is intifada.”
According to A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, the word “intifada” translates as “to be shaken off, be dusted off; to shake; to shudder, shiver, tremble; to shake off from oneself; to wake up, come to consciousness.”
Since the 1980s, the term came to refer to two distinct efforts by Palestinian terrorists to murder Israelis and destroy the Jewish state, with the first period starting in 1987 and the second in 2000. Anti-Israel activists today now regularly demand that supporters of the Palestinians seek to “globalize the intifada,” meaning engage in violence and terrorist acts everywhere. In an interview with cable host Al Sharpton on Sept. 7, then-New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani said he would “discourage” use of the phrase. He had previously refused.
Mirroring trends around the planet, Canada has seen a surge in recent years of antisemitic hate crimes, pro-terror advocacy, and vulgar street demonstrations with Toronto as the epicenter.
On March 10, Toronto Police Deputy Chief Frank Barredo said that according to witnesses, two men drove up to the US consulate in a white SUV and fired a handgun at the building before fleeing in the vehicle.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Chief Superintendent Chris Leather announced an increased security presence at the US and Israeli consulates in response, saying at a press conference that “these consulates deserve a heightened amount of vigilance and security at this time in the hopes that we can bring the temperature down in the coming days and weeks.” Vandals in Toronto have previously shot bullets at a Jewish-owned restaurant and at a local synagogue.
B’nai Brith has documented the rise of antisemitism in Canada, with the organization’s 2024 audit finding a 7.4 percent increase from 2023, reaching 6,219 for the highest total ever recorded since tracking began in 1982.
On Sept. 21, 2025, Canada joined with its Anglosphere allies the United Kingdom and Australia in choosing to recognize a Palestinian state.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney asserted at the time that “this in no way legitimizes terrorism, nor is it any reward for it.”