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Book bans, Ukraine and the end of Roe: The year 2022 in Jewish ideas
(JTA) — Jewish eras can be defined by events (the fall of the Second Temple, the Inquisition, the founding of Israel) and by ideas (the rabbinic era, emancipation, post-denominationalism). A community reveals itself in the things it argues about most passionately.
It’s too early to tell what ideas will define this era, although a look back at the big debates of 2022 suggests Jews in North America will be discussing a few issues for a long time: the resurgence of antisemitism, the boundaries of free speech, the red/blue culture wars.
Below are eight of some of the key debates of the past year as (mostly) reflected in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s opinion section (which I have a hand in editing). They suggest, above all, a community anxious about its standing in the American body politic despite its strength and self-confidence.
Antisemitism and the Black-Jewish alliance
The rapper Kanye West spread canards about Jews and power. Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving shared an antisemitic film on Twitter. And comedian Dave Chappelle made light of both incidents on “Saturday Night Live,” suggesting comics like him had more to fear from cancellation than Jews did from rising antisemitism. The central roles played in these controversies by three African-American celebrities revived longstanding tensions between two communities who haven’t been able to count on their historic ties since the end of the civil rights era. The war of words was particularly vexing for Jews of color, like the rabbi known as MaNishtana and Rabbi Kendell Pinkney — who wondered whether “my mixed Jewish child will grow up in an America where she feels compelled to closet aspects of her identity because society cannot hold the wonder of her complexity.”
Jewish attitudes toward Ukraine
Russia’s war on Ukraine stirred up complex feelings among Jews. It led to an outpouring of support for the innocents caught up in or sent fleeing by Russia’s invasion, and the Jewish president who became their symbol of defiance. It reinvigorated a Jewish rescue apparatus that seemed to have been in hibernation for years. And it probed Jews’ memories of their own historic suffering in Ukraine, often at the hands of the ancestors of those now under attack.
Jews and the end of Roe v. Wade
In June the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to overturn Roe v. Wade. It was an unthinkable outcome for liberal Jewish activists, women especially, who for 50 years and more had regarded the right to an abortion as integral to their Jewish identity and political worldview. Before the decision came down, Jewish studies scholar Michael Raucher questioned long-held Jewish organizational views that justified abortion only on the narrowest of religious grounds without acknowledging that women “have the bodily autonomy to make that decision on their own.” Conversely, Avi Shafran of Agudath Israel of America welcomed the end of Roe on behalf of his haredi Orthodox organization, writing that the rabbis “who guide us indisputably hold that, absent extraordinary circumstances, terminating a pregnancy is a grave sin.” Responding to Shafran, Daphne Lazar Price, an Orthodox Jewish feminist, argued that even in her stringently religious community, getting an abortion is a “conscious choice by women to follow their religious convictions and maintain their human dignity.”
Colleyville and synagogue safety
A police chaplain walks near the Congregation Beth Israel Synagogue in Colleyville, Texas Jan. 15, 2022. (Andy Jacobsohn/AFP via Getty Images)
After a gunman held a rabbi and three congregants hostage at a Colleyville, Texas synagogue in January, Jewish institutions called for even tighter security at buildings that had already been hardened after the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre in 2018. And yet for some, the sight of armed guards and locked doors undermines the spirit of a house of worship. Raphael Magarik of the University of Illinois Chicago argued that the Colleyville incident shouldn’t lead to an overreaction, especially when congregations are struggling to come back together after the pandemic. Rabbi Joshua Ladon warned about the “impulse to allow fear to define our actions.” Meanwhile, Jews of color said armed guards and police patrols can make them feel unsafe. In a powerful response, Mijal Bitton and Rabbi Isaiah Rothstein of the Shalom Hartman Center wrote that Jewish institutions must think in “expansive and creative ways about how to fight for our combined safety in a way that takes into account the rich ethnic and racial diversity of our communities.”
Anti-Zionism, antisemitism and “Jew-free zones”
When nine student groups at UC Berkeley’s law school adopted by-laws saying that they will not invite speakers who support Zionism, the Jewish Journal in Los Angeles ran an op-ed with the provocative headline, “Berkeley Develops Jewish Free Zones.” In the essay, Kenneth L. Marcus, who heads the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, argued that “Zionism is an integral aspect of the identity of many Jews,” and that the bylaws act as “racially restrictive covenants,” precluding Jewish participation. Defenders of the pro-Palestinian students countered that groups often invite only like-minded speakers, and that while being Jewish is an identity, Zionism is a political viewpoint. Faculty, politicians and activists weighed in on both sides of what has become a central debate on campuses and beyond: When does anti-Zionism become antisemitism, and how do you balance free speech rights against the claims by some students that their personal safety hangs in the balance?
“Maus” and school book bans
A Tennessee school board voted to remove “Maus” — Art Speigelman’s epic cartoon memoir about the Holocaust — from middle-school classrooms. (JTA photo)
Caught up in an epidemic of book-banning were Jewish books for children and young adults, a list that includes “The Purim Superhero,” “Family Fletcher” and “Chik Chak Shabbat.” A Texas school board removed a 2018 graphic novel adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary. But perhaps the highest profile case of a Jewish-interest book being banned came when a Tennessee school board voted to remove “Maus” — Art Speigelman’s epic cartoon memoir about the Holocaust — from middle-school classrooms, citing its use of profanity, nudity and depictions of “killing kids.” Coverage of the ban misleadingly depicted “Maus” as an introduction to the Shoah for young adults, while Speigelman recently noted that he had become a reluctant “metonym” for the book-banning issue. Jennifer Caplan explained why the book is indispensable: “‘Maus’ forces the reader to bear witness in a way no written account can, and the [illustrations] are especially good at forcing the eye to see what the mind prefers to glide past.”
Artificial intelligence and real-life dilemmas
Artificial intelligence, or AI, has become a fact of corporate life, with computing advances that power robotic automation, computer vision and natural-language text generation. But what captured the public imagination — and dread — this year were sites like Dall-E, which threatened the livelihood of graphic designers by generating original, credible illustrations with no more than a simple prompt, and ChatGPT, which is able to expound cogently and humanly on practically any topic. Beyond everyday ethical dilemmas (“Can I write my book report using ChatGPT?”) AI raised profound questions about what it means to be human. “Rabbis have historically been very open to the idea of nonhuman sentience and have tended to see parallels between humans and nonhumans as an excuse to treat nonhumans better,” wrote David Zvi Kalman in an essay on the prospect of creating artificial life. Similarly, Mois Navon suggested in JTA that “if a machine is sentient, it is no longer an inanimate object with no moral status or ‘rights’ … but rather an animate being with the status of a ‘moral patient’ to whom we owe consideration.
A Pulitzer for “The Netanyahus”
Author Joshua Cohen won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for his novel “The Netanyahus.” (Roberto Serra—Iguana Press/Getty Images)
Joshua Cohen was the somewhat surprising winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for his novel “The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family.” Or maybe not so surprising: The book is a fictionalized treatment of a real-life visit in the late 1950s by the Israeli historian Benzion Netanyahu for a job interview at a university very much like Cornell. With Benzion’s son Benjamin angling for an ultimately successful return to office in real life, a satire about Jewish power, right-wing Zionism and Israeli self-regard might have seemed to the judges very much of the moment. As critic Adam Kirsch wrote in a JTA essay, Cohen concludes that both American and Israeli Jewish identities “are absurd, crying out for the kind of satire that can only come from intimate knowledge.” Others weren’t amused. Jewish Currents criticized the novel for being derivative of both Philip Roth and Saul Bellow, and the Jewish Review of Books said that the novel includes “a capsule history of Zionism that is so blatant a distortion that I just gave up.”
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Julius Berman, Orthodox rabbi whose influence spanned secular and observant Jewish institutions, dies at 90
Rabbi Julius Berman, who led the Orthodox Union and a myriad of other prominent Jewish communal organizations across the Orthodox and secular Jewish world, has died at 90.
Born in Lithuania in 1935 to Rabbi Henoch and Sarah Berman, Berman immigrated with his family to Hartford, Connecticut, in 1940 where he was among the first graduating class of the Yeshiva of Hartford.
Berman received his bachelor’s degree from Yeshiva University in 1956 and his rabbinic ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University in 1959. In 1960, he graduated first in his class from New York University School of Law.
Berman joined the New York City law firm Kaye Scholer in 1959, where he was a pioneer for observant Jews in the city’s legal world.
But while Berman went on to be an accomplished partner at Kaye Scholer, it was his extensive leadership at some of the largest Jewish communal organizations in the United States that defined his broader legacy.
“Though I am not equipped to psychoanalyze myself, it is very possible that my decision to go into a legal career rather than the Rabbinate had a role to play in my decision to immerse myself into Jewish communal matters,” said Berman in a 2006 interview with the Yeshiva University Commentator. “In any case, I have been heavily involved in communal work my entire adult life.”
Over the span of his career, Berman served in leadership positions at the Orthodox Union, Yeshiva University, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and over a dozen other Jewish communal organizations.
Early in his career, Berman became the president of the National Jewish Commission on Law and Public Affairs, or COLPA, a legal group that represents the Orthodox Jewish community.
Dennis Rapps, who was hired as COLPA’s executive director in 1970, described Berman as a personal mentor and a “sought-after participant” in Jewish communal life.
“He was a member and active participant in many of the leading Jewish organizations,” Rapps said. “I think the respect that people had for him cut across a broad swath of the Jewish community, he got along with everybody, and people respected him for his intellect and for his selflessness, and he was a real nice guy.”
Following his work with COLPA, Berman went on to serve as the president of the Orthodox Union from 1978 to 1984, later serving as the longtime chairman of the organization’s Kashrut Commission and OU press. In an obituary for Berman, the Orthodox Union described Berman as “one of the most significant lay leaders of twentieth-century Orthodoxy.”
“He was a gracious, generous person,” Rabbi Menachem Genack, the CEO of the Orthodox Union Kosher Division, told JTA. “Whenever we had a kashrus meeting, or any other kind of meeting, everybody ultimately would defer to Julie Berman.”
Berman was also a longtime devotee of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, the spiritual leader of Modern Orthodoxy in the 20th century and longtime lecturer at Yeshiva University who ordained close to 2,000 rabbis.
“He was a devoted disciple of Rabbi Soloveitchik, and Soloveitchik had a very, very high regard for him,” said Genack. “If he had issues, if he wanted to consult someone, amongst them was always Julie Berman.”
In 1982, Berman also was elected as the chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. He also served as chairman of the board at Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary.
“God was good to him in terms of his talent, and he used it,” said Rapps. “He was really, basically one of a kind, extremely bright, I think fearless and very dedicated to doing what he thought had to be done. He was a remarkable guy.”
Berman also served as the longtime chairman of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, or Claims Conference, where he was widely credited for expanding restitution for survivors worldwide. His time at the Claims Conference was later shadowed by controversy in 2009 after a $57 million fraud scheme orchestrated by an employee sparked criticism of the organization’s governance.
“Rabbi Julius Berman was a towering moral leader whose life’s work helped shape the global landscape of Holocaust survivor care, restitution, and Jewish communal life,” said Greg Schneider, the executive vice president of the Claims Conference in a statement. “A brilliant legal mind and widely respected Torah scholar, he was typically the smartest person in the room, while his sharp intellect was always matched by profound compassion. Julie led with unwavering integrity, grounding his leadership in the dignity of survivors, an abiding love for the Jewish people and a profound sense of responsibility to future generations. We are deeply grateful for his guidance, and he will be deeply missed by all who had the privilege to know him.”
Berman also formerly served as the president of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency from 1989 until its merger with its parent company, 70 Faces Media.
“I loved and always valued my discussions with Julie Berman, first as a reporter talking (often on background) to a source and later as a CEO seeking sage advice from a former board president,” said Ami Eden, the CEO and executive editor of 70 Faces Media, in a statement. “He was passionate about his beliefs and causes, super sharp and never shy about telling you if and why he disagreed.”
Berman is survived by his wife Dorothy Berman, and his children and their spouses, Zev and Judy Berman, Myra and Simcha Aminsky and Eli and Miriam Berman. His funeral will be held Thursday at Young Israel of Jamaica Estates in Hollis, New York.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Julius Berman, Orthodox rabbi whose influence spanned secular and observant Jewish institutions, dies at 90 appeared first on The Forward.
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The case for Jewish optimism in 2026
Jewish history is a spin cycle of darkness and disaster. Wait long enough and trouble will come around.
Predicting doom and gloom for the Jewish people is about as shocking as an Los Angeles weather reporter forecasting hot summers and mild winters.
What’s more surprising: the Prophets we study hedged their warnings with hope. If the people followed the correct path — if they, so to speak, did the work — God would come through. Isaiah, for instance, ended a jeremiad about the ills that might afflict the Jews with a vision of a brighter future: “While you have been forsaken and hated,” he said, “I will make you an eternal excellence, a joy of many generations.”
In that spirit, here are my reasons for Jewish optimism in the coming year:
1. The Gaza ceasefire is still tenuous, but holding
We enter 2026 with something that seemed far off in January 2025: the return of all but one of the hostages amid a ceasefire after two years of war. (The remains of Ran Gvili are still in Gaza.)
Neither Israel nor Hamas appears particularly eager to make the sacrifices necessary to proceed to the second phase of the ceasefire, which would involve Hamas disarmament, further Israeli withdrawal and the deployment of an international peacekeeping force. But successful Mideast diplomacy has always depended on American engagement, and judging by the meeting this week in Florida between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the American president is still engaged.
Trump’s pressure and leverage, especially with Turkey and Qatar, who have sway over Hamas, could help push the sides toward the next step.
Success would increase the likelihood of a Saudi-Israeli accord, which would be a true Middle East game changer.
“A deal with Saudi Arabia could remake the Middle East and Israel’s place in it,” former diplomat Nimrod Novik recently told The New York Times. “Saudi Arabia doesn’t come alone. It’s a whole list of countries that follow, once the Saudis put a kosher stamp on Israel: Indonesia, Malaysia, maybe even Kuwait and Oman — who knows?”
2. In Israel, a grassroots awakening
A new generation of grassroots Israeli movements and leaders has emerged since the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023.
Now, they may help reshape Israel’s political landscape. New centrist parties like Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar and Yoav Hendel’s Reservist Party have emerged to challenge Netanyahu’s divisive leadership. Two weeks ago, Einav Zangauker, who protested daily for the release of the hostages, among them her son Matan Zangauker, said she may enter electoral politics.
And while election polls still show that Israel suffers from deep social and political rifts, one finding of a recent Israel Democracy Institute survey gives me hope: 71% of Israelis say “it’s important for Israel to have a Constitution” — a document the country has lacked since its founding.
“The biggest threat to long-term stability in Israel,” wrote the institute’s founder, Arye Carmon, “is the lack of a national constitution to provide a foundation on which to guarantee stability and define Jewishness in the ‘Jewish and Democratic.’”
As religious, tribal and political forces pull the country apart, it’s hopeful that a consensus exists to keep it together.
3. In the United States, a continuing Jewish revitalization
The post-Oct. 7 surge that has brought American Jews deeper into Jewish life shows no sign of ebbing in 2026. Synagogue, camp and day school enrollments are up, as is Jewish involvement across the board. A recent national survey found that 72% of people who became more deeply engaged in Jewish life after Hamas’ 2023 attack are “still engaging more today through community, learning and personal relationships.”
At a time when Americans are suffering from an epidemic of over-digitized isolation, American Jews are seeking and finding actual, real life community.
How that looks can vary wildly: increased donations to Jewish causes, overt displays of pride and belonging, activism, adult b’nai mitzvah classes or a packed Brooklyn “Sinners’ Shabbat” with burlesque dancers and drag queens. In all ways, it’s a resurgence that can only strengthen our identity.
4. The calmer the conflict, the safer our streets
Violent antisemitic attacks have grown in frequency and ferocity in the past six months — witness Washington, D.C., Boulder and Bondi Beach.
But the numbers of overall antisemitic attacks have fallen off. Antisemitic hate crimes fell by more than 50% in New York City in early 2025, reflecting an international decrease and a sharp decline in global antisemitism since post-Oct. 7 highs. That isn’t surprising. “There is no more important factor in explaining variation in antisemitic hate crimes in this country than Israel being engaged in a particularly violent military operation,” said Professor Ayal Feinberg, whose 2019 study looked at the correlation between the 2014 Gaza War and antisemitic violence.
If Hamas and Israel can enter the second ceasefire phase, the world’s anti-Israel demonstraters will be faced with the dissonant reality of Israel working with Arab and Turkish neighbors to rebuild Gaza. I’d like to see the protest signs objecting to that.
5, Jews have allies, and antisemites just have X
I suspect that other noxious forms of antisemitism — like podcaster Tucker Carlson hosting Nazi fanboys, or Candace Owens spouting Jew-hating conspiracy theories — will continue to do more to splinter the Republican party than unite it.
We’ve seen that happening already. Jewish and non-Jewish members of the Heritage Foundation resigned when its director refused to distance himself from Carlson. Ben Shapiro threw a wrench into the Turning Point USA convention by declaring a red line against bigots and Holocaust deniers.
A disturbing number of MAGA leaders equivocated — here’s looking at you, Vice President JD Vance — but others like Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw and Sen. Ted Cruz spoke against the hatemongers.
The not-so-coded antisemitism that many of us have long warned infests MAGA, and that Trump has long both denied and winked at, is now out in the sunlight, which, counterintuitively, may not be a bad thing. For Jewish Republicans, it’s clarifying to know where their so-called friends stand, and who their real allies are.
And while X and Discord may be a safe space for antisemites, American themselves have historically proven to be less accepting of the oldest hatred. Let’s hope — actively — it stays that way.
Granted, these five points come with caveats. The contrary voices in my head are loud: Hamas or Israel could sabotage the ceasefire. Iran and Israel could renew hostilities. Tucker Carlson could become a future President J.D. Vance’s Secretary of State. A.I. could unleash a flood of hate bots and deep fakes that will swarm common sense. Like I said, the safe money is on doom.
But when the prophets’ hopeful visions always came with a hitch — a better future depends on what you do now, in the present.
The question isn’t what gives you hope, but what future are you willing to work for?
The post The case for Jewish optimism in 2026 appeared first on The Forward.
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UK Police Force Apologizes for Claiming Jewish Community Supported Ban of Maccabi Tel Aviv Fans From Soccer Match
Soccer Football – UEFA Europa League – Aston Villa v Maccabi Tel Aviv – Villa Park, Birmingham, Britain – Nov. 6, 2025. Police officers escort a protester carrying the flag of Israel outside the stadium before the match. Photo: REUTERS/Hannah Mckay
West Midlands Police (WMP) in the United Kingdom has apologized to members of Parliament for suggesting that the local Jewish community largely supported the decision to ban fans of the Israeli soccer team Maccabi Tel Aviv from a match last month.
Senior members of the police force appeared before the Home Affairs Committee in the British Parliament on Dec. 1 to explain their move to ban Maccabi supporters from the team’s Europa League match against Aston Villa on Nov. 6 at Villa Park in Birmingham. The decision was made due to “public safety concerns.”
During the parliamentary session, WMP Assistant Chief Constable Mike O’Hara claimed the local Jewish community was supportive of the ban, but did not provide any evidence. Several Jewish groups and their supporters were outraged by the claim and insisted the Jewish community opposed the decision to exclude Israeli soccer fans from the game.
WMP Chief Constable Craig Guildford has been called to appear before the committee again in early January to give further evidence about the ban. In an email sent to Guildford on Dec. 9, Home Affairs Committee Chair Karen Bradley said she would like him to “clarify” O’Hara’s claim “that Jewish community representatives objected to the presence of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, something which we now understand to be untrue.”
“Misleading Parliament, intentionally or otherwise, is a serious matter and we would be grateful if you would correct the record and explain how this mistake occurred,” she added in the letter.
Ahead of his upcoming hearing, Guildford submitted a letter to the committee on Dec. 19 admitting that O’Hara’s remarks had been incorrect and apologizing for the mistake.
“We can confirm that there is no documented feedback from Jewish representatives prior to the decision being communicated which expressed support for the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans,” he wrote. “ACC O’Hara and I would like to take this opportunity to formally apologize to the Home Affairs Select Committee for any confusion caused and would like to reassure you that there was never any intention to mislead whatsoever.”
However, Guildford added that after their hearing in front of the committee on Dec. 1, O’Hara was approached by “many” members of the Jewish community who said they agreed with the ban against Maccabi fans. “Understandably, many community members chose to share their views privately, offering their support in confidence,” he explained. On the other hand, O’Hara was also contacted by Ruth Jacobs, chair of Birmingham and West Midlands Jewish Community, who wanted him to clarify his remarks, Guildford said.
O’Hara “immediately clarified his position via an email to personally apologize for any unintended confusion and consternation caused,” Guildford noted. “This apology was very graciously accepted and subsequently shared with the community. The contents of the email exchange are attached for your reference.”
Jacobs previously said she was “horrified” but also “very disappointed and distressed” by the suggestion that the Jewish community would support the exclusion of Maccabi soccer fans from the Europa League match.
The UK’s Trade Envoy to Israel Ian Austin reacted on Wednesday to Guildford’s apology and his claim that “many” Jewish community members supported the ban.
“I think this is utter rubbish,” Austin said in a statement on X. “He is making himself and his force look more ridiculous every time they comment. Instead of doing his job and ensuring people can go about their lawful business safely, the police capitulated to Islamist agitators, sectarian politicians, street thugs, and other troublemakers – and then misled the public and Parliament. His position is untenable and if the PCC [Police and Crimes Commissioner] won’t deal with it, then the Home Office must.”
The decision to ban Maccabi fans from Villa Park on Nov. 6 was heavily criticized by British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, several politicians in the UK, the British nongovernmental organization Campaign Against Antisemitism, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, and many others.
Birmingham City Council Chief Officer John Cotton will also appear before the Home Affairs Committee on Jan. 6 along with other senior members of the council. The Birmingham City Council said on Dec. 18 it plans to commission an independent review, conducted by an external law firm, to see how they can improve, “from a governance perspective,” following the decision to bar Maccabi supporters from the match.
Cotton told Birmingham Live he was against the police ban.
“I made my position very clear to the chief constable [before the ban was confirmed],” Cotton said. “I was advised that this would be the advice the police were giving, and I was clear that, though I do not interfere with police operational decisions, I did say that I thought this would have very negative consequences for Birmingham and sent a message out around what kind of city we are and how welcoming we are.”
“I want people to come to this city and enjoy a game of football as a legitimate football fan and all the other things we have to offer,” he added. “I was concerned about the impact of that advice and made that clear.”