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Jewish progressive groups call out ‘massive attack’ on Israeli democracy in New York City rally
(New York Jewish Week) — American Jewish progressive organizations drew hundreds of New Yorkers out in the rain opposite the Israeli Consulate in Manhattan on Tuesday to show support for democracy in Israel and protest its government’s proposed court reform.
Hundreds of thousands of people across Israel have turned out to weekly protests opposing the plan, and smaller groups of Israel expatriates have held satellite protests abroad. Tuesday’s protest was different, organized and largely attended by American Jewish groups that support progressive policies in Israel.
“We are here because there is a massive attack on democracy that’s devised by extremist politicians who are corrupting Judaism to turn Israel into a fascist theocracy,” Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of T’ruah, the liberal rabbinic human rights group that co-hosted the demonstration, said at the event as attendees sought shelter under umbrellas. “We are here to say that is not our Judaism, and that is not our Israel.”
The court reform plan advanced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government would give the governing coalition total control over the appointment of Supreme Court judges, and would enable a bare majority of lawmakers to override Supreme Court decisions, among other changes. Parts of the plan passed a key legal hurdle earlier on Tuesday.
American progressive Jewish groups held a rally today at the Israeli Consulate in Manhattan to show their support for democracy in Israel.
‘We’re here because there is a massive attack on democracy’ – Rabbi Jill Jacobs of @truahrabbis pic.twitter.com/CWaqHmFv9V
— Jacob Henry (@jhenrynews) February 21, 2023
Tuesday’s rally was hosted by the Progressive Israel Network, a coalition of liberal Jewish groups including T’ruah, J Street, the New York Jewish Agenda, Ameinu, the Jewish Labor Committee, the New Israel Fund and others.
Some of those groups now find themselves in the unusual position of advocating for a stance held by a majority of Jewish Israelis. Some of the co-hosts, for example, opposed President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem, which most Jewish Israelis supported, or supported the Iran nuclear agreement, which most Jewish Israelis opposed. Not so with the court reform: The groups at the rally, and the majority of Israeli Jews, have said they oppose the plan.
“The majority of Israelis are speaking out and I hope that changes will occur,” said Matt Nosanchuk, the outgoing executive director of the New York Jewish Agenda. “Even if these reforms pass, that doesn’t mean we stop protesting. We will keep finding ways for them to be reversed.”
Jacobs told the New York Jewish Week that stopping the court reform should also be important to people who support Palestinian rights.
“This will enable this government to move forward some truly terrible moves that will have an even greater effect on the human rights of both Palestinians living under occupation and Israeli Jews,” she said.
Israel’s control of the West Bank was mentioned at the rally. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who is Jewish, called in his speech for “an end to the occupation” and said the Democratic party “cannot continue to toe the AIPAC line,” a reference to the influential pro-Israel lobby that assertively defends Israeli policy and counters criticism of Israel.
‘We cannot continue to write a blank check to an increasingly authoritarian regime,’ Lander said.
Comptroller @bradlander said that the future of Israeli democracy requires ‘an end to the occupation.’
He added that the Democratic party ‘cannot continue to tow the AIPAC line.’
‘We cannot continue to write a blank check to an increasingly authoritarian regime,’ he said. pic.twitter.com/oCiMINxwXD
— Jacob Henry (@jhenrynews) February 22, 2023
Jonathan Kopp, a J Street board member, said democratic values shared by Israel and the United States are “under assault by this right-wing government.”
“Just as President [Joe] Biden has made protecting American democracy here [a priority], we urge him to directly confront Netanyahu’s extremist plans, which would subvert democracy in the service of settlements, demolitions and occupation,” he said.
Some participants at the rally said they wished its message went further. Eva Borgwardt, the political director of IfNotNow, a Jewish organization that opposes Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, felt advocacy for Palestinian rights felt lacking at the rally, which she said “could actually be a moment for the American progressive movement to coalesce.”
“I think that there weren’t a lot of signs about apartheid at this protest,” Borgwardt said, who was holding a sign that said “No Democracy With Apartheid.” Prominent human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have said Israel is guilty of apartheid in its treatment of the Palestinians.
“Especially with the current government, it’s becoming even more of a problem,” Borgwardt added. “We have to unify around the problem if we’re going to be powerful enough to actually achieve a solution.”
Shaul Franco, 38, an Israeli who has lived in New York for three and half years, said he came to the rally because “things have been going in a very bad trajectory for so long.” Franco added that he’s not sure if he will go back to Israel “anytime soon.”
“We want to see a much stronger pushback from the president,” Franco said. “But I don’t count on them doing Israel’s job.”
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Amid Iran tensions, Huckabee tells US embassy staff in Israel they should leave ‘TODAY’ if they wish
(JTA) — Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has told U.S. government employees and their families that they may leave the country and should do so expediently, amid mounting signs of a possible U.S. attack on Iran.
Huckabee emailed embassy staff on Friday morning saying that if they want to leave, they should do so “TODAY,” according to a letter first reported by The New York Times. He noted that commercial flights could become scarce and urged them to accept passage to any country before returning to Washington, D.C.
“There is no need to panic, but for those desiring to leave, it’s important to make plans to depart sooner rather than later,” he wrote.
The letter comes a day after U.S.-Iran talks in Geneva ended without public breakthroughs. Iranian officials, as well as the Omani mediators, said additional conversations were planned for next week; the United States did not comment. Steve Witkoff and Jared Kusher, two Jewish advisors to President Donald Trump who successfully brokered a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war last year, are leading the U.S. delegation.
Trump has been threatening to attack Iran for weeks over its nuclear program and has built up U.S. military forces in the Middle East to levels not seen in decades. In recent days, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance have both said military intervention could be needed while saying the president continued to prefer diplomacy.
Vance’s comments were particularly notable because he typically opposes U.S. intervention overseas. He told the Washington Post in comments published Friday morning that there was “no chance” that the United States would get involved in an extended Middle East campaign.
Iran has said it would consider Israel a valid target in the event of a U.S. attack. Last year, Iranian missiles killed more than two dozen people in Israel during a 12-day war initiated by Israeli strikes on Iran’s military program. Now, Israelis have been living in limbo for weeks while waiting to learn whether a new war, expected to be more destructive, will begin.
In the past, when expecting Iranian retaliation, the embassy has warned staff against leaving population centers in Israel. Now, the Department of State has updated its Jerusalem embassy website to reflect “the authorized departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel and family members of U.S. government personnel to leave Israel,” setting a status that means flights will be paid for by the U.S. government.
While El Al, Israel’s national carrier, does not fly during Shabbat, other airlines typically do run some flights to and from Ben Gurion Airport on Friday nights and Saturdays. Many of those are budget European airlines that have only recently resumed flying to Israel after last year’s Iran war; some airlines, including KLM, have already suspended Israel flights in anticipation of another conflict.
The post Amid Iran tensions, Huckabee tells US embassy staff in Israel they should leave ‘TODAY’ if they wish appeared first on The Forward.
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San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie condemns ‘Tax the Jews’ chant heard during protest
(JTA) — Jewish leaders and California elected officials have condemned an antisemitic chant that was audible during a protest Wednesday against the repeal of a local San Francisco tax ordinance.
During a news conference addressing a new housing construction development plan hosted by San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie and San Francisco District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, protesters with the Democratic Socialists of America chanted “tax the rich.”
According to videos reviewed by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, one woman on the scene can be clearly seen and heard chanting “tax Israel” and “tax the Jews.”
For those curious, a source sent me this video of the press conference. You can hear a woman chanting “tax Israel” and “tax the Jews” about 30 seconds in. https://t.co/0fDb9H8TXH pic.twitter.com/PkdHLGzBc1
— Gabriel Lorenzo Greschler (@ggreschler) February 26, 2026
Lurie, who is Jewish, condemned the chants, which he said had come from a group of people.
“At an event this afternoon, a group of individuals that were chanting ‘tax the rich’ began to shout ‘tax the Jews,’” Lurie tweeted. “Suggesting that Jews are wealthy is a tired trope, and targeting our community at an event focused on creating economic opportunity for San Franciscans is decidedly antisemitic. I will never accept hate directed at the Jewish community or any community in our city. Those are not San Francisco values—we’re better than that.”
The DSA, the largest socialist organization in the country, distanced itself from the chants, saying that only a single person was involved and that she was not a DSA member.
“During today’s protest of the Prop I repeal, a non-member joined the crowd and spouted disgusting antisemitic remarks,” the DSA said in a statement. “DSA members and other protesters asked her to stop, but she refused. We want to be clear that whatever hate she holds isn’t shared by DSA members and we categorically reject antisemitism.”
In the videos, the woman is wearing a head covering and glasses and appears to be pacing a distance away from the other protesters.
The incident comes as the DSA, which endorses the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement and opposes economic and military aid to Israel, has both notched major wins and drawn repeated allegations of antisemitism. After Oct. 7, it broke with one of its political stars, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, following her appearance on a panel where she condemned antisemitism. More recently, one of its members, Zohran Mamdani, was elected mayor of New York City. There, a DSA member last week challenged a DSA-affiliated elected official for condemning Hamas during an open meeting.
In San Francisco, the chant was condemned by other Jewish organizations, leaders and government officials, like the San Francisco Jewish Community Relations Council, California Rep. Ro Khanna, and Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt.
In a statement shared on X, Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said, “What does antisemitism look like? This. This is hate and extremism masquerading as progressive politics when, in fact, nothing about it is progressive — and it only undermines the fight for justice, all of our safety, and our democracy.”
The post San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie condemns ‘Tax the Jews’ chant heard during protest appeared first on The Forward.
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HarperCollins to publish book of conversations with Rabbi Eli Schlanger, Chabad emissary slain in Sydney
(JTA) — A book featuring testimony from Rabbi Eli Schlanger, the Chabad emissary who was killed in December in an antisemitic terror attack in Sydney, will be published this spring, HarperCollins Publishers announced on Thursday.
Schlanger, who moved to Bondi Beach as an emissary of the Chabad movement 18 years ago, was the father of five children, including a newborn son. On Dec. 14, Schlanger was hosting the Chabad of Bondi’s Hanukkah celebration when two gunmen opened fire on the festivities, killing Schlanger as well as 14 others.
The book, titled “Conversations With My Rabbi: Timeless Teachings for a Fractured World,” was written by Nikki Goldstein, a Jewish author who first encountered Schlanger during a hospital stay in 2022.
Last January, Goldstein and Schlanger began recording their conversations together for a book, but weeks before finishing its final chapter, Schlanger was killed.
“I was devastated, shocked, and grieving. But I knew that Eli’s legacy, his mission to bring light and love to the world, would not die with him,” Nikki Goldstein said in a statement. “Eli saved my life those years ago, and it’s my honor and privilege to ensure that his voice, memory, and mission are not silenced by terror and continue to work miracles.”
The book, which is set to be published on May 26, is the second major work centering a Jewish victim of terrorism to be released within a year. Former hostage Eli Sharabi’s memoir “Hostage,” published last fall, was named Book of the Year by the National Jewish Book Awards earlier this month. The memoir, which details Sharabi’s abduction by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and 15 months he spent in captivity before learning that his wife and daughters had been murdered, was a bestseller in Israel before coming out in English.
A book by another icon of the Israeli hostage crisis is slated to hit the shelves in April. Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s memoir, titled “When We See You Again,” chronicles her relentless advocacy to free her son Hersh, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival in Israel on Oct. 7 and subsequently murdered by Hamas in August 2024.
The post HarperCollins to publish book of conversations with Rabbi Eli Schlanger, Chabad emissary slain in Sydney appeared first on The Forward.