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‘Jewish safety’ isn’t one thing. Let’s stop reducing 1 million New Yorkers to a single concern.
As Election Day neared, Jewish New Yorkers found ourselves reduced to one-dimensional characters in a flat, never-changing narrative. That we might live lives as complex as any other New Yorker doesn’t seem to occur to most of the people talking about us — whether those voices are coming from within our community or beyond.
This is in part because so much of the discussion around the election has centered on “safety,” as if that were a single, easily understood and universally shared concern, especially in the Jewish community.
Trying to force a million New Yorkers into a box labeled “Jewish safety” is both futile and dehumanizing. When you boil people down to just one part of who they are, and treat that as the whole of their identity, it harms their sense of safety, rather than protecting it. Essentializing identity reduces people to caricatures in their own lives and contributes to the risks they face.
What’s more, of course, is that there’s also no such thing as the Jewish community. There are many Jewish communities, each with their own philosophies, norms, and cultures. As the saying goes: Two Jews, three opinions.
Living all over the city and drawing on myriad traditions, we aren’t even a monolith in purely religious terms, which range from ultra-Orthodox to atheist. And that’s before you get into the multiple identities every individual carries; for Jews who are LGBTQ, for instance, New York may be the safest place to be, regardless of the results of the mayoral election. Likewise for Jewish women, Jewish immigrants, the list goes on.
No one should have to check any part of themselves at the door when claiming their own wholeness. The Jewish New Yorker who is queer is as queer as they are Jewish or a New Yorker – their concerns, challenges, and joys intermingling and cutting across all those identities. Like anyone, they want not just to survive the worst that life may bring, but to grow and thrive.
For young queer people in Jewish New York, however, this can be especially fraught. Recent studies have shown that, in the current political atmosphere, American Jews are increasingly afraid to be visibly, publicly Jewish, and LGBTQ youth are increasingly experiencing discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Many belong to communities that are traditionally non-accepting of LGBTQ identities or expressions, and survival is their first, most urgent priority. Living in our enormous, almost unimaginably diverse city is often the framework within which their safety can be found, and the foundation on which they can build healthy, joyful lives.
The first step toward seeing the nuanced, vibrant fullness of our communities is to acknowledge that Jewish safety is more than one thing. For me, a queer woman living in Washington Heights, “safety” must always include the freedom to hold my wife’s hand on our way to synagogue, as well as the freedom to come and go from those services without fear of an anti-Jewish hate crime.
My wife and I are fortunate. Out to the world and our loved ones as both Jewish and queer, we’re able to live our lives authentically, out loud. Many young people don’t have that most basic freedom, however, and are at risk for violence and social isolation, as well as for depression, self-harm, and suicide.
Jewish Queer Youth, which I lead as executive director, is the largest direct service provider for Jewish LGBTQ teens and young adults. Our work is centered on equipping Jewish queer youth to survive and, further, empowering them to thrive. Our mission is grounded in deep understanding of Jewish traditions and mental health best practices, enabling us to provide critical services and programs for at-risk youth from historically non-accepting communities. We connect youth to one another, to providers and relevant resources, and to opportunities to see themselves and their own futures. Ask our participants what they need to feel, and in fact be, safe, and they’ll raise challenges that I have not heard mentioned in any of the recent chatter about Jewish safety.
Now, with the election behind us, it’s time to talk differently about safety and how to safeguard it.
At JQY we seek to give Jewish queer youth the tools they need to be their whole selves, joyfully. We do that in part by modeling the full tapestry of Jewish belonging: JQYers who walk through our doors have a wide range of life experiences and political perspectives. We celebrate what we have in common, and we learn from those whose opinions differ from our own.
All of us deserve that kind of support, the kind that recognizes who we are, in all our complex glory, and what we actually need to both survive and thrive.
New York should be the same. It is my hope that Mayor-elect Mamdani appoints a team that reflects the diversity of what it means to be a New Yorker and that welcomes many different Jewish voices and perspectives — even the ones with which I vehemently disagree.
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The post ‘Jewish safety’ isn’t one thing. Let’s stop reducing 1 million New Yorkers to a single concern. appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Jewish Democrats back Michigan AG Dana Nessel’s decision to skip state party convention
(JTA) — Local and national Jewish Democrats say they are sympathetic after Michigan’s Jewish attorney general, Dana Nessel, said she would skip the state Democratic Party’s nominating convention over concerns about antisemitism and harassment.
“I don’t blame AG Nessel for not wanting to go and basically put herself in situations that feel untenable in this moment of time and don’t add any value politically, personally,” Jessica “Decky” Alexander, the Michigan Jewish Democratic caucus chair, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Friday.
Alexander’s comment came a day after Nessel announced during a televised antisemitism roundtable that she would be skipping the convention next month, where party leaders will finalize the state’s Democratic candidate for Senate following a divisive primary that has focused in part on Israel and antisemitism.
“I don’t feel safe going. I feel like my presence isn’t going to be welcome. I don’t want to get chased around. I don’t want to get harassed. I don’t want to get yelled and screamed at. I don’t want to get booed off the stage, irrespective of what I’m saying,” Nessel said during the roundtable. “And I believe that if I go, that is what will happen because it’s been happening to me.”
She said she had filed a formal complaint within the party about a party official who had called her a neo-Nazi because of her beliefs. “Why is this person more accepted in our party than me?” she asked without naming the official. Her office responded to a request for comment by referring to the recorded livestream of the antisemitism roundtable.
Nessel’s declaration comes in the final days of the primary between Rep. Haley Stevens, a pro-Israel stalwart, and Abdul El-Sayed, a democratic socialist who is deeply critical of Israel. El-Sayed is surging in polls despite a reported $30 million spent against him by AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, and its supporters, whom he has made a target of criticism from the campaign trail.
Nessel’s comments also follow turmoil at the Michigan Democratic Party’s endorsement convention in April, where Stevens was booed by attendees. A third primary candidate who later dropped out of the race, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, said a convention attendee had targeted her Jewish husband with an antisemitic slur.
The incident has fueled alarm among Jewish Democrats, according to Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America.
“She’s not alone,” Soifer told JTA about Nessel on Friday. “We’ve heard from other Jewish Democrats who attended the Democratic Party convention earlier this year in Michigan, and there was a sense of discomfort amid what felt like a pro-Palestinian protest [that] may have even blurred the line for some into antisemitic sentiment — and it’s really concerning.”
Nessel has raised the alarm about antisemitism within the party for years, alleging in 2024 that Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a prominent pro-Palestinian voice, had been antisemitic when criticizing charges Nessel filed against pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Michigan.
For her part, Alexander said she would be participating in the nominating convention and said she believed the chair of the state Democratic Party, Curtis Hertel, had been “very accessible and very open to making sure that we, including our Jewish elected officials, feel safe in that space.” But she said she understood why Nessel was staying away.
“It would never even occur to me, but I’m not an elected official,” Alexander said. “It’s a different stake for me than it is for Dana. I understand her completely.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Jewish Democrats back Michigan AG Dana Nessel’s decision to skip state party convention appeared first on The Forward.
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Maine rabbis call for peace, urge politicians to stop calling Gaza war a ‘genocide’
(JTA) — Every congregational rabbi in Maine has signed onto a statement calling for peace and urging the state’s political leaders to stop using the term “genocide” to describe Israel’s war in Gaza, following a Democratic primary in which several candidates used the label for the first time.
But the rabbis also indicated that they, too, were unsatisfied with conditions in the Middle East and called on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to work toward a peaceful future.
“We call upon Maine’s leaders, and particularly its political leaders, to reject the irresponsible usage of the term in describing the Israel-Hamas War,” said the statement released on Friday. “We also call upon Israeli and Palestinian leaders to end the cycle of violence and to create a better world for both Palestinian and Israeli children.”
The statement, titled “A Call for Peace and Responsible Rhetoric,” argues that using the term as a “political slogan does not advance peace in the Middle East.” The term “erases essential moral and legal distinctions, diminishes the meaning of genocide, and inflames hatred for the local Jewish community,” the rabbis say.
“Compassion for Palestinians does not require the adoption of hateful and misleading language,” they continue. “Advocating for peace does not require participation in a ‘Holocaust inversion’ against the Jewish community. And political leadership does not require demonizing one community in the service of another.”
The statement comes days after Troy Jackson, a former logger and state Senate president, secured the Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nomination Saturday at the party’s nominating convention to replace Graham Platner, a staunch Israel critic who dropped out of the race earlier this month. Platner faced a sexual assault allegation, which he denies. Jackson now faces Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins in November’s general election.
Platner’s romp to the primary victory featured routine use of “genocide” to describe Israel’s actions. And ahead of the convention to replace him, Jackson and several other Democratic hopefuls who later exited the race began using the term “genocide” to describe Israel’s war in Gaza for the first time, a shift that drew scrutiny from some Jewish leaders and voters in the state.
The use of the term has become a “currency for acquiring power and position in Maine’s Democratic party,” Rabbi Rachel Isaacs, the leader of Beth Israel Congregation in Waterville, who also signed the statement, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
“Too many Maine Democrats are cynically willing to trade in that currency at the expense of our safety and dignity,” she said in an emailed statement. “We decided we needed to say something collectively, both about the specious and dangerous nature of the claim, and about how much damage has been done to our families and congregants.”
The statement Friday was spearheaded by the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine and signed by every congregational rabbi in the state, including Rabbi Bill Siemers of the Conservative Congregation Beth Israel in Bangor and Rabbi Erica Asch of the Reform Temple Beth El in Augusta. (Rabbis affiliated with the Chabad movement in Maine did not appear on the signatory list.)
Zach Schwartz, the director of the Jewish Community Relations Council at the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine, said the federation hoped the “unity displayed here in Maine can inspire Jewish communities across the US to also unite against the extremist rhetoric harming our community and our children.”
Rabbi Josh Stanton, the associate vice president of interfaith and intergroup initiatives for Jewish Federations of North America, also hailed the joint statement.
“Maine’s Jewish clergy are setting an important example with their call to put aside inflammatory rhetoric and look to the common good,” Stanton said in an emailed statement. “At a time of rising polarization and declining civil discourse, the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine’s efforts to unify the community around this important message are a mark of true leadership.”
Isaacs told JTA that she hoped Jackson would “support, understand, and advocate for all of Maine’s citizens, including the totality of Maine’s diverse Jewish community.”
“Work with us to figure out how to express outrage and legitimate critique of Israel’s government without succumbing to language that you might not know is an ancient antisemitic trope, or dismissing the security needs of Israel’s citizens,” Isaacs said of her message to Jackson. “Please have the courage to forge your own path, and not follow in the footsteps of Graham Platner, a man who should have never been normalized, endorsed, or empowered.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Maine rabbis call for peace, urge politicians to stop calling Gaza war a ‘genocide’ appeared first on The Forward.
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Boy George cedes role of King Herod in ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ production after releasing pro-Israel song
(JTA) — Boy George has withdrawn from his run as King Herod in London’s West End revival of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” days before he was due to take the stage and 24 hours after releasing “We Will Dance Again,” dedicated to the victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on the Nova music festival in Israel.
The 80’s pop star was scheduled to appear at London’s Palladium starting Monday as part of the production’s rotating cast playing King Herod, the Judean king who is best known by Jews for his expansion of the Second Temple and to Christians for his efforts to stave off the arrival of a challenger — the story of which is reflected in the rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.
Boy George will be replaced by actor Richard Armitage in the London production.
In announcing the cast change, Paul Kelmsley, the singer’s manager, did not directly mention the blowback the former Culture Club frontman was receiving for releasing a pro-Israel song but alluded to it.
“George has never been afraid to stand by his personal convictions, and I have always respected him for that,” he said. ”In this instance, I felt it was right to step aside, allowing the production to remain the focus, while ensuring everyone involved can move forward with mutual respect and goodwill.”
Boy George is defending his decision to release the song, saying he believes artists should be free to express their views even when they are unpopular. In “We Will Dance Again,” the singer rejects claims of genocide against Israel and proclaims, “If you’re ever confused, I stand with the Jews.”
Earlier Friday, Boy George lashed back at the vitriol he was getting online. “What is most shocking is the amount of gay folk attacking me, ” he posted on X. “If you support terrorism you can in the words of Divine ‘Take your toolkit and go f—_ a garage,’” he said, referring to a quote attributed to the taboo-breaking transgender artist.
“When I say ‘they want to kill every last one of us’ I am also talking about us queers, not just the Jewish community,” Boy George said. “When will you wake up?”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Boy George cedes role of King Herod in ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ production after releasing pro-Israel song appeared first on The Forward.
