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Jewish Theological Seminary names campus innovator Rabbi Mike Uram as next chancellor
(JTA) — The Jewish Theological Seminary has named Rabbi Mike Uram as its next chancellor, elevating a Jewish educator best known for his time as executive director of the University of Pennsylvania Hillel to lead Conservative Judaism’s flagship university and rabbinical school.
Uram, 49, will succeed Shuly Rubin Schwartz, who is stepping down at the end of the 2025-26 academic year and will become chancellor emerita.
Ordained at JTS in 2005, Uram currently serves as the first chief Jewish learning officer at the Jewish Federations of North America. He previously spent more than 16 years at the Penn Hillel, where he rose from campus rabbi to executive director and built a national reputation for his ideas on encouraging young Jews to take part in Jewish life. He left Hillel in 2020 to lead Pardes North America, a branch of the egalitarian yeshiva in Jerusalem whose alumni often go on to enroll in rabbinical schools.
In a statement to the JTS community, Alan Levine, who chairs its board of trustees, described Uram as “the right person to help JTS meet this important moment.”
“He brings to our institution a rabbinic voice, a connection to a new generation of current and emerging Jewish leaders, and deep experience serving the broader Jewish community that we need to engage as part of the vital center,” wrote Levine.
His selection marks a notable departure for JTS, which historically has been led by scholars or academics. Uram, who does not have a PhD, did not grow up in the Conservative movement and has not served in a long-term congregational pulpit, called it a “bold move to hire someone who is outside of the molds.”
But in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency this week, Uram described his novel background as his strength. He pointed to his experiences in higher education, fundraising at both Hillel and JFNA, and in settings where he gained an understanding of “the dynamics of the larger Jewish ecosystem outside of Jewish denominations.”
He also spoke of his signature initiative at Penn, the “Jewish Renaissance Project,” which aimed to reach students who might not otherwise walk into a Hillel building.
“In the process of building that, we more than tripled Penn Hillel’s budget through new fundraising, and we more than doubled the number of students that we were engaging each year,” said Uram. Uram drew on his experience at Penn in his 2016 book, “Next Generation Judaism: How College Students and Hillel Can Help Reinvent Jewish Organizations.”
He has similar ambitions for JTS, both in adding new donors and extending JTA’s reach beyond its walls.
“The idea is that we can both continue to do the things that have made JTS the leading Jewish academic institution for the past 140 years, and open up the power of JTS’s approach to study and religion and community and values to a much larger audience across North America,” said Uram.
At a farewell event Monday night honoring Schwartz, speakers praised her efforts to improve the “pipeline” for incoming clergy, whose ranks had dipped in recent years. The results have been promising: 2025 has seen 23 entering rabbinical and cantorial students, compared to 16 in 2024.
Uram praised those efforts, while emphasizing that JTS is more than a rabbinical and cantorial school.
“People do think of JTS as just a seminary, but it has been built into something much more than that for a long time,” he said, pointing to its undergraduate programs and graduate schools in Jewish education, thought, rabbinic literature and philosophy. Under Schwartz, JTS launched new academic programs, including degrees in creative writing, spiritual care and executive leadership, and expanded online learning.
He described the institution as “a deep R&D department for advancing Jewish knowledge and accelerating that knowledge out into the world.”
That expansive vision is meant to reinvigorate a centrist movement whose membership has flattened while Orthodoxy and Reform, denominations to its right and left, have been growing. A number of prominent JTS rabbinic alumni have also chosen to establish synagogues and educational institutions that do not fly the Conservative banner.
Partially in response to this contraction, the seminary sold roughly $96 million in Manhattan real estate in 2016 to help fund a major campus redevelopment, a project that ultimately replaced its historic library building with a smaller facility and shifted large portions of its famed Judaica collection to off-site storage. In 2021, JTS quietly deaccessioned and sold rare manuscripts and books from its library.
Uram is confident that despite structural pressures facing JTS and the Conservative movement, the institution can preserve its scholarly stature and moral authority while expanding its audience, rebuilding leadership pipelines and persuading a new generation that a legacy institution can still serve as a central address for Jewish learning and life.
For years, he said, the movement has been “stuck in trying to figure out how much it wants to hold onto and how it wants to change.” Now, he argued, the question the movement should be asking is “not about how do we restore the good old days, but what is the Jewish future that we want to build?”
He sees Conservative Judaism’s centrism as a counterweight, even an antidote, to a broader social and political trend toward polarization.
“It’s not surprising that it has lost market share, because we’ve been living in a time where the middle has dropped out,” said Uram, who grew up attending a Reform synagogue in suburban Cleveland.
“We’re living in this moment of incredible political polarization. People are moving more into these echo chambers,” he added. What is needed, he said, is what he calls “the muscular middle” — a space that “has to reject simplicity in favor of complexity.”
He also believes JTS can respond to a Jewish community deeply affected by the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and its aftermath, which, he said, “forced many Jewish folks to reexamine their assumptions about their own Jewish identities.”
In that environment, he said, “there’s a huge hunger to deepen a relationship with Judaism” and “to vanquish imposter syndrome and Jewish insecurity.”
He argued that JTS is uniquely positioned to respond by offering “deep and authentic” Jewish learning that remains broadly accessible.
Although his tenure at Penn Hillel predated the post-Oct. 7 turmoil on college campuses, he earned praise — and a “Forward 50” designation from the Jewish newspaper — for encouraging quiet, student-led responses to the growing campus movement to boycott Israel. His approach stood in contrast to the more aggressive legal challenges and “name and shame” tactics deployed by outside campus groups
As chancellor, Uram said, he will make clear that engagement with Israel will remain central to JTS’s mission and its training of clergy. Asked if he would draw any red lines for current or prospective students, Uram said that a Jewish education — for the rabbinate, academia or the Jewish classroom — would be incomplete without understanding what has become the world’s largest Jewish community and the first expression of Jewish self-determination in the Land of Israel in millennia.
“Any student who’s coming to JTS has the opportunity and really the obligation to engage deeply in the broadest set of expressions of all things Jewish,” he said. “I can’t imagine a scenario where a JTS education would not include serious engagement with all things related to Israel.”
Asked what message his hiring sends to the broader Jewish world, Uram referred to his track record.
“I think the statement that JTS is making is that it is in an incredibly strong position, and that it’s the right time to hire someone whose background is as an innovator who was a creative and successful fundraiser,” he said, “and someone who has real experience leading a Jewish nonprofit in building a productive culture and navigating political difficulties.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
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‘It’s the Jews’: San Diego mosque shooters decried ‘the universal enemy’ in hate-filled manifesto
The two young men who killed three people at a San Diego mosque on Monday published a conspiracy theory-filled manifesto whose primary focus was on Jews, calling them the “universal enemy.”
The manifesto’s contents also suggest they may have had additional plans to target Jewish institutions.
Authorities have identified Cain Lee Clark, 17, and Caleb Liam Vazquez, 18, as the shooters who killed a security guard and two members of the Islamic Center of San Diego. The two livestreamed the attack before both were found dead in a car by apparent suicide, blocks away from the mosque.
The three killed at the mosque were Amin Abdullah, 51, Mansour Kaziha, 78, and Nadir Awad, 57.
Jewish leaders across the country and in San Diego widely condemned the attack.
The 74-page manifesto, which contains a section written by each shooter, reveals a wide-ranging hatred rooted in white Christian nationalist ideas, including Great Replacement Theory, and fueled by the two teenagers’ own social alienation. Among the other groups attacked in the document are Muslims, women, Black people, gay and transgender people, and immigrants.
But the shooters’ deepest resentment seemed reserved for Jewish people.
‘The universal enemy’
The manifesto listed previous antisemitic shootings at the Tree of Life synagogue and Chabad of Poway among the teens’ many sources of inspiration, calling the assailant in the latter incident a “saint.” It called the Jews “the children of Satan.” It denied the Holocaust as a “complete fabrication.” Vazquez called Adolf Hitler his hero; in his section, Clark wrote out the Fourteen Words, a neo-Nazi declaration.
“Everyone has their own idea of who is to blame for all the wrong in the world,” Vazquez wrote in a section titled “The Universal Enemy.”
He printed his answer to the question four times in a row in all capital letters: “It’s the Jews.”
Authorities have said the shooters met online before realizing they both lived in the San Diego area, without specifying the platform where they met.
But the document’s cover pages also provided a clue to their radicalization, bearing the insignia of Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi group that emerged during the first Trump administration.
Atomwaffen members are part of a network of mostly online extremist groups that subscribe to “accelerationism,” the idea that forcing societal collapse through an all-out race war is the only way to restore white supremacy and save civilization. The idea is propounded by a white nationalist named James Mason, author of a book called Siege that both shooters cited.
“Though officially I was not a part of any groups or organizations there are many I support, I would even go so far as to say I did it for Atomwaffen Division, Terrorgram, The Base, and North Korea,” Vazquez wrote.
Atomwaffen members have been convicted in previous antisemitic murders. In 2019, one named Samuel Woodward lured a gay and Jewish college student named Blaze Bernstein to an Orange County park before stabbing him to death. Woodward, who was 20 at the time, is now serving a life sentence, and Atomwaffen fractured into other groups in the years after his arrest.
Secondary targets
Whereas the shooters were unsparing toward Jews in the manifesto, with Vazquez calling them the “most evil creature in the world,” they espoused mixed feelings about Muslims in the document before they killed three. “I don’t hate Muslims, at least not really,” Vazquez wrote. “What I hate is the religion of Islam itself and them invading my country.”
He added that Islam “is completely contradictory to both Western morals and values and Christianity.”
But he wrote only three paragraphs about Islam and Muslims — about one page — before the section ends with the word “unfinished” in brackets.
Clark appeared more committed to the eradication of Islam in his writing. Muslims and Jews, he said, “must be isolated and exterminated.” Yet he, like Vazquez, wrote several pages denigrating Jewish people.
The shooters did not state why they ultimately targeted a mosque. Vazquez wrote their plan was to “cause as much death and destruction” as fast as possible with a “diverse” selection of targets. The document provides lines for listing three separate locations, but none of them are filled out.
“All locations were surveyed and mapped out to the best of our ability,” he wrote.
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Rep. Dan Goldman urges ‘no’ vote on proposed Brooklyn Israel boycott, warning of antisemitism
Rep. Dan Goldman of New York and his primary challenger Brad Lander are wading into the contentious debate over a proposed boycott of Israeli products at a Brooklyn cooperative grocery store ahead of an expected vote next week.
In a statement shared exclusively with the Forward on Wednesday, Goldman urged members of the popular Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn to attend a May 26 vote and cast ballots against the boycott resolution — and condemned the measure as antisemitic.
“Everyone is free to criticize the Israeli government — which I do not hesitate to do — but joining a movement that was founded on the principle of the elimination of Israel will have no impact on the Israeli government or the Israeli economy,” Goldman said in his statement. “Instead, it only succeeds at shifting the responsibility for the Israeli government’s actions to American Jews — which is quintessential antisemitism.”
Goldman said that he is aligning himself with Rabbi Rachel Timoner of Congregation Beth Elohim, a progressive leader, as the debate has spilled into local politics and Jewish communal life in the progressive neighborhood.
The resolution says the boycott would persist “Until Israel complies with international law, including by ceasing unlawful discriminatory practices, in its treatment of Palestinians.”
Timoner addressed the proposal in her weekly Shabbat sermon earlier this month.
“Many simply want to see the Palestinian people be free and safe and equal, and I do too, but this is not the way,” Timoner said. “This way is wrong.
Calling it a “proxy war” to what has been dividing Americans in recent years over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, one “that is laced with antisemitism, Timoner said that many members of her congregation — she and herself — would be forced to resign from their co-op membership if the resolution passes.
The rabbi’s sermon reflected the careful line she has tried to walk since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack and the war in Gaza — openly criticizing Israeli government policies while rejecting the singling out of Israel. In March 2024, Timoner attended for the first time what was then a weekly protest to call for a bilateral ceasefire and hostage deal, one that Lander attended regularly. In her remarks she said that she had held back until then from calling for a ceasefire in Gaza “because it was being used by people who celebrated Oct. 7, people who do not hold Hamas responsible, and people who want to eliminate the state of Israel — and I did not want to be associated with that.”
Timoner is a co-founder and board member of the New York Jewish Agenda, a progressive advocacy group formed in 2020 to be a voice for liberal Jews in New York. Lander is a member of NYJA’s leaders network. A Goldman campaign official noted that the congressman and Timoner have met several times privately to discuss issues affecting the district and that Goldman has attended services at Beth Elohim in the past.
Goldman, the two-term incumbent, challenged his Democratic primary rival to publicly oppose the measure as well, “to stand with our neighbors, and make it clear that this dangerous bigotry has no place in our city.”
Lander, a close ally of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, told the Forward he isn’t a member of the Coop but would vote against the resolution if he were, pointing to Timoner’s sermon. “Principled people can disagree here,” Lander said in a statement that did not take a position on the resolution. “Boycotts, divestments, and sanctions are legitimate tools of advocacy campaigns. Unlike my opponent, I don’t believe all opposition to Israel is antisemitic.”
A long-running boycott fight
The proposal to boycott Israeli products has riven the Brooklyn institution’s roughly 16,000 members. It was introduced in 2024 by a local advocacy group called Park Slope Food Coop Members for Palestine. The resolution would require the Coop to boycott Israeli-made products “until Israel complies with international law in its treatment of Palestinians.”
Coop4Unity, opposing the resolution, is urging shoppers to “bring back cooperation” and “stop polarization.”
The measure is largely symbolic, given that the Coop only carries a handful of items imported from Israel, like EcoLove shampoo and conditioner. At least one, Al Arz tahini, is made by an Israeli Arab in Nazareth. The coop first considered a boycott resolution in 2012.
The debate has grown increasingly heated in recent months, erupting most recently publicly during a general meeting when a member made said “Jewish supremacism is a problem in this country,” a remark that many attendees and Jewish organizations condemned.
The comment — which received applause at the meeting — came during a second resolution that would lower the voting threshold for boycott measures from 75% to 51%.
Goldman strongly condemned the remarks in his statement on Wednesday. “That is not a critique of Israeli policy or advocacy for Palestinian rights,” he said. “It is an old and ugly antisemitic conspiracy theory that fueled the Nazis and then was used by David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan.”
A heated primary over support for Israel
The boycott fight is the latest issue in an already heated primary challenge to Goldman being largely battled over Israel and antisemitism.
Last month, Lander, who has described himself as a liberal Zionist, joined some progressive House members in calling for an end to U.S. aid to Israel. Lander — who described Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide” — said he would apply that as well to Israel’s defensive Iron Dome system, high-tech missile interception that protects lives, property and infrastructure against assaults from Iran and allied groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah. Lander said that Israel has the ability to purchase its defense with its own funds.
The 10th Congressional District, which includes Borough Park and Park Slope in Brooklyn as well as parts of lower Manhattan, voted heavily for Mamdani, an outspoken critic of Israel. Mamdani is backing Lander in the primary.
Goldman, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune and former Trump impeachment prosecutor who was elected in 2022, is aligned with the mainstream positions of national Democrats on Israel: supportive of Israel’s security while finding a pathway for a two-state solution, sharply critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government, and opposed to settlement expansion and settler violence.
Recent polling has shown Goldman trailing Lander in the June 23 primary.
Goldman framed the Coop dispute as about something larger than electoral politics. “It’s time we unite together on this issue,” he said, “and fight for the safe, loving, inclusive community we all deserve.”
Additional reporting by Mira Fox.
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Itamar Ben-Gvir draws criticism from Netanyahu for video taunting detained flotilla activists
(JTA) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has joined a chorus of Israelis and Jews denouncing his national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, for posting a video that showed Ben-Gvir taunting detained activists from a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that had been intercepted by the Israeli navy.
“Welcome to Israel, we are the masters,” Ben-Gvir said in the video as he waved a large Israeli flag above the detained activists, who could be seen blindfolded and kneeling on the ground with their hands behind their backs.
Roughly 430 activists that took part in the Global Sumud Flotilla, which set sail from Turkey last Thursday, were brought to the city of Ashdod aboard Israeli naval ships on Wednesday, marking the latest in a long-running series of confrontations between Israel and activists seeking to break its naval blockade of Gaza.
In a second video posted on social media, Ben-Gvir said that the activists “came here all full of pride like big heroes. Look at them now,” appealing to Netanyahu to grant him permission to imprison them.
ככה אנחנו מקבלים את תומכי הטרור
Welcome to Israel 🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/7Hf8cAg7fC
— איתמר בן גביר (@itamarbengvir) May 20, 2026
Netanyahu said in a statement that he had instructed authorities to deport the activists “as soon as possible.” But he also offered a public rebuke of Ben-Gvir.
“Israel has every right to prevent provocative flotillas of Hamas terrorist supporters from entering our territorial waters and reaching Gaza,” Netanyahu said. “However, the way that Minister Ben Gvir dealt with the flotilla activists is not in line with Israel’s values and norms.”
The foreign ministers of several countries, including Canada, Spain, France, the Netherlands and Italy, also condemned the videos and summoned their Israeli diplomats to answer for the display.
But some of the sharpest criticism came from within Israel, where Ben-Gvir plays a crucial role in maintaining the governing coalition while also engaging in antics that threaten to flare tensions and undercut the country’s claims that it behaves in accordance with international law.
Ben-Gvir is “not the face of Israel,” tweeted Foreign Minister Gideon Saar in English.
“You knowingly caused harm to our State in this disgraceful display — and not for the first time,” Saar wrote. “You have undone tremendous, professional, and successful efforts made by so many people — from IDF soldiers to Foreign Ministry staff and many others.”
Ben-Gvir’s videos come as his antics and rhetoric have drawn new scrutiny in recent days. Last week, he departed from longstanding norms and waved an Israeli flag on the Temple Mount, a Muslim holy site, in a show of Jewish supremacy. His oversight of Israeli prisons, where he has said he wants to see prisoners given only the minimum of food and comfort as required by law, also drew attention because of a New York Times column alleging sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners.
Progressive groups heavily criticized Ben-Gvir’s video, saying that it was inappropriate for him to be part of the Israeli government.
“The disgusting images of Israel’s National Security Minister abusing detainees from the Gaza flotilla are not just bad optics,” tweeted Mickey Gitzin, the acting CEO of the New Israel Fund. “A government that gives a Kahanist this kind of power has already abandoned any notion of decency. These grotesque images are the real face of current Israeli policy.”
Ben-Gvir’s videos showing the treatment of participants in the latest flotilla offered a contrast to other recent interceptions in which Israel has released footage appearing to show activists being treated without force. When past arrestees from flotillas have alleged abusive treatment, Israel has denied it.
The organizers of the Global Sumud Flotilla said all of its boats had been intercepted by Israel by Tuesday evening, accusing Israel of employing “illegal, high-seas aggression.” The Israeli Foreign Ministry said no live munition was used during the operation, which it said was necessary because it will “not permit any breach of the lawful naval blockade on Gaza.”
Among the activists aboard the more than 50 boats in the flotilla was the sister of Irish President Catherine Connolly. On Tuesday, Connolly, who was elected in October and has a record of anti-Israel rhetoric, called the detention of Irish activists aboard the flotilla “unacceptable.”
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