(JTA) — Hundreds of thousands of haredi Orthodox Jewish men joined a mass protest in Jerusalem on Thursday to rail against the Israeli government’s efforts to enlist yeshiva students into the military.

The mass prayer demonstration, called the “Million Man March,” was organized by the leaders of Israel’s different ultra-Orthodox groups in response to a spate of arrests of yeshiva students who had dodged the Israeli draft.

“The debate over the law is still ongoing, and it belongs in the Knesset,” one organizer told Haaretz. “If that were the only issue, we wouldn’t hold a rally. But following the arrests of yeshiva students and the persecution against us, it was decided to protest nonetheless.”

The protest comes one year after the Israeli Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Israel must draft haredi Orthodox Jews into its army, a decision welcomed by many Israelis who believe the haredi sector was not bearing its share of the burden of the war in Gaza. The ruling renewed demonstrations from haredi groups who have long argued that they should be exempt for religious reasons.

Earlier this month, upwards of 10,000 haredi Orthodox Jewish men staged another protest in New York City to oppose the draft.

At the demonstration Thursday, two ultra-Orthodox soldiers, a police officer and several journalists were attacked by protesters, including Channel 12 News reporter Inbar Twizer who had objects thrown at her during her broadcast.

Throughout the day, hundreds of protesters were seen entering construction sites, scaling roofs and climbing cranes. One 15-year-old boy died after falling from the 20th floor of a high-rise construction site.

One group of protesters were also seen carrying a banner from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which read, “Bringing back the hostages, bringing back hope.” The group has previously pursued legal action against a yeshiva that appropriating symbols for the hostages to rally for the release of jailed yeshiva students.

After the protests’ organizers called for an end to the demonstration on Thursday evening, some protesters remained near the entrance of Jerusalem and clashed with Israeli border police, according to the Times of Israel.

The post Hundreds of thousands of haredi Jews protest in Jerusalem against Israeli military draft appeared first on The Forward.

American Jewish leaders have blamed Tiktok for allowing antisemitism to spread among young people and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently accused China of using the platform to promote anti-Israel sentiment around the world — a charge China denies.

The allegations form a backdrop to the high-stakes negotiations over TikTok’s future in the United States that may be finally heading to a resolution. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Thursday that Beijing has green-lit a multi-billion dollar deal that would bring the social media platform’s operations in the United States under American control.

“In Kuala Lumpur, we finalized the TikTok agreement in terms of getting Chinese approval, and I would expect that would go forward in the coming weeks and months, and we’ll finally see a resolution to that,” Bessent told Fox Business following a meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The deal follows a law passed last year requiring China-based ByteDance to sell or face a ban of the app, which U.S. officials have called a national-security risk.

Details of the agreement have not been released, but the White House has previously said that a consortium of U.S. investors led by Oracle Corporation — whose co-founder, Larry Ellison, is a longtime supporter of Jewish causes and of Israel — would acquire a controlling stake in the app.

For the leader of one of the largest and most broadly representative Jewish groups in the country, these developments are hopeful.

“At the Jewish Federations of North America, we are optimistic about this moment,” JFNA CEO Eric Fingerhut said Tuesday while moderating a panel on the deal at the organization’s Washington headquarters. “Frankly, the part that makes us the most optimistic is the parties that seem to be associated with the deal on the American side, especially Oracle and Larry Ellison personally, who’s been such a strong supporter of our community.”

Also on the panel was social media expert Sarah O’Quinn, the U.S. director for public affairs at Center for Countering Digital Hate, who said she shared Fingerhut’s optimism that TikTok’s new owners would take steps to lessen the spread of antisemitism on the platform.

“This change in leadership — are they going to improve their policy?” O’Quinn asked rhetorically. “I think that’s probably true based on… the broad support coming from Ellison and Oracle on that [issue].”

Ellison, who was raised in a Reform Jewish household, briefly topped the list of richest people this year amid the surge in the value of tech stocks linked to the artificial intelligence boom. He has donated millions to Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, among other Israel-related causes and is reportedly close to Netanyahu. He says his affinity for Israel comes from his appreciation for the country’s record of tech innovation and resilience.

Ellison’s views in the debate over whether online hate speech should be countered with content moderation and policies restricting user expression are unknown. He became a major investor in Twitter when Elon Musk took over the platform, changed its name to X and altered its rules in a way that has allowed Neo-Nazis and other antisemites to gain a wide reach.

During the panel, Fingerhut said that even while it became clear that antisemitism was a problem on TikTok, JFNA was the only Jewish group that lobbied for the bill that would force its sale.

He revealed internal concerns at the time that JFNA’s involvement could activate antisemitic tropes about Jewish power in politics.

“We asked ourselves that question when we were making the decision about whether to get involved,” he said. “Is this going to undermine the bill because it’ll become a target of … ‘here comes the Jewish community seeking to attack this company.”

He said JFNA ultimately decided to enter the fray because it was a severe case, and an opportunity to hold lawmakers to their commitment to fighting antisemitism.

Panelists offered varying levels of optimism about TikTok’s future but there was a consensus that the new owners should strive for cooperation and transparency with users and advocates over antisemitism and other forms of harm.

Daniel Kelley of the Center for Technology and Society at the Anti-Defamation League noted that the company has already become increasingly responsive, saying that his colleagues are now meeting with TikTok trust and safety staff on a monthly basis.

Quinn added that the best tool advocates have to influence social media companies in the absence of government regulation is public pressure.

“The most important thing as Americans and people who represent communities across the country is to make sure that you’re sharing stories about how social media has harmed you or your family,” she said.

—
The post Ellison’s Oracle poised to run TikTok, raising hopes for tougher rules against antisemitism appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

(JTA) — Vice President JD Vance fielded skeptical questions about American support for Israel, including one conspiratorial remark about Judaism, from conservative college students while headlining Wednesday’s stop on the right-wing group Turning Point USA’s nationwide tour.

The event, at the University of Mississippi, was a further sign of shifting priorities among young conservatives when it comes to support for Israel, a long-held GOP tenet that has seen sharp erosion since Oct. 7 and the Gaza war. 

Following the talk, Vance — who recently declined to condemn a group chat of Young Republican leaders joking about Hitler and gas chambers — received criticism from Jewish conservatives for failing to take another opportunity to condemn antisemitism.

Charlie Kirk, the murdered conservative activist and TPUSA founder whose legacy on Israel has been sharply debated since his death, was invoked by both Vance and his questioners.

“I’m a Christian, and I’m just confused why there’s this notion that we might owe Israel something, or that they’re our greatest ally, or that we have to support this multi-hundred-billion dollar foreign aid package to Israel, to cover this, to quote Charlie Kirk, ‘ethnic cleansing in Gaza,’” one student wearing a MAGA hat asked the vice president.

That student went on to assert, of Judaism, “Not only does their religion not agree with ours, but also openly supports the prosecution of ours.” The student did not elaborate, though young right-wing Christians have taken Israel to task for recent videos of Jewish Israeli extremists spitting on Christians in the country.

His was the second critical Israel-related question of the night. An earlier questioner had asked Vance, “Do you think it’s a conflict of interest for Miriam Adelson, an Israeli donor, to give millions of dollars to his campaign, and then Trump have pro-Israeli policies?” (Adelson, a major pro-Israel GOP donor, is Israeli-American.)

The questions mirrored a growing anti-Israel flank within the MAGA movement, as polls reflect a growing antipathy for the Jewish state among young Republicans. The movement is fueled by figures including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host who maintains an influential presence on YouTube and X. Carlson in particular spoke at Kirk’s funeral, and has platformed open antisemites — most recently including Nick Fuentes — while also headlining other stops on the current TPUSA college tour and maintaining close ties with Trump and Vance. 

At Ole Miss, Vance responded to both Israel questions in an America-first framing — and suggested that his own support for Israel was not unequivocal.

“He pursues the interests of Americans first,” Vance said about his boss to the student who had asked about Christian allyship with Israel. “That doesn’t mean that you’re not going to have alliances, that you’re not going to work with other countries from time to time.”

Vance continued, ”Israel, sometimes they have similar interests to the United States, and we’re going to work with them in that case. Sometimes, they don’t have similar interests to the United States.” 

In praising the recent ceasefire and hostage return deal brokered by Trump, Vance said the president succeeded by “actually being willing to apply leverage to the state of Israel” — something many left-wing activists had pressured former President Joe Biden to do, largely unsuccessfully.

That “leverage,” Vance said, proved that Trump was acting in America’s interests, not Israel’s. He then hinted at a conspiracy theory of his own. “So when people say that Israel is somehow manipulating or controlling the president of the United States, they’re not manipulating or controlling this president of the United States,” he said.

He then attempted to address the student’s comments about the divide between Jews and Christians. 

“Jews disagreeing with Christians on certain religious ideas, yeah, absolutely. It’s one of the realities, is that Jews don’t believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. Obviously Christians do believe that,” he said. “My attitude is, let’s have those conversations. Let’s have those disagreements when we have them.” 

Vance named protecting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, a holy Christian site, as an area “I really, really care about” and wanted to work with Israel on. Vance, a convert to Catholicism, attended mass at the church during his state visit to Israel last week. The church is primarily tended to by Palestinian Christians, and has been the site of contested real-estate disputes as far-right Israeli settlers have sought to secure control of historical Christian sites in Jerusalem.

To the student who asked about Adelson, the vice president denied that Trump was influenced by her Israel views — even as he acknowledged that Israel appeared to be her primary cause as a top Republican donor.

“She is very clear about the fact, she doesn’t hide the fact, that she really loves Israel, and that is part of what motivates her political giving. That is a reality. At the same time, the president of the United States is America first, through and through,” Vance said, adding that he, too, had “a very good relationship” with Adelson. The widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson was present at Trump’s Knesset address announcing the Gaza ceasefire, and received several shout-outs from the president.

Vance also said that Trump’s anti-war critics, some from his own party, hadn’t given him enough credit for the ceasefire.

“I remember when people said that the president of the United States was going to get us into a multi-hundred-thousand troop, regime-change war for Israel,” the vice president said. “I wonder if they stepped back and said, ‘You know what, we were wrong about that.’”

Vance’s performance has attracted ire from Jewish conservatives who increasingly have been warning of rising, unchecked antisemitism on the right.

“Tonight the vice president had an opportunity to denounce antisemitism amid its historic surge,” Jewish conservative activist Sloan Rachmuth wrote on X. “He could’ve set an example for the young people who are steering in that direction. JD Vance chose not to.” Conservative writer Jonah Goldberg wrote that Vance was “a profile in cowardice.”

“At a Turning Point USA event this week, a young man said something that should have been met with instant moral outrage,” the pro-Israel commentator Daniel Mael wrote on his Substack. “Instead, the Vice President of the United States treated it as a legitimate question.”

Mael took issue with several of Vance’s phrasings, including his remark about Trump not being “controlled by Israel.”

“The meaning was obvious. It implied that past presidents—Biden, Obama, and George W. Bush—were controlled by Israel,” he wrote. “With one careless phrase, the Vice President of the United States echoed one of the most poisonous lies in history: that Jews secretly control governments and act against others for their own gain.”

Vance’s failures to respond to claims that Israel was committing “ethnic cleansing” and to the remark about Judaism targeting Christians were also troubling, Mael wrote. “The claim that Judaism attacks Christianity is not ignorance; it is the sewage of the alt-right media machine…. If conservatives do not confront this now, the movement will rot from within. The world’s oldest hatred has returned, speaking the language of patriotism and pretending to defend faith. ”

At the conclusion of his Q&A, Vance —- who also raised eyebrows by stating he hoped his Hindu wife, Usha, would convert to Christianity — thanked the Israel critics in the audience for strengthening the conservative movement.

“We don’t need, in our political movement, people who agree with us on every single issue. We got a couple of questions about Israel,” he said. “What we need is people of good faith who love the United States of America and are willing to work hard to save it.”

The post Conservative students grill Vance on support for Israel at Turning Point USA event appeared first on The Forward.