Uncategorized
The part of the Hanukkah story we ignore — and why it matters to converts like me
Converts to Judaism are often treated as rare exceptions — surprised looks, intrusive questions, comments like “who’s the lucky girl.” Yet conversion is no anomaly. It is now more common than at any point in the last 2,000 years. You see it in synagogue pews. You see it in rabbinical leadership.
As Hanukkah approaches, with its call to make Jewish identity visible, I keep returning to what happens when people choose Judaism — and to the parts of our tradition that do not fit the story we usually tell.
We often repeat that Judaism doesn’t seek converts. But clearly, people are seeking Judaism. Hanukkah forces us to ask what kind of Judaism they are finding by looking at the holiday’s own complicated history with power and conversion.
We usually tell Hanukkah as a straightforward story of good and evil: a small band of Jews defends their faith against an empire, and a miracle in the Temple affirms that steadfastness can overcome adversity. The holiday’s defining commandment, pirsum ha-nes — publicly proclaiming the miracle — seems equally simple. We put the menorah in the window for all to see. Judaism doesn’t hide.
But if you look more closely at the history behind that beloved story, Hanukkah is also about force, conversion and the question of what kind of Judaism we choose to embody when we’re no longer powerless.
John Hyrcanus, a later Hasmonean ruler and direct descendant of the Maccabees, is rarely mentioned in Hanukkah celebrations. Yet his legacy haunts the holiday. A generation after the revolt, Hyrcanus used the political power of the Hasmonean kingdom to forcibly convert the neighboring Idumeans to Judaism. A movement that began as resistance to assimilation ended in the coerced assimilation of others. The people whose story we tell as a fight for religious freedom became, in time, the ones taking that freedom away.
It’s an uncomfortable truth, especially for those of us who, like me, chose Judaism. I didn’t convert to marry in or reclaim distant ancestry. I converted because I saw in Judaism a faith worth choosing: a tradition grounded in human dignity and a God who seeks relationship. For years I was told Judaism was always a non-proselytizing, purely voluntary faith, the opposite of traditions that sought converts — including Jews — through coercion.
But our own texts complicate that narrative. Near the end of the Book of Esther, in a verse most Purim spiels rush past, we read: “And many of the people of the land professed to be Jews, for the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them.” That is not a story of seekers drawn by theology, but of people compelled to join the Jews out of fear.
When Judaism welcomed seekers
Those coercive moments sit alongside a very different strand of Jewish history — one in which Judaism didn’t force, but attracted. In the late Hellenistic and early Roman era, Christian and Jewish sources describe synagogues filled not only with those born Jewish but with converts and “God-fearers,” people drawn to Jewish ethics, study and monotheism. As a convert drawn to Judaism by faith alone, I came to see myself not as an anomaly, but as part of that long line.
Centuries later, a similar universalist voice resurfaced in 19th-century America, especially in the early Reform movement. Rabbis such as Isaac Mayer Wise preached Judaism’s mission not as an inward inheritance but as a message about human dignity meant for the world.
In 1870, laying the cornerstone of Columbus, Ohio’s first synagogue, Wise told a largely non-Jewish crowd that Judaism’s purpose was to remind humanity that “God hath made man upright,” A direct rejection of the Christian doctrine of Original Sin. Synagogues etched Isaiah’s verse — “For My house shall be a house of prayer for all peoples” — onto their facades and welcomed neighbors of every faith inside. Converts were welcomed as a natural extension of that conviction.
That confidence, too, was battered by history. Mass immigration of Eastern European Jews, the Holocaust, and the urgent work of supporting refugees and the new State of Israel all pushed the universalist voice to the background. Yet, more people are converting to Judaism than at any point since Roman times.
Meanwhile, religious identity in North America has become unusually fluid. Many people describe themselves as spiritually seeking but institutionally unaffiliated, brushing against Jewish life through family, friendships or personal study.
And yet, the gatekeeping persists. Converts are asked to defend their legitimacy. Jews-by-choice face skepticism in Israeli bureaucracy and suspicion in American Jewish spaces. I’ve been told I “don’t look Jewish,” and once, at a community film screening, another attendee — a fellow Jew — grabbed my name tag and publicly questioned whether I was really Jewish.
Those moments aren’t just rude; they reveal a deeper anxiety about boundaries: the fear that if Judaism is too open, it will lose itself. It’s a fortress mentality, one that sees every door as a potential breach.
What Judaism we reveal now
Hanukkah offers another possibility. The holiday asks us to present Judaism so that others can see it. It remembers a moment when Jews refused to disappear, and it also reminds us that Jews have sometimes used political power in ways that betrayed our deepest values. To take Hanukkah seriously in our time is to recognize that Jewish history, like the histories of all faiths, holds moments of both coercion and holiness — and that we have a choice about which lineage to lean into now, when seekers are again at the door.
The question is not whether Judaism should send out missionaries. Rather, it is whether we will live as if Isaiah’s verse still says what we claim it does: that our house is meant to be a house of prayer for all peoples, including those who, in every generation, find their way to our door.
This Hanukkah, as we place our menorahs in doorways, balconies and windows, the question beneath pirsum ha-nes is sharp: What kind of Jewish confidence are we proclaiming — a brittle confidence that closes in on itself, or a steadier confidence that welcomes those moved by the stories and ethics we are illuminating?
The miracle is not only that the Jewish people have survived. It is that Judaism continues to draw people in. The doors we open — or keep shut — will determine who gets to stand in that glow with us.
The post The part of the Hanukkah story we ignore — and why it matters to converts like me appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
‘Shameful’: California Jewish Advocacy Group Denounces Challenge to K-12 Antisemitism Law
Students from Encinal High School and St. Joseph Notre Dame High School in Alameda, California, participating in anti-Israel demonstration on Jan 26. 2024: Photo: Michael Ho Wai Lee / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect
A California state legislator has introduced a bill aimed at gutting a recently passed K-12 antisemitism law (AB 715), which strengthened civil rights protections for Jewish students amid a pandemic of bullying, harassment, and extreme anti-Zionist activity in public schools.
Robert Garcia, a Democrat and member of the California State Assembly, introduced the measure — Assembly Bill (AB) 2159 — on Wednesday, and it has already amassed support from a number of groups which have opposed the Jewish community’s efforts to address antisemitism in education.
In October, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law which requires the state to establish a new Office for Civil Rights for monitoring antisemitism in public schools at a time of rising anti-Jewish hatred across the US. As previously reported by The Algemeiner, the bill confronted Newsom, a Democrat rumored to be interested in running for US president in 2028, with a politically fraught decision, as it aims to limit the extent to which the state’s ideologically charged ethnic studies curricula, supported by progressives and many Democrats, may plant anti-Zionist viewpoints into the minds of the 5.8 million students educated in its public schools.
Newsom, who has since endorsed the false charge that Israel is an “apartheid” state, approved the measure amid these cross currents, paving the way for state officials to proceed with establishing an Antisemitism Prevention Coordinator, setting parameters within which the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may be equitably discussed, and potentially barring antisemitic materials from reaching the classroom.
“Specifically, this bill removes reference to a definition of antisemitism that could include criticism of Israeli government policy, requires the Antisemitism Prevention Coordinator to be selected through an unbiased, merit-based civil service process, and removes vague and subjective language that exposes schools and teachers to discrimination complaints,” Garcia’s new bill says.
Garcia is a former trustee of the Etiwanda School District, located in the southern region of state, which has already been the subject of a civil rights complaint alleging harrowing incidents of “vicious antisemitism” in which a 12-year-old Jewish girl was flogged with a stick, told to “shut your Jewish ass up,” and teased with jokes about Adolf Hitler. During the period of the alleged abuse the girl’s bullies stated that it would not have occurred were she non-Jewish. According to the complaint, filed by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law in March 2025, the school district never punished her tormenters despite receiving a torrent of complaints.
“It is shameful that Assemblymember Garcia not only introduced a bill that would harm Jewish students, but ‘worked closely’ on it with organizations that have promoted or enabled antisemitism,” StandWithUs, a California-based Jewish advocacy group, said in a statement denouncing the measure.”
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the far-left Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), the California Faculty Association, and the California Labor Federation were among the groups specifically called out by StandWithUs.
“All legislators should reject efforts by these groups to influence policy on the state of California,” StandWithUs continued. “The assemblymember should apologize and withdraw AB 2159, which is a transparent ploy to prevent extremists from being held accountable for spreading hate in K-12 schools.”
Garcia is not alone in attempting to effectively overturn the K-12 antisemitism law. California Middle school teacher Andrea Prichett, joined by the Los Angeles Educators for Palestine group, challenged it in a lawsuit last year, arguing that it violates the First Amendment, was “hastily written,” and “singled out” anti-Zionist viewpoints for punishment. A federal judge, Noël Wise, appointed by former US President Joe Biden, struck down the complaint, noting that teachers working as government employees do not enjoy unfettered free speech. In her ruling, Wise stated that while teachers may comment on matters of public interest, previous jurisprudence prohibits their uttering statements which obstruct government’s “legitimate interests.”
She continued, “As public school education belongs to the government, the government may regulate Teacher Plaintiffs [sic] speech to accord with the government’s education goals. It is of no significance that the curricula and the attendant speech required to teach it may advance a single viewpoint to the exclusion of another.”
Another lawsuit was filed in November by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), whose national legal director, Jenin Younes, has said on social media that Jews “fake…hate crimes” and endorsed claims that “Zionists” control the media and played a role in assassinating former US President John F. Kennedy.
“It’s dawning on me recently how insane it is I just accept that I’m subservient to them,” Younes wrote.
In a statement announcing its lawsuit, the ADC argued that Arabs are victims of discrimination and said that the California law amounts to a hijacking of American policy by Israel, an argument advanced by neo-Nazis, including Nicholas Fuentes, and commentators who promote their views such as Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens — both of whom claim that proliferating antisemitism is an exercise of free speech.
In Wednesday’s statement, StandWithUs said that if the latest assault on AB 715 succeeds it would “harm the Jewish community and public trust in California’s education system.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
Uncategorized
US CENTCOM Chief Says Iran Attacking Civilian Sites as Regime Grows Increasingly Desperate
US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Admiral Brad Cooper speaks to Iran International’s Samira Gharaei, March 22, 2026. Photo: Screenshot
Iran has increasingly targeted civilian sites across the Middle East out of “desperation” as the regime’s internal cohesion and military capabilities crumble amid intensifying pressure from the US-Israeli campaign, according to the head of US Central Command (CENTCOM).
In his first one-on-one interview since the outbreak of war with Iran late last month, Admiral Brad Cooper told Iran International on Sunday that, “in the last couple weeks,” Tehran has carried out more than 300 strikes on civilian, non-military sites, describing the pattern as a shift driven by battlefield setbacks.
“They’re operating in a sign of desperation” Cooper said, arguing that Iran’s ability to sustain large-scale offensive operations has diminished under sustained US and Israeli strikes. Cooper added that Tehran’s rapidly degrading military capabilities have pushed the regime to begin targeting civilian infrastructure and residential communities.
US and Israeli officials have said the initial days of the conflict, which began on Feb. 28, were marked by coordinated barrages of drones and missiles. Those Iranian attacks, however, have now given way to smaller, less intense launches, a change they attribute to deteriorating Iranian capabilities.
“At the beginning of the conflict, you saw large volumes in the dozens of drones and missiles. You no longer see that. It’s all one or two at a time,” Cooper said.
Iran, however, has vowed to continue its military operations against Israel and the US, while also targeting Gulf countries.
Meanwhile, concerns are growing over the security of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global shipping route through which about a fifth of the world’s oil flows. According to Cooper, the waterway remains technically open but commercial traffic has dropped sharply as vessels avoid the area due to Iranian drone and missile activity.
“The Strait of Hormuz is physically open to transit,” he said. “The reason ships are not transiting right now is because the Islamic Republic is shooting at them with drones and missiles.”
The United States and its allies have stepped up efforts to secure the corridor, part of what Cooper described as the “largest umbrella of air defense in the Middle East history.”
The conflict has also raised fears of broader escalation. US officials had previously warned that additional strikes could target key Iranian infrastructure, while Tehran has threatened retaliation against regional energy and water facilities.
However, US President Donald Trump stated on Truth Social Monday that he and Iranian leaders had “VERY GOOD AND PRODUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS REGARDING A COMPLETE AND TOTAL RESOLUTION OF OUR HOSTILITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST.” Trump added that due to the purported success of the meetings, he has “INSTRUCTED THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR TO POSTPONE ANY AND ALL MILITARY STRIKES AGAINST IRANIAN POWER PLANTS AND ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A FIVE DAY PERIOD.”
Iranian officials declined any dialogue with Trump, claiming that the president had “retreated” from his military posture “out of fear of Iran’s response.”
The statement came after Trump threatened on Saturday to “obliterate” the country’s energy infrastructure if the regime did not agree to an ultimatum to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours. Iran said it would retaliate to such an attack by targeting critical infrastructure across the Middle East.
Some analysts have speculated that Trump’s apparent shift in tone was a way to buy time to make preparations for the next US military moves.
Uncategorized
UK Art Exhibit Condemned for Displaying Drawings With Antisemitic Tropes ‘Worse Than Nazi Propaganda’
Demonstrators hold Israeli and British flags outside the Law Courts, during a march against antisemitism, after an increase in the UK, during a temporary truce between the Palestinian Islamist terrorists Hamas and Israel, in London, Britain, Nov. 26, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Susannah Ireland
An art exhibition that opened this weekend in Margate, a seaside town in England, features nearly 100 drawings that promote antisemitic tropes, feature swastikas, target Jewish or Israeli individuals, and deny violence that took place during the Hamas-led terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
“Drawings Against Genocide” at the Joseph Wales Studios will be open until March 29 and is organized by the groups Art for a Free Palestine and Thanet for Palestine. The artist behind the drawings is Matthew Collings, a 70-year-old writer and former art critic who has been openly critical of Israel. There are roughly 100 drawings in the exhibit critical of Israel, Jews, the “Israeli lobby,” and more, according to Art for a Free Palestine.
One drawing in the exhibit shows members of a so-called Israel lobby that is “nuts and utterly in control,” while other drawings accuse Israel of apartheid and committing a genocide against Palestinians. Several drawings feature a Nazi swastika, often alongside the flag of Israel, while one artwork in particular depicts ancient Israelites with horns. A separate piece shows two Sotheby’s auctioneers eating babies with blood dripping from their teeth and one of them is Sotheby’s French-Israeli owner Patrick Drahi. The drawing claims he is a “fanatic Zionist” who eats babies alive.
Another picture targeting an individual – the owner of @Sothebys – suggesting he eats babies alive. This sickening and medieval antisemitic hate is ok according to Kent police. pic.twitter.com/JpgiseKisD
— Stop The Hate UK (@StopTheHate_UK) March 22, 2026
Another drawing in the exhibit shows an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier spewing blood from their mouth and hands, while another shows an IDF soldier standing over a pool of blood and a human skull. A separate drawing denies that sexual violence took place during the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, while another falsely claims there is “no reliable evidence whatsoever” about some of the violence that took place during the massacre.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is depicted naked in one drawing while spewing blood from his mouth and the piece suggests that he is trying to “change reality” with hypnotism in his desire to “invade Iran.” Other drawings target the chief executive of the Jewish organization Community Security Trust, pro-Israel writer and journalist David Collier, and even film director Quentin Tarantino, who lives in Israel with his family.
“This is the recycling of classic antisemitic tropes dressed up as activism,” Collier told The Algemeiner. “When swastikas and dehumanizing imagery are normalized in an art gallery, it tells you something has gone badly wrong.”
“I am currently looking out at a UK landscape in which Jewish people are murdered while going to pray on Yom Kippur, and ambulances owned by a Jewish charity are torched,” he added. “If the government and the police do not start connecting the dots between antisemitism masquerading as pro-Palestinian activism and the real-world violence we see unfolding before us, then the situation for British Jews will only get worse.”
The Combat Antisemitism Movement said the drawings are “worse than Nazi propaganda” and feature “monstrous blood libels.” The grassroots nonprofit organization Stop the Hate UK said the drawings display the artist’s “obsessive hatred of Jews” that is “dressed up as art.”
“The artist makes sure to include lots of bank notes and blood. All the old tropes,” the group noted in a post on X. “The British Jewish community are fed up of being told this sickening hate is ok. It’s not.” Stop the Hate UK also shared on X a video of the exhibit’s alleged curator saying “globalize the intifada” and “from the river to the sea,” a slogan that calls for the dismantling of the State of Israel and for it to be replaced by “Palestine.”
The exhibit has also been publicly condemned by the UK’s Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp and several other groups, including the Jewish Leadership Council, Labour Against Antisemitism, and Campaign Against Antisemitism in statements given to The Telegraph. The exhibit was reported to local police, but they have taken no action, and it remains open.
The Thanet district council, led by the Labour Party, was criticized for promoting the exhibition after its tourism website, Visit Thanet, provided information about its dates and venue, but the webpage has since been deleted.
Collings said in an Instagram post that the drawings are “directed against the horrific genocide against the Palestinians being perpetrated by Israel.”
Art for a Free Palestine said the exhibit “is about raising consciousness and welcoming people to learn about the UK government’s connections to the Israeli lobby and its continued manufacturing of precision weapons on UK soil that are used to target and murder civilians in Gaza.” The drawings, the group added, “teach us the way in which our politicians and mainstream media use propaganda to lie and manipulate the general public in order to cover up the slaughter of thousands of Palestinians.”