How Bad is Antisemitism, Really?

Vice-President Vance and Tucker Carlson (Business Insider)

I don’t think now is the time to panic. I still believe that the vast majority of Americans are not antisemitic. I don’t even think most are anti-Israel. A lot of whom are upset at how they think Israel conducted the war in Gaza.  Although I now admit I underestimated the extent of both.

That said, it is impossible to ignore the growing influence of antisemitic voices on the right, led most prominently by Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens. They are attempting to shift the national conversation in a dangerous direction. Still, their millions of followers represent only a small fraction of the American public.

The same dynamic exists on the left. Antisemitism there is usually disguised as anti-Zionism, providing plausible deniability for motives that are often anything but benign. While there are rare cases of people who oppose Israel without harboring animus toward Jews, those cases are the exception.

Detaching Israel from Jewish identity reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of Judaism itself. Jews who claim Israel has no bearing on their Jewishness are typically ignorant of their own heritage. An ignorance that has fueled a growing number of anti-Zionist Jewish organizations, often composed of younger Jews whose progressive political values have replaced Jewish ones they were never taught.

Many commentators point to the election of Zohran Mamdani, a fiercely anti-Zionist Muslim, as mayor of New York City as evidence of rising antisemitism. Some argue his victory gives antisemites tacit permission to emerge more openly and cause harm to Jews. That concern is legitimate.

Yet I do not believe Mamdani is inherently antisemitic, nor do I believe he will abandon his promise to protect New York’s Jewish community. Even while relentlessly condemning Israel. In fact, as troubling as Mamdani is, I would trust him with my life sooner than I would Tucker Carlson.

So why am I still confident that most Americans are not only not antisemitic, but actually appreciate Jewish contributions to society - historically and today, at least to the extent they are aware of them?

Start with evangelical Christians... 

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Marshall Fisher, OBM

(L-R) Me, Marshall and Rabbi Zvi Block

Just got back from the funeral of one of my oldest friends. I was asked by his daughter, Shaindel, to read the eulogy she wrote for him. After which I delivered my own.

The Gemara in Berachos, Daf Lamed-Gimmel, Amud Beis, tells us:

“B’makom sheba’alei teshuvah omdim, ein tzaddikim gemurim yecholim la’amod.”  Where ba’alei teshuvah stand, even the most completely righteous tzaddikim cannot stand.

I have always been in awe of my friend Marshall — Moshe Tzvi ben Yehudah Leib Halevi. Raised in a non-observant home, he became observant entirely on his own initiative. Not because it was ingrained in him. Not out of habit or rote observance, as is so often the case with those of us raised in observant homes. He used to tell me that he chose to be observant because he believed it was the right way to live. A ma’amin through and through.

I met Marshall over sixty years ago, before either of us were married. He had just returned from spending several months in at Yeshivas ITRI in Israel. While there, he met and became friends with Rabbi Tzvi Block, an old friend of mine from my years in Telshe. When Marshall decided to return to Chicago, Zvi told him to contact me — despite not knowing my phone number or address...

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Rabbi Feldman's Daas Torah

Rabbi Feldman at an anti IDF lecture in Ramat Bet Shemesh (Rationalist Judaism)

I was not there, so my impressions may be colored by the sources reporting it. Still, I find it very difficult to be dan l’kaf zechus - to view favorably - an anti-IDF lecture delivered by a Ner Israel Rosh Yeshiva to residents of Ramat Beit Shemesh, a city populated by many expatriate Americans. Imploring them not to enlist!

His argument did not center on the familiar claim that Torah study supersedes all else, or that it is Torah learning rather than the IDF that protects the Jewish people. Instead, his case was based on the belief that army service will likely cause religious recruits to abandon their religious practices. That this, in fact, is the very purpose of the IDF.

This is the argument most often cited to justify opposition to drafting Charedim, even those who are not learning full-time in a Yeshiva or Kollel.

However, when he uses the same argument against joining even Chashmonaim—IDF units created specifically to accommodate Charedi religious needs – he loses me. Rabbi Feldman relies on anecdotal evidence from colleagues that claim these units fail to live up to their promises. And tells of his own experience with a student at his Yeshiva that told him about his brother who was allegedly forced to violate Shabbos. These stories are offered as proof that such units are unreliable and should not be joined either. To consider this a common occurrence rather than an unusual occurrence – or based on the circumstances described and IDF rules – is probably not even true (as Rabbi Slifkin points out.)  

Rabbi Slifkin does an excellent job refuting all of Rabbi Feldman’s anti-IDF arguments. The reality is that there are no decisive arguments that justify the Charedi world’s refusal to serve in the IDF. The real culprit is Daas Torah. Which also happened to be Rabbi Feldman’s fallback position when he attempted to explain why Rabbi Slifkin’s books reconciling Torah and science were deemed heretical and banned.

If memory serves, Rabbi Feldman initially endorsed those books as a legitimate way of reconciling Torah and science when the two appeared to conflict. After hearing that Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, whom many at the time regarded as the Gadol HaDor, had labeled them heretical he sought confirmation. He flew to Israel, consulted Rav Elyashiv, and once that judgment was confirmed, he ‘joined the chorus’ of rabbis that called those books heretical and endorsed the ban. How Rav Elayshiv himself came to that conclusion is the subject of great controversy but beyond the scope of this post.

How could Rabbi Feldman have endorsed books containing heresy in the first place? 

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The Modern World - Insularity or Exposure?

One of the greatest dangers to Jewish continuity is the extent that insulation has taken hold in certain segments of the Jewish world. The further to the right one goes religiously, the greater the degree of insularity. Two of the most prominent examples are the New York municipalities of New Square and Kiryas Joel, which have taken insularity to its logical extreme: isolationism.

These two Chassidic villages were created explicitly to insulate their inhabitants from the influences of the modern world. The fear is that any exposure at all will undermine everything that has been painstakingly taught in the effort to keep their communities holy and pure.

Why is this such an existential danger?

When people live in isolation, exposed only to the narrow views and customs of their own community, and then inevitably come into contact with the outside world - only to discover that it is not nearly as evil as they were taught - it can call their entire way of life into question. That includes the observance of halacha itself. While this is not the usual outcome, it is certainly a contributing factor among those who ultimately abandon observance.

I understand the desire to shield children from the immorality of the broader culture. I even sympathize with that goal. But isolationism is not the best way to accomplish it. Nor is its kissing cousin, extreme insularity.

Many people defend this lifestyle as a matter of choice and religious freedom. That is certainly true. But at what price? Is it worth it? And is there a better way to achieve the same goal?

I believe there is.

Some degree of insularity is necessary and even beneficial. But there is a point at which it becomes absurd and counterproductive. Obviously, I would not allow a young child to watch an R-rated movie. But would I allow that child to have a smartphone? I’m not so sure. And if not, should I forbid them from befriending a child who has one?

These are legitimate questions without easy answers. Where do we draw the line between necessary insularity that strengthens a child and excessive isolation that ultimately harms them?

The Charedi world is increasingly moving in the direction of greater insularity—approaching outright isolationism. As a Centrist looking in from the outside, I believe this is a serious mistake.

I was therefore pleasantly surprised to see Rabbi Avrohom Neuberger, a frequent contributor to Mishpacha Magazine, make precisely this case in his latest column. His message closely mirrors my own, though he presents it in the context of Lakewood-style communities...

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Is Jewish Unity Even Possible Anymore?

NCSYers (public high school kids) in Lakewood

My differences with the Charedi world are well known to my readers. Some of those differences are profound. And yet, I long for unity among my people. A unity that surely includes the Charedi world.

That is because, despite my differences with them, Charedim are an essential cog in the wheel of Jewish continuity, and in defining one of the most vital missions the Jewish people on this planet: the study of the Torah – the word of God as interpreted by the sages throughout Jewish history.

No single Jewish demographic pursues that mission more diligently than does the Charedi world. Especially the yeshiva world, which is dedicated entirely to that purpose, to the exclusion of almost everything else.

I am not going to debate whether there are other ways - or even better ways for some people to achieve this goal. But there is no debate about the time and intensity of Torah study that takes place in a yeshiva like BMG (Beis Medrash Govoha) - better known as Lakewood. And there are many other Yeshivos, both here and in Israel, about which the same can be said.

And yet, the differences that I - and many others - have with them are so divisive that they almost seem insurmountable. If anything revealed that sad reality more clearly than the war in Gaza, I would like to know what it is. The anger between religious Jews who support army service for Charedim and those who oppose it has never been greater. And it still prevails even now, after the fighting in Gaza has ceased.

I am a Centrist Modern Orthodox Jew, with some pretty strong opinions that and - about other Jewish demographics. And yet, I long for unity among all the people of Israel. Including left-wing Orthodox Jews, secular Jews, heterodox Jews, Sephardi Jews - and certainly no less Charedi Yeshiva type Jews and Chasidic Jews.

At the core, however, the unity that should be a given - is the unity of observant Jews. This does not mean we cannot be unified as a people with non-observant Jews. It is simply that by our observance -  and their lack thereof - we have less in common. That being said, the love we must have for each and every Jew is the same.

Meanwhile the shared observance that should automatically unify Jews of every observant demographic  - is about the furthest thing from reality. And even further from reality is the Orthodox unity with non-Orthodox Jews.

Strangely enough, it may be non-Orthodox youth who can show us the way.

NCSYer shaking hands with BMG's R' Yisroel Neumann

Yesterday, NCSY took a group of public school students to BMG, where they were given a shiur by BMG’s Rabbi Freundlich. Today they met Rabbi BMG Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Yisroel Neumann.

One might think this is the last place you would take a group of public high school teenagers to inspire them. But that is exactly what happened. These young men were exposed to a part of Judaism they probably didn’t even know existed. And I would be willing to bet they admired what they saw.

That’s  because they have not been tainted by the personal biases the rest of us carry. True - we have legitimate differences with them  But that does not mean we shouldn’t unite as one large observant family despite those differences. We need to hear what the other side says and understand how sincere they are in their beliefs. At the same time we need to admire what each side contributes, agree to disagree on some things and still consider ourselves part of the same family. Unified as a people despite those differences.

These young public high school students show us that it can be done.

The question then becomes: what about heterodox rabbis who preach what observant Jews consider anti-Torah views? How can we possibly unite with them?

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The Demise of Solomon Schechter Schools

Former Schechter Queens, now the Queens Hebrew Academy (JTA)

Hard to believe. But as of now, there are no longer any Solomon Schechter (Conservative) day schools in New York City. As reported by JTA:

Last December the first-ever Solomon Schechter day school—part of what was once a thriving network of Conservative Jewish day schools—voted to rename itself the Queens Hebrew Academy. That decision meant that, for the first time in nearly 70 years, New York City had no Solomon Schechter school at all, following the closure of Schechter Manhattan in 2023 due to declining enrollment.

This is an astonishing development. Even for a skeptic like me who has been noting the steady demise of heterodox Judaism in general, and Conservative Judaism in particular, for quite some time. It is astonishing precisely because of the very reason the Solomon Schechter system existed in the first place. And because the Conservative movement itself understands, at least intellectually, that education is the key to Jewish survival. Education is the one factor that has any real track record of perpetuating the Jewish people into the future.

The reasons for the demise of the Conservative educational system are not difficult to identify. For starters, it amounts to the ancient adage: too little, too late.

The Conservative movement has long claimed to be halachic, while simultaneously tolerating - indeed normalizing - widespread non-observance among its synagogue members. This tension has existed since the movement’s founding at the beginning of the 20^th century. It took decades for its leaders to fully grasp an uncomfortable truth: Judaism without meaningful observance is a prescription for the eventual abandonment of Jewish identity altogether.

Seeing the success of the Orthodox day school system, the Conservative movement created one of its own in the 1950s. But by then, Conservative Jews were already assimilating so deeply into American culture that it became increasingly difficult to motivate nonobservant parents to send their children to schools that might introduce observance into their homes.

To be sure, the movement initially experienced some success. Additional schools opened across the country. At the time, Jewish identity still mattered. Even to Jews who were so assimilated that they observed little, if any, recognizable halacha. Solomon Schechter schools survived because parents wanted to instill in their children a sense of Jewish identity, pride in their heritage, history, and culture.

That approach worked for a while. But what was taught in school was rarely lived in the home, and what is not modeled at home is unlikely to endure into adulthood. If a child does not see Judaism practiced as an obligation, there is little chance that he or she will embrace it independently later in life. Teaching Judaism primarily as a cultural identity rather than as an obligatory way of life is simply not a formula for long-term continuity.

Culture is optional. Obligations are not.

Anything optional can be discarded when something else seems more personally fulfilling...

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A Turning Point for Conservatives?

Ben Shapiro calling out antisemitic conservatives at a TPUSA event (JTA)

To say that I am alarmed would be an understatement. Given the history of politically conservative ideology over the past several decades - when support for Israel was not only a given but enthusiastically embraced, I am genuinely shocked! Shocked by what is now emerging among far too many conservative pundits.

And yet there is no denying it. Support for Israel is no longer assumed; in some quarters it has devolved into questioning Israel’s value as an ally. Or worse, portraying Israel as a liability to the United States. Disturbingly, this sentiment is no longer confined to the fringe.

I never thought I would see this day. Not when so many stalwart conservatives in Congress and Republican leadership have stated unequivocally that Israel is among America’s most important allies—if not the most important. Among them are Speaker Mike Johnson, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Senators Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz, Ambassador Mike Huckabee, and former Vice President Mike Pence, to name just a few.

The shift seemed to begin when Candace Owens, once a supporter of Israel, started promoting conspiracy theories about the Jewish state and the Jewish people. Soon after, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene launched her own anti-Israel crusade, complete with conspiratorial rhetoric. Then came Tucker Carlson, who not only echoed similar themes but went further—platforming Holocaust deniers and open antisemites like Nick Fuentes on his show.

The most troubling aspect of all this is not that a handful of outliers espouse conspiracy theories so absurd that only a fool - or someone harboring antisemitic tendencies—would take them seriously. Rather, it is that mainstream conservative politicians like the vice-president and pundits like Megyn Kelly continue to treat these figures as legitimate voices within the movement, entitled to their opinions even when those opinions cross clearly into antisemitism.

How did Israel go from being viewed as a vital ally to being treated as something close to a pariah in their minds? And why has supporting Israel become conflated with disloyalty to the United States? As though American Jews or Israel’s supporters are somehow beholden to a foreign country that offers no tangible benefit to America?

The answer is not difficult to find. And it isn’t pretty...

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Looks Can Be Deceiving. Are They Here?

Mamdani lights the first Hanukkah candle with Mandy Patinkin (JTA)

As concerning as the thinly disguised antisemitism of people on the right like Tucker Carlson is… and
as troubling the soft-pedaling of criticism of him by a high-profile individual like the vice-president is… I have not forgotten about antisemitism on the left. It is still alive and well. Spectacularly so. Nowhere has this become more obvious than in the wake of the election of the first anti-Zionist mayor in New York city’s history.

His election has helped make left-wing antisemitism a more acceptable part of American culture. By disguising it as anti-Zionism, one can always claim not to be antisemitic. Just anti-Israel. That can be a legitimate distinction when it is genuinely the case. One can be critical of the State of Israel without being antisemitic. Just ask a typical Charedi Jew how they feel about the State of Israel. Clearly, they are not antisemitic.

I do, however, believe that much - if not most - anti-Zionist expression is, at its core, based on antisemitism, expressed through the socially acceptable medium of criticism of Israel.

How to know this for certain is sometimes impossible. The criticism one hears may sound identical to criticism voiced within Israel itself, by one political party against another.

Which brings me once again to the mayor-elect of New York. The question arises: where does he truly stand? Is he anti-Zionist, or is anti-Zionism simply his way of expressing antisemitism with plausible deniability?

The more I read about him, the more I believe he is the former, not the latter. That said, it is conceivable that this could all be an act designed to mislead his electorate about his true feelings. But I do not think so. He is working too hard to demonstrate that he is not antisemitic.

The latest such example occurred on Chanukah. From JTA:

Zohran Mamdani was welcomed to a Hanukkah celebration at the home of Jewish actor Mandy Patinkin, his wife, actress Kathryn Grody, and their son Gideon.

• The mayor-elect helped prepare latkes using a recipe from Grandma Doralee Patinkin’s Jewish Family Cookbook, lit the first candle, and listened to the blessings in a video he shared on X. “Your mayoral tenure has now been blessed,” Patinkin said to Mamdani.

Mandy Patinkin’s embrace of Mamdani should not surprise anyone. They share the same progressive political philosophy and, according to JTA, similar attitudes toward Israel. (I do, however, find it hard to believe that Patinkin thinks Israel does not have the right to exist as a Jewish state, given his strong identification with Jewish peoplehood. I suspect what he really agrees with Mamdani about is Israeli genocide and that Netanyahu is a war criminal that should be arrested. Not that the Jewish people don’t have a right to a Jewish state. But I digress.)

The point is that I am hard-pressed to see an antisemite doing the kinds of things Mamdani is doing. As I have said many times before, I believe him when he says he will protect the Jewish community from antisemitic acts.

That does not absolve him, however, of responsibility of helping to foment the rise in antisemitism that he now claims he wants to combat. He has yet to acknowledge this. He seems oblivious to it.

And then there is the following:

A sweeping report released by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has ignited controversy by alleging that a significant portion of Mamdani’s administrative appointees are connected to anti-Zionist activist groups—some associated with rhetoric and symbolism widely viewed by Jewish organizations as crossing the line into antisemitism.

This is what is so worrisome about the mayor-elect. His propensity to hire people who share his anti-Zionist views will almost certainly exacerbate the already high incidence of antisemitic violence in New York.

The mayor-elect must do more to convince Jewish New Yorkers of his sincerity than simply make promises.

Before suggesting what that might look like, it is worth considering the source of his anti-Zionism...

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America, Antisemitism, and J.D. Vance

Vice-President J.D.Vance

One of the most comforting aspects of the American ethos is the founding principle that protects the right of every American to practice their religious beliefs freely, without government interference. This right is enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Along with this protection comes a corollary principle: people of all faiths are welcome here. As it pertains to us, the Jewish people, we were warmly welcomed and embraced by George Washington himself in his 1790 letter to a synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island.

I believe that the warm embrace of the Jewish people by America’s first president is rooted in the Judeo-Christian values derived from a shared biblical narrative. (Please do not conflate theology with values. Our theologies are entirely incompatible, but our moral frameworks draw from the same biblical stories governing human behavior. Values later carried by Christians into their New Testament originate in that same narrative.)

Although we Jews have suffered our share of antisemitism in this country over its nearly 250 year history, the vast majority of our experience here has been overwhelmingly positive. I don’t believe any fair-minded person would say otherwise.

That said - and as noted - antisemitism has never entirely disappeared. There have always been right-wing extremists who harbored antisemitic views, sometimes with deadly consequences. After the horrors of the Holocaust were exposed to the world following World War II, that kind of extremism was largely relegated to the fringe—few in number and not generally seen as a threat to the everyday life of American Jews. While some mainstream antisemitism undoubtedly persisted in certain circles, it mostly took the form of relatively harmless stereotyping, often lampooned by Jewish comedians themselves.

For the most part, Jews came to be seen as fellow citizens, hardly different from their Christian counterparts. By the late twentieth century, Jews were fully accepted and immersed in every aspect of American culture. That was, by and large, the substance of mainstream America.

But with the rise of the Palestinian cause—framed as an oppressed, indigenous people suffering under a powerful occupier—many of its proponents found their way into academia through diversity initiatives. Combined with leftist ideologues who embraced this narrative, antisemitism on the left was born and has been steadily ascendant ever since.

While studies show that antisemitism exists in roughly equal measure on both the right and the left, they also show that approximately 80 percent of Americans harbor no antisemitic feelings at all. Even today, despite relentless negative rhetoric promoted by Palestinians and their willing enablers in academia, amplified by a mainstream media that too often repeats these claims unquestioningly.

But still - I have always taken comfort in the belief that mainstream America does not buy into the Palestinian narrative, in part because of how that movement has historically pursued its cause: airline hijackings, kidnappings, suicide bombings on buses, in restaurants, and at weddings filled with innocent people. No civilized person can justify such acts. The United States got a taste of that kind of terrorism on 9/11. I had believed that experience would permanently end any sympathy Palestinians had enjoyed.

I was wrong.

Then came October 7, 2023 - the Israeli version of 9/11... 

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Justice Delayed - is Still Justice

Whistleblower, Sam Kellner (JTA)

We’ve come a long way since the days of Baruch Lebovits. At least I hope we have, judging by the reduced number of cases of sexual abuse within the Orthodox Jewish community being reported in the media these days.

Not all that long ago, the very idea of reporting sexual abuse by religious Jews was considered morally unjustifiable in some Orthodox communities, regardless of evidence. Evidence that usually consisted of not believing the accounts of survivors. The reasons for this reluctance were rooted in the incredulity that such accusations could be true when leveled against individuals who were prominent, respected, and otherwise religious and contributing members of the community.

Rabbinic leaders from the various communities where these accusations arose were often protective of the accused. They believed the allegations were fabricated by people who had gone OTD (Off The Derech) and harbored a vendetta against their former communities. Seeking revenge by smearing them with false claims.

Resistance to reporting abuse to secular authorities was reinforced by the Jewish law of Mesirah – informing on a fellow Jew to an unjust authority. Added to their consideration was that undeniable fact that - even if an accused offender were eventually cleared, the damage to his reputation - and the serious collateral harm to his family - would be irreversible. Preventing the injustice of a false accusation became their overriding concern.

Given the presumed pristine reputations a religious individual so accused – combined  with their belief that accusers were no longer observant and thereby  no longer felt bound by Halacha to tell the truth, community leaders felt justified in refusing to report any abuse at all.

Over time, however, many in the Orthodox world became convinced that credible reports of abuse must be reported. Even when the accused were prominent and respected community members. They came to recognize that false accusations are rare, that survivors deserve justice, and that the public must be protected from future abuse. While the system is still far from perfect - and while sympathy still persists for abusers who receive harsh sentences - that sympathy is no longer as widespread as it once was. In that sense, progress has been made.

I am far less certain that the Chasidic community has fully embraced this new standard of conduct...

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