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[Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”]
Ezra Klein’s recent New York Times op-ed analyzed the “divide in Jewish community’s views on Israel.” There’s one major problem with this piece. Klein, like many prominent Jewish voices on the left, leverages his Jewish identity to gain progressive credibility while fundamentally misrepresenting the Jewish-American community he claims to speak for. People like Klein, and the Jewish Currents sources he quotes, present a distorted picture of where American Jews actually stand, not because they lack data, but because they have an anti-Zionist agenda and representing mainstream Jewish views would cost them social capital within progressive circles.
This is tokenism. Peter Beinart’s career, the editor-at-large of Jewish Currents and one of the sources quoted in Klein’s piece, is emblematic of the voices in this space. His journey from liberal Zionist to anti-Zionist advocate wasn’t driven by new facts on the ground, but by the recognition that abandoning Zionism opened doors to progressive stardom. People like Beinart become “good Jews” in the eyes of progressives. They provide cover for anti-Israel sentiment by offering “As a Jew” stamp of approval. It’s not a coincidence George Soros’ Open Society Foundation is a major donor of Jewish Currents.
Left wing media outlets, like The New York Times, cherry-pick voices exclusively from the far-left fringe because those are the only Jewish voices their audiences want to hear. At the Emmys, actress Hannah Einbinder, speaking to a choir of progressive supporters, used her acceptance speech and red-carpet interview to share “I feel like it is my obligation as a Jewish person to distinguish Jews from the state of Israel.” Einbinder and Beinart’s views are anathema to the voices in synagogues across America, Jewish Federations, Jewish community centers, and Shabbat tables. They represent an academic and activist bubble that has discovered Jewish identity becomes valuable currency in progressive spaces when deployed against the interests of the State of Israel, the indigenous homeland of the Jewish people.
The “divided Jewish community” is a distortion of reality. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 73% of American Jews hold favorable views of Israel. While they may disagree on specific policies, they remain steadfast in their support of the State of Israel, understanding that Zionism, the belief that Jews deserve self-determination in their ancestral homeland, remains integral to Jewish identity and survival. In addition, in light of the sharp rise in antisemitism worldwide, many in the Jewish American community believe that securing the Jewish future depends on a strong state of Israel.
Throughout history, when external pressure mounts and antisemitism rises, Jews often unite. A poll conducted last year, shows that 57% of American Jews reported feeling more connected to Israel or their Jewish identity after October 7 than before. The tokenized anti-Zionists voices are exceptions. Following his op-ed, Klein even interviewed notorious antisemite Mahmoud Khalil. In the interview, among many ahistorical and absurd statements, Mahmoud justifies the attacks of October 7th . Klein hardly even pushed back.
Many far-left Jews naively believe Jewish safety and security depends on self-criticism and distance from Zionism. Since her Emmys appearance, Einbinder has taken to Instagram to embrace double down on her “anti-Zionism.” This same mentality led some German Jews in the 1930s to believe assimilation and criticism of fellow Jews would bring acceptance. History shows otherwise. Regardless of how much Jews tried to blend in or appease critics, they were still seen as Jews, actually as weak and vulnerable Jews, when it mattered. Antisemites made no distinction between assimilated and traditional, between critics and supporters of Zionism.
Today’s Jewish critics of the state Israel suffer from the same delusion, believing condemning Zionism will earn acceptance from those who would otherwise view them as “normal Jews”. They’re wrong. Antisemites don’t hate Jews because of Israel; they hate Israel because they hate everything Jewish, especially the right of Jews for self-determination in a land of their own.
To get a proper view of the Jewish American community, Klein could walk through Jewish neighborhoods in Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, or New York. He could talk to Jewish parents sending children to Jewish schools. Or speak with Jewish college students facing harassment not just for supporting Israel, but for being visibly Jewish. Listen to Jewish professionals worried about expressing pro-Israel views at work. These majority voices tell a different story than left-wing media presents.
The real divide isn’t between Jewish supporters and critics of Israel. It’s between those who understand that Jewish survival has always depended on Jewish solidarity and self-reliance principles, and those who believe Jewish acceptance requires abandoning both. It’s between those who learned history’s lessons and those who think they can trade their people’s security for individual social capital. It’s between those who see the clear overlap between anti-Israel rhetoric and antisemitic violence, and those who pretend this correlation doesn’t exist.
American Jews face the choice every Jewish generation has faced: Will we stand together against rising antisemitism, or allow ourselves to be divided and conquered by those who seek to weaken us from within? Will we learn from the mistakes that were learned in the history of the Jewish people, of Jews who thought appeasement was a survival strategy, or repeat their mistakes?
Klein, Beinart, Einbinder and other prominent left Jewish voices trafficking in anti-Zionist narratives have chosen. They represent a perspective that’s not only minority within American Jewry but historically dangerous. The rest of us, the vast majority who understand our strength lies in unity, Zionism, partnership with the state of Israel, and clear-eyed recognition of antisemitism’s modern forms, must not allow their tokenized voices to be mistaken for our own.
Progressive outlets provide these self-hating Jews platforms precisely because they say what their audiences want to hear from Jews who serve as our generation’s useful idiots, but data and on-the-ground attitudes make it crystal clear they don’t speak for American Jewry. We speak for ourselves: We are Americans, we are Jews, Israel is part of our identity, and we will not be divided by those within us who would trade our people’s future for progressive applause they’ll discover was never worth the price.
This article was originally published in The Jerusalem Post.
Adam Milstein is an Israeli-American “Venture Philanthropist.” He can be reached at adam@milsteinff.org, on X: @AdamMilstein, and on Facebook.
So leftist Jews….who printed up those big ass signs, Was it “son of soros”
These must the Jews who will vote for MamiDammi in a few weeks. You clowns may as well vote your personal executioner.
then you have so called “Jews” for rent to affirm that Jews are for crazy stuff and them coming from from the trans LBGT body mutilation anti God Pagan cult of tattoo and red hair idol worshipping satanist…to be polite about it.
Pretty dumb ass comment. No idea what any of that rant means. Don’t care.
America cannot understand why 95% of all Jews in the United States are extremely liberal and vote to Democrat party because Jews are supposed to stand for family and education and following the law and not allowing sexual perversity.. but are always for criminals and soft on crime and anti-gun so they can’t defend themselves. Mind-boggling when they consider themselves the smartest people on earth..
It’s more like 70-75%, not 95.
But among the religious, it is 15% 0r less.
One thing for sure- we’re not as smart as people think.
Where did you get this statistic? Trump won the majority Orthodox vote in NYC and Los Angeles. You are hanging out with the wrong people. There are neighborhoods in Brooklyn where Trump won close to 90% of the Jewish vote.
That 90% is difficult to find. Most of the polls I find (from Jewish sources) say 70% voted for Kamala and only 30% voted for Trump. Reagan got more Jewish vote than Trump.
Just because some enclaves of Jews voted heavily for Trump does not change the fact that Jews are still much more progressive and support liberal causes like pornography, feminism, open borders, transsexualism, etc.
the 70% polls come from leftist sources which I’ve repeatedly disproven on this site
in reality, Trump won the densest Jewish neighborhoods in Florida
he won the Jewish vote in the ‘enclave’ of New York
and the vote in PA and FL was close if not outright Trump
The Jews under Hitler were all Disarmed before they were sent to those Concentration Camps
I seriously wonder how many Jews, especially those on the Left, own a firearm. Right leaning Jews? Indeed. I know several who are armed to the teeth and are proficient with their weapons.
A local Reform Temple we attended for a while–always to the Left anyway–put up a sign a couple of years ago–just before the COVID debacle drove us away from their medical fetishism–“This is a gun free congregation” along with some other nonsense. My wife was the first to see it after it was placed by the front door.. She wrote a letter to board explaining they were inviting violence upon the facility by installing the damn thing and detailed several scenarios that the sign could create. To their credit, they reconsidered and removed the sign.
Meanwhile, at all the non-woke local Christian congregations, many attendees were armed with compact .45 cal pistols loaded with hollow points to keep their congregations safe, eschewing their lighter weigh concealed carry 9mm pistols due to their tendency to not be stopped by one human target.
Reform temples are more often than not leftist, especially at the leadership level.
I do know of one Reform rabbi (in Cincinnati?) who is a 2nd amendment advocate.
There are many orthodox synagogues where the leadership takes self defence seriously.
Actually, the general German population were under strict gun control from even before the Weimar era. As for German Jews during Hitler, the vast majority knew the danger and did their darn best to emigrate. It was just difficult to do so, when most countries took in very few. Jews who thought they could somehow be accommodated under the regime were very few, but learned through rejection.
There are many things that must be questioned under the post-war consensus. Hitler’s treatment of the Jews is one of the things that cannot be questioned without accusations of anti-semitism.
Weimar Germany was in desperate shape, and the German Jews did not suffer as deeply as other Germans because they had access to international capital. They were resented for this and for making too much money loaning it to non-Jewish Germans who ended up burning their paper money for fuel.
Hitler was something of a Zionist if, by the term, you mean to be supportive of the state of Israel. He encouraged (with financial incentives) the migration of Jews to Palestine, believing they were entitled to their own country.
If I have something wrong here, please correct me. I am still learning.
I remember the BLM rioting in the streets of San Monica in LA in 2020. They attacked and spray painted on 2 synagouses, sic, and yet the ADL fully supported them!
I’ve been waiting for an article like this, from a source like this. DISCLOSURE: I have not one strand of DNA from Jacob. I am a follower of Yeshua who believes in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and that His Word is Truth – and not just that beginning at Matthew 1:1 or (worse) Acts 2. I am an unapologetic Zionist.
I have been substantially frustrated by the cadre of American Jews who love to proclaim their heritage as leverage but have less than no regard for their literal brethren who have made their home in the very land promised to them by the Creator of the Universe. My problem with such Jews is not their heritage; I have a problem with their god. The Jews who migrated to America from Europe post WWII did not bring a reverence for YHVH. They revere another god – Karl Marx. They espouse faith in leftist dogma that is an affront to The Almighty and people of real faith. They embrace European collectivism while they dwell in safety in a nation built on free enterprise and individual rights. They vote for the very scum that is seeking to bring the “final solution” to fruition – Democrats. ANYONE who espouses support for “Palestine” or “Palestinians” is historically and Biblically illiterate, or they simple wish to defy the One Who gave the land as an eternal possession to Jacob and his descendants. Note I did not say Abraham. That covenant with the land did not go to all of Abraham’s seed – neither Ishmael’s offspring nor that of the sons of Keturah have any rightful claim to it. The same applies to Isaac – Esau and his kids have no claim. I note that ALL of these folks are Semites, so it is not anti-Semitism. It is more focused; it is hatred for Israel, the nation entrusted with the oracles of Almighty God and will usher in the Messiah and His Kingdom. Leftists hold all of this in contempt because they serve other gods, mostly the god of self. In response, I hold leftists in contempt.
Numbers 24:9.
Actually, a lot of Jews who came in AFTER WWII were not Marxists. And the ones who came from the former USSR in the 70s and 80s comprised a high percentage of politically conservative and some religious. (The USSR tried to knock out any trace of religion.) Some of the worst Marxists came here in the early 20th century.
I imagine most Reform Jews who want Israel to implement EQUALITY with all Muslims, while Muslims who ARE citizens of Israel have had this equality for over 70 years, want Muslims to be able to please Allah and go to Heaven (Jannah) when they die.
However, I’m also confident that not one knows about Sura 2922, the Gharqad Tree verse with the trees and rocks that snitch on Jews, despite it’s prominence in Islamic services.
Mahmoud Abbas ordered mosques in the territory he controls to increase the emphasis on Sura 2922. This is the verse that says Allah won’t do Last Days so Muslims can’t go to Heaven until Muslims kill all Jews. Look it up.
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2 – Both Judaism and Islam require believers to be obedient, though Jews can argue with Hashem. Murder is a terrible sin for Jews. For Muslims to be good, murder — or at least aiding and abetting mass murder — is a requirement. NOT participating is disobedience.
Islamic verses also warn to NEVER be friends with Christians and Jews, because Christians and Jews are enemies of Allah and enemies of Muslims. Muslims can “be friendly” but not “be friends”. They MUST be disloyal to disbelievers or infidels, if secretly.
NOT ALL MUSLIMS ARE SO EAGER TO OBEY THIS. Some western mosques may not have this preached at them. For example, when 3000 Muslims attacked 800 Jews in Hebron, before Israel, before “stolen land” slander, many or at least of the 20,000 Muslim residents protected their Jewish neighbors. Still, approx 67 Jews were killed, probably many more sliced but not killed, almost 2 dozen Jewish boys in a school burned alive, and the remainder of Jews were driven out of the City of Abraham and Sarah. Talk about stolen land.
MANY Jewish villages fell like this before 1947, though by that date Jews had developed self-defense capabilities and could retaliate to punish murderers.
On top of this, Arabs who were friendly with Jews, who welcomed Jews, who saw mutual benefit from Jewish neighbors, 100 prominent respected Arab patriarchs were ordered assassinated with torture, according to survivors.
They submitted an account and others to the United Nations. I stumbled upon this statement on UN.org listing Nashashibi as one of the prominent victims. No surprise. This is what Hamas (and PA to some extent) do to pro-peace Muslims, intimidation with threats of torture and/or death.
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3 – There’s other horrendous verses about what Muslims should do to disbelievers, blasphemers, and apostates, in order to remain, to repeat, a GOOD Muslim.
Sometimes immigrant parents DON’T cling to these beliefs but the 2nd or 3rd generation does. Sometimes Muslims ignore this part of Holy Scripture or behave as almost-secular, but then some personal or political crisis pushes them to “get religious”.
Yishai Fleischer, a prominent conservative voice from Hebron, where he’s a “settler” in Area C (Area A and Area B are completely off limits to Jews), predicted a terror attack in the wake of the THREAT of this latest proposal for Peace from Trump, in which peace would end the fake genocide.
Sure enough, like the 1937 & 1939 British peace proposals, 1947 (UN peace), and subsequent peace plans (response, two Intifada murder campaigns), there was a terror attack in Israel, a successful killing at a British synagogue on Yom Kippur, and one thwarted by police in Germany (due to snitches or security flags?).
Most Jews don’t speak Arabic so they probably don’t know that Arafat privately described his Oslo Accords signature as “Hubadiyah” (sic?) which is the truce that Muhammad broke and then executed 600-900 Jews, according to Islamic scripture. Needless to say, “Jews deserved it”.
This is VERY DARK so most diaspora Jews prefer to feel happy, feel hope, work hard to build bridges, and pray for peace, and try to be SO GOOD and SO ACCOMMODATING that Muslims will realize their error, and begin to (please please please) Love and Respect Jews.
I agree with Yishai and Adam Milstein and other conservatives who say that the only way some Muslims will respect Jews is the display of strength and conviction, and (frankly) being willing to kill jihadis as much as they are willing to see deaths of fellow Muslims, either for blasphemy or blessed martyrdom.
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Yishai knows the score. He deserves wider recognition.
Memo to Ezra Klein, Peter Beinart and Hannah Einbinder: Thy name is Quisling. Your craven, self-serving appeasement of anti-Zionist progressives has blinded you to the timeless truth that “the friend of my [Satanic] enemy is my enemy.” In the present instance, the enemy are anti-religious globalists who love using unconstrained government power to play God with the lives of others. Don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying that the Lord God commands that you be reflexively, 100% pro-Israel. You are commanded, however, to refrain from serving as “useful idiots” for Israel’s and the Judeo-Christian West’s godless, progressive enemies. This command is non-negotiable. You violate it on peril of your immortal souls (ref. www.newguardsforliberty.com).