u/ruchenn

A millennial rabbi built a synagogue where others have closed. Her maverick ideas are becoming a model,
by Benyamin Cohen, Forward, 2026-01-28.

 

> SOUTH PHILADELPHIA — On a typical Shabbat, around 175 people pack > into a synagogue that defies every conventional rule of American > Jewish life. > > It is Orthodox and led by a woman. Its sanctuary is divided not into > two sections, but three: men, women, and a small area for nonbinary > congregants. It has no mandatory dues. And instead of struggling to > survive, it is expanding so quickly that it has already outgrown its > building. > > Founded in 2019, the South Philadelphia Shtiebel has become a > closely watched experiment in American Judaism — an urban > congregation built from scratch in a neighborhood where no new > synagogue had taken root in decades, and where most religious > institutions had long since retreated to the suburbs.

Looking for a precedent for the Supreme Court’s decisions? Try Germany in the 1930s.,
by Robert Zaretsky, Forward, 2026-07-02.

 

> In October 1936, German law professors held their annual meeting in > Berlin. In his welcoming address, the meeting’s chairperson turned > to the pressing issue of Jewish influence. “The Jew’s relationship > to our intellectual work is parasitical, tactical and commercial,” > he warned. Thanks to the Nazi state’s “healthy exorcism” of this > malign presence from their profession, though, German “ethnic honor” > would triumph over Jewish “cruelty and impudence.” > > The chairperson was Carl Schmitt, the political philosopher whose > prominence during the Nazi era earned him the moniker of the “crown > jurist.” Neither his name nor his jurisprudence was cited by the > Supreme Court’s Chief Justice John Roberts in his majority opinion > in this week’s ruling in the case of Trump v Slaughter. > Nevertheless, this decision that, by neutering the independence of > federal agencies like the FTC and FCC and stretching the already > expansive powers of the president, makes for a distinct Schmittian > chill.

‘There’s nothing I can say to her’: Boulder attack survivors have words on antisemitism for Congressional nominee Melat Kiros,
by Louis Keene, Forward, 2026-07-02.

 

> In an interview on CNN the day after her primary win, > Kiros tried to allay fears, adding that the “conflation of the > actions of the state of Israel and the Jewish people … is putting > them at greater risk.” > > “My commitment is to protecting the sanctity of human life and > dignity and that includes combating the hate and the rising > antisemitism that we are seeing,” she said. > > But for the survivors of that day’s attack who heard Kiros’ > equivocation ahead of the primary, it was hard not to feel fear – > and fury. Reznik saw Kiros’ refusal to call the attack antisemitic > as the height of hypocrisy. > > “There’s nothing I can say to her,” she said, “because I know she’s > one of the people who’s not listening.”

What Here where we live is our country does to Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews,
by author, Eliezer’s substack, 2026-07-02.

 

> Molly Crabapple’s Here where we live is our country proceeds as > though Mizrachi and Sephardic Jews are not relevant to any of the > questions it asks. > > The questions it asks are large ones. What is the correct political > response to antisemitism? What does Jewish solidarity look like? > What is the relationship between Jewish identity and the state of > Israel? The answers are organized around a single axis: the Bund’s > Ashkenazi, Yiddish-speaking, eastern European tradition against > Labor Zionism’s Ashkenazi, eastern European supposed > settler-colonial project. The frame is complete. Approximately half > of world Jewry is not in it.

Israel is now New York’s favourite political litmus test,
by Joanne Strasser & Nadav Eyal, Future of Jewish, 2026-07-01.

 

> The mechanism is old. > > Neurologist Sigmund Freud described how a group can “bind together a > considerable number of people in love, so long as there are other > people left over to receive the manifestations of their > aggressiveness,” and the psychoanalytic literature on antisemitism, > from psychoanalyst Otto Fenichel onward, treats the Jew as the > figure onto whom a displaced hostility is projected because the > particulars of Jewish life “make them suitable for such a > projection.” > > The displacement is social before it is anything else. The voter > reaches for a distant conflict at little personal cost, while the > local Jew absorbs it at close range. > > While the conflict does identity work for the individual, it does > organizing work for the coalition. > > A movement recognizes itself through what it opposes, so it needs a > shared enemy: someone outside its own membership that the whole > coalition can stand against and, in standing against, recognize > itself. A target drawn from within fractures the coalition; one > drawn from outside holds it together. > > The Left had tried the internal version. For a while its organizing > principle was a reckoning with “whiteness” — an examination in which > members were asked to locate the “oppressor” in themselves, to name > their own complicity, to sit with their privilege. As moral > instruction it was powerful, but as a unifier it worked against > itself. > > An object placed inside the coalition divides it, because everyone > inside falls under the same scrutiny. > > The reckoning turned members’ attention toward one another and > toward themselves, and a movement cannot easily cohere around a > demand that each of its members answer for the thing it opposes. > > But an external object resolves this. When the figure to be opposed > stands outside the coalition — powerful, distant, and elsewhere — > the scrutiny that had turned inward can be redirected outward where > it unifies instead of divides. > > What Mamdani’s coalition opposes has a local address: the largest > Jewish population outside Israel. > > For many New York Jews, the conflict abroad is family, history, > theology, the question of whether a relative came home from October > 7th. Mamdani’s victory was, among other things, the announcement > that the cost of that victory would now be theirs to absorb. They > will live with the mayor who declined to say that Israel has a right > to exist as a Jewish state, who vowed to arrest Israeli Prime > Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should he visit the city, singling out > the Israeli prime minister from every other head of state he might > have named. > > Other distant conflicts — such as Tigray, Sudan, Xinjiang, and > Myanmar — are familiar enough to register, but that is not enough. > The American Left has no labels for them because its signature > distinction is “colonizer” and “colonized,” and these wars do not > divide that way. > > Sudan is an Arab-led government against African populations, with no > Western power to cast as the villain; Tigray is Ethiopian against > Ethiopian; Xinjiang would mean siding against China, which reads as > siding with American power, the wrong direction. Ask who the good > side is in any of them and you get a pause because this requires > reading up. > > But the Israeli-Palestinian conflict comes pre-labeled: a > Western-backed, “white”-coded state against a “brown,” supposedly > indigenous people. The fact that more than half of Israeli Jews are > Black and brown does not disturb the label, because the label was > never meant to describe — only to convict. > > The Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the vilification of “the > Zionist” supply a reading far older than the conflict itself. > > The figure of the Jew as powerful, foreign, and dominant by hidden > means runs back centuries — through the moneylender, the > conspirator, and the secret hand behind events. The American Left’s > colonial frame runs on opposition, and without an oppressor to name, > there is no side to take and no virtue in taking it. So the frame > finds one. > > Israel did not have to audition for this role; the casting was a > story about Jews before it was a story about Israel. And of course, > the voter does not register this story as antisemitic; she believes > she is opposing power, and opposing power is the one thing she is > sure is right.

A tale of two marches: LGBTQ Jews face cheers and heckles at NYC Pride,
by author, NY Jewish Week, 2026-06-29.

 

> Dillon Perez was both heckled and embraced for being Jewish as he > waved a large rainbow flag with a Star of David at New York City’s > Pride March on Sunday. > > Marching earlier in the day with “Jew York Pride,” Perez was greeted > with cheers and cries of “Jewish pride” from spectators. But hours > later, after joining a second Jewish contingent hosted by the > liberal pro-Israel group Zioness, Perez endured booing and > spectators shouting “free Palestine, f–ck Israel.”

Rabbi Abitbol, May 1968, and the invention of a Talmudic counterculture: the Strasbourg student Yeshiva,
by Peter Honigmann, K: Jews, Europe, the XXIˢᵗ century, 2026-06-18.

 

> On April 8, Rav Eliahou Abitbol, founder of the Strasbourg Student > Yeshiva and an unconventional figure in the French Jewish community, > passed away. By tapping into the rebellious spirit of a generation > weary of their parents’ petit-bourgeois Judaism and by recruiting > from far-left circles, he catalyzed - beginning in May 1968 - a > return to Talmudic study that set a trend. In 1996, Peter Honigmann, > who had joined the Students’ Yeshiva in 1984 from East Berlin, > conducted a series of interviews with the rabbi and some of his > closest students to trace the origins, transformations, and > paradoxes of the anarcho-orthodoxy unique to the microcosm > established by Eliahou Abitbol. Written in the narrative present > tense, we reproduce the text here in its original form.

A look into a particularly French counter-cultural movement, as much about French Jews responding to the 1968 Paris Commune as it was about French Jews returning to Jewish practice and tradition.

Dr Elkayam-Levy shares report on Hamas sexual violence at UN side event,
by author, UN Watch, 2026-06-26.

 

> On June 26, 2026, Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, Founder and Chair of the > Civil Commission on October 7th Crimes Against Women and Children, > presented her report “Silenced No More” at UN Watch’s official side > event at the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council, “Women’s > Rights Under Extremism and Conflict,” urging the international > community not to turn a blind eye to the sexual violence committed > against Israeli women.

NB: the thumbnail for the embedded YouTube video shows two women. Dr Elkayam-Levy, speaking, and, next to her, Fawzia Amin Sido, a Yazidi woman from Sinjar. Sido was held in slavery for a decade, first by ISIS-affilated men and, from 2020, by a man who held her captive in Gaza. She testified at the same UN side-event.

“The Hungarian state turned local people into collaborators.”,
by Liam Hoare, K: Jews, Europe, the XXIˢᵗ century, 2026-06-25.

 

> A writer, essayist, and editor-in-chief of the Hungarian Jewish > magazine Szombat, Gábor T Szántó has spent several decades > exploring the legacies of the Shoah, the transformations of Jewish > identity in Central Europe, and the gray areas of contemporary > Hungarian history. In 2024, he published 1945 and other stories, a > collection of short stories devoted to the aftermath of the > catastrophe, which he discusses here for K. with Liam Hoare. From > the reappearance of survivors in a Hungary that believed them to be > gone to the ambiguities of Jews’ relationship with communism, Szántó > revisits the often-overlooked history of the post-Shoah era in > Hungary.

Lots of interesting stuff herein regarding Jews in Hungary both in the immediate post-Shoa period and in more recent years.

Also, Szánto’s short-story collection is available in English translation from Ceeolpress as either a PDF or paperback.

Aviya Kushner was entirely laudatory in her review of the book for Forward, published 2025-08-15.

I made the case for Israel at Oxford. Here’s what I said.,
by Avi Meyer, Jerusalem Journal, 2026-06-25.

 

> Last Thursday, I stood in the Oxford Union and delivered the closing > argument in a fiery debate about Israel. > > Arguing against the proposition that “Israel never truly wanted > peace with Palestine,” I followed Emily Schrader, Hen Mazzig, Dr. > Einat Wilf, and an impressive young Oxford student named Yonatan > Ben-Menachem. Speaking in favor of the motion were Dr. Ghada Karmi, > Sami Hamdi, Professor Ilan Pappé, David Hearst, and Arwa Elrayess, > the Union president. > > Predictably, our side lost the audience vote, but by a far slimmer > margin than we had anticipated: 129 to 208. > > We entered the chamber knowing that we would be facing a largely > hostile audience, but determined to make our case nevertheless. By > the end of the evening, we heard from several students that we had, > in fact, changed their minds — a reminder that calm, substantive > argument can still move people, even in the most challenging > environments. > > What follows is the text of my speech as prepared. In delivering it, > I added a brief remark about our opponents’ repeated refusal to > engage directly with the actual proposition before the House — a > theme that ran throughout the debate. > > I will share the video as soon as it’s available. > > Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem.

The anthropologist deconstructing antizionism,
by Yehudis Litvak, aish, 2026-06-28.

 

> A Yale-trained anthropologist, Adam Louis-Klein emerged from the > Amazon to find his academic world celebrating a hate movement. He is > using his background in anthropology to fight antizionism.

Can Lebanon finally escape Hezbollah?,
by Andrew Fox, Andrew Fox, 2026-06-28.

 

> For the first time in 44 years, Israel and Lebanon have put their > names to a framework agreement. Rubio is presenting it as a first > step toward ending the conflict, restoring Lebanese sovereignty, > dismantling Hezbollah’s military infrastructure, and creating a > verifiable path toward security on Israel’s northern border. The > deal reportedly begins with two pilot zones, into which the Lebanese > Armed Forces will enter as Israel redeploys. At the same time, the > IDF remains in Lebanese territory for as long as Hezbollah continues > to pose a threat. > > This agreement is a meaningful development. It is also where the > hard part begins. The agreement creates a process, not an outcome, > and the central question is whether anyone can impose that process > and outcome on Hezbollah. According to the framework text, Israeli > withdrawal is tied to the verified disarmament of non-state armed > groups and the dismantling of their infrastructure. That sounds > straightforward in Washington. In Lebanon, it runs straight into the > political and coercive reality of Hezbollah.

‘Next year in Jerusalem’ needs an update,
by Amitai Fraiman, Future of Jewish, 2026-06-28.

 

> Jewish institutions did not set out to commodify Judaism. They > adapted, understandably, to a world in which belonging became > voluntary rather than assumed. Institutions professionalized, > programs multiplied, fundraising became central, and the work of > sustaining the Jewish community increasingly became the work of > specialists serving the masses through transactional and > one-directional structures. > > The results became clear only in retrospect. Jewish life, once held > together by obligation and shared responsibility, began to resemble > a marketplace. The question shifted from what Jews owe one another > to whether Jewish life feels meaningful, accessible, and worth the > cost. When the market becomes our rabbi, Judaism becomes a product, > judged less by whether it forms a people than by whether it > satisfies a consumer. > > This can be seen in two of the most successful models of modern > Jewish engagement: Birthright Israel and Chabad. Neither is a > failure. The opposite is true: Each begins with something Jewish > life genuinely needs. > > Birthright offers immersion, encounter, and the experience of Jewish > public life. Chabad offers warmth, access, religious seriousness, > and recognizable Jewish depth. The problem is that under the market > conditions of consumerism, even powerful forms of Jewish experience > can become substitutes for the harder work of building and > sustaining Jewish life.

‘The camps and the gulags’: Eastern Europe’s new forms of Holocaust distortion,
by Anna Zawadzka, fathom, 2026-06.

 

> Fictionalisation of history > > Was it Hannah Arendt? I don’t know who first coined it, but I know > the phrase ‘two totalitarianisms’ has become very popular among > historians and intellectuals. It often takes the form of reflection > ‘on the era of camps and gulags’. I would like to explain how this > phrase consistently reinforces the ideology that has come to > dominate Eastern Europe and that is giving rise to a new form of > Holocaust distortion. The notion of an equivalence between Nazism > and Communism has become an integral and indispensable element of > Eastern European historical politics that reproduces antisemitic > mythology. This historical politics is primarily intended to > conceal, or even to invalidate, the history of local violence > against Jews, of the kind inflicted by local communities before, > during, and after the Holocaust. > > What do I mean by historical politics? I greatly value the > definition coined by Katarzyna Chmielewska, who describes it as ‘the > selective fictionalisation of history, through which the state > frames individual and collective memory: it determines what, how and > by whom [history] should be remembered, and also sets in motion > processes of forgetting/erasing.’

This graphic novel illustrates the story of America’s first Jewish congregation — pirates and all,
by Olivia Haynie, Forward, 2026-05-06.

 

> Graphic novelist Julian Voloj was walking through Manhattan’s > Chinatown when he stumbled across the cemetery of the United States’ > oldest Jewish community, Shearith Israel. This inspired him to > write Remnants, an interpretation of the story of 23 Jews from > Brazil who established North America’s first congregation. > > When people think about Jewish immigration to New York, it usually > brings to mind the waves of Eastern and Central European Jewish > migrants in the early 20th century. But Remnants sheds light on > the Sephardic immigration that introduced Judaism to the Americas > far earlier. > > These Jews were originally from the Iberian Peninsula and had fled > to the Netherlands during the Portuguese and Spanish Inquisitions > that lasted from around the middle of the 15th century to the 19th > century. When the Dutch began occupying Recife, Brazil in 1630, > several Jews immigrated to the new South American colony and founded > the first synagogue in the Americas, Kahal Zur Israel. Through > the eyes of a young girl, Remnants recounts how they had to flee for > their lives again in 1654, when Recife was seized by the Portuguese, > who banished all Jewish and Dutch settlers. This group of Jews > eventually arrived in New Amsterdam, now known as New York. Although > there had been a community of crypto-Jews in Mexico in the 16th > century, historians are not sure they were [an organized > community][] and Shearith Israel is widely recognized as North > America’s first organized congregation.

For years, Jewish activists tried to get the NYC Dyke March to accept Zionists. Now, they’re moving on.
by Hannah Feuer, Forward, 2026-06-26.

 

> Tens of thousands of queer women, nonbinary and trans people are > expected to take to the streets of Manhattan on Saturday to > celebrate the women who fought for their right to celebrate safely > and to declare equal rights for all. Some will also be there to > condemn the state of Israel, as organizers of the renowned Dyke > March insist for the second year in a row that anti-Zionism has > become a core value of the event. > > But the bitter internal fight that shift sparked last year has > vanished, along with many of the march’s longtime Jewish > participants. Many will attend a separate event on Saturday hosted > by Shalom, Dykes, a group created in 2024 by former Dyke March > participants who have been shut out of the celebration. > > “There has been an exodus,” said Nate Shalev, who spent a decade on > the march’s organizing committee. Shalev stepped down when the > organizers turned on them and other Jewish supporters of Israel > after the Oct. 7 attacks. “Anyone who has dissented, anyone who has > any sort of connection to Israel, anyone who is quote unquote not a > good Jew.”

 

An earlier report, written by Nora Berman, and published in Forward on 2025-05-17, is also worth reading: ‘How the Oct. 7 aftermath splintered the New York Dyke March’.

Israel, an Irish obsession,
by Cillian McGrattan, K: Jews, Europe, the XXIˢᵗ century, 2026-06-25.

> Between the end of October and mid-November 2025, the Northern > Ireland Assembly faced collapse because of a motion of no confidence > in the Education Minister because he (with other elected > representatives) visited and voiced support for Israel. At the > beginning of 2026, meanwhile, a damning, and much publicized, survey > demonstrated substantial levels of Irish ignorance — > particularly among young people — regarding basic facts about the > Holocaust. Not surprisingly, unfortunately, antisemitic > attacks are on the rise. More recently, during a debate on a > report into the use of Irish Republican Army informers by the > British security forces (and the apparent willingness of the latter > to countenance murder, rape and child abuse by the former) in the > Irish parliament, a comparison between the Northern Irish > ‘Troubles’ and ‘the genocide we have witnessed in Gaza’ was allowed > to stand uncontested. I wish to suggest that the obsession of the > Irish political classes with Israel – north and south of the Irish > border – reveals two points worthy of note and further study: a.) > antisemitism is [now] an intrinsic, foundational and definitional > element of Irish nationalism; and b.) the Irish nationalist fixation > on Israel demonstrates how antisemitism itself works from and around > a ‘lack’.

 

NB: Dr Cillian McGrattan is an academic and lecturer who lives in Northern Ireland. Also, and expanding lightly on that context, it is reasonable to argue he is a Unionist, albeit not a particularly doctrinaire one.

This doesn’t make what he says about Irish Nationalism incorrect. But it is useful to be aware of the biases a writer is likely bringing to their writing. And it is important to note that Irish Nationalists, themselves, will almost certainly treat with his perspective and argument by privileging this fact above all other facts, and perhaps almost to the exclusion of all other facts.

 

 

copy-edit (typo correction): s/doctrinare/doctrinaire/

Why are they so obsessed with us?,
by Tali Aynalem, Tali Aynalem, 2026-06-19.

> I want to start with a question I genuinely cannot answer. > > What is it about us? > > Seriously. Of all the peoples, all the nations, all the histories on > this earth, what is it about fifteen million Jews that takes up so > much real estate in everyone else’s head? We are 0.2% of the world’s > population. You could fit every Jewish person alive today into the > greater Los Angeles metropolitan area and still have room for the > bagels. > > And yet. > > The UN passes more resolutions about Israel than about every other > country on earth combined. Combined. College campuses that couldn’t > find Tel Aviv on a map have entire organizations dedicated to its > dismantling. Dinner parties derail. Group chats explode. People who > have never met a Jewish person in their lives have extremely strong > opinions about what Jewish people should do, feel, believe, and > apologize for. > > I’m not even angry about it anymore. I’m just genuinely curious. > > What. Is. It. About. Us. > > Let me offer a theory.