Future of Jewish (Future of Jewish)

For one thing, the Passover celebration is the first annual holiday to commemorate a human social achievement rather than a natural occurrence.

“What the Jewish F*ck” is a new series in which we bring you the most outrageous and absurd developments from around the Jewish world.

In 2024, my brother’s home was vandalised with “Free Gaza” and “Jews kill babies” scrawled across his car window. Antisemitism in Australia is spreading like wildfire and becoming the norm.

Some fresh perspectives on the centuries-old scourge known as antisemitism.

Maybe, just maybe, these are some of the reasons why we still don’t have a two-state solution.

Becky Voorwinde is Executive Director of The Bronfman Fellowship, overseeing the strategic planning for all aspects of the Fellowship in Israel and the United States, including working closely with the global alumni community of more than 1,300 and select incoming Fellows.

She is also an alumnus of the program, and served as a volunteer member of Bronfman’s Alumni Advisory Board before taking the full-time position of Director of Alumni Engagement in 2008.

The Future of Jewish is a podcast hosted by Joshua Hoffman, the founder of JOOL. In each episode, Joshua is joined by top leaders, thinkers, and doers who are paving the path for a promising Jewish future.

The Jews do not seek world domination. We do not need to. What we have built is something far more effective.

Some Jews believe it is permissible to visit and pray at the Muslims' Temple Mount in Jerusalem, while others do not. This is the backstory.

A conspiracy theory about the Jewish takeover of TikTok, “Water in Occupied Palestine” featured in a Passover prayer book, politicians want Hamas to have veto power over U.S. aid to Israel, and more.

In the name of “balance” — a mysterious thing reporters chase, but never seem to find — they have reported as though the democratic State of Israel and the jihadist terror group Hamas are equivalent.

Equating antisemitism with Islamophobia is a tactic designed to conflate the victims and perpetrators of racism and reduce antisemitism to just another form of bigotry.

The two glass ceiling-breaking Black Americans are not antisemitic in intention, just in outcome. I’m not sure what is worse.

The decolonization and self-determination movements they champion only matter for minority, persecuted groups not named “the Jews.”

The images and testimonies that emerged from Hamas’ October 7th, 2023 attacks bear a chilling resemblance to the massacre of one of the world’s most ancient Jewish communities in 1929.

To all the Jewish "anti-Zionists" out there, this is for you.

When “everything is political,” people can effortlessly choose to stay ignorant or close-minded, and thus avoid important conversations, which are vital for liberal democracies.

Historians debunk the Exodus, and yet Jews turned it into the most successful piece of fiction ever recorded.

The Palestinian narrative is rooted in a bizarre double-sided coin: denial of Jewish history and appropriation of it.

Arguably the most successful “pro-Palestinian” strategy, the BDS movement spells disaster — for Palestinians.

As one famed satirist said, Israelis have no patience for old stories about persecution.

Let's give Israelis more dignity, honor, and respect.

I am talking about confident, courageous, burly groups of Jews who can put these "pro-Palestinian" mobsters in their place.

The first use by Arabs of the name “Palestine” to refer to themselves didn’t occur until the 1960s. The choice of the name is almost comical considering that the Arabic language lacks the letter “P.”

The Democratic Party, at least under President Joe Biden, is not what they brand themselves to be. Jewish Democrats and other such Americans ought to urgently take notice.

With this awakening, again, of antisemitism, I called a survivor of Auschwitz and two death marches at the ripe age of 14. I felt a need to speak with him.

Differences in culture, language, values, ​​and outlook on life make it difficult for the West to decipher the conduct and vision of Hamas in particular and the region in general.

A recent Hebrew-language report revealed that Israel's greatest strength — its mind-bending innovation — appeared to be its greatest weakness in the run-up to October 7th.

Israel can never leave Gaza again without assuming a level of risk which should be obviously unacceptable to any of us.

For some white liberals, anti-racism is a smokescreen for class prejudice.

This is what it's like to live in Haifa as tensions and military operations between Israel and Hezbollah have significantly increased during the last few days.

The decision to deport Mahmoud Khalil is most remarkable for its grasp of America's spirit and academia at their best.

Dr. Tal Becker, a would-be peace maker and advocate of power, has an urgent message for Jews across the world.

This is the lesser-known story of how Hamas returned from exile to rule Gaza and execute the October 7th atrocities.

Now it is time to dismantle the Jihadist regime in Iran and its nefarious nuclear program, while this option is still plausible.

Like so many Jews since October 7th, I am not okay. I smile. I laugh. I work. I write. But I’m faking it. Underneath all of it, I am anxious, scared, heartbroken for the hostages and their families.

Why does it feel like only the Jewish People's oppression comes with an asterisk?

Psalm 73 gives voice to the gamut of complex emotions with which we have all been grappling.

Our enemies know that they cannot defeat us on the battlefield, so instead they attack our peace of mind.

Not for nothing did author Robert Wistrich call antisemitism the world’s oldest hatred.

In our post-October 7th world, the need for Jewish diversity has never been more crucial.

The West has a pristine opportunity to truly confront Iran and send a spirited message to other autocratic regimes.

Even though the Talmud is ancient Jewish literature, its relevance to the contemporary is remarkable.

Jodi Bromberg is the CEO of 18Doors (formerly named InterfaithFamily), whose mission is to support interfaith families in exploring Jewish life, and to strengthen Jewish organizations’ understanding of interfaith inclusion. Prior to joining 18Doors, she was a corporate attorney in the Philadelphia area.

The Future of Jewish is a podcast hosted by Joshua Hoffman, the founder of JOOL. In each episode, Joshua is joined by top leaders, thinkers, and doers who are paving the path for a promising Jewish future.

How many dead Palestinians would be acceptable? The honest answer is, of course, none — and this question is not really a question. It is a trap.

The Jewish doctor's socio-political views reflect his broader ideological commitment to a segment of the Left that supports and perpetuates anti-Israel, anti-capitalist, and anti-Western narratives.

If the Democrats do consult the Torah, they will realize — right at the beginning — something that may surprise them: They should be feeling great right now.

The Reform Judaism movement, as it exists in much of the West today, is no longer Judaism reforming itself for the modern world. It is crony progressivism with Hebrew subtitles.

Who needs books, documentaries, historians, and first-person testimonies when we have overly edited ego-maniacs and self-righteous virtue-signalers screaming from atop their ivory towers, like you?

“Gaza more resembles 1930s Germany, where an extremist party won elections, with the support of most of the people, and quickly unified the military and civil government into one entity.”

For those who are so concerned about their countries funding initiatives abroad, maybe they should start by telling their governments to end corrupted foreign aid to the Palestinian Territories.

Many people confuse "a Jewish state" with the present reality of "a state for the Jews." Here is the nuanced difference, and what it means for Israel's future.

"Zionism is fundamentally a Western movement. It is a movement that lives on the border of the East, but always faces the West."

One hundred years ago, Ahad Ha’am described an import/export model of Jewish culture, and I still believe in it.

What poses an enormous threat to Israel and the greater Western world is the complete and utter hypocrisy disguised as "liberalism" — what I call "fraudulent liberalism."

And a humanitarian crisis, while disheartening, is not anywhere near the same as genocide or ethnic cleansing.

This is what happens when Jews are the victims — and why it so often goes ignored.

In a world where “anti-Zionists” try to obnoxiously recruit more folks to their so-called cause, they are also creating a group just as, if not more, powerful: “anti-Palestinians.”

Convincing others is not their goal. Causing hurt to Jews is.

Auschwitz was not meant to forge alliances between its survivors. Then came October 7th, perhaps the first time in Jewish history when people en masse risked their lives to save other Jews.

One thing you do not “receive” when you move to the Jewish state are textbook lessons in what we might call: “Welcome to Israel, a sliver of land in the volatile, Jew-hating Middle East.”

For many Palestinians, the desire to destroy Israel is stronger than the wish to build their own state. Not only is this bad news for Israel, but it's bad news for the Palestinians too.

“Activism” has turned into a witch hunt: less about progress, more about punishment. It’s intimidation dressed up as moral conviction, like demanding nonviolence with a Molotov cocktail in hand.

Their brutality is not a display of strength, but a sign of growing desperation, humanitarian bankruptcy, and profound ignorance of the civilized world's resilience and unity.

Since nothing happens by coincidence in the Middle East, many of us in Israel are not buying that the war between Israel and Hamas is just that.

The Jews essentially invented liberalism. In recent years, nefarious actors have corrupted it beyond measure.

And, I also admit: In Israel, it's the least of our worries.

It is time for Jews to fight back again, or look for another place to call home.

Both Arab and Muslim states want nothing to do with Palestinian immigrants or refugees. In the West, we should pay attention to why that is.

Things are getting weird. Israel is aligning with the European Far-Right and its Sunni Arab neighbors. The global political order is shifting — and the Jewish state must tread carefully.

The collapse of Syria's Assad regime is already reshaping the Middle East, from Israel's high-stakes military maneuvers to emerging alliances and power struggles that could redefine the region.

The terror group thought it could manipulate history. Now Israel is using Hamas' own tactics to defeat these Islamist barbarians.

The United Nations is a racist and corrupt institution that is beyond reform. Israel should ask itself if it wants to remain part of it. Probably not.

When it comes to the Jewish People and Israel, folks tend to trust their (misguided) feelings over concrete facts.

The Palestinians’ persistent habit of lying is a combination of honor, dignity, fear, jealousy, and anger. When will they realize it's not serving them or the region?

Israel is uniquely burdened with trading its security for its citizens' lives, forced into lopsided hostage deals that no other nation would tolerate.

The belief that Israel is built on stolen Arab land has become orthodoxy among the anti-Israel movement. It is dangerous fiction in need of correction.

Multiple signs suggest that Israel is winning the war against Hamas, but ultimate victory will come when both the terror group and Benjamin Netanyahu's government both lay down their arms.

Iran and Qatar (and the Jihadist proxies they support across the Middle East and North Africa) understand something: An all-out war against Israel will doom them to the dustbins of history.

Middle East expert Daniel Pipes delivers a profound and piercing reality check: Israel has not won because it has never pursued outright victory.

By amplifying selective narratives, the Vatican is distorting the realities of war and reinforcing dangerous biases that undermine efforts toward genuine peace.

Or, what happens when a large number of people acquiesce out of political convenience.

Far-Right Israelis want the Jewish state to have sovereignty over Gaza and Judea and Samaria (aka the West Bank). They think this is the path to security and peace. It is worth analyzing their case.

And they are exposing the "genocide" blood libel against Israel precisely for what it is.

Your opinion is not going to save more lives, achieve peace in the Middle East, or save the Palestinians from their dreadful, oppressive, antisemitic leadership spanning decades.

Why is there an enemy camp on Israel’s sovereign and sacred grounds?

Israel’s “weaponization of COVID,” Zelensky is a “peculiar kind of Jew,” the irony of an app that warns shoppers about brands involved in the “Israeli genocide,” and so much more.

A better way to achieve peace, which is what the Geneva Conventions and United Nations were supposedly set up to do, is to focus not on “proportionality” but on deterrence.

This almost guarantees that Arab proposals for post-war Gaza will be duds in terms of any regional political advancement, even if they would rebuild the Strip.

Jihadists are infatuated with martyrdom. Israel is just giving them a fast-pass to their deepest desires.

Israeli kids — raised within a culture of independence, national purpose, and unfiltered Jewish pride — grow up differently.

We know why some Palestinians and their supporters are uncomfortable with Jesus Christ’s actual beginnings.

When you shoot yourself in the foot, do you blame the gun — or do you blame the person who pulled the trigger?

Based on much evidence, Israel is clobbering Hamas, Hezbollah, and even the Islamic Iran of Republic — for the betterment of the Western world. One day, more of the West will thank us.

The Palestinian Territories have dismal economies that barely function, yet many of their leaders, administrators, and supporters flaunt lavish lives of sheikhs. How is this the case?

Actually, the more accurate question is: What if Palestinians saw Israeli lives as equal?

Gidi Grinstein is the founder and president of The Reut Institute, a Tel Aviv based non-profit and non-partisan institution, described by Tom Friedman of the New York Times as, "Israel's premier strategy group."

Before founding Reut, Grinstein served as Secretary and Coordinator of the Israeli negotiation team on the Permanent Status Agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in the Office, and later in the Bureau, of Prime Minister Ehud Barak ('99–'01).

Some of Grinstein's chief achievements over the last 15 years include forming and training a cadre of leaders, designing the Birthright Israel program ('95-'99), and contributing to the reform of Israel's electoral system. Grinstein is a graduate of Tel-Aviv University in Economics ('91) and Law ('99) and of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government as a Wexner Israel Fellow ('02).

He is a Captain (Res.) in the Israeli Navy and a former volunteer police officer. In 2013, Grinstein published his first book, “Flexigidity: The Secret of Jewish Adaptability & Challenge and Opportunity Facing Israel."

The Future of Jewish is a podcast hosted by Joshua Hoffman, the founder of JOOL. In each episode, Joshua is joined by top leaders, thinkers, and doers who are paving the path for a promising Jewish future.

The corrupted and maligned United Nations has become a key player in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, serving entities and people who have no interest in seeing it resolved.

You cannot defeat terrorists by playing your game. You defeat them by playing their game — better than them — while being unapologetic about it.

Since the Jews were among humanity’s very first socialists and very first liberals, perhaps we should remind the world about who we are and what we subscribe to.

“When will you ever learn?” asked the refrain in Pete Seeger’s classic anti-war song, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone.”