October 7 will go down in history as the most colossal failure and worst surprise in the history of the State of Israel.
Recognizing the enormity of the disaster, the IDF chief of staff and the heads of Southern Command, military intelligence, and the Shin Bet Security Service have already prepared resignation letters that they intend to submit soon after the end of the war in Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been criticized for not doing the same.
But has anyone called for the resignations of the leaders of the top Jewish organizations in the United States?
I will not be calling for them to quit either. But serious questions must be raised.
The antisemitism crisis did not come out of nowhere
Were American Jewish leaders not caught similarly off guard by a dangerous situation that had been bubbling beneath the surface that they had been ignoring for too long, with disastrous results?
Could anything not have been done to prevent the startling rise of antisemitism? Could the scary situation on American college campuses not have been averted?
Netanyahu has rightly been slammed for facilitating the transfer of suitcases of money to Hamas. Did American Jewish leaders similarly facilitate money going to causes that have undermined the safety of American Jewry?
Perhaps before October 7, such questions could have been dismissed as exaggerating or fear-mongering. Had I asked them at a public gathering, it is possible that eyes would have rolled and no proper answer would have been given.
But here we are on what Bret Stephens rightly wrote in The New York Times must be seen as a perpetual October 8. Every single day after the most catastrophic day in Israel’s history must be devoted to righting its wrongs. We cannot afford to move on until the policies of American Jewish groups that were proven so dangerously incorrect are changed dramatically.
Jewish Federations, Hillel groups, and the Anti-Defamation League in particular must reconsider their priorities, programming, and alliances.
Did they veer too much away from helping American Jews in need in order to adopt universal causes? Did they go too far in criticizing Israel for its internal policies and proposals that only showed the vibrancy of Israeli democracy?
Not just organizations, but individuals must rethink their choices
Such questions can also be asked of individual American Jews, too many of whom gave money to Black Lives Matter, colleges, and universities and now regret it. Some even gave money to charities that once helped Jewish immigrants and now facilitate the integration of immigrants who will make American policies less pro-Israel over time and lay the seeds for antisemitism.
Tikkun Olam (the Jewish concept of fixing the world) sounds great on paper. But now it is the fixing that needs immediate fixing.
It is becoming increasingly clear that intersectionality is not helpful to the Jewish people.
Polls showing support for Hamas and opposition to Israel among Americans, especially among young adults, prove we are losing an important battle and the situation is out of control. Prior to October 7, it was unimaginable that in America there would be so much support for Hamas and that Jewish power in the US could be so diminished.
Just as the Jewish state has failed its population in the critical mission of ensuring that there would never be a day justifiably comparable to the Holocaust, so too have American Jewish organizations failed the people they purport to serve.
We must seize this moment before the window of opportunity closes
EVERY JEWISH organization in the United States needs to refocus and reconsider what it is trying to accomplish.
People came to the November 14 “March for Israel” in Washington with different motives. Some came because of Israel and the just war that it is fighting. Some came because of the unbearable antisemitism experienced since October 7. Some came because of the unabashed complicity of university administrations with Hamas supporters and their failure to protect Jewish students on campus.
No one could have imagined the full extent of antisemitism that existed in the United States. Organizations that fight antisemitism and the constituent organizations of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations must acknowledge that they did something wrong if unmasked antisemitism has gotten this bad.
We knew that the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia were pouring tons of money into American universities, yet, like the missiles fired from Gaza and Lebanon, we thought the problem would just go away. Meanwhile, millions of young minds have been corrupted and taken hostage.
Now we must wage war against antisemitism. A window of opportunity following the atrocities of October 7 is quickly closing.
Just like Israel must destroy Hamas – and ideally, other proxies of Iran – while it has sufficient support in the United States, American Jewish organizations must act before the tide turns completely against us.
And just like, in Israel, groups that bitterly fought each other have abandoned their platforms and united against a common foe, we American Jews must unite in an unprecedented effort to turn our horrible failure into the success that we so desperately need for our future.
The writer is chairman of the Religious Zionists of America, chairman of the Center for Righteousness and Integrity, president of the Culture for Peace Institute, and a committee member of the Jewish Agency. He was appointed by former US president Donald Trump and serves as a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. The views expressed are his own. Martinoliner@gmail.com