One horrifying assault after another on Jews. “Not terrorism,” the authorities reassure us, but rather “targeted attacks on the Jewish community.” To a Jew’s ears, this reassurance is hardly reassuring.
For those American Jews seeking an experience of solidarity with Israelis, the moment has arrived. The global Jewish community is now an active front in the warfare of the Middle East – both the war against the oppressive Iranian regime and the war against its terrorist henchmen – the Houthis, Hamas, and Hezbollah.
The ramming of Temple Israel outside Detroit, the arson at a synagogue in Rotterdam, and the bombing at an Amsterdam Jewish school are just a few of the recent roll calls of daily assaults on Jewish institutions.
The attack on Temple Israel was the work of an individual with a personal connection to the Middle East conflict – members of his family were killed in Lebanon during an Israeli strike on Hezbollah. And security analysts harbor growing concern that other assaults on Jewish institutions have or may yet come from individuals radicalized by Islamist extremism.
The international front of the Mideast conflict did not open with the joint American and Israeli strikes on Iran. In the 1960s, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and then the Palestine Liberation Organization turned international airline hijacking into a recurring nightmare.
And according to the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, years ago, money began flowing from Qatar, home of top Hamas officials, to elite colleges and universities to support anti-Israel activities and faculty who inveigh against Israel’s legitimacy as a Jewish state and classify it a colonialist regime – as if most Israelis were not of Middle Eastern decent and those who had emigrated there from post-war Europe had some home to return to.
More recently, in 2024, US director of national intelligence Avril Haines reported that actors linked to the Iranian government had been supporting and financing anti-Israel campus protesters. It should have come as no surprise, then, how after Hamas’s October 7 rampage, these campuses exploded with anti-Zionist and antisemitic hate.
Given the recent spate of attacks on Jewish institutions in America and around the globe, how infuriating that Congress refuses to settle its dispute over funding the Department of Homeland Security. The misconduct of ICE agents resulting in the deaths of American citizens and the traumatization of American cities must stop. But the department’s financial efforts to secure Jewish institutions must continue.
That work, now more essential than ever, is being jeopardized by domestic politics increasingly driven by those on the extremes of the two political parties who, if not blatantly antisemitic, are doing antisemites’ bidding by making common cause with them.
On the far Right, consider Joe Kent. In his statement of resignation as the director of the US National Counterterrorism Center, he claimed Israel had manipulated America into its war against Iran, thus invoking a classic antisemitic trope.
The next day, during an interview with Tucker Carlson, peddler of anti-Israel conspiracy theories in his own right, Kent even insinuated that Israel may have been behind the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist who had opposed war with Iran.
But equally upsetting on the far Left is the so-called “red-green alliance” of radical progressives and Islamists, which includes a bewildering number of Jews. For too long, Jews and other supporters of Israel have been assailed by too many progressives because of a perceived association with Israel’s hard-right government.
Don’t these “social justice warriors” recognize how dire the threat to Jews has become? No longer are Jews focused merely on encampments and protests and professors demonizing Israel. We now face daily violence.
If the far Right and the far Left cannot stand on the side of Jewish safety, they should at least not further encourage those who would do us harm.
Concern over the relationship between Jews and Muslims in the US
But with all the anxiety stemming from a war in the Middle East that has now reached our own shores, we must guard against importing the conflict ourselves through our own cynicism and mistrust. Of particular concern to me is the relationship between America’s Muslims and Jews. Should Jews and Muslims here view each other with suspicion, it would be tragic. Jews and Muslims in America share so much in common, from our foundational religious narratives to our immigrant histories.
Recently, my synagogue hosted a gathering for iftar, the meal with which Muslims conclude the fast days of their holy month of Ramadan. When news circulated about the gathering, Temple Emanu-El was besieged with inquiries from the local media. At first, with all the bad news in the world, I could not comprehend the media’s interest. And then I understood: with all that bad news, the press was looking for a message of hope.
Perhaps if we can figure out how to break bread in peace in America, then maybe those who inhabit the Middle East can figure it out, too.
The writer holds the Peter and Mary Kalikow Senior Rabbinic Chair of Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York.