Friday, March 29th 2024   |

Opinions

OP-ED: The surge in anti-Semitism? Here’s how to stop it

By DANIEL ELBAUM and MARC STERN

(JTA) — Almost daily accounts of vandalized cemeteries, spray-painted swastikas and bomb threats to JCCs and other Jewish agencies have naturally evoked considerable alarm.

Clearly, we must never reconcile ourselves to an America where this is considered normal. Yet we must not succumb to the opposite tendency to see these recent incidents through a 2,000-year-old lens and draw comparisons to darker days, when Jews...

OP-ED: Nothing to fear but panic and partisanship

By JONATHAN S. TOBIN

(JNS.org) — American Jewry is under assault. A wave of bomb threats called into Jewish community centers and schools, cemetery desecrations and vandalism aimed at other identifiable targets such as synagogues has created an atmosphere of fear about anti-Semitism unmatched in recent memory. The incidents have caught the attention of the entire nation and brought home to a not insignificant percentage of the Jewish population the...

OP-ED: When Jews were illegal, and turned to others for sanctuary

By ELANA KAHN

MILWAUKEE (JTA) — I was privileged recently to participate as the sole Jewish voice at a news conference with Latino leaders, community activists and faith groups at which we spoke loudly and clearly in support of compassionate immigration policies.

I told the people gathered about a piece of Jewish history I had only recently discovered — one that illustrated a strong parallel between our peoples and sharpened...

OP-ED: Trump, the Jews and the political weaponization of anti-Semitism

By ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL

(JTA) — Was that so hard?

At some point in the past week, it looked like President Donald Trump was never going to use “anti-Semitism” in a sentence. It took a fourth series of hoax bomb threats at JCCs around the country and imprecations from Jewish groups across the ideological spectrum for the president to at last use the “A” word.

“Anti-Semitism is horrible and it’s going to...

OP-ED: A change in policy or just sleight of hand?

Depending on who we listen to, President Donald Trump has either taken bold charge of a stagnant peace process and advanced a new tack of a single state solution or has set the question of Palestinian statehood back several decades by moving away from the long-held position of a future involving two states, one Israeli and the other Palestinian.

The two-state solution first proposed under the British Mandate has been...

OP-ED: On trade and travel, Trump has an opportunity to bolster US-Israel ties

By DANIEL SHAPIRO and SCOTT LASENSKY

(JTA) — When President Donald Trump meets Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel next week, the two are expected to discuss the Iran nuclear deal, the peace process and other issues, including the Trump’s campaign promise to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv and what the White House recently called “settlement activity.”

But if Trump would like to generate even closer ties between...

OP-ED: One year and counting: Western Wall prayer fight must go on

By ANAT HOFFMAN

JERUSALEM (JTA) — One year ago, we thought we had made history. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government passed the Western Wall agreement, for the first time granting official recognition to non-Orthodox Jewish streams and women’s rights at Judaism’s holiest site. We were proud of achieving a historic compromise because we knew it was the only way of instilling social change in society. The compromise was painful for...

OP-ED: Honor the memory of Nazi victims by speaking out against anti-Semitism

By DANNY DANON

(JTA) — The world comes together every Jan. 27 to remember the most devastating tragedy in history: the Shoah.

We remember the victims of the Nazi regime. The loved ones lost and the shameful treatment of human life and human dignity. We also make sure to remember our history, as painful as it may be, so we learn from it and never let it repeat itself.

Most...

OP-ED: What Trump can do for Mideast peace now

By JONATHAN A. GREENBLATT

(JTA) — In the run-up to his swearing-in on Friday, President Donald Trump made a series of big promises to Israel. Aside from his oft-repeated pledge to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, he has talked about reviving the peace process with the Palestinians, with a goal of achieving a deal before he leaves the White House.

Undeterred by the failure of past...

OP-ED: An open letter to the President

By ALAN SMASON

The dust has settled from the contentious election of 2016 and we are have now sworn into office our nation’s 45th President. It is not true to say there has never been as colorful a character as Donald J. Trump to be selected as president. Theodore Roosevelt and Andrew Jackson are probably great examples of figures also cut from an uncommon cloth.

What disturbs us most at...