I am sure you know this, but want to show all the readers what REAL Jews do. It was a Jewish organization, Workers Circle, that took the families of ICE detainees to the hearing that got Kristi Noem fired. They have been going every week to Alligator Alcatraz to try to shut it down. They said in an email that just came in:
"Donald Trump just fired Kristi Noem as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees this administration’s black site immigration detention centers like Alligator Alcatraz.
"On Tuesday, we were at former Secretary Noem’s hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and we brought her face-to-face with families of her detainees. Our presence there and your continued advocacy compelled Trump to put a new face on his detention regime.
"We took a big risk to pay to fly these families to Washington, DC in secret. Had Noem known they’d be there, she might not have shown up. But because we took that risk, we had a big impact.....
"What we did was more powerful than I’d dared to hope. Now, we need to keep up the momentum until this mass deportation campaign crumbles once and for all."
It also helped to have the families of ICE detainees there where people could see them as human beings! Trump might have found a way around that PR contract, as he has so many other things. As he said, he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and keep MAGA support. (Shooting American citizens in Minneapolis didn't lose it!)
The Purim Spiel has always seemed to me a fantastical attempt at driving the Jewish self-concept of victimization yet ultimate deliverance through trickery. These sweet little plays not only may be simplifying history—they perpetuate a dangerous mythology. And I read that the American Jewish lobbyists call the late Ayatollah a modern-day Haman. I suppose that you’ve got to be a Jew to understand the irony and stupidity of such a statement. Ah, but it’s common for the “religious” to co-opt biblical fantasies to explain and simplify contemporary political problems. Only in some stories do people live happily ever after while all the innocents flourish and the guilty go to the gallows.
How can anyone be antisemitic to people who’re not semites. These people are not indigenous to that area. They're Eastern Europeans and Russians. Ashkenazi Zionist jews who converted in the middle ages.
Stop being pedantic. The term “antisemite” was coined specifically to mean anti-Jewish even though it is etymologically incorrect…but you already knew that.
Right. Palestinians are Semites too, but no one applies the term to hatred of them. That would make AIPAC and people like Netanyahu antisemitic! I think it is applied only to Jews because they were the only Semites that Europeans were familiar with when the term was coined, perhaps in the Middle Ages?.
Absolutely right. The term was coined to mean "hatred of Jews." The term semitic applies to languages actually, not people. Hebrew and Arabic are both semitic languages. In short, anti-semitism has nothing to do about Semites. It refers to Jews. That is why it is was invented. Wilhelm Marr should have just said what he meant "Jew-hatred." The phrase has nothing to do with anyone but Jews.
Netanyahu chose to fund Hamas so that Israel had a credible enemy to fear and be divided over. His goal was to prevent any good faith effort by Israel to develop a peaceful solution to a Palestinian state. His government and policy is complicit with Hamas in the slaughter of Jews in Israel and the subsequent genocide in Gaza and the ongoing slaughter happening against the Palestinians on the West Bank by extremist Jews. As with the US, Israel needs to look at the bad actors in their country and wash their dirty laundry, then put it out to dry.
Actually my last sentence sounds easy but as we struggle to wash our own dirty laundry here in the US with an out of control unlawful government, where we seem to be constantly struggling to catch up and seem unable to acknowledge that we are in a full blown authoritarian takeover of our government who will never allow the midterm elections to take place and who refuse to follow the rule of law as their packed Supreme Court rules against their actions. We feel comforted about our wins in the courts as the regime loses time after time, but don’t realize that the anger and frustration the regime feels at these loses in no way affects their long term goal of doing away with our Democratic experiment. The regime intends that our 250th anniversary will bring an end to our way of life not a celebration of our way of life. Any action to attempt to reverse this needs us to acknowledge where we are now with this regime and with this awareness act soon and massively to see if we can rest our government back from this regime to restore once again a government of the people for the people.
It has been such a relief to read your commentary. I myself and most of my friends who are the most part are also Jewish find what Trump and Netanyahu have been doing, and which they have now escalated, abhorrent. Strongly identified as Jewish and carrying a lot of pride with it, it is particularly painful. I am so glad you have eloquently spelled out what is so clear – in addition to everything else they will now be an escalation in antisemitism. Over the last few days I learned that even the American Jewish Congress, which I have wholeheartedly supported has also turned Jews into a monolithic group. It's stunning. And how is the American side of that organization gonna manage to fight antisemitism with one hand and escalate it with the other? Please keep up your good work.
Yes we have for a while needed one broad group, beyond the particular style of Jewish Voices for Peace, or any other specific group to oppose genocide and other war crimes perpetuated by Israel and U.S. I see that the article shared says that there are reasons of political differences that that hasn't happened but I think alot of people would flock to it if somehow the initiative could be taken. It is now at a time when the majority of the populaton doesn't want this war, and speaking for New York atleast, and I suspect well beyond, a sizable minority if not majority of Jewish folks are not buying this war either, even those that have not yet come to terms with Gaza, sadly, To be honest it is so much easier now to speak against what Israel/U.S. is diong than after October 7, it is maybe just the chilling atmosphere of living under Trumpism and ICE etc. that makes people in great numbers, but more the lack of a leadership making the calss that people look to, as would have been MLK or someone else in the past.. Thanks for sharing this
Hi, could you please clarify why you don’t see the progressive and/or leftist Jews as a “broad” enough group? Both of these are quite substantial in size and both oppose genocide/warcrimes in all forms. And groups like Jewish Voice for Peace are smaller groups within those. It sounds like you are “waiting” for something “other”, to which people (perhaps you?) would flock. I can’t quite get my head around that and would appreciate some clarity. Thx.
Hi I don’t know if you are using the word group as a synonym for organization. There are many Jews who hold progressive and /or leftist views but there are not all members of one organization that could act together in various ways, from circulating statements or petitions or showing up at events all together, making a very obvious impact on people’s perception or attempt to generalize that all Jews except for a tiy minority see what Israel and/or the U.S. is doing in the middle east, and in terms of censoring protests and speech at home, the same way. Jewish Voices for Peace, If Not Now, and other groups act in unison only with themselves although the two I just mentioned do sometimes act in concert. Jews for Economic and Racial Justice and/or J street may be what you are thinking of in terms of other organizations that are progressive and/or liberal…
This is an important post....well worth interrupting your sabbatical.
Yes, AIPAC and the ADL, not to mention the democracy-undermining actions of Jewish GOP billionaires, and Netanyahu's open genocide against Gaza (which he appears determined to replicate in Iran...targeting schools and hospitals in the first 3 days) have endangered the global Jewish diaspora.
True antisemitism (vs the political conflations of Greenblatt) is rising rapidly across the world.
Netanyahu is entirely indifferent because he's pursuing dual goals of vengeance and narcissistic self-preservation, not the safety and security of Jewish people, or even the state of Israel.
If we are unable to break the alliance between White Evangelical Christian Nationalism and pro-Zionist Jews, democracy will be destroyed in both the US and Israel.
Then, it will be a matter of time before the former no longer need the latter. Then what?
It's already so much later than people wish to believe.
Yup. Rubio's comments early in the day made it clear where the trajectory was going. It was even pointed out on "Deadline White House" by one of the guests that this would feed into antisemitism.
Meanwhile, independent authors on Substack have been using the terms "the Israelis" and "the Jews" interchangeably.
Or, to share one of my favorite laments..."Why do the Jews always have to be in the middle of everything?"
Thank you for coming back! You said once that Zohran Mamdani gave you hope. Well, you give hope to your followers, big-time.
This has been pointed out over and over, but it can't be said often enough. "The norm among American Jews is still liberal and progressive — and that norm includes disgust for Trump, contempt for Netanyahu, and revulsion at what they represent." Trump and Netanyahu are creating antisemitism worldwide, just as they claim to be fighting it. I wish every human being on the face of the earth could read what you have written and quoted.
Thank you for liking my comment! Your followers like *you*, and you speak for the Jewish people of America. Please say this over and over and over, so it will reach more people! Netanyahu does not represent "the Jews." He represents the right wing, whether they are Jewish or not. The people who oppose him most strongly are Jewish, which should not cause antisemitism but - is there such a word as "pro-Semitism"? There ought to be!
I even read that there is a new organization to oppose AIPAC that includes anti-Semites like Nick Fuentes. That is terrible. We do not need allies like that. It is based on the conflation of Jewish people and Israel's terrible policies, and if anything can be done about it, it emphatically should be.
The bad ones most certainly do!! AIPAC and their ilk. But the good ones like Workers Circle are working to stop ICE, shut down inhumane detention centers, and apparently were the ones who brought the detainees' families in secret to the hearing that got Kristi Noem fired. If only the world could see them instead of AIPAC, so many would switch from being antisemitic to being (new word?) prosemitic! Not that AIPAC and its ilk don't need to be fought, because they most surely do.
Bibi has ceded empathy for Israel for generations, worldwide, immeasurably steep price to pay
Meh, it's their battle to fight. They should have stood up for something.
I am sure you know this, but want to show all the readers what REAL Jews do. It was a Jewish organization, Workers Circle, that took the families of ICE detainees to the hearing that got Kristi Noem fired. They have been going every week to Alligator Alcatraz to try to shut it down. They said in an email that just came in:
"Donald Trump just fired Kristi Noem as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees this administration’s black site immigration detention centers like Alligator Alcatraz.
"On Tuesday, we were at former Secretary Noem’s hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and we brought her face-to-face with families of her detainees. Our presence there and your continued advocacy compelled Trump to put a new face on his detention regime.
"We took a big risk to pay to fly these families to Washington, DC in secret. Had Noem known they’d be there, she might not have shown up. But because we took that risk, we had a big impact.....
"What we did was more powerful than I’d dared to hope. Now, we need to keep up the momentum until this mass deportation campaign crumbles once and for all."
She was fired because of her PR contract that potentially embarrassed the president.
It also helped to have the families of ICE detainees there where people could see them as human beings! Trump might have found a way around that PR contract, as he has so many other things. As he said, he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and keep MAGA support. (Shooting American citizens in Minneapolis didn't lose it!)
The Purim Spiel has always seemed to me a fantastical attempt at driving the Jewish self-concept of victimization yet ultimate deliverance through trickery. These sweet little plays not only may be simplifying history—they perpetuate a dangerous mythology. And I read that the American Jewish lobbyists call the late Ayatollah a modern-day Haman. I suppose that you’ve got to be a Jew to understand the irony and stupidity of such a statement. Ah, but it’s common for the “religious” to co-opt biblical fantasies to explain and simplify contemporary political problems. Only in some stories do people live happily ever after while all the innocents flourish and the guilty go to the gallows.
How can anyone be antisemitic to people who’re not semites. These people are not indigenous to that area. They're Eastern Europeans and Russians. Ashkenazi Zionist jews who converted in the middle ages.
Stop being pedantic. The term “antisemite” was coined specifically to mean anti-Jewish even though it is etymologically incorrect…but you already knew that.
Right. Palestinians are Semites too, but no one applies the term to hatred of them. That would make AIPAC and people like Netanyahu antisemitic! I think it is applied only to Jews because they were the only Semites that Europeans were familiar with when the term was coined, perhaps in the Middle Ages?.
No. As referenced above Wilhelm Marr, an avowed antisemite, coined at the term.
He was looking to move it away from a religious motive to a more “ scientific” reason for hating Jews.
Absolutely right. The term was coined to mean "hatred of Jews." The term semitic applies to languages actually, not people. Hebrew and Arabic are both semitic languages. In short, anti-semitism has nothing to do about Semites. It refers to Jews. That is why it is was invented. Wilhelm Marr should have just said what he meant "Jew-hatred." The phrase has nothing to do with anyone but Jews.
Netanyahu chose to fund Hamas so that Israel had a credible enemy to fear and be divided over. His goal was to prevent any good faith effort by Israel to develop a peaceful solution to a Palestinian state. His government and policy is complicit with Hamas in the slaughter of Jews in Israel and the subsequent genocide in Gaza and the ongoing slaughter happening against the Palestinians on the West Bank by extremist Jews. As with the US, Israel needs to look at the bad actors in their country and wash their dirty laundry, then put it out to dry.
Actually my last sentence sounds easy but as we struggle to wash our own dirty laundry here in the US with an out of control unlawful government, where we seem to be constantly struggling to catch up and seem unable to acknowledge that we are in a full blown authoritarian takeover of our government who will never allow the midterm elections to take place and who refuse to follow the rule of law as their packed Supreme Court rules against their actions. We feel comforted about our wins in the courts as the regime loses time after time, but don’t realize that the anger and frustration the regime feels at these loses in no way affects their long term goal of doing away with our Democratic experiment. The regime intends that our 250th anniversary will bring an end to our way of life not a celebration of our way of life. Any action to attempt to reverse this needs us to acknowledge where we are now with this regime and with this awareness act soon and massively to see if we can rest our government back from this regime to restore once again a government of the people for the people.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-years-netanyahu-propped-up-hamas-now-its-blown-up-in-our-faces/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/nearly-20-nations-slam-israels-west-bank-moves-as-step-toward-de-facto-annexation/
The expansion of the unlawful war in the Middle East continues
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03/04/world/iran-war-israel-lebanon-trump
Thank you so much for coming back and sharing this. 🙏
It has been such a relief to read your commentary. I myself and most of my friends who are the most part are also Jewish find what Trump and Netanyahu have been doing, and which they have now escalated, abhorrent. Strongly identified as Jewish and carrying a lot of pride with it, it is particularly painful. I am so glad you have eloquently spelled out what is so clear – in addition to everything else they will now be an escalation in antisemitism. Over the last few days I learned that even the American Jewish Congress, which I have wholeheartedly supported has also turned Jews into a monolithic group. It's stunning. And how is the American side of that organization gonna manage to fight antisemitism with one hand and escalate it with the other? Please keep up your good work.
Rock on, MJ!
If the shoe fits
Yes we have for a while needed one broad group, beyond the particular style of Jewish Voices for Peace, or any other specific group to oppose genocide and other war crimes perpetuated by Israel and U.S. I see that the article shared says that there are reasons of political differences that that hasn't happened but I think alot of people would flock to it if somehow the initiative could be taken. It is now at a time when the majority of the populaton doesn't want this war, and speaking for New York atleast, and I suspect well beyond, a sizable minority if not majority of Jewish folks are not buying this war either, even those that have not yet come to terms with Gaza, sadly, To be honest it is so much easier now to speak against what Israel/U.S. is diong than after October 7, it is maybe just the chilling atmosphere of living under Trumpism and ICE etc. that makes people in great numbers, but more the lack of a leadership making the calss that people look to, as would have been MLK or someone else in the past.. Thanks for sharing this
Hi, could you please clarify why you don’t see the progressive and/or leftist Jews as a “broad” enough group? Both of these are quite substantial in size and both oppose genocide/warcrimes in all forms. And groups like Jewish Voice for Peace are smaller groups within those. It sounds like you are “waiting” for something “other”, to which people (perhaps you?) would flock. I can’t quite get my head around that and would appreciate some clarity. Thx.
Hi I don’t know if you are using the word group as a synonym for organization. There are many Jews who hold progressive and /or leftist views but there are not all members of one organization that could act together in various ways, from circulating statements or petitions or showing up at events all together, making a very obvious impact on people’s perception or attempt to generalize that all Jews except for a tiy minority see what Israel and/or the U.S. is doing in the middle east, and in terms of censoring protests and speech at home, the same way. Jewish Voices for Peace, If Not Now, and other groups act in unison only with themselves although the two I just mentioned do sometimes act in concert. Jews for Economic and Racial Justice and/or J street may be what you are thinking of in terms of other organizations that are progressive and/or liberal…
Excellent. Everything I've said.
This is an important post....well worth interrupting your sabbatical.
Yes, AIPAC and the ADL, not to mention the democracy-undermining actions of Jewish GOP billionaires, and Netanyahu's open genocide against Gaza (which he appears determined to replicate in Iran...targeting schools and hospitals in the first 3 days) have endangered the global Jewish diaspora.
True antisemitism (vs the political conflations of Greenblatt) is rising rapidly across the world.
Netanyahu is entirely indifferent because he's pursuing dual goals of vengeance and narcissistic self-preservation, not the safety and security of Jewish people, or even the state of Israel.
If we are unable to break the alliance between White Evangelical Christian Nationalism and pro-Zionist Jews, democracy will be destroyed in both the US and Israel.
Then, it will be a matter of time before the former no longer need the latter. Then what?
It's already so much later than people wish to believe.
Yup. Rubio's comments early in the day made it clear where the trajectory was going. It was even pointed out on "Deadline White House" by one of the guests that this would feed into antisemitism.
Meanwhile, independent authors on Substack have been using the terms "the Israelis" and "the Jews" interchangeably.
Or, to share one of my favorite laments..."Why do the Jews always have to be in the middle of everything?"
Thank you for sharing this, even though you needed time away. Excellent post and of course sharing.
Thank you for coming back! You said once that Zohran Mamdani gave you hope. Well, you give hope to your followers, big-time.
This has been pointed out over and over, but it can't be said often enough. "The norm among American Jews is still liberal and progressive — and that norm includes disgust for Trump, contempt for Netanyahu, and revulsion at what they represent." Trump and Netanyahu are creating antisemitism worldwide, just as they claim to be fighting it. I wish every human being on the face of the earth could read what you have written and quoted.
Thank you for liking my comment! Your followers like *you*, and you speak for the Jewish people of America. Please say this over and over and over, so it will reach more people! Netanyahu does not represent "the Jews." He represents the right wing, whether they are Jewish or not. The people who oppose him most strongly are Jewish, which should not cause antisemitism but - is there such a word as "pro-Semitism"? There ought to be!
I even read that there is a new organization to oppose AIPAC that includes anti-Semites like Nick Fuentes. That is terrible. We do not need allies like that. It is based on the conflation of Jewish people and Israel's terrible policies, and if anything can be done about it, it emphatically should be.
You are exactly right. But the Jewish orgs don't bother with true rightwing antisemites. They WARN us about Mamdani and AOC. Imagine!
The bad ones most certainly do!! AIPAC and their ilk. But the good ones like Workers Circle are working to stop ICE, shut down inhumane detention centers, and apparently were the ones who brought the detainees' families in secret to the hearing that got Kristi Noem fired. If only the world could see them instead of AIPAC, so many would switch from being antisemitic to being (new word?) prosemitic! Not that AIPAC and its ilk don't need to be fought, because they most surely do.