AJC Dispatch

#JewishandProud

Over the past 18 months, antisemites have carried out violent and even deadly attacks on Jews across the country—in Pittsburgh, Poway, Jersey City, Monsey, Brooklyn, and elsewhere. AJC’s recent landmark survey on antisemitism found that nearly one in three American Jews conceal their Jewish identity out of concern for their safety. AJC invites you to take a stand and participate in AJC’s #JewishandProud Day on Monday, January 6. Read why hundreds have already signed up to support the effort.

Spotlight

This week on People of the Pod, we sit down with Jacob Kornbluh, national politics reporter for Jewish Insider, to talk about the recent surge of antisemitic attacks against Orthodox communities across the New York area. Then, before the curtain falls on the Yiddish-language Fiddler on the Roof this weekend, we speak to Max Lewkowicz, director of the documentary “Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles,” about how the show became a global phenomenon. Listen now

Must-reads

The Right Response to Antisemitism
The New York Times / 2-minute read
Amid a series of violent antisemitic incidents in New York and New Jersey, including a horrific machete attack inside a rabbi’s home during a Hanukkah celebration, New York Congresswoman Nita Lowey and AJC CEO David Harris penned a New York Times op-ed that called on people of goodwill to express solidarity with the Jewish community, urged law enforcement to step up security measures, and implored lawmakers to stop exploiting antisemitism in the political sphere. Instead, they declared, it’s time to address what has become an epidemic, by acknowledging that it springs from multiple sources and ideologies, especially when people lose faith in democracy and its core value of pluralism. Read more

Wear Your Jewish Pride
The Times of Israel / 2-minute read
What does it say about American society that the most visible Jews have been the targets of assaults in the New York area and about a third of those that aren’t visibly Jewish intentionally try to hide who they are? In an op-ed in The Times of Israel, AJC Global Director of Young Leadership Seffi Kogen says that’s no way to live and it’s also not the way to fight antisemitism. To combat the inclination to hide in the face of fear and to publicly and proudly declare Jewish pride, AJC has designated Monday, January 6 as #JewishandProud Day. Wearing a kippah, or a Star of David, or a Hebrew t-shirt, or some other identifiably Jewish item on January 6 will be a powerful public display of solidarity with those Jews who cannot strip off their Jewishness, Kogen says. Read more

Tehran Vows Revenge After U.S. Drone Strike Kills Elite Force Commander
The Washington Post / 3-minute read
Qasem Soleimani, architect of Iran’s reign of terror across the Middle East and around the world, has paid the ultimate price for his deadly deeds. Soleimani, an Iranian Major General in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and commander of its elite Quds Force, died after a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad early Friday morning. Israel is bracing itself for retaliation and put its embassies around the world on high alert. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commended the U.S. for doing what it thought was necessary, and returned early from Greece to monitor the situation from Jerusalem. UK Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn called the attack an “assassination” and urged the British government to stand up to “belligerent actions and rhetoric coming from the U.S.” AJC CEO David Harris tweeted: “Arch-terrorist #QassemSoleimani is dead. Sad news for @jeremycorbyn, it seems … Will Corbyn lay a wreath & offer a eulogy for him?” Read more

Good to Know

Jews Do Not Take Up Arms
JTA / 3-minute read
On the seventh night of Hanukkah, as police and emergency vehicles still swarmed outside, the Haredi community of Monsey, New York gathered in a synagogue to sing songs of thanksgiving for those who had just survived a knife attack in the home next door. The unarmed Jews had defended themselves by throwing furniture at the knife-wielding invader. In the face of stepped-up calls for the use of personal guns for protection, Hasidic writer Shimon Rolnitzky passionately argues in JTA that the answer is not to defend themselves with firearms, which are verboten. Read more

Top 10 Jewish Stories of 2019 That Called For Action
AJC Global Voice / 3-minute read
The year 2019 began with controversies about antisemitism on Capitol Hill and across college campuses. The year ended with violent attacks on a kosher supermarket and inside a rabbi’s home during Hanukkah. Here are the top 10 stories that shaped the Jewish world from 2019. Strikingly, seven of the headlines point to various expressions of antisemitism in the U.S, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Read more

Jewish Ally, Civil Rights Leader John Lewis Announces Cancer Diagnosis
JTA / 2-minute read
Georgia Congressman John Lewis has worked alongside Jews since his days helping to organize the 1963 March on Washington. Historical accounts of the 1965 March on Selma are often accompanied by the iconic photograph of Lewis and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel with 10 others, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who organized the procession across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. According to JTA, AJC has been the Jewish organization with which Lewis worked most closely. As an Atlanta city councilman, Lewis and AJC co-founded the Atlanta Black-Jewish Coalition in 1982. This year, he helped launch another AJC initiative, the Congressional Black-Jewish Caucus on Capitol Hill. Read more

Tidings

Spot Heroes (The Jerusalem Post)
Tesla in Tel Aviv (JTA)
Jews Celebrate 7.5 Year Talmud Cycle(The Record)

The articles featured here do not necessarily reflect AJC’s positions.

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