United States President Joe Biden’s approach to religious freedom was laid out clearly in back-to-back pronouncements this week.
On April 16, 2023, US Ambassador for International Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain and US Special Representative for Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr “reiterate[d] the U.S. commitment to the historical status quo in Jerusalem” which bans Jews from the basic human right of praying at their holiest site on The Jewish Temple Mount. The desire among Jews to pray at the site is almost exclusively held by the Orthodox.
The next day, Hussain tweeted “I reiterated US support for implementation of the 2016 Western Wall agreement to expand the egalitarian space at the Wall,” a move that would BREAK from the historical status quo which has limited prayer at the Kotel plaza to only be in the Orthodox style of separate sections for men and women.
There is no consistency in Biden’s approach for the status quo in Jerusalem, in one case embracing it and in another breaking from historic custom. The only commonality is his ignoring the sensitivities and wishes of Orthodox Jews and promoting those of Muslims and non-Orthodox Jews. Biden is seemingly limiting his concerns about religious freedom to those who stuff Democratic ballot boxes, as poll numbers show that 75% of Orthodox Jews vote Republican, while 80% of Reform Jews vote for Democrats.
Domestically, the Biden Administration took aim at rescinding protections for religious groups on American college campuses in February. The proposed rule read: “The U.S. Department of Education proposes to rescind regulations related to religious student organizations at certain public institutions of higher education that prescribe a novel role for the Department in enforcing grant conditions related to religious student organizations.”
Sam Brownback, a former U.S. senator and governor of Kansas and current co-chair of the bipartisan International Religious Freedom Summit, warned that the Biden administration’s proposal ignores the First Amendment rights of religious clubs, saying that the administration is not supportive of religious freedom. In response to the Biden proposal, many attorneys general sent letters to the president stating their opposition to rescinding protections for religious groups.
Biden’s domestic and international policies related to religion are dictated by his loyal base of historically Black Protestants, non-Orthodox Jews, Buddhists and Muslims who overwhelming vote for Democrats, according to Pew Research. In contrast, Mormons, Evangelicals and Orthodox Jews who vote Republican are feeling Biden’s animosity after he emerged unscathed in mid-term elections. Those groups may have much to fear if he wins a second term.
I was excited to head out to the Passover program with my family this year. I had done extensive research on six WhatsApp and Facebook groups devoted to the subject with thousands of nit-picky Jews from around the world just like me over the prior five months. My choice was carefully balanced between nice hotel and physical facilities, good food, and whether I cared more about talented speakers, mixed swimming or a relatively cheap price.
Programs can generally be lumped into three groups: those under 250 people; 250 to 600 people; and a bazillion people. The tinier programs tend to get small families and Europeans, while the enormous programs get the nouveau riche who bring twenty-seven kinsman and a nanny. We opted for the middle one, assuming a Goldilocks outcome.
My cheap (prefers “frugal”) spouse insisted on taking two flights to get to our destination, to save a total of $400 for a family of five, on a program that cost in excess of $80,000. While he said the extra four hours of travel time were about principle, I’m sure he figured it would keep my mother from joining us, who could never manage the transfer in a large airport, thus avoiding both needing to pay for her and having her company for ten days.
Fortunately, only one suitcase went missing on our arrival, with all of one son’s yom tov clothing. He managed to get by with loaners from a friend on the program, who was only two sizes larger than my 20-year-old. He’s “in the freezer” and not dating yet anyway, so looking shlumpy wasn’t a big deal.
We arrived at the hotel to have a young snotty woman wearing a Vasser shirt tell my other son that she was triggered by his “NYPD” T-shirt, and demanded that he change it immediately. He laughed at her and told her to “go to a woke non-Orthodox program next time.”
Not a great start.
Our rooms were pretty nice with ocean views, but our three adult children with nine large pieces of luggage could barely fit into their shared room. We had opted to not splurge for a third room, in a ridiculous approach of pretending we weren’t spoiling our kids rotten.
By the time everyone unpacked and showered, there was very little time to call family members at other programs around the world. I opted to just post a quick family pic on the broader family’s WhatsApp. Everyone else did the same, including my brother who was unhappily at home with his in-laws, who posted a GIF of a young boy crying.
The boys ran off to minyan while the women followed a comfortable 30 minutes later to not appear too frum. The boys used the opposite approach, tucking four sefarim under each arm to “frum signal” to other bochrim on the program. Personally, I thought the white shirt, dark suit and 4-foot long tzisit dragging behind them was sufficient but I’m old school.
The Ashkenazi and Sefardi minyanim both started at the same time, with about the same number of people, however the Ashkenazis got the ballroom while the Mizrahis only got to pray in the hallway. Quite a strike in a program hosted in an Arab country, native to many of the yet-again-abused Jews.
The men looked for someone to talk to about the minyan situation, only to discover that there was no one from the program operator on premise for the first days of yom tov, presumably attempting to avoid yenching Jews. In any event, it sorted itself out, as both groups were ultimately placed in small windowless rooms, and the Sefardi minyan shrank in size as many people abandoned the long atonal davening of their Mizrahi brothers and joined the Ashki crowd. Little did they know that the Ashkenazi minyan had been taken over by a group of Five Towns’ guys who only gave aliyahs to friends and family. Worse still, the American and French families who had made aliyah let their small kids run around like lunatics, seemingly preparing them for a future of hooliganism.
The food on the program was great. If only the people treated the seder and meals with a modicum of respect.
We entered the dining room to see a woman throwing a fit, tossing platters of food to the ground when she found out that the program wasn’t gebrochts. Men stalked the buffet with full plates of lamb and steak in each hand, and then asked the Muslim waiters – who had fasted all day for Ramadan – to bring them burgers and fries without a second thought. Concurrently, two American mothers stormed the kitchen demanding that their kids are the most special, and needed white meat chicken without salt, and dessert that contained no chocolate, nuts or gluten. ASAP.
We made the mistake of taking our food before finding our table. Carrying full plates, we had to walk back to the entrance to look up our table number, an astonishing #86. The high number wasn’t the issue; we were trying to figure out the logic as the prior highest number was 44, a bizarre gap. Worse, the table numbers in the dining room were completely random with absolutely no order or logic. Even more curious, table #86 didn’t exist. We ended up grabbing an empty table next to the kitchen entrance to enjoy the incessant flow of dozens of waiters shuttling back-and-forth with plates and food, overwhelmed by the hungry Jews who remarkably ate every two hours.
Things slowed down to a normal pace after the first day, with relatively few outbursts. The “Vasser woman” switched to a PETA shirt for the remainder of the chag, alternately yelling about the 200-pound tuna flopped near the barbeque which was carved up each meal, and the seventy foot-long buffet of charred animal meat. One girl complained to management that she saw a swastika design in one of the carpets, while a few boys got into a mild fight about whether Shraga is a real yeshiva. Yet no one complained about the small children who kept playing in the lobby fountain, kicking the spotlights to squeals of delight, waiting to get electrocuted.
Two hundred pound tuna to be carved up for barbeque
The Israelis celebrated a single day of yom tov even though they left the holy land at precisely the time they are supposed to be there. One Israeli woman with fake breasts that looked like goiters if her gigantic botoxed lips had not lowered them into correct orbit, brought her kids horseback riding, not pondering the strange small gold hamsa hand dangling between her legs from a chain around her waist. I wasn’t sure if she was proclaiming abstinence or complaining about the effects of the ride.
The prayers were short and unmelodious. While the large programs hire talented chazanim, the smaller ones get men who claim they have yorzeit for their mothers-in-law and torture the prayers in their memory. Shir HaShirim was completed in 300 seconds to a round of high fives. Even at breakneck speed, davening always seemed to end five minutes after breakfast closed down. For the evening services, the self-anointed gabbaim, who showed up to every minyan twenty minutes late, shouted with the authority of geonim about the right time to recite the omer, seemingly based on nothing more than it was a few minutes later than the last screamer.
While the Facebook groups had daily photos of program dinners from around the world, my spouse kvetched about breakfast which no Jews seemed to care about. One complaint was regarding the lack of the ultimate yin yang Pesach food, something which is both the opposite and complementary at the same time: chocolate covered matzah, which reenacts the battle scenes of the movie “300” in Jewish intestines. The hotel must have been familiar with the dietary ramifications of the holiday, as every room attendant had a toilet plunger in a holster.
One group of guys took no chances on the program’s kiddush and shlepped their own to the resort: tequila and foie gras from Europe. As they sliced the gelatinous mound onto Pesadic crackers, I didn’t have the heart to tell them that the expiration date on the goose liver was 18 months earlier. Perhaps I secretly wanted the Vasser girl to claim a small victory.
A friend on the program let me in on an observation both too early and too late: the busboys were only rubbing the dirt off the cutlery and not washing it. I found myself drinking soup straight out of the bowls and eating fruit by hand during the second days.
During chol hamoed, some people went on group tours while others hired their own guides – to do the exact same tours as the rest of the group at five times the price. Still others stayed on premises and attempted to poach workers to bring back to the United States for new help.
In all, we had a great trip that cost roughly five percent of the country’s GDP. My family around the world also enjoyed their programs seemingly more than people’s posts on WhatsApp and Facebook groups would suggest. My sibling who stayed home with in laws was glad it was over and that no one fell down (or needed medical attention!)
While the tradition of saying “Next year in Jerusalem” concludes each seder, I wonder whether people ended the holidays saying “next year I’ll find a program where I can do something to get a Passover trip for free.”
The poorly named “Second Intifada” from September 2000 until 2004, was a period of Palestinian jihadi pogroms against Jews in Israel. Hundreds of Arab attackers bombed buses and ice cream stores, stabbed and ran over women and children in the street, and stoned cars carrying families. Well over 1,000 Jews were killed in their war on innocents.
The Palestinian community was very supportive of the murders. A December 2001 PCPSR poll of Palestinians found that 22.7% and 57.4% of West Bank Arabs “strongly supported” and “supported” armed attacks against Israelis, respectively, with 61.4% believing violence against Israeli civilians inside of Israel could achieve “Palestinian rights” more than negotiations. As such, the Palestinian slaughter of Jewish civilians continued.
The “Second Intifada” / Two Percent War came to a close when Israel built a security barrier which limited the entry of Palestinian Arabs into Israel. When Israel handed Gaza to the Palestinians in 2005 after assurances from the United States that it would support Israel’s annexation of parts of the West Bank, the center of Palestinian attacks mostly came from Gaza, not the West Bank.
That has now changed.
While the majority of Gazans have consistently favored killing Israeli civilians, the period before March 2021 had only about 25% of West Bank Arabs supporting murdering Jews inside of Israel. (To say “only” to one-out-of-four Palestinians in favor of killing innocent Jews is a relatively good figure is appalling, and goes to the jihadi mindset prevalent in the region). The figure jumped to about one-out-of-three after May 2021, when Israel made attempts to evict Palestinian squatters in Shiekh Jarrah in Jerusalem, and Hamas launched rockets into Israel in protest. According to the PCPSR poll in June 2021, Palestinians concluded that Hamas won the battle as Israel halted the eviction, meaning, violence pays off.
Between June 2021 and September 2022, the six PCPSR polls had West Bank Arab support for killing innocent Israeli Jews between 26% and 35%. Then the December 2022 poll showed a step up to 46% support and March 2023 jumped further to 57% support for murdering Jews inside of Israel. There were a few reasons for the jumps.
In the three months before the December 2022 poll, several events happened:
all Palestinian factions met in Algiers and voted to reconcile and hold new elections
Israel elected Benjamin Netanyahu to be Prime Minister again with a coalition of ultra-Orthodox Jews and those backing Jewish rights east of the 1949 Armistice Lines (E49AL)
The newest terrorist groups in the West Bank, the “Lions’ Den” and Jenin Battalion became known in widespread media coverage
The pollsters also believed that the World Cup in Qatar was a factor, noting that it helped “restore Palestinian public trust in the Arab World after years of disappointment.” Further, it added that “in light of the escalating armed clashes in the West Bank and the near formation of a right wing and extreme government in Israel, the Palestinian public becomes more hardline while indicating a greater confidence in the efficacy of armed struggle.” (Note that Arabs use the phrase “armed struggle” to defend the reality of the open slaughter of innocents.)
The three months before the March 2023 poll were not as eventful, but did see the point blank shooting of two Israeli brothers who drove into the Arab town of Huwara, and the subsequent revenge attack by Israelis on the town. The pollsters concluded that “In light of the recent events in Huwara and the northern West Bank, Palestinian public attitudes become more militant as support for armed struggle rises,… and for the first time since the creation of the PA, a majority says that its dissolution or collapse serves the interest of the Palestinian people.“
The more moderate West Bank Arabs have now joined the jihadists in the terrorist enclave of Gaza to conclude that the Oslo Accords and the creation of the Palestinian Authority does not serve their interests. They have decided that the best way to secure their “rights” is via “armed struggle”, now with more arms, and the belief that more people will support their cause than during the scorched earth pogroms of 2000-2004.
They have reasons to believe in their latest jihad.
Not only has Israel still not evicted the Palestinian Arab squatters in homes in Sheikh Jarrah, for the first time ever, Democrats in the United States have more sympathy for Palestinian Arabs than Israelis, according to a March 2023 Gallup poll. Left-wing politicians are leaning into the poll, such as Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Representative Jamaal Bowman (D-NY16), now pushing to condition military aid to Israel.
That will likely encourage Palestinian Arabs to continue their violent attacks against Jews in Israel and the West Bank, and anti-Semites/ anti-Zionists to attack Jews around the world.
It’s a terrifying trifecta: for the first time since the Second Intifada, the majority of Palestinians favor killing Jews; for the first time ever, a majority of Palestinians favor dissolving the Palestinian Authority; and also for the first time ever, more Democrats favor Palestinians over Israelis.
The movement to “Globalize the Intifada” began to gather steam right after the May 2021 skirmish as Palestinians concluded that violence pays off. It is now reaching the boiling point as people conclude that governmental-led society is broken and should be abandoned.
It is called anarchy, and is coming for the Jews first.
On March 23, 2023, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Gutteres published a message for the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, to be observed on March 25th. Gutteres focused on the “evil enterprise of enslavement [that] lasted for over 400 years… of suffering and barbarity that shows humanity at its worst.” He focused on the European slavery of Africans, stating that one can “draw a straight line from the centuries of colonial exploitation to the social and economic inequalities of today. And we can recognize the racist tropes popularized to rationalize the inhumanity of the slave trade in the white supremacist hate that is resurgent today.”
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during the High Level Segment of the 37th Session of the Human Rights Council. 26 February 2018.
While modern slavery exists to this day – much of it the enslavement of Black youths in Africa as soldiers and laborers for Black adults in Angola, Togo, Benin and Nigeria – the U.N. leader focused narrowly on “white supremacist hate” for Africans that was rooted in 400 years of the slave trade. The particularism of Remembrance is for Black victims of White racism, nothing else.
It is interesting to contrast this approach with Gutteres’ statement honoring the victims of the Holocaust, in which Nazi Germany and its allies nearly completed the ethnic cleansing of Jews in Europe.
The title of the United Nations story about Holocaust Remembrance Day was “Honouring Holocaust victims, U.N. chief Guterres pledges to battle anti-Semitism, all forms of hatred.” The lead-in sentence continued that theme, that “the world has a duty to remember that the Holocaust was a systematic attempt to eliminate the Jewish people and so many others.“
A recap of Gutteres’ video remarks noted that “the Holocaust was the culmination of millennia of hatred, scapegoating and discrimination targeting the Jews, what we now call anti-Semitism, he emphasized, adding that tragically and contrary to the international community’s resolve, anti-Semitism continues to thrive. Moreover, the world is also witnessing a deeply troubling rise in extremism, xenophobia, racism and anti-Muslim hatred. Irrationality and intolerance are back, said the U.N. chief.” He further said “that as Secretary-General of the United Nations, I will be in the frontline of the battle against anti-Semitism and all other forms of hatred.“
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein also offered thoughts about the Holocaust that the “sadistic brutality of the atrocities inflicted by the Nazi regime on Jews, Roma, Slavs, persons with disabilities, political dissidents, homosexuals and others was nourished by layer upon layer of propaganda, falsifications and incitement to hatred.” He added that “is crucial to maintain respect for human rights, especially in respect of the right to life and wellbeing of all people regardless of their origin or ethnicity,… [and that] education must be at the core of all efforts to combat anti-Semitism, racism, and all forms of discrimination.”
The speakers were very holistic and all-encompassing as it related to the genocide of Jews.
While the United Nations solely focused on White slavery of Blacks and drew a line across centuries straight to racism against Blacks by Whites today, it opted for a completely different storyline for the slaughter of Jews. For the Holocaust of just some decades ago – as Survivors still scream in their sleep – the UN chose to include many non-Jewish people in the Remembrance, and attributed the barbarism to broad-based xenophobia which manifests itself in broad-based extremism like anti-Muslim hatred today.
It’s repulsive and shocking. And not shocking.
For the U.N., White racism against Blacks is systemic and persistent, while anti-Semitism is neither special nor unique; a subset of other forms of hatred which much also be addressed. The mantra is that over 1 billion Black people suffer persecution as a targeted minority, while the same cannot be said of 15 million Jews.
Ilhan Omar and Nancy Pelosi (photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
There is no more persecuted group in the world than the Jews. The hatred is so embedded in society, that world leaders do not call it out clearly, uniquely and unapologetically, because they have internalized the venom. The audience doesn’t want to hear it, and leaders don’t really want to talk much about it, as the straight line from the Holocaust to today runs through the radical jihadist Palestinian Arabs and anti-Zionists seeking to destroy the Jewish State.
In woke narrative, perpetrators can only by White Christian Males and victims are anyone else. So when society opts to define Jews as White (they are actually multi-racial), the Holocaust gets subtly reconfigured as a story of broad-based xenophobia which caught Jews alongside confirmed capital-V Victims by White Nazis. When Jews today are clearly targeted by non-Whites, the story is either ignored (like New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio and The New York Times) or the hatred is whitewashed because Jews deserved it as “interlopers” (as defined by Blacks in Jersey City) or “colonialists” (as concocted by anti-Zionists).
We are being reeducated by progressive powers that believe Jews are over-represented in power structures cloaked in their Whiteness. The woke become incensed when Jews claim victimhood, and spin the Holocaust into a crime against righteous Victims – homosexuals, the disabled and Muslims – which also caught Jews in the broad net.
The particular stand against racism is as correct as the universalistic stance against Jew-hatred-plus is wrong. Pathetic Holocaust Remembrances and watered down denouncements of anti-Semitism are facilitating the noxious evil, as the neo Nazis and jihadists know an opening when they see it.
I know that you have been following matters in the Middle East and likely have access to materials and insiders that many do not. You may have concluded that while the Arab-Israeli Conflict is complicated, the thorniest issue is Jerusalem, and in that tinderbox the most sensitive is the al Aqsa Mosque / Jewish Temple Mount.
I reach that assessment based on your support of a position that the ban of Jews praying on the holy site should continue, a position known as the “status quo.”
It is likely based on comments from the leader of the Palestinian Authority who said that Israel is “playing with fire” if it allows Jews to pray on the Temple Mount, something he called allowing “settlers to desecrate holy sites.”
The leader of Hamas made similar comments, that there would be a “bloodbath” if Israel makes changes to the rights of Jews. He warned that “the action of the occupation targeting the Islamic and the Christian Holy sites in Jerusalem and Palestine, and specifically the Al Aqsa Mosque, brings about the angry Palestinian reaction.”
To avoid such bloodshed, you possibly decided to overlook the basic human rights of Jews to pray at their holiest site.
You may have convinced yourself that the only Jewish visitors who want to pray at the site are right-wing extremist “illegal settlers”, to further rationalize your position.
So let me ask you, do only Christian fanatics visit and pray at the Vatican?
Do you understand that Judaism is a particular religion, with no desire to convert or dominate anyone? That while Christians and Muslims fought crusades for over one hundred years over the holy land, and expelled the others, and converted their mosques to churches and churches to mosques, Israel did no such thing when it took control of the Temple Mount in 1967? Instead, it handed administrative control of the site to the Jordanian Waqf.
Jerusalem’s Arabs who have been living under Israeli administration for decades have slowly internalized that Israel has no plans on the al Aqsa Mosque. In a December 2022 poll of Jerusalem’s Arabs, they showed that they have a greater fear of accessing the holy site if eastern Jerusalem was under Palestinian sovereignty (63%) than Israeli (41%).
This year is the 75th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Article 18 states “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.” Article 2 underscores the point that this relates to religious rights in disputed land: “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.”
This clearly includes the rights for Jews from around the world to pray at their holiest site of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
In 1776, Thomas Paine wrote in Common Sense “A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.”
So it is with the status quo ban on Jews. It is morally wrong and a disgrace, and the world has blindly let it continue.
I ask that you stop facilitating the trampling of the fundamental human rights of Jews and vote to reverse the anti-Semitic “status quo” edict, and condemn the incendiary remarks and false accusations which block Jews from praying peacefully at their holiest site in their holiest city in the holy land.
Modern Zionism, which began at the end of the 19th century, has three basic components:
That Jews are a people who originate in the land of Israel
That Jews should have self-determination and sovereignty in their homeland
That such homeland will be a safe haven from anti-Semitism and a base from which to combat it
Zionism is without question a Jewish movement, as seen by the three items above. Despite the clear connection, people have debated whether anti-Zionism is necessarily anti-Semitic. Below is a review of various aspects of anti-Zionism together with a consideration of whether it is rooted in Jew hatred.
1. Against the Premise of Zionism
The 19th and 20th century goal of Modern Zionism was to recreate a Jewish State in the Jewish homeland. While Jews had always prayed to, yearned for, moved to and lived in the land of Israel, the idea that Jews should have self-determination and sovereignty in the land was once viewed as far-fetched. Dominant and powerful religious groups believed that the ‘Wandering Jew’ without a home was their curse for killing Jesus thousands of years ago or not following the Islamic prophet today. A Jewish home countered embedded anti-Semitic beliefs in some religions.
There are many ways in which anti-Zionism has become shaped in people’s thinking due to the way Israel is covered in the media and the United Nations, which are deeply anti-Semitic.
2. Manifestations of Anti-Zionism
The anti-Semitism embedded in almost every manifestation of anti-Zionism is both obvious and odious.
Denial Of History
The assertion that Jews are “colonialists”, “interlopers” and “invaders” is a denial of Jews’ 3,300-year history in the holy land. Imagine denying that African-Americans were slaves in the United States or the history of the royal family in the United Kingdom. It is simultaneously absurd and outrageous.
The rejection of Israeli history is specifically targeted against Jews and not the one-quarter of Israelis who are not Jewish.
Denial Place To Live
All people should be allowed to live anywhere and everywhere. No one says that Hindus cannot live in Egypt or gays should be denied citizenship in Norway. So how does anyone have the temerity to say that Jews should banned from living in Gaza or Bethlehem, or think that such a ban should be supported because the local Arabs demand it?
Israeli Arabs are free to relocate from Jaffa to Jerusalem or Jericho without being labelled as illegal “settlers.” The parameters of defining illegal “settlers” is specifically about religion and ethnicity, not nationality.
Denial Right To Pray
Jews, and only Jews, are denied their right to pray at their holiest location. The world has branded the people who demand such basic human right as “extremists,” rather than the jihadists who threaten those Jews with violence.
The invective is attached by anti-Semites / anti-Zionists to any Jew from around the world ascending the Jewish Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Meanwhile, no such call is made about Israeli Arabs who visit the site.
Refusal To Call Out Anti-Semitism
The refusal to accurately label the blatant anti-Semitism of anti-Zionists is also anti-Semitic.
This outrageous sentiment is not reported by the mainstream media or at the United Nations. All pretend that Arabs are merely “resorting” to violence because they are “frustrated” by the lack of a state, not that they seek a state free of Jews.
Calling Israelis “Nazis”
The disgusting smear of calling Israelis “Nazis” is specifically designed to paint Jews in the blood of their murderers. It attempts to brand Jews, the victims of the worst modern genocide of a government against its own citizens, as the new oppressors in the vehicle of a Jewish State. The invective is tied toward Israeli Jews and the Jewish State, not Israeli Arabs.
Charges of “Ethnic Cleansing” and “Genocide”
Anti-Zionists defend Palestinian Arabs who went to war with the Jews who had just survived a genocide in Europe in 1948-9. They defend the five Arab armies who ethnically-cleansed Jews from the western bank of the Jordan and eastern Jerusalem by never talking about it. They skip the disgraceful anti-Semitic Jordanian Citizenship Law of 1954 that gave Arabs citizens and denied giving it to any Jew.
While ignoring the actual ethnic cleansing of Jews, anti-Semites / anti-Zionists claim that Jews are ethnically cleansing Arabs when in fact, the Arab population under Israeli rule has jumped faster that the population of both Jews and Arabs in surrounding countries. Like the absurd charge of “Nazis”, anti-Semite / anti-Zionists are specifically targeting Jews in the attack.
Simultaneously Calling For Two States And Undermining The Jewish One
The call for “two states for two peoples” – for Arabs and Jews – goes back to the 1930s and 1940s. It specifically called for one of the countries to be a Jewish state.
But the United Nations has endorsed the Arab demand that millions of Arabs go to the Jewish State under a “right of return”, while also demanding that the Arab state be Jew-free. That’s 1.5 countries for Arabs and 0.5 for Jews, awarding local Arab sovereignty with purity, while stripping Jews of self-determination.
It’s a direct attack on Jews, not Israelis.
Clear Arab Anti-Semitism in Anti-Zionism
For decades, Palestinians and their sympathizers made no attempt to hide their contempt for global Jewry, not just Israeli Jews. Blowing up a Jewish Center in Argentina, shooting Jewish worshippers in a synagogue in Turkey, or separating Jewish passengers from everyone else during the hijacking of a plane to Entebbe, Uganda was an accepted agenda. The world understood and condemned the noxious anti-Semitism in the Muslim attacks on Jewish civilians around the world.
With the Oslo Accords of the 1990s, Palestinian terrorist groups and leadership pivoted their violent actions more locally to garner global support for their cause. The Arabs were no less anti-Semitic but their strategy demanded global pressure on Israel, because defeating the Jewish State militarily proved unachievable.
While the Arab terrorist attacks of the “Second Intifada” raged in Israel, the Muslim world re-launched the “Zionism is Racism” slur at the 2001 Durban Conference. It called upon the world to isolate, boycott, divest and sanction the Jewish State as a racist enterprise. It inverted their own anti-Semitism as being warranted, because the Jews are the real racists. No longer was the matter simply about two people fighting about a small stretch of land, but one of them – the Jews – were depicted as evil.
The Evil Spiral From Desiring A Palestinian State
It is understandable that many people want to see the Stateless Arabs from Palestine (SAPs) have self-determination. While having a country is not an “inalienable right” the way the United Nations claims uniquely for Palestinian Arabs, the vast majority of Arabs already have self-determination via the Oslo Accords.
The anger at the failure of creating a Palestinian State is directed at the Jewish State, rather than the Arabs themselves who have refused peaceful coexistence for a century. The desire for a Palestinian State morphs into anti-Zionism by blaming the Jews for the plight of the Arabs. Once the Jews are blamed, they are accused globally and stripped of their basic human rights and dignity.
Global Manifestation of Anti-Semitism in Anti-Zionism
People around the world have ingested the anti-Semitism / Anti-Zionism. THEY come for the Jews actively and passively when they are angered by Israel. THEY have taken up physical / economic / moral arms against Jews in their hometowns, while the Arab jihadists wage war in the holy land.
In 2014, mobs in Germany and France came after local Jews in their synagogues during the Hamas War from Gaza. In 2021, anti-Zionists attacked Jews in the kosher restaurants in the United States. These attackers did not protest before an Israeli embassy, but came for local Jews because anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism are fused as one.
3. Goal of Anti-Zionism
Israel is not a theoretical entity but a thriving democracy with millions of people. It is the most liberal country in the entire Middle East / North Africa (MENA) region, with rights for the 25% of non-Jews who live in the country.
Despite (or because of) the success of the Jewish State, anti-Zionists want to see it destroyed. They either want to strip the Jews of sovereignty or want them to be expelled from their homeland (like senior White House correspondent Helen Thomas urged).
Anti-Zionism is anchored in antagonism against Jews.
4. How To Break From Anti-Semitism In Anti-Zionism
Many anti-Semites become anti-Zionists as an extension of their Jew hatred, such as Neo Nazis. Many anti-Zionists are anti-Semites because of their anger at Jews coming to Israel and the lack of a Palestinian State.
While the Palestinian cause need not be anti-Semitic, the hatred has been encouraged by Palestinian leadership and echoed at the United Nations. The path to peaceful coexistence is to break the systemic Jew hatred that is currently embedded in the goal of creating a Palestinian state.
Some examples:
Allowing Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount. The current blatantly anti-Jewish edict banning Jews from praying at their holiest location is outrageous. That the United States and the United Nations insist on the “status quo” requested by fanatical Muslims is pathetic and demonstrates the power of 1.8 billion Muslims and trillions of dollars of oil wealth have over the world. The U.S. and U.N. should work with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to reverse this anti-Semitic demand.
Reverse UNSC Resolution 2334. The idea that the United Nations passed a law that bans Jews – and only Jews – from living somewhere, let alone in their holiest city and homeland is disgusting. One would imagine that Nazis drafted the legislation. A Palestinian state can exist just fine with Jews living there, just as Israel has thrived with millions of non-Jews.
Amend the Palestinian refugee discussion. One cannot simultaneously argue for two states – one Jewish and the other Arab – while arguing for millions of Arabs to go to Israel and no Jews should be allowed in Palestine. The matter of refugees should clearly be articulated as to be settled only through financial payments, and should cover all descendants who lost homes in 1948, not just those living under the UNRWA umbrella.
Adopt the IHRA definition of Anti-Semitism. The IHRA definition has been adopted by thousands of municipalities and organizations. It lays out examples of anti-Zionism which are clearly anti-Semitism. It does not squash free speech as critics claim, but gives a template for people and organizations to understand what is hate speech.
Speak up for Jewish history and rights when discussing Israel. It is disgraceful that the media and United Nations undermines Jews and Israel consistently. For example, only calling the Temple Mount the al Aqsa Compound is an insult to Jews. Saying that the holy land is inherently and only Arab is an insult to Jews. Saying that Jews are not indigenous to their homeland is anti-Semitic. Equating the ‘Naqba’ to the Holocaust is disgusting and anti-Semitic. Demanding that Jerusalem maintain its ‘demographic character‘ achieved after Jordanian Arabs ethnically cleansed all Jews from the city is repulsive and reeks of Jew hatred.
Call out the anti-Semites hiding behind anti-Israel propaganda. When people like Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) talk about Jews behind the curtains making money off of racism from Gaza to Detroit, she should not be excused because she is a Muslim woman. She, and others with similar attitudes, must be condemned by everyone, including other Democratic politicians.
It is time to stop being polite on this subject and articulate clearly that anti-Zionists are anti-Semites, and should be called out and treated as such.
Very few countries in the world have a position in the government for descendants of the country’s original inhabitants who live abroad. Only one also has non-governmental organizations to combat the hatred of those persecuted members in the diaspora.
Israel.
The Jewish State of Israel was founded on three central beliefs of Modern Zionism: that Jews are a people who originate in the land of Israel; they have a right to self-determination and sovereignty in their homeland; and that their country will not only be a safe haven against Jew-hatred, but will combat noxious anti-Semitism around the world.
Today, Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs is Amichai Chikli. Born in Jerusalem, he is the son of a Tunisian Conservative rabbi. His governmental position is to strengthen the bonds between Israel and Jews of the diaspora.
Israeli MK Amichai Chikli (Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Outside of the government, the World Zionist Organization promotes Zionism, and is a vehicle for world Jewry to interface with Israel. Nerya Meir assumed the head of the Diaspora Department and Raheli Baratz-Rix heads the WZO’s Department for Combatting Antisemitism. Last year, Prime Minister Yair Lapid appointed the actress Noa Tishby to a new position of Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism and Delegitimization.
This letter is for each of them.
To Israel’s leaders to Diaspora Jewry,
We know that Israel is very busy with countless issues, and the roles each of you play to ensure a strong bond between the Jewish State and Diaspora Jewry is always appreciated.
We are keenly aware of how the nature of our relationship has changed since the re-establishment of the Jewish State in 1948: from a nascent struggling country fighting for survival seeking bodies and funds from diaspora, to a thriving democracy in the heart of an illiberal Middle East with the greatest concentration of Jews anywhere for the first time in almost two thousand years. The modern state welcomes Jewish immigrants, visitors and investment, while it no longer feels they are critical to its survival.
There are a few things to keep in mind as we enter this stage of our relationship.
The United States
Since 1948, the Diaspora has changed remarkably. In 1948, at the country’s founding, there were 34 countries with over 25,000 Jews. Today there are only 17, half that number. To put that in context, the 15 non-U.S. diaspora countries with over 25,000 Jews stands in contrast to 27 U.S. cities with more than 25,000 Jews.
Two countries – Israel and the United States – account for roughly 85% of world Jewry, with the U.S. accounting for 73% of the Jewish diaspora. While the U.S. does not define the diaspora, it is the most significant country by a very wide margin.
There are eight other diaspora countries which have over one percent of diaspora Jews living there, but only two of them – France and the United Kingdom – are also significant trading partners with Israel and members of the United Nations Security Council. Some of the other countries – like Argentina and Russia – have declining Jewish populations and should be viewed as countries for Israel to target for aliyah, rather than as significant long-term outposts of global Jewry.
Diaspora Anti-Semitism and Terrorism
Historically (the 1970s through 2010s), anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist attacks occurred in world capitals such as Athens, Rome, Istanbul, Paris, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Mumbai and London. Fanatics burst into synagogues, Jewish community centers and kosher restaurants and killed as many people as possible.
While the scourge has not left major international cities, the current trend in violence is more prevalent in American cities such as Pittsburgh, PA, Colleyville, TX, Jersey City, NJ and Poway, CA. It shouldn’t be a surprise: there are three times as many Jews in Pittsburgh (42,000) than in all of Turkey (14,300).
The same is true for Jews living in the Israeli territories east of the 1949 Armistice Lines (E49AL). While there are 25 countries in the world with over 10,000 Jews (including the U.S. and Israel), there are nine cities (and growing) in E49AL with such totals. Almost all have experienced attacks.
The facts above have been true for many years but have not penetrated the minds of most people. Part of the reason is attacks on Jews in European cities and E49AL is almost always tied to anti-Zionism, easily triggered in societies with centuries of ingrained anti-Semitism. This is in contrast to attacks in the United States which arise from anti-Semitism in a country established on the basis of religious freedom.
This is changing.
While the Israel-Gaza war in 2014 saw a sharp rise in anti-Semitic attacks in Europe, there were virtually none in the United States. Not so for the eleven day skirmish in May 2021, when gangs assaulted Jews all over the country. Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL said during that time that “the brazenness, the audacity of these assaults in broad daylight. We have seen people basically say, if you are wearing a Jewish star, you must be a Zionist and you should be killed…. we have unhinged, fictionalized conspiracies about Israel, that somehow the Jewish State is systematically slaughtering children or committing genocide. And then that leads to real-world attacks on Jewish people in the streets of America, on our campuses, in our communities.”
It is in the streets of dozens of American cities that the danger of anti-Semitism is now the most pressing, and the scourge is increasingly tied to anti-Zionism.
America’s Jewish Cities and Universities
The 27 cities in the United States with over 25,000 Jews are not only in the biggest states which are solidly Democratic as popularly believed. While many are found in New York, New Jersey, California, Massachusetts and Illinois, a growing number are in Florida, Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
As shown in the table above, fifteen of the top 27 U.S. cities are located in solidly Democratic states per the 2020 presidential election. Seven cities were found in Republican states and five were in swing states.
Beyond these major Jewish population centers, are cities with universities with significant Jewish populations, many of which are suffering from anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist violence and rhetoric.
Anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism have also spread to universities with significant Jewish populations in cities with relatively few Jews. Those include Brown University in Providence, RI (14,200 Jews) and Duke University in Durham, NC (12,000).
As an example, in February 2022, Duke passed a resolution which condemned anti-Semitism which included using the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism which covered anti-Zionism. This was likely in response to vile anti-Semitic and anti-Israel speakers at the campus in 2019 as covered by a Ami Horowitz video. However, by March 2022, the Duke Student Government was sponsoring Student for Justice in Palestine events featuring noted anti-Zionist and anti-Semite Mohammed El-Kurd. The AMCHA Initiative has long tracked how universities with an SJP chapter are much more likely to have anti-Semitic incidents on campus.
College campuses have become fertile ground for extreme fundamentalist governments including Qatar and Saudi Arabia to pour over $1 billion to influence the next generation of students. Leading schools which have taken their money include Columbia University, Tufts University, the University of Southern California, George Washington University, NYU, MIT, Harvard, Georgetown and Carnegie Mellon. The Arab states have used their oil wealth to export the demonization of the Jewish State and Jews around the world.
And the impetus for exporting their hatred onto American shores is their hatred for Israel. Killing the Jewish State’s strongest supporter is a key aim of anti-Zionists.
Israel’s Fight Against Anti-Semitism in America
It is noble and appreciated that Israel is taking up the fight against global anti-Semitism.
Minister Chikli, you talked about the diaspora community and suggested that small communities might be best served by making aliyah to Israel, and plan on investing a good portion of your 500 million NIS budget in the education of the larger communities. This is wise. While it will be difficult for Israel to match the dollars of the Muslim Gulf states going into America’s leading universities, it can invest in the middle and high schools of the United States’ largest Jewish cities.
America’s Jews and communities are mostly well-off and well-organized. We have numerous Jewish schools, synagogues, community centers and Israel advocacy groups, especially compared to the other countries in the diaspora. But there are things that must come from Israel to the various cities listed above to help fight the rising anti-Semitism. Here is the start of a list:
Israelis and Israeli products in the schools and markets
Collaboration between American universities and companies and those in Israel
Eloquent and well versed Israelis on news channels
Establish pro-Jewish narratives
Bi-partisanship, connecting with all streams of Judaism
Open and clear communication between Israel and U.S. Jewish leaders
Israelis and Israeli products in the schools and markets
Getting young Israelis into cities across the United States with programs like shinshinim should be expanded. The Israelis get a better appreciation for America, and Americans get a first-hand account of what is happening in Israel, not from the news or textbooks, but from young Israelis living in the Jewish State.
The BDS (boycott, divest and sanction) movement against Israel should not only be fought legally but on the ground. Getting lots of Israeli products and brands into stores should be a priority of the Israeli government, not just the Israeli companies.
Collaboration between American universities and companies and those in Israel
Israeli universities and companies are in a good position to continue to leverage their leading research and technological prowess to collaborate with American institutions. An active bi-lateral flow of human and financial capital can cement positive long-term relationships.
Eloquent and well versed Israelis on American media
Israel must develop a comprehensive team of fluent English speakers who are adept at public relations on a range of topics. The most glaring problems are when Israeli spokespersons cannot handle basic questions on television when Israel is in a conflict. The government must have a team of people in constant dialogue with the full range of American media on political, economic, cultural, religious, historical and scientific matters.
Establish pro-Jewish narratives
It is very important to establish and correct information that is being propagated in the media and on campuses, but the Israeli government must do more to craft the narratives. For example, not only should the statistics about the Arab population in Jerusalem and Israel be laid out to dismiss the ridiculous charges of genocide and ethnic cleansing, but stories of real people should be featured. The world loves a good story, and Israel is more than capable of humanizing the liberal country it has built in the heart of the illiberal Middle East.
Bi-partisanship, connecting with all streams of Judaism
As described above, there are Democratic and Republican Jews and they live in a range of cities. It is imperative for Israel to maintain good relations with both parties, ESPECIALLY as the divide in the country grows.
Similarly, it is important for Israel to connect with all the streams of Judaism which are much more common in the United States than in Israel and the rest of the diaspora. The Reform, Reconstructionist and Conservative branches of Judaism are much larger than the Modern and Ultra Orthodox streams. Those liberals tend to be much more critical of religious and nationalistic actions by Israel, while the more Orthodox tend to be more likely to make aliyah. Israel needs to keep a good relationship with each community.
Open and clear communication between Israel and U.S. Jewish leaders
The last item on this short list is for good lines of direct communication. If the government of Israel is directly communicating with American Jewish leaders, hopefully it will prevent Jewish leaders from lobbying the U.S. government to take actions against Israel, as J Street did aggressively, in pushing the Obama Administration to allow UN Security Council Resolution 2334 to pass.
Israel is at a very sensitive moment in history with Iran on the verge of obtaining nuclear weapons capability, and the largest percentage of West Bank Arabs itching for violence against Jewish civilians in twenty years. At the same time, American Jewry is more divided as it faces growing anti-Semitism, a break from historic norms when Jews normally come together when faced with Jew hatred.
The global fight against anti-Semitism can be won with Israeli and American forces acting together with common purpose. We look forward to working together with you at this important time in history.
Anti-Semites around the world suffer terribly. Consumed by hatred for Jews, they often feel that their sentiments need a broader outlet. They seek the comradery of others who despise Jews, and public forums to attack those they believe are stains on mankind.
In February 2023 in Orlando, FL, Neo Nazis stood outside a Chabad house and taunted Jews with chants of ‘Heil Hitler’, and asked how many Jews could fit in a barbecue grill and how many Palestinian Arabs they killed. White Supremacist groups called for February 25, 2023 to be a ‘Day of Hate‘ to gather momentum for attacks on Jews.
Consider when Israel rebuilt the Hurva Synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem in 2010 which the Jordanian army had blown up in 1949. Palestinians called for a ‘Day of Rage‘ with hundreds of Palestinian Arabs attacking Jews. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (I guess meaning only for Arabs) released a statement which “strongly condemns recent measures taken by Israel in East Jerusalem, the latest of which has been the inauguration of a synagogue in the old city. PCHR holds Israel responsible for the escalation of the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory.“
The sick symmetry.
Neo Nazis come for Jews in their houses of worship in the United States because they hate the presence of Jews in their goal of a purely White Christian society. Radical Islamists come for Jews in their synagogues in Israel because they believe the land is purely Muslim. Both sinister radical groups consider Jews to be vile whose basic physical presence is an affront to their sensibilities to be fought en masse.
David Duke, the Grand Wizard of the KKK reached out to radical jihadists like Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) to join forces against the Jews. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) invoked Nazi stereotypes about the Jews seemingly in an effort to reach out to Nazis.
The United Nations and global media have rightfully denounced the Neo Nazis but have pathetically rallied to support anti-Semitic Muslims. The Nazis and jihadists don’t care, and will bond together to attack the most persecuted minority in the world. Perhaps they will unite under the banner of radical jihadists, who have wrongfully gathered global sympathies with abundant resources.
At least until the Islamic State of Iran initiates its own genocide of Jews.
Neo Nazis (with no government and media support) and Islamic radicals (with tremendous government and media support) are rallying fellow anti-Semites to take on the Jews wherever they live and pray. White Supremacists have joined the global jihad against the same Jewish infidels while the world considers which dead Jews deserved it.
The Abraham Accords struck between Israel and several Arab Muslim countries including the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco in 2020, have continued to advance the cause of peaceful coexistence.
On February 20, 2023, the U.A.E. invited many Jewish guests to be part of the opening ceremony of the first new synagogue in a Muslim country in generations. The Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue is part of the multi-faith Abrahamic Family House complex in Abu Dhabi which also includes a mosque and a church. The three places of worship sit beside one another in an effort to show harmony between the different faiths.
Beyond the proximity of each house of worship, the architects took care in designing each building: the mosque faces the Islamic holy city of Mecca, the church faces east towards the rising sun, and the synagogue faces Jerusalem, Judaism’s holist city.
Abrahamic Family Complex in Abu Dhabi, UAE
On that same February day, the United Nations took the polar opposite approach towards religious coexistence as the U.N. Security Council issued a statement condemning Jews and Judaism.
The official statement was a litany of complaints on the presence of Jews in their holy land. It expressed “strong opposition” to Jews building homes east of the 1949 Armistice Lines (E49AL). It condemned Israel’s killing Islamic terrorists planning attacks on Jewish civilians. It demanded that Jews continue to be forbidden from praying at the holiest site on the Jewish Temple Mount. And it urged that Jews and Christians take a backseat to Muslims when the holidays of Ramadan, Easter and Passover overlap this year, prioritizing Muslim access to Jerusalem over believers of the other faiths.
Remarkably, the “most right-wing government in Israeli history” as portrayed in the media, acquiesced to the anti-Semitic proposals. The Israeli government said that it would keep the “status quo” of banning Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount and would ban Jews from the site during the last ten days of Ramdan. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also reportedly told the United States that it won’t authorize new Jewish towns in E49AL for the next few months and will limit incursions into Palestinian Authority towns to arrest terrorists.
While the United Arab Emirates works for religious coexistence, the United Nations works to foment religious animosity and segregation. If there’s a future for peace and coexistence in the region, it will run through the U.A.E. and not the U.N..
The New York Times did a series on the Ultra-Orthodox schools and how they “fail and steal tax dollars on purpose.” The hit pieces were designed to show that the schools bilk taxpayers of hundreds of millions of dollars and then fail to teach basic subjects like English and math.
All of the work was done by Times researchers and the data is therefore their own, as are their conclusions.
So it with interest to read a report from WalletHub that ranked “2023’s Most & Least Educated States in America.” While New York came in at #14, WBLK posted the New York districts with the worst college graduation rates. The bottom five were:
Mount Pleasant-Cottage Union Free (Westchester County) – 6% Graduation Rate In 2022
Kendall Central (Orleans County) – 3% Graduation Rate In 2022
Kiryas Joel Village Union Free (Orange County) – 0% Graduation Rate In 2022
Greenburgh-Graham Union Free (Westchester County) – 0% Graduation Rate In 2022
Mount Pleasant-Blythedale Union Free (Westchester County) – 0% Graduation Rate In 2022
Tied for the bottom was Kiryas Joel, seemingly confirming the conclusion of the New York Times, that Hasidic schools are failing with 0% of the students graduating college.
It is curious that the school wasn’t an outlier but had company of non-Hasidic school districts, which begs further inspection.
Students in Kiryas Joel
Mount Pleasant-Blythedale is a school set up inside a children’s hospital, enabling sick students to learn. According to U.S. News, the school has 126 students which are 70% minority. All of the teachers are certified and about 91% have at least three years of experience. The test scores show about 10% of the students proficient in math and 10% in Reading. The cost per student is roughly $55,000.
Greenburgh-Graham school district was established to help students who were failing in other schools due to academic or emotional challenges. The school is estimated to have around 300 students with a 1:1 student ratio. U.S. News does not have a breakdown of the students but shares that 75% of the students have Reading proficiency but no data on mathematics. The cost per student is roughly $210,000.
Before getting to the statistics on the Ultra-Orthodox school, a review of the other two non-religious schools is worthwhile for comparative purposes.
Kendall is a large school district with 712 students according to U.S. News, of which 10% are minority and almost 49% are economically disadvantaged. All of the teachers are certified and 97.5% have three or more years of experience. The student: teacher ratio is 10:1. The district has elementary, middle and high schools with mathematics and reading scores in each that are higher than state averages, and has a very different message than WalletHub, showing a 92.7% high school graduation rate. If only 3% are graduating college, it likely means many cannot afford to attend. The cost per student is about $26,000.
Mount Pleasant-Cottage school district was set up for students with emotional and cognitive disabilities. According to U.S. News, there are 116 students of which 92% are minority. Only 93% of the teachers are certified, 66% have more than three years of experience and the student-teacher ratio is 6-to-1. The students showed a 5% and 10% proficiency in math and English, respectively, way below the state averages. No data on costs.
As seen above, the state provides special schools for students with needs – whether emotional, physical or cognitive. Many of the students with these challenges perform below the general population in reading and math.
So, now consider Kiryas Joel.
The school district was established to help the emotional and cognitively challenged students of the Satmar sect of Hasidic Jews in 1989. People in the town sued over its establishment in a case that went to the Supreme Court in 1994, in which the judges concluded that the creation of a distinctly Jewish school district ran afoul of the establishment clause regarding religion.
The court said nothing about the need for a school to service students with special needs. Eventually the school district prevailed and was established in 1999.
According to U.S. News, there are 121 students, all of whom are White. All of the teachers are certified and 87.5% have three or more years of experience. The student-teacher ratio is 5:1, below the state average of 14:1. The students show a 75% proficiency in math and 75% in English, far above the state averages and the other schools profiled above. The cost per student is about $253,000. Compared to the other schools, it gets much more federal and state funding.
Note: the data from the National Center for Education Statistics is quite different. For example, Greenburgh-Graham UFSD shows a cost per student of $394,000, not $210,000. This was above that of Kiryas Joel at $340,000 per student.
While the students in Kiryas Joel do not go on to secular college (and therefore score a 0% in the WalletHub ranking), the school is performing relatively well by every measure compared to its peers.
Despite the data, The New York Times performed an extensive analysis in which the secular paper concluded that Ultra-Orthodox Jews were sucking money out of the public school system and refusing to educate their students. The paper pushed for a thorough governmental review of the Jewish schools, but not any of the non-Jewish ones at the bottom of the WalletHub list. The Times did not devote any resources to examine why the Greenburgh-Graham UFSD spends much more per student than Kiryas Joel.
The New York Times is trying its best to inflame anti-Jewish emotions with a series of articles that make ultra-Orthodox Jews appear to steal money from public schools
New York State established many school districts for students with emotional, cognitive and physical needs, and makes a special effort for those with economic hardship. In the Ultra-Orthodox town of Kiryas Joel, where 40% of the population is below the poverty level (poverty level is correlated with size of family and the Haredi community has very large families), the 120 students in the special public school district are showing that they can excel, despite what the mainstream media is reporting.
