This article was originally published in Arutz Sheva on August 8, 2019. BDS is even more dangerous than your run of the mill antisemitism. It radicalizes members of all hate movements, and by cloaking itself in a veneer of “political criticism,” this terrorist-led movement conceals its violent roots and vile aims. Since 2010, the U.S. Department of State has had a working definition of antisemitism, sometimes updating it to adapt to new and often terrifying realities of antisemitic hatred around the world. This week, the definition, as listed on the official website, finally got the updated it needed: one that highlights the dangers of BDS Read More…
This article was originally published in the Jerusalem Post on July 23, 2019. Abraham Lincoln once said, “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” Since its establishment in 2001 by the major Palestinian terrorist organizations, the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement has masqueraded as a nonviolent grassroots human rights organization that aims to “improve” the well-being of Palestinians. Instead of protecting the Palestinians, the movement is laser-focused on economically, culturally, and politically isolating and eradicating the State of Read More…
This article was originally published in Arutz Sheva on July 17, 2019. Today, anti-Semitism comes not only from the far-right but from the far-left and radical Islam as well. How should Jews respond? There’s no denying it: anti-Semitism is on the rise in the U.S. and around the world. From swastikas on UK universities to the attack on Rabbi Shlomo Tawil in Argentina to accusations of dual loyalty in the Halls of the American Congress, anti-Semitism is resurging faster and more aggressively than we’ve seen in generations. As a community, we must come together to defeat it before it’s too late. As Jews, we’ve lived with the threat Read More…
Originally published in eJewishPhilanthropy on July 3, 2019. By Adam Milstein “United we stand, divided we fall.” This common phrase is used to promote unity and collaboration but is often difficult to implement in the world of advocacy, philanthropy, and nonprofits. For instance, many pro-Israel organizations act to achieve similar – sometimes redundant – goals. Since each organization constantly needs to fundraise and stand above other groups, they find it difficult to work together and collaborate with each other. In addition, and notwithstanding our community’s efforts to combat the growing Antisemitism in America, there hasn’t been much innovation in the Read More…
This article was originally published in the Daily Caller on June 21, 2019. By Adam Milstein Across the globe, anti-Semites are growing bolder. Each smear is more overt. Each attack is deadlier. Hateful rhetoric once kept to the fringes of society has crept into the mainstream and is now disseminated online and in the halls of Congress. But when the House tried to pass a resolution condemning anti-Semitism earlier this year, they couldn’t even get it on the floor for a vote. Instead, a revised resolution was passed 407-23, denouncing both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia “as hateful expressions of intolerance.” The Read More…
This article was originally published in the Jerusalem Post on June 19, 2019. By Adam Milstein Today’s antisemitism manifests as a three-headed monster that spews its vile bigotry through the radical Right, the radical Left, and radical Islam. Antisemitism is as old as the Jewish story itself. As Jews, we’ve lived with the threat of radical groups trying to eradicate our people for centuries. From Egypt to Poland to Persia, the Jews have experienced unbelievable persecution. Today in the 21st century, antisemitism is still alive and growing, even here in America. Despite years of persecution, a few things have always Read More…
Following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in 2015, the prime minister of France, Manuel Valls, refused to use the term ‘Islamophobia’ to describe the phenomenon of anti-Muslim prejudice, because, he said, the accusation of Islamophobia is often used as a weapon by apologists for radical Islamists to silence critics. January 11, 2015. REUTERS/Charles Platiau This article was originally published in the Jerusalem Post on May 6, 2019. On March 5th, 2019 the House was set to vote on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism in the wake of a freshman Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s latest hateful comments on Jews and Israel. Unfortunately, that resolution never Read More…
This article was originally published in the Jerusalem Post on January 27, 2019. Antisemitism is the world’s oldest hatred, cultivated across cultures, continents, and centuries by people with many different agendas. It led to the enslavement of Jews in Egypt, forced expulsion during the Spanish Inquisition, pogroms in Poland and Soviet Russia, genocide in Nazi Germany, and near extinction in the Muslim world. This history raises the question: why do so many people over so many centuries hate Jews? What makes Jewish communities such vulnerable targets? Many books documentaries, articles, and encyclopedias have been written about the origins of and Read More…
This article was originally published in the Jerusalem Post on December 26, 2018. The year 2018 has provided a series of reminders that antisemitism, the world’s oldest hatred, is alive and well in our country. On October 27, eleven Jews were massacred in Pittsburgh as they prayed on the Sabbath. It is just the latest in a series of violent attacks that have targeted the Jewish community in recent times, which come not only from the radical right but also from the radical left, and from radical Muslims. The enemies of the Jewish people don’t only physically attack us from the outside. Read More…
This article was originally published in the Jerusalem Post on November 3, 2018. Last Saturday, we witnessed the deadliest attack on American Jews in history. Eleven members of the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh were violently murdered because they were Jewish. I was shocked by this horror, but I was not surprised. Antisemitism is as old as the Jewish story itself. We honor the victims of the Holocaust on Yom HaShoah, we remember our struggles as slaves in ancient Egypt on Passover, and we even celebrate triumph over Haman’s plans to slaughter us in ancient Persia on Purim. It’s the terrible Read More…