Established American Jewish organizations seem not to recognize that they are undercutting the values that they say uphold the US-Israel relationship when they fail to stand up to Trump and Netanyahu.
Todah rabah, as always, for your thoughtful analysis, Jeremy. I find that you are always able to eloquently express what is on my mind and in my heart. We are struggling to stay positive and hopeful in these deeply challenging times, both in Israel and the U.S.
For my family, the immigration of my grandparents and great-grandparents came from Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland. There was much gratitude for being in the United States as I grew up in the late 50's, the 60's and the 70's. But the consciousness of what had happened in Europe, especially of the Holocaust, was always present in both my family and my synagogue life, as was the deep pride in Israel, and the worry for its survival.
Perhaps it was not unusual back in the day, but my parents had split political affiliations. My mother was an ardent Democrat who was passionate about civil rights. My father, an engineer who worked in the defense industry was a moderate Republican. I don't remember them ever arguing about politics (though they argued constantly about other things!) Towards the ends of their lives, my mother finally convinced my father to vote like she did. The last presidential election that they were alive for was between Trump and Clinton. I remember how upsetting the result was for my mother.
Apparently for some very small portion of your readers, J Street's PAC currently being a strong supporter of Democrats here in the USA is not bipartisan enough. I for one am fine with how the PAC is spending its money on Democrats at this time; the Republicans have been cowed into obedience to wanna-be dictator Trump. When and if there are some moral Republicans with a spine who will stand for conservative but righteous principles, you guys can choose to support them. I am not holding my breath, at this point.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment, Linda, and good to learn about your family. I'm very grateful for your nice words as well. Don't hold your breath - but do hope for the sake of our country that the day will come again soon when there are principled conservatives again in the Republican party and not just the MAGA extremists that are currently running the show.
My mother-in-law was raised orthodox Jew, though she chose to marry a gentile. My bride and I worked diligently in Christian circles, one of the other great Abrahamic faiths, steeped in the same ethic of welcoming the stranger in our midst and being ambassadors of love, peace, and justice. What the current U.S. administration, Bibi, and false prophets like AIPAC propound is hatred, division, and exclusion, pure and simple. They are exponents of the secular culture of racism and exclusion that chooses to destroy life, rather than build it up.
Unlike the first commenter I took am a first generation American. My mother was sent to Palestine from Germany in 1933 at the age of 13, and was reunited with her parents in NYC seven years later. My father's family was driven out of Persia in 1923 by the Soviet Army and spent several years travelling through Russia, Turkey and Syria settling in Palestine in the 1930's. My father came to NYC in 1946.
During my life, I have lived in Israel for 9 years, in the 1950's 60's and 70's, with the rest of the time in New York. I fell in love with Israel in the 1960's. It was a young, vibrant country, growing by leaps and bounds in all directions, it took us 18 months to get our first telephone in Afeka. It was a fiercely liberal democracy, growing out of it's socialist beginnings into a capitalist country while retaining it's Jewish liberal democracy.
Sadly, Israel started changing 30 years ago with the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Since then it has increasingly become a right wing religious state, mirroring what the Trump administration is trying to do. As much as I dislike Bibi, he is just a mirror of what Israel is becoming, a country I no longer admire nor love. It has become the bully of the Middle East, supplanting Iran.
It is very sad to see what has happened, and this is coming from someone who visited Israel every 2 or 3 years in this century, my last visit was in August, 2023, just two months before the current war.
Mike Rahimi
P.S. Having grown up 2 miles from where Donald Trump did and observing him for most of his life, I do not understand how anyone could have voted for him once let alone three times.
I share your deep concern over the transformation in the politics of Israel in the three decades since the Rabin assassination.
I distinguish between the country/people and its government/leadership. I have too many friends and family who live in Israel who disagree vehemently with the direction of the government/Bibi/Ben Gvir/the ultra-orthodox to write off the 'country'.
Israel is very divided. This current coalition got 48.6% of the popular vote. In a new election, it would get closer to 42 percent. That means the majority of the country still wants something else - and they don't want Netanyahu as Prime Minister.
Similarly in the US, Donald Trump got just over 49 percent of the vote. That doesn't mean you and I should give up on this country.
Politics is the arena where the struggle over a country's future takes place. The answer in both Israel and the US is for those of us of good will - who share values and a worldview - to engage in the struggle and to find ways to communicate why our way is better and ultimately to win back the opportunity to govern.
Jeremy, this is so beautifully said. I don't speak publicly about Israel much because of the lack of nuance in the discourse and the fact that I've chosen to focus on American politics and media (though my PhD is on Jerusalem and Israel). It's so important to separate Trump and "Americans" as it is to separate Netanyahu and "Isreaelis" or even Jewish Israelis. My friends and relatives also can't stand Netanyahu. And in case nobody noticed, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have flooded the streets for years in opposition to him. We can no more think monolithically about Israel than we can about the United States. I'm heartbroken over both, not least because Netanyahu has broken Israel as a safe place for Jews to go for sanctuary. I appreciate the more nuanced conversation in a world that pretends to be black and white. We need those voices speaking truth to both power and people if we're going to survive these horrifying times.
one might call the Jewish establishment the "Conference of MAJOR presidents of Jewish organizations." or America's official Judaism because they are so out of touch or sensitive to the crisis we are in. That's what happens when you become the mouthpiece of Israel's political leaders
Well written and understandable from Jeremy's perspective. But I grew up near UCLA in Los Angeles, and none of my friends were immigrant Jews or the children of immigrant Jews.
Later, when I was based in Washington, D.C., I worked with a Jewish lawyer from the Midwest, whose family came to the USA in the late 1800s. He had no knowledge of the Holocaust, so I took him to the Holocaust Museum.
He was shocked. I had been to Dachau, and had tried to understand how the country of my paternal ancestors had given rise to the Nazis. They were a husband and wife who came to the USA in 1849, had sixteen kids, and had settled near Minneapolis where my parents were born and raised and met in grade school.
Perhaps my sentiments are best summarized in an article that I wrote about the American Jews whom I have known.
I have never heard any of them talk about Israel, or express any "allegiance" toward it. With respect to Donald Trump, I am an Independent, and have voted for him three times. But I vehemently oppose his support for the butcher Netanyahu, who should be tried by the International Criminal Court for his many crimes.
It's relatively-easy for you/J Street to make this "proposal" given that you're now defacto a Jewish wing of the Democratic party as J Street seems to have "evolved" from its original declared bipartisan intent and single-focused issue. (Not intended as a criticism. Just a fact.)
And J Street since its very-early days has been criticizing some "Rightist" or Christian supporters of Israel - such as when J Street urged Senator Lieberman not to attend the CUFI Conference.
There's not exactly a shortage of Leftist/Liberal Jewish organizations expressing liberal views and having major concerns with the Trump Administration on various issues. (As of course many Jews do!) And numerous others non-Jewish organizations supported by Jews doing likewise - Say ACLU.
You surely don't want opposing anti-Semitism to be a "Left Issue." And you surely want "Right" politicians to not view you/Jews as only Leftists who they can ignore. One can always critique ADL for not doing enough. But they have multi issues to consider. Every Jewish organization has to decide for itself what to do; how important it views the issue of Israel compared to other matters. (And of course; what they can actually do and wher.)
On the issue of Israel: That's obviously "complicated." What determines "Pro-Israel." At minimum you may not like the Government of Israel. But it is what it is. And the options one has are limited.
As for AIPAC (which is not really for me to defend/explain!): "Politically, groups like AIPAC express no qualms about distributing millions to candidates dismantling democracy, foreign aid and constitutional protections – justifying it as support for candidates who are “true friends” of Israel because they support the “US-Israel relationship.”
"The rhetoric is beyond hollow in the face of what’s happening both here in the US and in Israel."
J Street has of course been criticizing AIPAC on this matter for years.
AIPAC is a bipartisan, single-issue organization: It's supporting people that AIPAC considers to be Pro-Israel. And opposing people it considers Anti-Israel (or whatever term you wish to use).
It's not basing its support or opposition on whether it agrees or disagrees with them on other social or political issues.
One can always have qualms about a particular candidate AIPAC supports or opposes. Or perhaps over methodology. But it's not exactly an unreasonable position for the "Pro-Israel Lobby" to adopt.
Thanks - as always - for engaging, Michael. I enjoy the weekly give-and-take! I’ll address a few of your points:
Bipartisanship: J Street would love to be bipartisan. I’m proud that our first keynote speaker at our first gala was Chuck Hagel when he was a Republican Senator from Nebraska and that James Baker was the keynote at our second gala. We endorsed Republicans in the early years (2008-2010) when Republicans were a different party. You say J Street has “changed” - I think most of the R’s we worked with in those days would say it’s the Republican Party, not J Street, that changed. My hope is that when the Trump fever breaks, there will again be Republicans willing to stand up for the kind of foreign policy that doesn’t throw Ukraine under the bus and that recognizes the importance to the US of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a balanced, thoughtful manner (as presidents from Eisenhower to Nixon, Ford, and the Bushes did).
There are many left/liberal Jewish groups that question Bibi and Trump, it’s true…. None of them are $150 million/year goliaths claiming to speak for Jewish America. The mega-groups - individually and collectively as the Conference - do not powerfully critique the two leaders, their governments or the paths they’re leading their countries down. It’s all well and good to have a smattering of smaller groups, but if you are claiming to represent the opinion of the Jewish community, then you should be voicing loud critiques not providing the stamp of kashrut from the community for the demise of democracy.
On Israel - the the whole point of J Street and of this Substack is to broaden the concept of ‘pro-Israel’ beyond simply backing a repugnant government. Just as I am ‘pro-American’ in my critique of Trump, so too it isn’t just blind support of the government of Israel that defines being ‘pro-Israel.’
On AIPAC - it would not be unreasonable for a group to say that it is ‘pro-the Israeli government’ - but to turn around and call those of us who disagree with the Israeli government (as do the majority of Israelis and Israeli political leaders and retired security officials) “many things but pro-Israel isn’t one of them” is a HUGE problem. Because it tells US politicians and elected officials that the largest ‘pro-Israel’ group in the country believes you can only be pro-Israel by supporting Netanyahu and his merry band of ultranationalist zealots. That’s neither correct nor good for Israel.
As for AIPAC: "It's complicated!" And I'll save that for possibly another time. Obviously AIPAC has explained how it views its mission. But basically it's to support and strengthen the US-Israel relationship regardless of who's in power in the U.S. or Israel. Not to determine or to advocate what are the policies that Israel should pursue. Especially since Israelis are the ones who will suffer the consequences of their policies. As AIPAC has shown time and again in the past; they will work with the Prime Minister of Israel - If he's Likud, Labor or the various other parties with differing names. (And yes we can obviously envisage 'problematic" scenarios. But that also is for another timne
Obviously there are groups on the left and right in the US who believe they have policies. (I'd just note that I have been "blocked" on Twitter/X by both ZOA's Mort Klein and Americans for Peace Now-AMEINU (New Jewish Narrative) which definitely saddens and disappoints me! Especially given my two years living on a Kibbutz.
(I confess that I'm not sure that my Republican Presidential "ideals" are President's Eisenhower (pressuring Israeli Sinai/Gaza withdrawal in 1956/57) Ford ("Reassessment" in 1975) or George Bush (Conditioning Loan Guarantees 1991/92)
I do remember Chuck Hagel and James Baker speaking at your early Conference. (I remember James Baker speaking at AIPAC in 1991)
You conclude "Thanks as always for engaging respectfully" - That pretty much summarizes me! I remember assuring J Street's then press person (now gone on to bigger and better things) Amy Spitalnick that if I was permitted to attend your first Conference (comped); there would of course be no problem with my behaviour!
In fact I would just note that I have attended every J Street Conference since your founding. (Comped). And I would welcome to continue this practice! Starting with your National Summit in a couple of weeks. In your hands!
Thanks Michael. I'm sorry to hear you've been blocked - that does seem a tad strong from my friends at NJN. Then again, I try not to go on X in the first place so perhaps you're better off! I know we disagree on the benefits of pressure/daylight in the US-Israel relationship - so we'll leave that for another day. On the Summit - that's an organizational leadership event, not a public gathering. We are about to announce a national public event for 2026, so stay tuned!
Todah rabah, as always, for your thoughtful analysis, Jeremy. I find that you are always able to eloquently express what is on my mind and in my heart. We are struggling to stay positive and hopeful in these deeply challenging times, both in Israel and the U.S.
For my family, the immigration of my grandparents and great-grandparents came from Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland. There was much gratitude for being in the United States as I grew up in the late 50's, the 60's and the 70's. But the consciousness of what had happened in Europe, especially of the Holocaust, was always present in both my family and my synagogue life, as was the deep pride in Israel, and the worry for its survival.
Perhaps it was not unusual back in the day, but my parents had split political affiliations. My mother was an ardent Democrat who was passionate about civil rights. My father, an engineer who worked in the defense industry was a moderate Republican. I don't remember them ever arguing about politics (though they argued constantly about other things!) Towards the ends of their lives, my mother finally convinced my father to vote like she did. The last presidential election that they were alive for was between Trump and Clinton. I remember how upsetting the result was for my mother.
Apparently for some very small portion of your readers, J Street's PAC currently being a strong supporter of Democrats here in the USA is not bipartisan enough. I for one am fine with how the PAC is spending its money on Democrats at this time; the Republicans have been cowed into obedience to wanna-be dictator Trump. When and if there are some moral Republicans with a spine who will stand for conservative but righteous principles, you guys can choose to support them. I am not holding my breath, at this point.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment, Linda, and good to learn about your family. I'm very grateful for your nice words as well. Don't hold your breath - but do hope for the sake of our country that the day will come again soon when there are principled conservatives again in the Republican party and not just the MAGA extremists that are currently running the show.
My mother-in-law was raised orthodox Jew, though she chose to marry a gentile. My bride and I worked diligently in Christian circles, one of the other great Abrahamic faiths, steeped in the same ethic of welcoming the stranger in our midst and being ambassadors of love, peace, and justice. What the current U.S. administration, Bibi, and false prophets like AIPAC propound is hatred, division, and exclusion, pure and simple. They are exponents of the secular culture of racism and exclusion that chooses to destroy life, rather than build it up.
Unlike the first commenter I took am a first generation American. My mother was sent to Palestine from Germany in 1933 at the age of 13, and was reunited with her parents in NYC seven years later. My father's family was driven out of Persia in 1923 by the Soviet Army and spent several years travelling through Russia, Turkey and Syria settling in Palestine in the 1930's. My father came to NYC in 1946.
During my life, I have lived in Israel for 9 years, in the 1950's 60's and 70's, with the rest of the time in New York. I fell in love with Israel in the 1960's. It was a young, vibrant country, growing by leaps and bounds in all directions, it took us 18 months to get our first telephone in Afeka. It was a fiercely liberal democracy, growing out of it's socialist beginnings into a capitalist country while retaining it's Jewish liberal democracy.
Sadly, Israel started changing 30 years ago with the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Since then it has increasingly become a right wing religious state, mirroring what the Trump administration is trying to do. As much as I dislike Bibi, he is just a mirror of what Israel is becoming, a country I no longer admire nor love. It has become the bully of the Middle East, supplanting Iran.
It is very sad to see what has happened, and this is coming from someone who visited Israel every 2 or 3 years in this century, my last visit was in August, 2023, just two months before the current war.
Mike Rahimi
P.S. Having grown up 2 miles from where Donald Trump did and observing him for most of his life, I do not understand how anyone could have voted for him once let alone three times.
Michael - Thank you for sharing your story.
I share your deep concern over the transformation in the politics of Israel in the three decades since the Rabin assassination.
I distinguish between the country/people and its government/leadership. I have too many friends and family who live in Israel who disagree vehemently with the direction of the government/Bibi/Ben Gvir/the ultra-orthodox to write off the 'country'.
Israel is very divided. This current coalition got 48.6% of the popular vote. In a new election, it would get closer to 42 percent. That means the majority of the country still wants something else - and they don't want Netanyahu as Prime Minister.
Similarly in the US, Donald Trump got just over 49 percent of the vote. That doesn't mean you and I should give up on this country.
Politics is the arena where the struggle over a country's future takes place. The answer in both Israel and the US is for those of us of good will - who share values and a worldview - to engage in the struggle and to find ways to communicate why our way is better and ultimately to win back the opportunity to govern.
Jeremy, this is so beautifully said. I don't speak publicly about Israel much because of the lack of nuance in the discourse and the fact that I've chosen to focus on American politics and media (though my PhD is on Jerusalem and Israel). It's so important to separate Trump and "Americans" as it is to separate Netanyahu and "Isreaelis" or even Jewish Israelis. My friends and relatives also can't stand Netanyahu. And in case nobody noticed, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have flooded the streets for years in opposition to him. We can no more think monolithically about Israel than we can about the United States. I'm heartbroken over both, not least because Netanyahu has broken Israel as a safe place for Jews to go for sanctuary. I appreciate the more nuanced conversation in a world that pretends to be black and white. We need those voices speaking truth to both power and people if we're going to survive these horrifying times.
one might call the Jewish establishment the "Conference of MAJOR presidents of Jewish organizations." or America's official Judaism because they are so out of touch or sensitive to the crisis we are in. That's what happens when you become the mouthpiece of Israel's political leaders
Well written and understandable from Jeremy's perspective. But I grew up near UCLA in Los Angeles, and none of my friends were immigrant Jews or the children of immigrant Jews.
Later, when I was based in Washington, D.C., I worked with a Jewish lawyer from the Midwest, whose family came to the USA in the late 1800s. He had no knowledge of the Holocaust, so I took him to the Holocaust Museum.
He was shocked. I had been to Dachau, and had tried to understand how the country of my paternal ancestors had given rise to the Nazis. They were a husband and wife who came to the USA in 1849, had sixteen kids, and had settled near Minneapolis where my parents were born and raised and met in grade school.
Perhaps my sentiments are best summarized in an article that I wrote about the American Jews whom I have known.
See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2023/10/31/americas-jews-are-americans/ ("America’s Jews Are Americans")
I have never heard any of them talk about Israel, or express any "allegiance" toward it. With respect to Donald Trump, I am an Independent, and have voted for him three times. But I vehemently oppose his support for the butcher Netanyahu, who should be tried by the International Criminal Court for his many crimes.
See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2025/02/06/trumps-lunacy/ ("Trump’s Lunacy")
There are approximately 15 million Jews in the world; and their views are no more monolithic than the 2.4 billion Christians globally.
It's relatively-easy for you/J Street to make this "proposal" given that you're now defacto a Jewish wing of the Democratic party as J Street seems to have "evolved" from its original declared bipartisan intent and single-focused issue. (Not intended as a criticism. Just a fact.)
And J Street since its very-early days has been criticizing some "Rightist" or Christian supporters of Israel - such as when J Street urged Senator Lieberman not to attend the CUFI Conference.
There's not exactly a shortage of Leftist/Liberal Jewish organizations expressing liberal views and having major concerns with the Trump Administration on various issues. (As of course many Jews do!) And numerous others non-Jewish organizations supported by Jews doing likewise - Say ACLU.
You surely don't want opposing anti-Semitism to be a "Left Issue." And you surely want "Right" politicians to not view you/Jews as only Leftists who they can ignore. One can always critique ADL for not doing enough. But they have multi issues to consider. Every Jewish organization has to decide for itself what to do; how important it views the issue of Israel compared to other matters. (And of course; what they can actually do and wher.)
On the issue of Israel: That's obviously "complicated." What determines "Pro-Israel." At minimum you may not like the Government of Israel. But it is what it is. And the options one has are limited.
As for AIPAC (which is not really for me to defend/explain!): "Politically, groups like AIPAC express no qualms about distributing millions to candidates dismantling democracy, foreign aid and constitutional protections – justifying it as support for candidates who are “true friends” of Israel because they support the “US-Israel relationship.”
"The rhetoric is beyond hollow in the face of what’s happening both here in the US and in Israel."
J Street has of course been criticizing AIPAC on this matter for years.
AIPAC is a bipartisan, single-issue organization: It's supporting people that AIPAC considers to be Pro-Israel. And opposing people it considers Anti-Israel (or whatever term you wish to use).
It's not basing its support or opposition on whether it agrees or disagrees with them on other social or political issues.
One can always have qualms about a particular candidate AIPAC supports or opposes. Or perhaps over methodology. But it's not exactly an unreasonable position for the "Pro-Israel Lobby" to adopt.
Thanks - as always - for engaging, Michael. I enjoy the weekly give-and-take! I’ll address a few of your points:
Bipartisanship: J Street would love to be bipartisan. I’m proud that our first keynote speaker at our first gala was Chuck Hagel when he was a Republican Senator from Nebraska and that James Baker was the keynote at our second gala. We endorsed Republicans in the early years (2008-2010) when Republicans were a different party. You say J Street has “changed” - I think most of the R’s we worked with in those days would say it’s the Republican Party, not J Street, that changed. My hope is that when the Trump fever breaks, there will again be Republicans willing to stand up for the kind of foreign policy that doesn’t throw Ukraine under the bus and that recognizes the importance to the US of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a balanced, thoughtful manner (as presidents from Eisenhower to Nixon, Ford, and the Bushes did).
There are many left/liberal Jewish groups that question Bibi and Trump, it’s true…. None of them are $150 million/year goliaths claiming to speak for Jewish America. The mega-groups - individually and collectively as the Conference - do not powerfully critique the two leaders, their governments or the paths they’re leading their countries down. It’s all well and good to have a smattering of smaller groups, but if you are claiming to represent the opinion of the Jewish community, then you should be voicing loud critiques not providing the stamp of kashrut from the community for the demise of democracy.
On Israel - the the whole point of J Street and of this Substack is to broaden the concept of ‘pro-Israel’ beyond simply backing a repugnant government. Just as I am ‘pro-American’ in my critique of Trump, so too it isn’t just blind support of the government of Israel that defines being ‘pro-Israel.’
On AIPAC - it would not be unreasonable for a group to say that it is ‘pro-the Israeli government’ - but to turn around and call those of us who disagree with the Israeli government (as do the majority of Israelis and Israeli political leaders and retired security officials) “many things but pro-Israel isn’t one of them” is a HUGE problem. Because it tells US politicians and elected officials that the largest ‘pro-Israel’ group in the country believes you can only be pro-Israel by supporting Netanyahu and his merry band of ultranationalist zealots. That’s neither correct nor good for Israel.
Thanks as always for engaging respectfully.
Thank you Jeremy!
As for AIPAC: "It's complicated!" And I'll save that for possibly another time. Obviously AIPAC has explained how it views its mission. But basically it's to support and strengthen the US-Israel relationship regardless of who's in power in the U.S. or Israel. Not to determine or to advocate what are the policies that Israel should pursue. Especially since Israelis are the ones who will suffer the consequences of their policies. As AIPAC has shown time and again in the past; they will work with the Prime Minister of Israel - If he's Likud, Labor or the various other parties with differing names. (And yes we can obviously envisage 'problematic" scenarios. But that also is for another timne
Obviously there are groups on the left and right in the US who believe they have policies. (I'd just note that I have been "blocked" on Twitter/X by both ZOA's Mort Klein and Americans for Peace Now-AMEINU (New Jewish Narrative) which definitely saddens and disappoints me! Especially given my two years living on a Kibbutz.
(I confess that I'm not sure that my Republican Presidential "ideals" are President's Eisenhower (pressuring Israeli Sinai/Gaza withdrawal in 1956/57) Ford ("Reassessment" in 1975) or George Bush (Conditioning Loan Guarantees 1991/92)
I do remember Chuck Hagel and James Baker speaking at your early Conference. (I remember James Baker speaking at AIPAC in 1991)
You conclude "Thanks as always for engaging respectfully" - That pretty much summarizes me! I remember assuring J Street's then press person (now gone on to bigger and better things) Amy Spitalnick that if I was permitted to attend your first Conference (comped); there would of course be no problem with my behaviour!
In fact I would just note that I have attended every J Street Conference since your founding. (Comped). And I would welcome to continue this practice! Starting with your National Summit in a couple of weeks. In your hands!
Thanks Michael. I'm sorry to hear you've been blocked - that does seem a tad strong from my friends at NJN. Then again, I try not to go on X in the first place so perhaps you're better off! I know we disagree on the benefits of pressure/daylight in the US-Israel relationship - so we'll leave that for another day. On the Summit - that's an organizational leadership event, not a public gathering. We are about to announce a national public event for 2026, so stay tuned!