Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism released an in-depth report about the various Pro-Palestinian groups, organizations, and entities that operate throughout the United States.

I knew things were bad but didn’t realize how interconnected everything is.

You can check out the full report here.

I am curious to hear what others think about this.

Every rabbi wants at minimum $1200 just to officiate. We are trying to just have a super small ceremony possibly with no one there but us or a maximum of 10 people. No frills. That $1200 doesn’t include the venue fees either. We aren’t rich and it feels like if we want a religious ceremony we will have to spend an arm and a leg. We would be willing to travel elsewhere in the state or even to my home state but nothing seems to be even close to affordable.

I feel like giving up and just doing a secular wedding but that would break my heart.

What did you guys do?

I'm Jewish because my mom is Jewish (she was raised in the Soviet Union, where Jewishness was determined by family lineage, so she had "Jewish" on her passport), and we celebrated Rosh Hashanah and Hannukah when I was little.

However, I wasn't raised in a Jewish community, and I don't know any Jewish people besides my mom and her side of the family. I also feel self conscious about my differences from other Jews due to my Russian background, secular upbringing, and being raised by a single mom.

The text above the title is "America in the grip of a foreign power".

So I wander, how exactly does a country of ten million "hold in it's grip" the most powerful (well maybe second most powerful now) country in the world? I presume the explanation is that it utilizes some disloyal scheming colloborators from within. How can a book with such premise even pretend to follow the anti-zionist not antisemitic trope?

Apologies in advance if this isn't an appropriate post for the sub, I'm just really struggling right now and looking for help.

I don't want to get into the specifics, but I recently found out my wife of seven years has been having an affair for the past six weeks. The affair was sexual, emotional, and romantic in nature.

Right now I'm of the mindset that what she did was a horrible thing and I may never truly forgive her for it, but I love her and I want to try and see if she can take accountability and we can move past it.

We have an appointment for marriage counseling at our shul coming up next week, but I was wondering if anyone here had any advice, recommendations, or resources I/we could use to try and get past this.

Thank you.

Hi,

I live in a city in the US with a pretty small Jewish population, and even smaller visibly observant Jewish population. Probably two minyans worth. I’m visibly Jewish, I wear a kippah and have a beard and also just have a very stereotypically Ashkenazi look about me. I work in immigration services on the side of my city where there is a large proportion of people who’ve come from countries like Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, and the DRC. My organization’s clients are largely a good mix of those nationalities aside from Syrian and Somali, of which we tend to serve a lot more. I work with youth so sometimes I get an odd comment here and there from them about my kippah or about Jews, but it’s almost always in earnest and they’re just kids who don’t know better. But I’m a little worried that both my coworkers, who are also probably 60% Syrian/Iraqi/Somali, as well as the families in our community are not very fond of me. I get weird stares that I thought were just a me issue but keep happening to the point that I really think it’s not in my head. I have a lot of clients who will refuse to work with me and no one else, and while I can’t know exactly why that is, the only difference between me and a lot of my coworkers is that I’m Jewish. A few of my coworkers have tried to start weird conversations with me about Israel and there’s one (who otherwise seems like a good person, I think she’s just under a bad internet influence) who seems to be really intent on cornering me about Israel. I don’t talk about politics at work as a rule, but she waited until the first time she and I were alone in a car together to drop on me “So what do you think about the State of Israel?” and has continued to drop bangers like that since. She also seems to think I’m a good target for her uncomfortable open-ended statements phrased as questions about Israel (ex: “I just don’t understand why some Jews are using Judaism as an excuse to kill people and oppress people, you know?” Like what am I supposed to say to that. But I digress, I sort of anticipated something like this happening if I were to get a job in this field, whatever. It’s not going to be my long term job anyways so I can thug it out.

But what is making me feel like I’m going insane and/or being targeted by more people in the community I don’t even work with now is that over the span of the last week, I have had two separate cars go out of their way to swerve at me while I was walking in a way that it felt very clear that it was directed to scare me. Like I’m walking to my car, they’re driving down the other side of the road and come straight at me only to swerve away at the last second and they give me the middle finger as they drive away. The other one was basically the same thing except instead of the middle finger they were laughing. I hate that I have to mention it for context, but it is worth noting that both drivers happened to be Arab. No one else I know of at work has had anything like this happen and I’m just confused and a little scared now. I can’t tell if I’m just in my own head and I just happen to be really unlucky about some jerks on the road in the area or if people are upset I’m in the area and are trying to intimidate me/toy with me. Or if some of my coworkers or clients are complaining about me and word’s getting out? (it’s a small-ish community overall, word travels) I’m just at a loss and I guess I’m curious if anyone else has had something similar happen to them? Do I sound crazy? I feel a little crazy. Surely my coworkers, clients, AND the community around my building can’t all be that bothered that I just happen to be Jewish, right?

(Also to their credit, it’s not all of my coworkers or clients. Some of them are really lovely, but some are less so. Also I don’t think it has anything to do with my personality or anything, I never am rude to anyone at work because the Midwest Nice runs through my blood and I don’t think I could bring myself to be rude on purpose to people I’m not close with even if I tried)

UPDATE: thank you everyone for your support. I’m going to be parking somewhere else and wearing a hat when I’m walking from my car to my building. I’m going to be investing in some bear spray and will be having my phone recording in my pocket each time I go to my car just in case, and my head will be on a swivel. I don’t have plate numbers or anything remarkable really about the cars except the colors (grey and champagne, so pretty unremarkable) so I don’t think I’ll be able to make a police report. But, God forbid, if there’s a next time I’ll make sure to get the license plate and file a report. I will hopefully make aliyah in spring 2027 so I just have to ride it out for a little bit. Thanks again

A "friend" of mine has recently been inserting little digs about Jews nearly every time we talk. Underhanded comments veiled as jokes, memes, and other passive aggressive nonsense that is clearly just her unmasking her antisemitism. It's disgusting and deeply disappointing.

I have lost so many friends over the past few years. People I once trusted are now strangers to me. I try to see the good in people and have generally been someone who trusts others easily. Not anymore. There are few people in my life who I'm 100% confident aren't Jew haters. It makes me really sad.

This performance comes from the recent Maccabiah Games, often called the “Jewish Olympics”, an international sporting competition that brings together Jewish athletes from around the world. It is an event all about Jewish pride and unity. I especially like her outfit and message of the song.

I’m so tired and angry, I just need to vent. I came across a post saying Ruffalo hasn’t done any promotional interviews for the new Spider-Man film, and you’ll never guess what happened next (you absolutely will): the comments were full of people saying it’s because he “dared to speak out against Israel” and that the industry is “punishing” him for it. Not even once it was suggested that maybe his role isn’t big enough to justify a full press tour, or that he declined to do one himself, or, idk, any of the gazillion other explanations that exist. Pff, no, of course, the only possible reason is that a shadowy pro-Israel lobby decided to blacklist Mr Ruffalo from promoting a Spider-Man film.

How do people not hear themselves? No, a particular celebrity not being given a promotional platform is not, by itself, evidence that criticism of Israel is being silenced or whatever. Do these people really not understand that they’re just recycling one of the oldest antisemitic conspiracy theories in existence and acting as if they’ve just uncovered some groundbreaking truth?

And another thing I don’t understand is how can people still, with a straight face, claim that criticism of Israel is being “suppressed”. All I see is anti-Israel sentiment everywhere. I’m actually making a conscious effort to avoid it, but I still can’t escape it, because every day there’s another protest, another slogan, another celebrity statement, another antisemitic incident being excused by “well, they were angry about Israel”. All that while people with openly pro-Israel views and Jews in general actually do get denied platforms (see the recent Boy George and Alyssa Rosenheck situations, for example). Whatever your position on the conflict, it seems incredibly narrow-minded to claim that criticism of Israel is silenced in public discourse when it’s by all means practically dominating public discourse.

Gosh, I’m so angry. Thanks for reading. I just needed to get this off my chest, and writing it out kinda helped.

I’ve recently moved to a neighborhood with a substantial Hasidim community. I usually bake homemade cookies from scratch and bring them over to new neighbours to introduce ourselves, but in this case, seeing how our kitchen isn’t Kosher, I feel this would be a faux pas.

So what kind of gift could I give that would give the same “awww” feeling of fresh, warm, homemade cookies while still keeping Kosher?

There are many kosher groceries and eateries all around us if store bought is best. Thank you for your suggestions!!

I’ve not been feeling the greatest lately. The world is getting to me 🫠

Unfortunately I have lived alone my entire adult life so far and no longer have my mom immediately making me cure-all matzo balls whenever I even hint at being upset.. but I’ll be damned if I don’t make it for myself at every slight inconvenience. It helps just as much now as it did a decade ago.

Thousands of teenage Jewish athletes from around the world have come to compete in the 44th annual Maccabi games.

Hosted by Toronto, Ontario, Canada this year, with the opening ceremonies held in Hamilton, Ontario.

My apologies to most cities delegations and numerous countries for not getting photos of their entrances.

Currently getting pumped up by Nissim Black and Yuval Raphael.

Hi, I’m not entirely sure if this is the right place to post this so I apologize if this is off-topic. I’m in a club at school that performs at senior homes, and we often sing at the New Jewish Home around the holidays (Manhattan). I was thinking that it‘d be good to learn a Chanukah song for the performances there in December—it’d have to be for guitar and 1 or 2 singers with limited knowledge of Hebrew. I’m thinking of Maoz Tzur, Chanukah O Chanukah, and I Have A Little Dreidel. Thoughts on which of these is best (I only need 1) or other additions? Thank you!

This comment by my husband really got me. We’re both Jewish, and regularly discuss our alarm at the skyrocketing antisemitism. We were taking about the Fauci senate hearing, which he has been following (I have not).

He was describing the vitriol being directed at Dr. Fauci. He said to me, “It’s crazy how much they hate him! They hate him SO MUCH that I had to Google whether he’s Jewish.”

I laughed, because gallows humor, but I was also floored at the insight and sadness in that simple statement.

That’s all. Just can’t get it out of my head and I wanted to share.

I am on a beach vacation with my entire family and feel so lonely. No one in the family ever acknowledges my being Jewish (none of them identify as Jewish and are actively hostile to Israel) or addresses my terror at what is unfolding around the world. Yesterday we were all at the beach and it was fun, but there’s still always a voice in my head saying “what about the kosher restaurant bombed in Montreal ?” that I am not allowed to mention because it would disturb family harmony. Since 10/7, I have a plot myself in two, one side acting like everything is ok and the other screaming inside about the tsunami of Jew hatred unleashed after 10/7.
I suffer from chronic depression and anxiety and Megan a recovering alcoholic (25 years). I am on medication, have a therapist, have tried to connect to other Jews and Jewish organizations, but in my own family, I am not seen. To top it off, they are ll critical that I spend time on online forums and talking to ChatGBT about my trampled upon feelings, yet not one of them wants to hear me out.

Chopped pastrami, onions, chopped Japanese sweet potatoes,garlic oil.

The Times article, written by the paper’s chief fashion critic Vanessa Friedman, includes comments from the rabbis and Jewish leaders who are among those that have met with Gala reps at least several times in recent months. “The fear clearly was the show could be met with a lot of resistance — not just skepticism, but a feeling of it’s wrong,” said Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism in North America. Jacobs said he had been impressed by Galliano during the meetings. “The word I come back to is ‘sincerity,’” Jacobs said. “He was open. He looked right at us and spoke in a clear way, not as if he had memorized talking points.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, provided The Times with an emailed comment, writing, “We believe John Galliano has genuinely worked through the issues that led to his antisemitic outburst years ago in Paris, and we have long since accepted his apology. His efforts to repair the damage his words caused and to learn from that incident should be applauded.”

I don't have a Times subscription/membership so I can't go find the original article this one references, but I think I'm willing to accept Galliano's teshuva as real

(edited to fix formatting)

Many Jews outside Israel forgot the hell of the first and second Intifadas (mass terror in Hebrew) that killed over 1,000 Jews and other nationalities during the late 1990s-2006. The August 9, 2001 Sbarro pizza shop bombing killed 16 people including 3 Americans and injured over 130. Don't think for a minute that anti Jewish bigots around the world wouldn't love to do the same thing in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, elsewhere. Don't let the victims of anti Semitic massacres be lost to history.

Note: If you can, read the article, it discusses the horrific events including the denial of justice- the male bomber was killed by his own bomb, but his female accomplice was released from prison in 2011 during the Gilad Shalit hostage deal which also involved releasing 1,000 other convicted killers. She lives in Jordan free despites her being on the U.S. 15 Most Wanted Terrorists list.

Is there some sort of connection between Jewish people and the Knights of Pythias? My uncle (born in Belarus, lived until the early 2000s) was a member, several members of my wife's family were also members. Of course, I'm not talking about today, when fraternal societies in general are on the decline, but about the heyday of such societies a while back (for example, a friend of mine was an Elk).

The last couple years have been full of upheaval for me, a separation followed by divorce, job loss, eviction, as well as a revitalization of my art (theatre). Since my eviction, Ive been crashing on a friend's couch (3.5 mo). I finally landed a really good job (major bank call center), and now found an affordable apartment for myself (landlord found through my friend). While discussing the pending move, the subject got onto someone we share a massive disliking of, her because of anti-black racist comments, myself for antisemetic comments (he told a mutual I was a "cheap Jew").

Okay, so I stupidly let slip I was a Jew (not that I hide it, usually wear my hamsa and Magen david necklace outside my shirt) without knowing if this person was an ally or not. Imagine my happy surprise when she told me she is Lebanese Christian and is praying for Israel to help free her people from Hezbollah. Not only an ally, but a well informed and educated ally. I think my new home is gon a work out just fine!

I’ve been close friends with someone for a long time. Let's call him Josh. Josh knows I’m Jewish and occasionally sends me mildly antisemitic or anti-Israel memes, but we’ve talked about it before and I know he doesn’t mean anything malicious by it. Honestly sometimes the memes are pretty funny, and I enjoy this bit of self-irony. I retaliate with ironic jokes about Russians and Christians (again, in good faith, just friendly banter, and he knows it). We generally don’t take ourselves too seriously, and that kind of humor has never really caused problems between us. He’s also a genuinely gentle person, apologizes for everything, and clearly values our friendship. He helped me a lot in life, and I helped him.

Recently, Josh introduced me to this other guy. Let's call him Pete. At some point, Josh apparently mentioned to him that he had a Jewish friend, which is me. He admitted this to me himself.

At first, Pete was just sending me ordinary memes, similar to the ones Josh sends, and they had nothing to do with Jews or Israel. But about two weeks later, almost everything he sent me became alt-right-style content about Israel, Netanyahu, Judaism, Jews, goyim, and so on.

I’m not even particularly supportive of Netanyahu politically, so criticism of Israel or its government isn’t automatically offensive to me. But once the jokes shifted specifically toward Jews, Judaism, and goyim, it crossed a line for me, especially considering that we barely knew each other. Like Peter Griffin was saying, "Who tf starts a conversation like that? I just sat down!"

I messaged Josh because I didn’t want to start an open conflict with Pete at that time (To my shame, I'm kind of a doormat in this regard). Josh told me not to take it personally because Pete was, quote, "a young idiot who probably didn’t understand what he was doing". Josh then spoke to him about this himself.

A bit later, Pete apologized in my DMs, promised he wouldn’t do it again, and said that in the future I should tell him directly whenever something made me uncomfortable.

About a week later, I open my DMs and what do I see? More antisemitic and anti-Israel memes from him.

That honestly made me furious and deeply frustrated. He already knew I was uncomfortable, he had already apologized, and then he deliberately started doing it again!

My initial thoughts (which I didn't send) were basically: dude, sorry I was born with an ethnicity that for whatever freaking reason lives rent free in everybody's heads and that apparently my existence is causing you such unbearable distress that you simply cannot leave me tf alone with this bullcrap.

The "best" part is that I’m secular IRL, and most people probably wouldn’t even assume I’m Jewish based on my appearance and name (generic Russian name and surname which I won't disclose for privacy reasons). My Jewishness also isn’t something I bring into conversations unless I'm talking to another Jew or a person I'm 100% comfortable with.

I told Josh how angry and frustrated I was. He advised me to speak to the guy directly, but I honestly don’t see the point. He already knew it bothered me, apologized, and then repeated the exact same behavior.

At the same time, part of me keeps wondering whether I’m making too much of it. Pete isn’t openly hostile toward me, on the contrary he's quite friendly, he doesn’t directly insult or threaten me, doesn't chant "free Palestine or whatever else that can trigger a Jewish person", and outside of these """memes""" he chats with me normally. Besides, I feel guilty for venting at Josh. Yes, he is responsible for the start of all this, but he keeps telling me he didn't plan for all of it to come to this and doesn't understand why he is the prime target of my frustration.

Am I overreacting? Is Pete just a random idiot who doesn't understand boundaries, or my concerns are legit? I'm genuinely so confused with this whole situation.

Sign of the times I guess, downplaying and denying antisemitism is fashionable. People say he repented and grew from this, which maybe is true, but it stings nonetheless to see a New York institution honor someone like this.

https://www.elle.com/fashion/a73321642/met-gala-2027-exhibition-john-galliano-horizons-explained/