The title of “biggest threat” to American Jews is hard to define or measure. And more importantly, it’s political. Most liberals would agree that anti-Semitism has reached new records under Trump and that the president’s response to the phenomenon has been less than adequate.
The first known bark mitzvah took place in 1958 in Beverly Hills, California.
This is a scenario some are now looking at, as Pete Buttigieg, even younger and less experienced than Obama was at the time, is having his moment. The 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana is surging in Iowa, the first state to vote in February. He is now polling at 25 percent, leaving Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in a tight three-way race for second place.
In the years since his death, scholars, biographers and those who knew him remain split.
Orthodox Jews are Trump’s strongest—and only—reliable support base within the Jewish community. Polling shows that more than half of those identifying as Orthodox voted for Trump in 2016. The president also enjoys strong approval ratings within the Orthodox community since taking office. This unlikely political alliance, between a segment of the population focused on family values and religious insularity and the flamboyant New York businessman-turned-politician, has many explanations:
As we approach the first yahrtzeit of the Pittsburgh attack, it may be worthwhile taking a moment to look at what has been done, and what still needs to be done, to make sure it is a commemoration of past evil, not a turning point in American Jewish life.
“This latest has been my fourth cancer bout,” Ginsburg said. “And I found each time that when I’m active, I feel much better than if I’m just lying about and feeling sorry for myself.”
“I get paid to go to YU,” said Joy Ladin, an openly transgender professor at Stern College, in her speech. “But queer students are paying to be trashed in classes to have humanity denied, to have halacha warped around values of homophobia and xenophobia and transphobia, rather than values that recognize that every kind of human being is created in the image of God.”
“Few people have never been mistreated or hurt others. Jewish tradition makes demands of both parties.”
Meisels described a “complete lack of LGBT representation” at YU. “If there is any discussion of LGBT individuals on campus it is always negative and always involves homophobic rhetoric,” she said. “It’s a social thing,” explained Dov Alberstone, an openly gay senior at Yeshiva College “It’s the things that people say in the dorms to each other or in the gym. In normal social interactions people have, you get a sense that being gay is the worst thing you can be.”
