For more than a generation, leaders of the established American Jewish community have acted as if the central challenge facing Jewish life in the United States is defending the State of Israel – against criticism or even modest deviation from an Israel-right-or-wrong line.
The assumption has been that unless we marshal the full weight of the organized Jewish community on behalf of the Israeli government, Jewish security will be at risk.
But what if that’s not true? What if the real threat is not criticism of Israel, but the erosion of liberal democracy and the rise of ethnonationalism – at home and around the world?
Even with America’s democratic foundations under severe strain, the organizations with the largest budgets and loudest megaphones place Israel – not Jewish life in America, not democracy, not civil rights – at the center of their mission.
The Conference of Presidents, which positions itself as an inclusive umbrella for the community, spends most of its energy on Israel advocacy while defining ‘pro-Israel’ so narrowly that it excludes organizations like J Street.
AIPAC, arguably – despite recent stumbles – still the most powerful political entity in Jewish life, has built its entire operation around a one-item foreign-policy agenda. In the 2020s, that has led it to support politicians who undermine democratic norms, voting rights and minority protections – simply because they profess loyalty to the Israeli government.
The Anti-Defamation League, once defined by the twin mission of fighting antisemitism and advancing civil rights, has downplayed the latter while leaning into a definition of antisemitism that broadly sweeps in criticism of Israeli policy in a manner that stifles free speech.
All of this raises the urgent question: where is the powerful, united Jewish coalition dedicated to defending liberal democracy in the United States?
Where are the Jewish voices mobilizing against the assault on immigrant rights? Our own story is inseparable from the immigrant experience, yet our leadership has not made this a priority.
Where is the organized Jewish defense of constitutional rights, voting rights, free speech, and church-state separation – the very pillars of the system that enabled Jewish success in America? Their erosion poses a far greater threat to Jewish security than criticism of Israel.
Where is the fight for higher education, long a ladder of opportunity for our community? We’re watching ‘criticism of Israel’ weaponized as a cudgel in a long-planned right-wing assault on higher education.
And where is our response to the rise of white Christian nationalism – the most significant and explicitly antisemitic ideological threat in American politics today? There’s a five-alarm fire raging as Nick Fuentes is normalized and GOP staff text chains circulate praise for Hitler and Holocaust denial.
Too many Jewish leaders excuse or overlook the threat these forces pose because they express fervent support for an Israel controlled by the political right. Yet no such restraint is shown when criticism of Israel from the left approaches or crosses the line into antisemitism.
Over time, as Israel advocacy has crowded out other priorities, we’ve lost the unified voice that once fought for civil rights, built broad coalitions, and strengthened American democracy. In pursuit of uncritical support for a right-wing vision of Israel – one out of sync with the values of most American Jews – we have aligned ourselves with actors who do not share our interests or moral commitments.
The idea that the most extreme wings of the Evangelical Christian movement are ‘natural allies’ has been profoundly damaging. This has been Netanyahu’s approach to the US – discard liberalism, the Democratic Party and the American Jewish liberal mainstream in favor of alliances with America’s right-wing nationalists.
Israel’s current government and its policies are not separate from the dangers Jews face globally – they are connected. An Israel actively pursuing peace, ending occupation and embracing a political resolution to the conflict with the Palestinians would do more to reduce antisemitism worldwide than any envoy dispatched to police criticism. A rights-respecting, democratic Israel is a bulwark against antisemitism; an illiberal one does the opposite.
This moment demands clarity about our priorities and it calls for a new direction.
The institutional structures of organized American Jewish life – including most federations and JCRCs – are not meeting the threats of this era. They are not coalescing to defend the foundations of our security or building the alliances we need to confront rising authoritarianism, white nationalism and illiberalism.
If they won’t change, we need new institutions with new missions – ones that recognize our future depends on deep partnerships with other communities under threat: Black Americans, Muslims, immigrants, LGBTQ people, Asian Americans, Latinos and so many others. We must rebuild the bonds of solidarity that once anchored our community firmly in the fight for a more just and democratic America.
And we must prioritize defending liberal democracy – not only in the United States, but in Israel and around the world – over defending Israeli government policy right or wrong.
If we fail to make this shift, we risk missing the true danger of our time – isolating our community and forfeiting the moral leadership that once defined American Jewish life.
I think this article is spot on. Personally, I prefer the "big mix" of a democratic America to a religious state of any religion, but I do believe the religious states, including Israel, have a right to exist--as long as they respect the rights of all people. Right now, I worry about both the U.S. and Israel in that regard, as neither government is respecting my Jewish and American values. What keeps me going is knowing there are good people who do believe in democracy and will work to restore and maintain it.
Equal to combating the rise of authoritarianism is the rise of Antizionism which, through disinformation and propaganda, has become the acceptable form of Antisemitism. JStreet needs to correct its view that Antizionism is just an expression of protest against Israel’s policies and see it for what it is: a racist eliminationist ideology.