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•TOBIN: ‘As a Jew’ traitors are ‘useful idiots.’ P. 18 • COHEN: The fact is, US Jews DO back Israel. P. 19
THANE ROSENBAUM Distinguished University Professor Touro University
Y
ou would be forgiven if this past week confused you about the state of antisemitism in America and what can, and what should not, be done about it. There was even a self-destructive reminder of how Jews themselves feel about what’s been happening around them — a crisis manifested in both the hatred of Jews, and Jewish self-hatred. It all unfolded with dizzying spectacles of visual misinformation. Some of it was, perhaps, well-intentioned. But I wouldn’t count on this surge in antisemitic fervor subsiding anytime soon — no matter the remedy. There’s far too much social acceptance of it since Israel began its war of self-defense after the massacre that was Oct. 7, 2023. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and his Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, spent $7 million for a thirty-second ad that aired during the Super Bowl. It featured his former quarterback, Tom Brady, and rapper Snoop Dogg, telling each other how much they hated one another, their voices rising with each declaration, the reasons for their respective disgusts sounding innocuous and silly. That, it seems, was the ostensible point: all
hatred, the pitchmen eventually concluded, is “stupid.” But those who hate Jews around the world are defiant in their belief that they have reasons to do so. They feel, passionately, that global Jewry deserves to be punished for a litany of sins — one in particular, as payback on behalf of the Palestinians of Gaza. egrettably, spiking antisemitism on city streets and college campuses is not the sort of thing that thirty seconds of ad time can easily cure. No one watching Kraft’s antidote for antisemitism, with its decidedly misguided messaging, would be persuaded to turn the channel to a different set of beliefs. The depth of hatred is one thing. But the ad makes no mention of Jews, antisemitism, or the tragic events of October 7, which launched these latest menaces. Kraft was obviously aiming for a more subtle, indirect approach. Focus on universal hatred, in the abstract. Ignore the particular, with its elephantine antisemitic dimensions. Viewers will get the point. See Fake Jews on page 2
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Progressive Jews rally against Israel, deriding Zionism as apartheid, at Grand Army Plaza, which abbuts Andrew Lichtenstein, Corbis via Getty Images via JNS Brooklyn’s uber-liberal Park Slope, on May 21, 2021.
Growing Touro puts first US podiatry school behind its shield vs. academic antisemitism Touro University has officially absorbed the New York College of Podiatric Medicine, the first college of podiatry in the United States. Observers found the moment for this to be an auspicious one, given the continuing spread of antisemitism in the medical world and on college campuses. Touro University is a private Jewish university based in New York, with 19,000 students on campuses and at affiliated schools throughout the United States, that’s been expanding its medical-education offerings, which also include the New York Medical College in Valhalla, NY.
“Educating approximately 8,000 students annually in the health sciences, Touro is fast becoming one of the largest healthcare educational systems in the United States,” said Dr. Alan Kadish, Touro’s president. “Adding podiatric medicine to our existing network of medical and health-science schools and programs will serve to augment and strengthen our academic offerings.” Touro was working with the podiatry college for a few years before the acquisition too effect. According to the American Podiatric Medical Students’ Association, NYCPM has “graduated more than 25% of all active
podiatrists in the nation.” Kadish said that Touro’s mission is to “uphold the Jewish heritage, and more broadly to educate and serve ‘in keeping with the historic Jewish commitment to intellectual inquiry, the transmission of knowledge, social justice and service to society’.” “Every school that Touro operates or starts is Sabbath-observant and has kosher food available,” Kadish told JNS. “It makes a more comfortable environment for Jewish students at any level of observance.” “Students come here for those values, whether they view them as Jewish values or
humanistic values,” he said. A recent study published in the Journal of Religion and Health concluded that more than 75% of Jewish medical professionals and students say they have been exposed to antisemitism. It also showed that since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, medical publications and social-media posts by medical professionals about Jew-hatred have increased by five times while posts actively promoting antisemitism by medical professionals have increased by some 400%. See Touro on page 2