An Existential Crossroads for Jews, Everywhere

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In the manifesto of the child-killer from Minneapolis (august 2025) he wrote that his first target of choice are “Zionist Jews.”

Such Jews are the only, rare, point of overlap between America’s far right and radical left; for both sides, they are enemy number one.

In the Israeli media, much attention was given to a disturbing trend of growing alienation of young Republicans towards Israel. Australia expelled the Iranian ambassador after intelligence pointed to Tehran’s involvement in antisemitic attacks in the country. In Germany, Jews who hung photos of the hostages were assaulted; their attackers screamed at them, “child killers.” Such assaults have become daily occurrences across Europe, and in Canada, this week, an elderely Jewish lady suffered a knife attack by another Jew hater.

In Jerusalem, the cabinet avoided discussing the hostages in Gaza, with ministers rushing instead to a celebratory dinner organized by the Settler Binyamin Council in a restaurant. The government did devote itself to easing travel to Uman, meaning Israel will now pay a special 'Jew tax' to Moldova for safe passage, while Haredi draft dodgers - during wartime - travel abroad without hindrance. Also this week, Prime Minister Netanyahu continued to clash with the worn-out Defense establishment, which repeatedly insists on the need for a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza; his allies threaten- a hollow yet dangerous threat- to appoint a chief of staff above the chief of staff. Globally, Israel's diplomatic collapse continued – from the U.K, to France and Turkey, the government was hit with different types of sanctions and threats.

These events are connected. They are hints of a larger story: the crossroads at which the Jewish people, in the Diaspora and in Israel, now find themselves.

In essence, Jewish existence is under mounting and severe threat everywhere. In the Diaspora and in Israel alike, the threat is both external and internal.

The nature of these threats differs from country to country, but in every case - whether in Paris, Tel Aviv, or New York - the Jewish sense is one of existential peril. The war in Gaza did not create these processes, but it accelerated and worsened them. Other developments- technological and social, like social media, artificial intelligence, the rise of populism and nationalism- all feed into this reality.

The catastrophe is not here, but disaster lurks close by.

Let us begin with the Diaspora. Jews outside Israel have been caught inside a triangle of animosity and hatred. One corner is the classic one: antisemitic far-right extremism. This far right has thrived since the 2008 global financial crisis. That year, I interviewed the leader of Britain’s nationalist party, a Holocaust denier; he predicted correctly that when “refrigerators go empty,” support for the far right would rise. True, some far-right movements try to distance themselves from traditional antisemitism; but these are anomalies. The genetic code of nativist, chauvinistic, nationalist right-wing politics sees the Jew as the ultimate “other.” Needless to say, the last decade has been the best for the global far right since the 1930s.

Another corner of the triangle is Islamist fundamentalism, which regards Jews (and Christians as well) as infidels, potential slaves. Jews have particular sins, foremost their perceived support for Israel. The growth of immigrant communities across Europe has provided fertile ground for the rise of violent fundamentalism aimed at Jews.

The third corner is the radical left. Unlike the other two, the left has no inherent doctrinal rejection of Jewish existence. But Zionism, the defining marker of modern Jewish identity, is viewed as an unforgivable sin. This is not merely opposition to the idea of a Jewish state in Eretz Yisrael, but to the very dual nature of Jewish existence: as both a people and a religion. The notion that Jews are a nation, entitled to self-determination, has become illegitimate within the radical left - both non-Jewish and, at times, Jewish. Those who see all nationalism as fascism struggle especially to accept the newest members of the nation-state “club”: the Jews. By the logic of Israel’s “original sin” of existence, the Naqba of 1948, any Jewish support for Israel incriminates them and their communities with every possible charge- apartheid, ethnic cleansing, genocide. The radical left has taken the position that Israel, and only Israel, has no right to exist as a result of its sins.

This is the triangle of animosity in which Jews in the Diaspora live- whether in the U.S., Europe, Australia or Latin America. In some places, the radical left corner is far stronger than the others. In France, by contrast, the security concern almost always involves the prospect of Islamist terror attacks. In the U.S., the white far-right corner has begun spilling over into fringes of the populist movement; a good example is Candace Owens, who has become fully antisemitic, or Tucker Carlson’s obsessive treatment of Israel, including his legitimization of Nick Fuentes.

In any case - and this is crucial- the corners no longer remain separate. This is the major development to which the Gaza war has contributed. America’s far right now suddenly shows “empathy” for Palestinians while really holding the same white-supremerimist views as to them, only to take a hit at Israel and Jews; parts of the progressive left are willing to adopt anti-colonial narratives from Al Jazeera, Qatar, and Hamas, all of these bodies either defending dictatorships or preaching for totalitarian theocracies and Islamist colonialism. The three corners of this triangle are now converging around a rare consensus: hatred of Israel and most Jews. The result is a radioactive cocktail of hate, spiked and driven by manipulated algorithms.

The prolongation of the Gaza war, the solidarity around the hostages and the Jewish value of “all Israel are responsible for one another,” alongside the undeniable harm to innocents in Gaza, put Diaspora Jewish communities in an impossible bind.The majority want, and feel obligated, to support Israel. But such support only tightens the noose of hostility around them.

Many of these developments are born out of local societal trends that have nothing to do with Jews, others are the result of Israel’s government’s reckless decisions, Israel’s collapsing popularity, and entrenched local antisemitism. This triangle of hate spills over from the extremes into the mainstream, further endangering Jews. Popular podcasts now platform pseudo-historians who dust off Holocaust denial and call it revisionism. They are trying to profit from the grassroots Jew-hatred now becoming more legitimate.

Are daily lives of Jews unraveling? Not always. But communal reality is under threat. Parents who send their children to Jewish day schools know those schools can become targets. Worshippers who go to synagogue see the security presence that surrounds it. Political debates about the State of Israel, or arguments over the war in Gaza, made everyday life more caustic. These changes can reach a singular tipping point.

That is what happened in the great crisis of the Jewish people before the Holocaust- after the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in Russia. The wave of pogroms and racist legislation that followed the assassination- and the blood libel that Jews were somehow involved- produced an acute sense of existential distress among Eastern European Jews. It set off an unprecedented wave of migration and laid the foundations of Zionism. Pinsker’s conclusion was that the Jewish people would never be “normal” in exile, and that they must free themselves- ultimately, in a state of their own. But the answer for most Jews was America.

That was the earlier crossroads, and around it raged a monumental debate: the Eretz Yisrael or America. On the essential point, however, there was agreement: the Jews were hated and they had to choose a way out. In the words of the editor of 'Hayom' newspaper in January 1886 (as cited by Dr. Naomi Friedman): “We are all responsible for one another, we are all hated, despised, and reviled. And what, then, should divide our hearts? Is it because one desires to settle in the Land of Israel while another sends his poor relative to the lands of America?”

We might be again at a crossroads. In theory, the solution is ready-made. Israel was established to provide refuge, the ultimate shelter - the “self-emancipation” Leon Pinsker envisioned.

But even in Israel, Jewish existence is in danger. Beyond internal debates, Jews in the Middle East are surrounded by peoples hostile to their very existence, not just politically. October 7 proved decisively that the region’s fundamentalists truly believe they can wipe Israel out - murder its inhabitants and expel whoever remains.

The Muslim Brotherhood and extreme Shiite forces have proclaimed this openly for years. Despite the devastating blows Israel has dealt them during the war, these forces still enjoy immense popularity across the Arab and Muslim world.

The Gaza war has eroded prospects for reconciliation. This, in a sense, was Hamas’s precise goal: to sabotage any chance of political resolution, to rekindle the flame of jihad, what Sinwar calls his 'great project'.

Half of Israelis now tell pollsters they believe the existence of their state is in serious jeopardy - even after Israel has eliminated the top military leadership of Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah.

Granted, the threat to Israel’s existence is not new- it has shadowed the state since its founding. But in recent decades, a new toxin has been added: corrupt, tribal, repressive, and above all irresponsible politics.

Responsibility- this is what Israelis most want in their leaders, according to surveys. Yet this is what their government flees from. Responsibility for October 7, the worst disaster to strike the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Responsibility for corruption on a biblical scale: accepting money from a hostile state (Qatar) during wartime and channeling it directly to Netanyahu’s cronies. Many would point to the vibrancy of Israeli society- the demonstrations, the free press. These remain, and yet the governing elite continues to pass law after law, move after move, aimed at silencing criticism.

Moral clarity is often treated as treason. Thus, a fundamental tool of the Jewish state since its founding is eroded in favor of a cultish loyalty. Many coalition MKs are disgusted by the draft-dodging laws for Haredim, but they obey not their conscience, but the dictates of Aryeh Deri, Moshe Gafni, and Benjamin Netanyahu. Why? Because they know that if they “betray”- that is, if they reject draft-dodging during wartime- the ruling party’s politics will destroy them.

In 1948, when Israel’s most celebrated columnist and poet wrote to Ben-Gurion about alleged war crimes, the Prime Minister ordered his dissent circulated among all the soldiers then fighting the country’s most devastating and existential war. In 2025, by contrast, when cultural figures or the press raise suspicions of war crimes in Gaza, they are instantly branded by the ruling class as traitors-in-waiting, or sympathizers of Hamas.

Israel lives with a deep contradiction. It is a miracle: a society, economy, and spirit of innovation of extraordinary capability. It is one of the major success stories of moedernity. A global hub of technology and optimism. But its politics, especially within the coalition, is reminiscent of third world societies.

As Prof. Dan Ben-David from TAU illustrates in his grim charts, a Third World country is entirely possible near future, also thanks to the lack of basic education for the ultra-Orthodox, the most growing segment of the Israeli society. It would not be able to sustain a First World economy or an army like the IDF. Israel, he explains, relies on 300,000 exceptionally skilled people—in high-tech, medicine, academia, and defense. If they start leaving en-masse, he warns, the collapse spiral will be uncontrollable.

His data shows it’s a new phenomena of the past decades: in 1970, Israel’s vehicle density was almost identical to Western Europe. Today it is 3.4 times higher, despite fewer cars. Israel’s education in core subjects is the lowest in the developed world, even without counting the ultra-Orthodox – who refused until lately to allow the state to monitor studies for elementary students altogether. These are just snaps of a heavy body of data.

The founding contract of Israeli society was to build a state in the harshest conditions, in the heart of a hostile region, but one with mutual responsibility, social services, and an effort to create a model society. That contract has been violated.

Thus we reach the crossroads.

In the Diaspora, Jewish existence is endangered by processes in the surrounding non-Jewish societies. In Israel, Jewish existence is endangered by the region, and the political leadership itself.

It is both a junction and a race: which crisis will reach a tipping point first? Because ultimately, one can predict, either the Diaspora will flow into Israel, or Israel will spill into the Diaspora.

Actually, both could happen simultaneously. Across the Jewish world, modern Orthodox communities demonstrate increasing aliyah to Israel; this is natural, considering the triangle of hatred built around those who identify as Jews. Meanwhile, more and more secular Israelis ask if they can trust governments that exempt their allies from military service while demanding that their own children fight and die.

It is certainly possible that the antisemitic storm will pass, like a hurricane leaving destruction in its wake, as the war ends. And perhaps Israel will leave behind the current political darkness and commit to major reforms.

But what will come first- a positive transformation, or a catastrophe, or both?

In the 19th century, Jews had at least two escape routes: the Land of Israel and the Americas. In the 21st century, many Jews feel they have none. Everything is in flux, and Jews who identify openly as such are targets everywhere. The Jew of Eretz Yisrael whispers: if we are doomed to live in a darkening world, one of nationalism, racism, and populism- should we not live in our own state, speak our own language? Should we not try to shape a small community where we have power and agency? Others will reply - even here, in Israel- that it is already lost. That hope lies only elsewhere. This, too, is a Jewish debate.

This is the race. And from the Israeli angle, and as an Israeli, it is also the singular opportunity: to reform now, before a greater disaster, to rebuild the home defiled by corruption and indifference to the weak. In the Diaspora, Jews are buffeted by forces they cannot control. In Israel, Jews possess the power to shape their destiny, by themselves.

In lead-up to New York City’s mayoral election last month, Elliot Cosgrove emerged as one of the most outspoken rabbinic critics of Zohran Mamdani, the anti-Zionist activist who is now the mayor-elect.

On Monday, speaking to a convention of Zionists, Cosgrove turned his critique toward U.S. Jews, saying that supporters of Israel “shouldn’t be surprised” by Mamdani’s roughly 33% tally among Jewish voters.

“For a liberal Zionist disillusioned by the Israeli government, Mamdani’s anti-Zionism is a difference of degree, not of kind,” said Cosgrove, who leads Park Avenue Synagogue on the Upper East Side. “He understood the fissures of our community better than we ourselves did, and the question we face now is, what are we going to do about it?”

Speaking at the the convention of the American Zionist Movement, Cosgrove laid out a vision for a “new chapter of American Zionism,” calling for his audience to “avoid the reductive and destructive tactic of labeling people with whom we disagree either as self-hating Jews or colonialist aggressors.” He said a rigid vision of what Zionism should look like had been damaging for the Jewish people.

“By making unconditional support for the Israeli government a litmus test for Jewish identity,” Cosgrove said, “we ourselves have inflicted harm on the Jewish future.”

Cosgrove’s speech capped a two-day conference for the AZM, an umbrella organization for 51 U.S. Zionist groups that also serves as the American affiliate to the World Zionist Organization. Tensions were running high at the national assembly as Cosgrove took to the podium to call for the Zionist movement to widen its tent.

Speaking to the conference’s roughly 250 attendees in the East Village, Cosgrove lamented what he described as the increasing ideological divide between American and Israeli Jewry as a result of the war in Gaza. He criticized some Israeli policies in laying out why many in the liberal Jewish majority are feeling distanced from Israel.

“Leaving aside the role of historical revisionism and progressive identity politics, the unresolved status of the Palestinians, lacking as they are in freedom of movement and access, self determination and other accoutrements of sovereignty, forms a wedge issue between an increasingly liberal-leaning American Jewry and an increasingly right-leaning Israeli Jewry,” said Cosgrove.

During his address, Cosgrove also criticized the lack of recognition of the Conservative and Reform movements in Israel, adding that the country “neither supports, defends nor recognizes Judaism as I teach it and preach it.”

“The fact that the same government that fails to recognize American Jews also fails to recognize the Palestinian right to self determination only serves to increase American Jews’ sense of estrangement,” said Cosgrove.

The AZM Biennial National Assembly, which was titled “Zionism: Many Visions, One Dream,” brought together representatives from a wide range of U.S. Zionist groups. An hour before Cosgrove’s remarks, Israeli President Isaac Herzog also gave a talk where he lamented growing antisemitism within the United States.

To address the growing divide within American Jewry over support for Israel, Cosgrove called for “heshbon hanefesh,” or a “self audit.” But the onus for “heshbon hanefesh,” Cosgrove added, “goes both ways” — and he reinforced red lines that he laid out in a October sermon against Mamdani and his Jewish supporters that spurred a rabbinic statement that drew more than 1,300 signatures.

“For such a time as this, when Israel is surrounded by enemies, Jewish critics of Israel need to be judicious in how they voice their dissent,” continued Cosgrove. “It’s one thing to attend a pro-democracy rally in a sea of Israeli flags that begins and ends with the singing of ‘Hatikvah.’ It’s another thing to stand in an encampment next to someone calling for global intifada.”

But within the broad Zionist tent, Cosgrove argued, all views should be taken seriously in the quest to build a future for Zionism while it is under attack.

During a brief Q&A following the keynote speech, Marc Jacob, a member of the Haredi Orthodox slate Eretz HaKodesh, said he felt “ostracized” by Cosgrove for “wanting to open the door to those who are sitting in camps that are against the Jewish state.”

In response, Cosgrove clarified that he was “trying to stand firm in my convictions, but also embrace those views to the left of me who don’t represent my views.”

“I was not speaking about those outside of the camp who seek the ill will and destruction of the Jewish people,” said Cosgrove. “I was speaking about the ability of those within the tent to find an opportunity, a platform to support Israel in a way that need not be aligned with every policy of this or that Israeli government.”