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Saturday, March 28, 2026

03/27 Links Pt2: The real reason the left hates Israel; Meet Iran’s 21-Year-Old American Propagandist; For America at 250, Some Jewish Wisdom on How to Last 3,000 Years

From Ian:

Rod Liddle: The real reason the left hates Israel
I had previously been of the generous – and naive – opinion that the white left hates Jews because it hates Israel. That through the inevitable contact with the people who call themselves Palestinian and their Muslim supporters, there was a gradual erosion of the boundaries between loathing Israel and, as so many Muslims do, loathing the people who live there. You end up nodding along when they say the Jews control the media and armaments and capital, and eventually you end up painting virulently anti-Semitic daubs in an art gallery in Margate and thinking how clever and right on you are and down with the Pallys.

But this was wrong, I think. It is the other way about. They hate Israel because they hate Jews. We all need somebody to hate and for the left, Jewish people have come to represent a plethora of things they already hated: capitalism, the West, military competence, industrial competence, education and a hostility to the religion which they come close to worshipping themselves, Islam. In a sense Israel is simply an embodiment of those already-present loathings.

It is true the Overton window had already moved quite sharply over the past ten years or so in tandem with the rapid growth of our Muslim population and its growing political weight. That is in there somewhere – but perhaps only to the extent that this growing section of our community gives licence to the real feelings the white left already had. A white left which can show you racism in a handful of dust – except where the Jews are concerned. Then, it simply doesn’t exist.

So when four ambulances are set on fire, it is easy to spot the anti-Semitic white lefties. They are the ones asking why the Jews have their own ambulances, or the ones suggesting it was a false flag attack by Mossad, or that this wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been for Gaza. These idiots are not only enemies of the Jews – they are enemies of the rest of us too.
The Free Speech of Fools
What remains of the original “heterodox” cause that died on Oct. 7 is the metastatic cancer that consumed it and which now wears the exact face and form of Tucker Carlson. Today it is led by luminaries like Owens, whom Carlson repeatedly welcomes on his show, Megyn Kelly, another great Owens defender, sundry leftists like Glenn Greenwald who make common cause with Carlson and Owens, yellow journalists desperate for page views, like the hosts of the show Breaking Points, podcasters of the “Hitler was a misunderstood empath” genre, comedians whose comedy consists of hectoring political monologues, and assorted social media influencers including the former pimp Andrew Tate, and the mestizo anti-Jewish campaigner Nicholas Fuentes.

What has replaced the loose association of individuals organized around adherence to a common idea is a grossly self-serving social network. Led by Carlson, the network systematically undermined the organizing principle of the anticensorship movement, which was aggressive, open inquiry skeptical of ideological dogma and institutional authority. In its place, members of the Carlson clique obey two imperatives: to shield other members from legitimate criticism and to uphold anti-Jewish ideology as the ultimate principle of free speech.

Sharing and competing for the same audience, members of the network frequently appear for puff interviews on each other’s shows, circulate the same guests, and launder the same propagandistic talking points. While posturing as tough independent journalists taking on the establishment, they operate like a social club. Driven by the worst incentives of social media and insulated from criticism, this self-credentialing blob turned independent journalism into a synonym for in-group cattiness, schlock conspiracy, propaganda, and audience pandering.

Michael Tracey, who was an early debunker of Russiagate and COVID fallacies, has called the Epstein affair “the worst covered story of my lifetime, by far—and with the most destructive consequences.” Tracey is one of the few journalists who has been willing to question the extraordinarily popular Epstein mythology, despite himself being a strident critic of Israel. “Flinging around charges of ‘anti-Semitism’ has of course been cheapened beyond recognition, especially since 10/7/2023, but if you’re unaware that a HUGE portion of online uproar around Epstein is rooted in open, unabashed anti-Semitic ideology, you’re simply deluding yourself,” Tracey recently wrote.

In his coverage, one distinctly senses Tracey arriving at this conclusion—namely, that the Epstein melodrama is fueled by antipathy toward Jews—somewhat reluctantly, and only out fealty to an unavoidable truth. The structural reshaping of the news ecosystem into “independent” voices and outlets, which once held so much promise to cut through entrenched interests and provide audiences with an unvarnished view of the world around them,, instead ended up as a propaganda industry promoting the work of fantasists and open antisemites.

Maybe this was inevitable. Like the transgender activists before them, they seem to imagine themselves as members of a heroic resistance movement. What they fail to see is that being drunk on self-righteous hatred of the Zionist entity has not made them brave martyrs. It has made them aggressively incurious and blind to the reality around them, which has in turn made their audiences less informed and easier to manipulate. Epstein mania is the logical endpoint. It is a story that underscores the spectator’s lack of agency in a world utterly outside their control, while also promising them access to its deepest secrets.

Transforming the American concept of free speech into a euphemism for “asking the Jewish question,” required a large cooperative effort. Many people participated, some directly, others through silent assent. Yet if past historical episodes offer any lessons for the present, some of these people will seek to minimize their contributions and rewrite the past. Indeed some of them are already trying. For the sake of keeping an honest record about a pivotal moment in history, they should all be given credit for their work.
Nathan Livingstone (aka MilkbarTV): Circling Back On Oswald Mosley, The Fascist Tucker Carlson Calls A ‘Patriot’
Last week, Tucker Carlson released a video framed as a shocking piece of history: “Winston Churchill presided over the imprisonment of his opposition party during the entire length of the war.” According to Carlson, their only crime “was being the opposition party and being disloyal and unpatriotic. They weren’t.”

He goes on to build this political prisoner up as a heroic figure: “The opposition was led by a First World War hero who fought not just as a pilot in the sky, but in the trenches — one of the great war heroes, a former Member of Parliament.”

So who exactly is Tucker talking about?

Although he is never named, images of Oswald Mosley flash throughout the video, fists clenched, rallying so-called patriotic Britons. But search his name and you’ll also see images of Mosley and his fellow British Union of Fascists (BUF) members performing Roman salutes in Mussolini-style uniforms, complete with imitation armbands bearing the BUF lightning bolt, drawing heavily from Nazi aesthetics. Mosley wasn’t the leader of a legitimate opposition party. By the time of his arrest, he wasn’t even an MP, and his party, the British Union of Fascists, operated outside Britain’s democratic system. These are hardly minor details, yet are conspicuously absent from Carlson’s video.

What else did Tucker leave out?

Mosley came from an aristocratic family. He served briefly in France during World War I as a cavalry officer, but after being injured in training with the Royal Flying Corps, he spent the rest of the war away from the front. His war record was later exaggerated for propaganda purposes — and apparently still is today.

He then entered Parliament, drifting from the Conservative to the Labour Party. After the Cabinet rejected his plan to tackle unemployment through public works and the nationalization of major industries as too radical, he resigned, turning toward the rising authoritarian movements in Europe.

Mosley visited Mussolini’s Italy in 1932 and, impressed by what he saw, founded the British Union of Fascists.

The BUF would also become closely aligned with Germany’s rising Nazi movement. Mosley was so close to the regime that he married his second wife, Diana Freeman-Mitford, herself a committed fascist, at Joseph Goebbels’ home. Only a handful of guests were present. The guest of honor? Adolf Hitler, naturally.

The early days of the BUF saw rallies drawing tens of thousands: members dressed in Mussolini-inspired blackshirt uniforms, standing in columns and raising Roman salutes as Mosley strode through to deliver impassioned speeches. Membership at one point reached 50,000. Popular British papers like the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror heralded the movement with headlines “Hurrah for the Blackshirts” and “Give the Blackshirts a helping hand.”


For America at 250, Some Jewish Wisdom on How to Last 3,000 Years
The scholar of Yiddish Ruth Wisse began her Jefferson Lecture last night at the Trump Kennedy Center in Washington with the observation that "There have been many far more distinguished speakers in this series, but I think none has been older, and no one more grateful."

Wisse didn’t explicitly make the connection between her age—89—and her topic—"our anxieties about endurance"—but I’m old enough myself to begin to understand what she was talking about. So is America, in its 250th birthday year.

Wisse introduced her talk as "a grateful Jewish message on staying power, in three parts."

Part one focused on a Yiddish poem by Abraham Sutzkever that asks "Who will last? And what?" It concludes "Who lasts? God abides — isn’t that enough?"

I took Sutzkever—and Wisse—to be suggesting that faith in God is one secret to endurance, and also that the anxiety about endurance is eased by the knowledge that only God is eternal.

As Wisse put it, "To find lastingness, he insisted, you must look to its source. Trust in eternity can be sought only in the eternal." Or, as she concluded, "Sutzkever, who survived the sacrifice of his formative world—when that’s what it cost to remain a Jew—reminds us to acknowledge before whom we stand. If that secure knowledge could restore him and resurrect the Jewish people, so can it inspire this nation to reach its 2,500th anniversary."

Part two focused on an essential Jewish prayer, the Shma, which begins, "Hear, O Israel. The Lord is our God, the Lord is One. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words which I command you today shall be upon your heart. You shall teach them thoroughly to your children, and you shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road, when you lie down and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for a reminder between your eyes. And you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house and upon your gates." As she put it, the "ratio of content to transmission is about 1:7."

Transmission, she said, requires teachers who inspire and reinforce rather than only complain. "The absence of insistent, creative intellectual formation, particularly in the humanities, does not just leave a vacuum; it gets filled by adversarial ideas: Marx for Madison, Lenin for Lincoln, and lately the Islamist incursion for the American Revolution. … If there is to be enduring government of, by, and for the people, the people would have to be instructed and reminded to respect and confidently to perpetuate their precious inheritance."

Part three had to do with military force—appropriate for Wisse. Michael Segal of Advocates for Harvard ROTC wrote me to say that Wisse "was one of the key faculty members supporting return of ROTC to Harvard. … the example of Israel was very much in mind for the importance of having capable people in the military."


Dave Rich: Antisemitism education in schools: keynote address
I was recently honoured to deliver the keynote address to a Policy Dialogue in Sydney, Australia, to launch a new national approach to addressing antisemitism in Australian schools. The project is piloting a teacher-training programme developed by UNESCO, which will be implemented in partnership with the Office of Special Envoy on Combatting Antisemitism. Following the recent murderous attacks on Jewish communities in Bondi and Manchester, the need to find solutions to the growing antisemitism in our countries is more urgent than ever. Below are my remarks to the conference.

It’s an honour to speak at this conference, and I want to start by thanking you all for organising and taking part in today’s Dialogue – because when it comes to the urgent and vital question of how to tackle growing anti-Jewish hatred in our societies, the most important challenge, and the greatest opportunity, in bringing about long-term change, must lie in the role of education.

I last visited Sydney in November 2023, at a time when the Jewish community here, like the community in the UK, and others around the world, were reeling from the shock of the October 7 attack in Israel. And now we are reeling once again, from the horror on Bondi Beach on the first day of Chanukah, and the attack on a synagogue in Manchester, the city where I was born and grew up, on Yom Kippur. Many people, in the Jewish community and beyond, draw a connection between these events. Not a direct line perhaps, but the idea that there is an unavoidable link between the hatreds unleashed on 7 October 2023, and the murderous terrorism that landed on our communities, in Australia and in Great Britain, at the end of 2025.

In many ways, October 7 was the day that things changed for Jewish communities around the world. Antisemitism was there beforehand, of course, but there was a shift in the atmosphere for Jews, a darkening of the skies. Anti-Jewish hatreds that had been largely marginal in our societies became open and proudly declared, by people unashamed of their prejudice. Hate crimes against Jews soared around the world. And there was a sense, a foreboding, that this explosion of antisemitism – seemingly unprecedented yet chillingly familiar – would lead to an atrocity like that suffered on the first day of Chanukah here in Sydney, and on Yom Kippur in Manchester. When I was last here, in November 2023, I addressed the Kristallnacht commemoration that year, and I said at the time that “it feels like we are entering a new phase”. Well, here we are, Manchester and Sydney, targeted by the same hateful ideology, and joined together in pain.

Jewish festivals are supposed to be days of happiness, occasions to enjoy and to embrace. Whether they are festive and celebratory, like Chanukah, or days of contemplation and solemn prayer, like Yom Kippur – they share a sense of community, of coming together, a day for Jewish people to connect with each other, not just locally, but globally too. Jews around the world celebrate Chanukah in just the same way, lighting menorahs and eating donuts, wherever we are – but now, as well as these festivals being occasions for joy, they have become moments of danger, and days of mourning. October 7, Manchester, Bondi, The Halle synagogue attack in Germany: all terror attacks on Jews that took place on Jewish festivals. It’s a reminder that antisemitism is not limited to the taking of Jewish lives. It is an attempt to stop the Jewish way of life, to inhibit Jewish identity and destroy Jewish dignity.
7 October memorial group responds to new Brighton & Hove Council tribute crackdown
Council leaders in Brighton & Hove have been accused of singling out the only Jewish vigil in the city while debating strict policy changes on memorials.

On Tuesday 24 March, the Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee met to discuss limiting items like benches and plaques, claiming it sought “to ensure greater clarity going forward”.

Under the proposals, temporary memorials such as floral tributes could remain in place for up to 14 days, while applications would be made for other items, with the process normally taking eight weeks.

Whilst it was not explicitly named, the council’s presentation heavily featured images of the 7/10 memorial at Palmeira Square set up in the wake of the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023, and notably identifiable by its yellow ribbons.

The memorial operated as a well-known hub for nightly services as the local Jewish community struggled with the horror of the massacre and campaigned for the release of the hostages still held. As antisemitism in the city tripled, the memorial was subsequently targeted by violence and vandalised more than fifty times, while only one person, Fiona Monro, has so far convicted for targeting it.

The committee are suggesting that items such as “tables, vases, trinkets, stones, gazebos, books, and ribbons” are cited as not allowed under the proposed new policy – all items that have been left in tribute at Palmeira Square.

These would be removed after 14 days, or if they overspilt the “capacity” of the site or posed a threat to public health and safety.
Cleverly accuses government of failing to act on antisemitism after Gail’s bakery attacks
Conservative shadow communities secretary James Cleverly has accused Keir Starmer’s government of failing to take “robust and immediate action” against rising Jew-hatred after raising concern about antisemitic incidents at Gail’s bakeries.

The former home secretary hit out after tabling a written parliamentary question demanding to know what ministers were doing to both tackle and challenge antisemitic incidents such as the recent spate of attacks on Gail’s bakeries by anti-Israel activists.

But Cleverly told Jewish News he was frustrated by the response he received from Housing minister Miatta Fahnbulleh, and accused the government of failing to sufficiently focus on tackling Jew-hatred while “trying to use sectarian appeals to win votes.”

The senior Tory MP had tabled a question asking what discussions had taken place with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on “(a) challenging and (b) tackling antisemitic attacks against retail branches of Gail’s.”

In her response to Cleverly, Fahnbulleh wrote: “Antisemitism is abhorrent and has no place in our society.
Jay Solomon: The Radicalization of Calla Walsh
Five years ago, she was a teen wonder in Democratic politics. Now, she’s on a U.S. government watch list.

In the weeks since the U.S. and Israel launched their joint assault on Iran, perhaps no American has more aggressively and publicly rallied behind the Islamic Republic than Calla Walsh. From her new base in Lebanon, the 21-year-old Cambridge-raised activist has taken to social media and left-wing podcasts to incite her fellow countrymen and women to sabotage U.S. and Israeli defense contractors wherever they can find them. On March 3, she mocked four American soldiers killed in an Iranian drone strike, posting: “They all died fighting for fascism, genocide, pedophilia, and cannibalism.” She attached pictures of the dead Americans. In recent days she reposted a list of missile-production sites inside the U.S.

“We have a duty to escalate,” Walsh told her host on the Psychic Militancy podcast last Saturday from Beirut, noting that “lockdowns” of weapons factories and vandalism alone are “not sufficient at this point.”

She added: “And as the genocide and these wars of aggression continue to escalate, much more is demanded of people in the West.”

Walsh looks every part the art-school hipster, with her thick-rimmed glasses and a mop of curly hair. But she’s a chameleon of terror. Five years earlier, as a 16-year-old, Walsh was fawned over by The New York Times for being a young, social media–savvy activist who was helping to shake up the Democratic Party in Massachusetts. But as a months-long investigation by The Free Press shows, she’s thrown her allegiance squarely behind the Islamic Republic of Iran and its Axis of Resistance, which includes the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. The U.S. government has placed her on a suspicious persons watch list for her expansive dealings with the governments of Cuba and Iran, U.S. officials told me, as well as a spiderweb of U.S.-designated terrorist groups.

Over the past few years, Walsh’s radicalization has played out in real time on X and Instagram. She quickly moved from political organizing for the Democrats to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) to conducting guerrilla-style raids on Israeli defense companies in New England, for which she received jail time in 2024. She’s regularly called for the assassinations of Israeli officials and their allies in the U.S. and elsewhere.

In October, she formally relocated to Beirut, The Free Press learned, where she has established herself as a regular contributor to Iranian state media, particularly the English-language site of Tehran’s Press TV on which Washington has imposed sanctions. She is actively engaging in propaganda and information-warfare operations on behalf of the Iranian regime and Hezbollah, which is fighting Israeli forces in south Lebanon.

In early February, Walsh traveled to Iran as part of a regime-backed media delegation aimed at galvanizing international support for the Islamic Republic in the face of the looming U.S. and Israel attacks on the country. She was also there to whitewash Tehran’s January massacre of thousands of protesters by framing the regime as a bulwark against imperial and Zionist aggression.

According to U.S. counterterrorism officials I spoke with, any financial or operational ties Walsh has established with blacklisted organizations—whether in Iran, Cuba, or Lebanon—means she could be indicted for providing material support to proscribed groups. Walsh’s latest trip to Tehran places her in even greater legal jeopardy if she ever returns home.

“I’ve never seen someone who’s done jail time so publicly integrate herself into terrorist infrastructure,” a senior national security official told me. “She’s totally exposed now.”

Walsh’s family in Boston, including her three siblings, have expressed growing alarm about a daughter and sister who just years ago appeared to be an emerging force in Democratic politics. “We love Calla deeply and absolutely,” the family wrote in an emailed statement to me. “And we have serious, fundamental political disagreements with her.” They declined to comment further. Neither Calla Walsh nor her attorney, Jeffrey Odland, responded to multiple requests for comment from The Free Press.

Walsh’s story, in some ways, sounds familiar: a Zoomer who became politically active in the years when Covid-19 raged and nationwide protests subsumed college campuses after George Floyd’s death and Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Walsh has written that she initially embraced activism to combat the climate crisis and America’s racial divide.

But Walsh’s rapid turn toward revolutionary agitation is a cautionary tale about how foreign intelligence services, domestic extremist groups, and political grifters are preying on American youth, counter-extremist experts in the U.S., Europe, and Canada told me. At the age of 17, just months after appearing in The New York Times and authoring a 2021 piece in Teen Vogue on the DSA, Walsh was invited to Cuba by an organization the U.S. government long tied to the Castro regime’s intelligence services. She would go on to make four visits to the island nation between 2022 and 2024.
Meet Iran’s 21-Year-Old American Propagandist
In the weeks since the U.S. and Israel launched their joint assault on Iran, perhaps no American has more aggressively and publicly rallied behind the Islamic Republic than Calla Walsh. From her new base in Lebanon, the 21-year-old Cambridge-raised activist has taken to social media and left-wing podcasts to incite her fellow countrymen and women to sabotage U.S. and Israeli defense contractors wherever they can find them.




Wikipedia mulling whether to rename entry on ‘Hamas beheading babies hoax’
Volunteer, anonymous editors on Wikipedia are discussing whether to rename an entry on the crowdsourced, online encyclopedia, one of the internet’s most visited sites, that is now titled “Hamas beheading babies hoax.”

The entry, which has been part of the site since February 2025, says that the “hoax refers to allegations, since refuted, that Hamas killed and beheaded dozens of babies and toddlers during the Oct. 7 attacks, which it led in southern Israel in 2023.”

The “hoax” was “initially endorsed by then-U.S. President Joe Biden, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and some IDF spokespeople and was then spread credulously by Western media outlets, gaining widespread coverage and, arguably, helping to shape the consensus in favor of war on the Gaza Strip,” per the entry.

“At times the Israeli government has discreetly admitted that the rumors about the beheaded children are unfounded,” per the entry. “The hoax is argued by critics of Israel to be an example of atrocity propaganda and evidence that Israel is waging a ‘war on truth’ during the Gaza war.”

Editors generally appeared to agree on the entry’s “talk” page that the claim that Hamas beheaded babies is false, but disagreed on whether to use the word “hoax” in the title.

Daniel S. Mariaschin, CEO of B’nai B’rith International, told JNS that “there are many, many witnesses to the result of Hamas violence and barbarity against children and women, and entire families on that day of infamy.”

“Pure and simple, this Wikipedia entry is an attempt to launder Hamas and to bury its crimes by throwing the proverbial sand in our faces,” he said. “The people behind this entry are nothing more than depraved apologists for terrorism.”

Vlad Khaykin, executive vice president of social impact and North American partnerships at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told JNS that “the central issue is not a single contested detail but how language is used to frame the broader reality of Oct. 7.”

“There is a meaningful distinction between an unverified or inaccurate report and labeling something a ‘hoax,’ which implies deliberate fabrication,” he said.

“The wiki article in question itself quotes an investigation from Le Monde that describes the claim as emerging from confusion and the fog of a traumatic event, not intentional deception,” Khaykin said.


Board and JLC accuse government of abandoning principled stance on anti-Israel UN votes
The Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council have announced that Keir Starmer’s government is ready to renege on a position held for some years by the UK of voting against all Item 7 resolutions in the UN Human Rights Council, which “unfairly single out Israel.”

In a joint statement, the two communal groups say they are “appalled” by the decision, ahead of scheduled votes on Item 7 at the upcoming UN Human Rights Council sessions.

The Board and JLC accuse the government of an “inexcusable abandonment of principle” in the same week the UK community is “still reeling” from the Golders Green Hatzola ambulance arson attacks.

Jewish News has contacted the Foreign Office for comment on suggestions the UK has now backtracked on its previous position.

Delivering the UK’s statement at last year’s Human Rights Council session, Ambassador Eleanor Sanders said: “Let me be clear, the UK is opposed to the existence of Item 7.

“The UK wants to see all countries face appropriate scrutiny of their human rights record, but opposes the disproportionate focus of this item.”

Sources have told Jewish News that the UK could now abstain when votes take place on Item 7 at this year’s UN meeting in votes from Sunday.


J Street and Muslim Public Affairs Council, which have accused Israel of ‘genocide,’ decry Jew-hatred, Islamophobia
J Street, which self-identifies as “pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy,” and the Muslim Public Affairs Council released a joint statement decrying hatred against Jews and Muslims on Thursday.

The two, both of which have accused Israel of genocide in Gaza, said that they are “deeply concerned by rising antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate in the United States at a moment of escalating tensions in the Middle East, including the growing confrontation involving Iran.”

“Periods of heightened conflict abroad too often coincide with increased fear, discrimination and violence at home, putting both Jewish and Muslim Americans at risk,” they said.

The two also said that the United States should be engaging Iran diplomatically rather than through military action. (Iran has repeatedly turned down deals to resolve the conflict diplomatically.)

MPAC has accused Israel of “genocide,” and Jeremy Ben-Ami, the J Street president, stated last August that “until now, I have tried to deflect and defend when challenged to call this genocide,” but that “I have, however, been persuaded by legal and scholarly arguments that international courts will one day find Israel has broken the international genocide convention.”


How a False “Tortured Toddler” Narrative Spread Unchecked
A story accusing Israeli soldiers of torturing a one-year-old toddler in Gaza circulated widely this week across Hamas affiliated media, social media and regional outlets. It was emotive, shocking, and designed to provoke outrage.

It was also false.

The claim seems to have appeared in reporting carried by TRT World, the Turkish public broadcaster, which alleged that a Palestinian toddler had been abused in Israeli custody, including claims of cigarette burns used to pressure his father during interrogation.

The framing was clear. Israeli soldiers were portrayed as deliberately harming a baby.

As soon as we saw the TRT report, we showed the photo to a medical professional who pointed out that a cigarette burn would appear as a much more regular-shaped circle than the wounds in the photo, which have more irregular borders. In addition, if a nail had been used to puncture the skin significantly, as was alleged, the degree of redness and swelling would be far worse.

Within days, the Israel Defense Forces issued a direct and detailed denial. According to reporting by The Times of Israel, the military rejected the allegations outright and provided an alternative account of the incident.

The IDF stated that the toddler’s father had approached Israeli troops near Gaza’s Yellow Line while holding the child. Soldiers fired warning shots when he failed to stop. According to the IDF, the toddler’s injuries were caused by fragments from those warning shots.

The army further said the father later identified himself as a Hamas terrorist who participated in the October 7, 2023 massacre. He also admitted that he had used his son as a human shield when approaching the forces.

The IDF also released video footage showing the child being transferred to the Red Cross after receiving medical care. This detail stands in sharp contrast to the initial allegations of abuse in custody.

But none of it appeared in the sources that originally reported the fake story.

This is hardly surprising. Because this is how the industry of lies works: An emotionally charged claim is published. It spreads quickly. It assigns clear moral blame. And then, when a contradictory version emerges, supported by additional details and visual evidence, the correction fails to travel with the same force.


Comedy Cellar USA: Live from the Table: Is "Zionism for Everyone?” Tablet Mag Editor Alana Newhouse Makes the Case
Noam Dworman, Dan Naturman and Periel Aschenbrand are joined by Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Tablet Magazine, Alana Newhouse. They discuss her recent piece, "Zionism is for Everyone."


UKLFI: Natasha Hausdorff explains why FIFA rejected Palestinian bid to ban Israeli Football Association
What did FIFA actually decide regarding the Israel Football Association — and what legal issues sit behind that decision?

In this interview, we speak with Natasha Hausdorff, Legal Director of the UKLFI Charitable Trust, about FIFA’s recent decision to reject a proposal by the Palestinian Football Association to suspend the Israel Football Association.

The discussion explores the legal arguments surrounding the participation of Israeli clubs based in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) in the Israeli league system and how FIFA interprets its statutes in relation to territory and governance. It also looks at the broader question of whether international sporting bodies should engage with complex issues of public international law.

Hausdorff explains the background to the case, including earlier proceedings before FIFA and the Court of Arbitration for Sport and outlines the submissions made by UK Lawyers for Israel. The interview also considers comparative examples from other parts of the world, where football associations operate in areas subject to territorial disputes.

In addition, the conversation addresses FIFA’s disciplinary findings relating to allegations of discrimination and how those findings sit alongside its decision not to take action on the territorial issue.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction – FIFA decision and key issues
01:04 What the Palestinian Football Association requested
01:45 FIFA statutes and the question of “territory”
03:08 Legal arguments and prior case law
03:38 Israeli clubs in Judea and Samaria
05:02 Comparative examples from other disputed territories
06:46 Allegations of discrimination – overview
07:35 West Bank and Gaza leagues – structure and issues
09:50 Political dimensions and governance concerns
10:49 UKLFI submissions and historical background
13:31 Outcome: no action on territory, sanctions on discrimination
15:22 Reactions and next steps




Ousted Ben & Jerry's board chair sues Unilever,
Unilever and its recently spun-off Magnum ice cream unit were sued for defamation on Thursday by Anuradha Mittal, who was ousted in December as chair of Ben & Jerry's independent board, saying the companies vilified and discredited her for supporting Palestinian rights.

The lawsuit escalates a years-long dispute over what Ben & Jerry's and its board say were Unilever's efforts to undermine their autonomy and the brand's social mission, including by removing former Ben & Jerry's Chief Executive Dave Stever.

Unilever did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Magnum said in an email: "The claims are unfounded and we are confident the court process will show this."

In a complaint filed in the Oakland, California, federal court, Mittal said her support for Palestinian rights and a ceasefire in Gaza "rankled" Unilever, with the acrimony escalating after Unilever announced the Magnum spinoff in March 2024.

She said the defamation included claims she engaged in self-dealing, received improper benefits, diverted funds from the nonprofit Ben & Jerry's Foundation, created a toxic work environment, and was unfit to remain board chair following internal investigations.

“Defendants achieved their goal of thoroughly humiliating and discrediting Ms. Mittal,” harming her reputation and causing depression and chronic insomnia, the complaint said.

Unilever retained a 19.9% stake in Magnum following the December spinoff.


NYC council members host Islamophobia briefing with Mahmoud Khalil
Two New York City Council members sponsored a policy briefing on Islamophobia on Thursday featuring Mahmoud Khalil and other anti-Israel activists, hours before the council passed a legislation package combating antisemitism and establishing buffer zones for protests outside houses of worship and schools.

“This is not an event that we were aware of,” Council Speaker Julie Menin said at a press conference ahead of the vote. “This is not an event coming from the speaker’s office. This is not a City Council event. This is two council members who hosted the event.”

Council members Shahana Hanif—who opposed the inclusion of 1-B and 175-B, which address buffer zones around houses of worship and schools, in the legislation package—and Shekar Krishnan co-sponsored “Islamophobia in New York City: A Policy Perspective,” which was held in a City Hall conference room. A source familiar with the event told JNS that any council member can reserve conference rooms.

A flier for the policy briefing listed Khalil, who led the anti-Israel encampment at Columbia University and now faces potential deportation, as a speaker. (JNS sought comment from Hanif and Krishnan.)

It also listed Asad Dandia, a lecturer at the City University of New York; Rana Amdelhabid, executive director of Malikah; Badar Khan Suri, a fellow at Georgetown University; Baher Azmy, legal director of CCR; and Heba Khalil, state director for the New York Metro Chapter of EmgageUSA.

Council Minority Leader David Carr said he and his Republican colleagues denounced the policy briefing “that included radical terrorist sympathizers Mahmoud Khalil and Badar Khan Suri.”

In a statement shared by Carr, the New York City Council Minority Conference said the right to free speech “does not require an elective body to platform vile, antisemitic, anti-American bigots like some of our colleagues have done under the guise of a ‘policy perspective briefing’ at City Council offices.”


Anti-Israel activist’s home the target of planned firebombing, Justice Dept says
Alexander Heifler, 26, of Hoboken, N.J., was charged on March 26 with unlawfully possessing and manufacturing destructive devices in connection with a plot to allegedly target a private residence, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey said.

Jessica Tisch, New York City Police Department commissioner, identified the target as Nerdeen Kiswani, who is co-founder of the anti-Israel protest group Within Our Lifetime.

“This NYPD investigation uncovered an alleged plot by Alexander Heifler to carry out a violent attack against Nerdeen Kiswani. Our undercover officer identified and tracked the threat—first online and then in person—allowing us to disrupt the planned attack, take Heifler into custody and ensure that no one was harmed,” Tisch stated. “This is exactly how our intelligence and counterterrorism operation is designed to work—a sophisticated apparatus built to detect danger early and prevent violence before it reaches our streets.”

“Once again, the men and women of the NYPD have done the courageous and dangerous work necessary to keep people safe,” the commissioner stated.

The U.S. Justice Department charged Heifler with a count of unlawful possession of destructive devices and a count of making destructive devices. Heifler began discussing plans in February to make Molotov cocktails and attack a residence with them, and he asked someone, who he didn’t know to be an undercover law enforcement officer, where he could practice throwing such makeshift explosives, according to the criminal complaint.

He later surveilled the home and told the undercover officer at an in-person meeting that he planned to make about a dozen explosives and planned to throw some at vehicles parked outside, per the complaint. On Friday, law enforcement saw him assemble the devices at his Hoboken residence using high-proof alcohol and other materials. Federal agents executed a warrant and found eight Molotov cocktails. Preliminary tests suggested ethanol, “a known ignition liquid for improvised incendiary devices,” the Justice Department said.

Heifler faces up to 20 years in prison. JNS sought comment from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey about alleged motive. The U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment.

Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of New York City, who as of March 3, does not yet have security clearance, identified the target as Kiswani well before the NYPD named her.

“Last night, an alleged member of the Jewish Defense League—designated by the FBI as a ‘known violent extremist organization'—attempted to blow up the home of Nerdeen Kiswani in a chilling act of political violence and an apparent assassination plot,” Mamdani stated. “The defendant allegedly planned to flee to Israel following the attack.”

“This comes amidst an alarming rise in threats and violence across the country targeting Palestinian human rights advocates. I am thankful that the NYPD and FBI thwarted this plot, which could have endangered Nerdeen’s life and those of other New Yorkers,” he added. “Let me be clear: We will not tolerate violent extremism in our city. No one should face violence for their political beliefs or their advocacy. I am relieved that Nerdeen is safe. Our city must meet hate with solidarity, and meet fear with an unshakable commitment to justice and to one another.”

About an hour and a half later, Mamdani issued a “corrected” statement, in which he changed the first part of what he said, referring this time to an “offshoot” of the JDL and to the person “allegedly building explosive devices” rather than having “attempted to blow up” the home. He also removed the reference to an “apparent assassination plot” and said that the suspect “reportedly” planned to go to Israel, rather than “allegedly.”


NYC Council’s approval of synagogue protection bill marks a welcome win for centrist Jews
After the New York City Council passed legislation meant to protect houses of worship on Thursday, mainstream Jewish groups took a victory lap.

New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, the Jewish descendant of Holocaust survivors who led the effort to pass the bill, held an event with other Jewish leaders the following morning to celebrate at Manhattan’s Park East Synagogue.

A vitriolic protest at the synagogue, and another, weeks later, at a Queens synagogue, were the impetus for the legislation.

“This is such an exciting moment. There are people who doubted our ability to do this, but we got it past the finish line, and we got it past the finish line with this overwhelming vote of support,” Menin said.

The bill marked a welcome victory for Jewish New Yorkers who are alarmed about the ascendancy of the city’s anti-Zionist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, and his far-left allies.

The legislation passed by a margin of 44 votes in favor and five against in the 51-member City Council, giving it a veto-proof majority before it heads to Mamdani’s desk for approval. The bill calls on the police to formulate and make public plans to prevent potential interference at the entrances to houses of worship.

The overwhelming support signaled the limited power of the far left in the council, and was a show of strength for Menin and her allies.
NHS doctor Rahmeh Aladwan appears in court accused of posting support for Hamas
An NHS doctor charged with posting on social media in support of Hamas has been released on bail.

Dr Rahmeh Aladwan appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday, where she indicated not guilty pleas to four counts of inviting support for the proscribed group.

The court heard the charges date from July 23 to December 31 last year, and relate to comments or material posted online.

The 31-year-old also indicated not guilty pleas for stirring up racial hatred using words or behaviour at a speech she allegedly made at a protest on July 21 in King Charles Street, Westminster, and stirring up racial hatred through the publishing and distributing of written material on November 19.

Prosecutor Carl Kelvin told the court the doctor is accused of writing “I don’t condemn Hamas. I don’t condemn October 7” and “I condemn the existence of Israel” in a post on July 23.

On December 31, it is alleged she wrote “Free the world from Jewish supremacy”, he added.

The court heard that on the second anniversary of the October 7 attack, she is accused of posting an image of a bulldozer along with text reading “Glory to the Palestinian resistance”.

Aladwan was arrested at her home in Pilning, south Gloucestershire, on Thursday morning for allegedly breaching police bail conditions imposed after previous arrests, police said.


Lawsuit alleges that UCLA didn’t release documents on anti-Israel ‘poverty scholar’
The free-market think tank Goldwater Institute sued the University of California, Los Angeles to try to force the public school to produce documents under state law related to an “activist-in-residence” with a history of anti-Israel statements.

The institute filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

The suit states that Lisa Gray-Garcia, a “poverty scholar,” is part of the university’s “activist-in-residence” program, which the school describes as an opportunity “for activists to engage with the UCLA community to develop and strengthen their capabilities, work and commitment towards racial, economic and social justice.”

Gray-Garcia, according to the suit, has stated on social media that Israel is a “colonizer” and is guilty of “genocide.” She has also said that the University of California, San Francisco is “Zionist funded,” the suit alleges. (JNS sought comment from UCLA.)

The institute says that it filed a California Public Records Act request in October for documents related to Gray-Garcia’s contract with the university, her course materials and any emails from her about Israel and Zionism. The university has “repeatedly sought to delay dealing with the requests,” the suit alleges.

“Now, more than four months after UCLA acknowledged receiving the public records request, UCLA has failed to produce a single public record,” the suit states. “It has also failed to offer any justification for its failure other than administrative burden.”
I’m one of 7 Jewish teachers suing the UTLA over antisemitism. Here’s why.
I used to pay dues to the teachers union. I believed in it — fair pay, having someone in your corner, all of it.

I was a member of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) — which represents teachers in the LA Unified School District (LAUSD) — for years.

The union I left barely resembles the one I joined.

At some point, UTLA stopped being about teachers. It became something else — a political movement, an activist organization that has made hatred of Jewish people and Israel a core part of what it does and who it is.

I don’t say that to be dramatic. I say it because I watched it happen, and because my grandparents — who survived what happens when that kind of hatred goes unchecked — spent their lives warning me about exactly this.

The early signs are always the ones that people wave away. That’s the whole point.

After the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Janus v. AFSCME, public employees like me finally had the legal right to opt out of union membership without penalty.

But here’s the thing California doesn’t tell you. Leaving the union doesn’t actually get you out from under it.

Under state law, UTLA is still my “exclusive representative” at work. It still speaks for me, negotiates for me, represents me, whether I want that or not.

I have no say in it. The union that spent three-quarters of a million dollars promoting an antisemite is, legally speaking, my voice in the workplace.

Six other Jewish teachers and I sued over that, and the Freedom Foundation supported us.
UW-Madison, Colorado State student governments vote to divest from Israel
The student governments at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Colorado State University passed boycott, divestment and sanctions resolutions on Wednesday evening.

The resolution in Wisconsin, which passed 15-5 with three abstentions, calls on the university to “divest from all investments complicit in apartheid and genocide, including Israel’s genocide of Gaza.”

Following its passage, the university stated that it is “disappointed” in the Associated Students of Madison Student Council.

“Wisconsin state law prohibits state and local government agencies from adopting their own rules or policies that would involve them in a boycott of Israel,” the public school stated. “Despite the fact that ASM leadership was counseled by university attorneys on the clear illegality of that specific part of the resolution, ASM Student Council nonetheless voted to pass it.”

The university added that it is investigating reports that an antisemitic message was used during an online chat at a March 18 meeting when the resolution was introduced.

“The university condemns antisemitism in all of its forms and reiterates the importance of civil and open discourse,” it stated. “While we recognize the variety of viewpoints in our community about investment policy and disclosure, resolutions that call for actions that would violate the law do not warrant further engagement.”


Suburban Detroit School Settles Lawsuit With Palestinian Student Over Pledge of Allegiance Dispute
A suburban Detroit school district has agreed to give First Amendment training to staff to settle a lawsuit by a teenager who said a teacher humiliated her for refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance in protest of U.S. support of Israel's war in Gaza.

The agreement with Danielle Khalaf and her father also includes a $10,000 payment by an insurance company on behalf of the teacher, according to a court filing.

The Plymouth-Canton district did not admit liability. But Superintendent Monica Merritt praised Danielle for “showing courage and speaking up about the incident.”

“Our mission is to foster a school environment that is safe, respectful and welcoming for all,” Merritt said Friday.

Danielle, whose family is of Palestinian descent, declined to recite the pledge at her school over three days in January 2025. The lawsuit says her teacher admonished her and told her she was being disrespectful.

“Since you live in this country and enjoy its freedom, if you don’t like it, you should go back to your country,” the teacher said, according to the lawsuit.

Danielle suffered emotional injuries, including nightmares and strained friendships, the lawsuit said.
Unmoderated BBC comment section flooded with ‘false flag’ claims on Hatzola report
The BBC is failing to moderate hateful comments on its social media channels, including posts that labelled Monday’s Hatzola ambulance arson attack a “false flag”.

The corporation is supposed to monitor comments on its social media channels, but the JC has seen dozens of antisemitic comments across platforms, including under posts that the corporation told the JC it would moderate last month that claimed the Holocaust was a “lie” and “Zionist propaganda”.

Comments have been disabled on some BBC videos about the Hatzola attack in Golders Green, but the JC found numerous instances of antisemitism which have not been moderated, despite the BBC’s own editorial guidelines stating that “abusive” comments should be removed.

Comments under the BBC Arabic report posted to 2.8 million followers on Instagram included claims that “Jews did it” and that it was a “false flag”, meaning an attack perpetrated by its apparent victims with the intention of directing blame towards another group.

Another BBC Arabic report posted on YouTube to some 13 million subscribers features similar responses, including users laughing: “Hahaha. The Semites.”

Comments on Facebook underneath a BBC Arabic report about the Hatzola attack
To Observant Jews, New York Times Cooking Offers a Pre-Passover Insult
The New York Times food section is celebrating the Passover holiday by recommending a recipe for "matzo" that the newspaper itself acknowledges is not kosher for Passover. At least one rabbinic authority says the crackers the Times is touting are "hametz"—leavened bread that is the opposite of the unleavened bread that Jewish law requires for the holiday.

A Times feature by Melissa Clark repeatedly and openly acknowledges—once in the subheadline, twice in the article, and once in the accompanying recipe—that the food is not kosher for Passover. The story makes a halfhearted attempt at a justification, attributed to chef Hillary Sterling of "Italian-infected" restaurant Ci Siamo, whose menu includes pork Milanese. "These dishes aren’t strictly traditional or kosher, but all of them have good stories behind them. And telling those stories together, Ms. Sterling said, is why we gather at the Passover table."

Leave it to the New York Times to consult a pork-selling chef on the reasons for the Passover holiday rather than, say, the Hebrew Bible. The Bible has explanations like, "You shall celebrate it as a festival to GOD throughout the ages … Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the very first day you shall remove leaven from your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day to the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel." (Exodus 12:14-12:15) Or Exodus 12:19, "No leaven shall be found in your houses for seven days. For whoever eats what is leavened, that person—whether a stranger or a citizen of the country—shall be cut off from the community of Israel." Or Exodus 13:6, "Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a festival of GOD."

The Times matzo recipe is the latest in a long line of examples of the newspaper being clumsy around food and Jewish holidays. In 2016, a Times article headlined, "For Juicy Beef for Your Seder Table, Look Beyond Brisket" generated a classic Times correction: "An earlier version of this article incorrectly implied that beef tenderloin is kosher and appropriate for Passover. It is not kosher, but other cuts of beef that are kosher may be used in the recipe in its place." In 2024 the Times magazine ran an article attacking the Passover Seder as being too focused on Jews rather than on others. "I’ve been to a lot of Passover celebrations … and it’s so weird that the story is only of Jewish subjugation, even though subjugation is still so present for other people," the article quoted a far-left activist as saying.


Green activists called Jews ‘abominations’ in leaked WhatsApp chat
Green Party activists described Jewish people as “an abomination to this planet” in anti-Semitic WhatsApp messages, The Telegraph can reveal.

One member of the Greens for Palestine group, a Left-wing faction in the Green Party, said Jews “murder, bomb and starve” children.

Another claimed the arson attack on four ambulances owned by a Jewish charity in Golders Green, north London, on Monday had been a “false flag” operation, suggesting it could have been carried out by Jewish people.

A Green council candidate shared posts on social media, making the same claim.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) said its lawyers were investigating the activists’ remarks. It said views expressed in the Greens for Palestine group chat were “straight out of Nazi Germany”.

Labour urged Zack Polanski, the Green Party leader, to take action against those involved, saying the growing evidence of anti-Semitism within the party was “deeply troubling”. The Conservatives said the language was “utterly appalling”.

‘We are the good guys’
A briefing document shared with Green activists last month had warned members not to post anti-Semitic comments online. In a “call for self-moderation”, Greens for Palestine told supporters not to “take the bait” and ask themselves “what this would look like on the front page of a newspaper”.

It said: “Those who oppose us will be looking for the opportunity to say that we are a bunch of unpleasant, vengeful anti-Semites. They will seek to bait us into making statements emotionally, and smear us whenever they can. Don’t take the bait!”.

It added: “Our cause is a righteous one – we are the good guys.”
Green Party videographer shares Hatzola ambulance conspiracy theories
The individual responsible for the Green Party’s key political broadcast videos since Zack Polanski became leader has shared multiple conspiracy theories relating to the Hatzola ambulance firebombing this week, including the implication that a “Jewish owned news platform” had prior knowledge of what was going to happen, as well as the accusation that it happened “exactly when they need it to generate support for the war in the Middle East”.

Jeremy Clancy, has worked closely with the Green Party since Zack Polanski became leader, with the videographer helping produce videos for the Green leader back when he was running for the role.

In July 2025, when a campaign video was published, Clancy described how he “wrote this with Zack Polanski”.

Since then, Clancy has produced multiple videos and party political broadcasts for the Greens, including in September 2025, October 2026 and January 2026. He was also behind the Green Party’s latest video, published this week and featuring co-deputy leader Mothin Ali, talking about standing up to racism. Yesterday, Ali tweeted: “Jeremy! You did such a fantastic job with this video, you truly are a genius! Thank You!” To which Mr Clancy responded, “Thanks pal! Lovely working with you.”

At the same time, however, Mr Clancy shared multiple conspiracy theories on his social media relating to the Hatzola ambulance attack. These included a tweet which said: “CCTV shows three figures starting the fire at 1.45am UK time. This New York-based, Jewish-owned news platform tweeted this video at 2am UK time. Sorry if I don’t buy this complete BS”.
‘Notorious antisemite’ Tony Greenstein joins the Green Party
Disgraced former Labour Party member Tony Greenstein is understood to have joined the Green Party along with “swathes” of other former Labour activists.

Greenstein, who was raised in an Orthodox Jewish family, was expelled from Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party over abusive behaviour and was later handed a suspended sentence after being convicted of intent to cause criminal damage during a Palestine Action attack on an Elbit Systems factory, was seen attending a Green Party event this week.

In 2020, the High Court threw out a libel claim brought by Greenstein after he was described by Campaign Against Antisemitism as a “notorious antisemite”. The court found that allegations of antisemitism were protected as honest opinion.

In November 2024, he was charged with a terrorism offence and accused of supporting Hamas. The trial has been adjourned until 18 August this year.

The JC understands that Greenstein attended a pre-conference workshop organised by Greens for Palestine about the antizionist motion due to be debated this weekend.

His attendance at the online meeting has fuelled fears that the party is becoming a magnet for those expelled from Labour during the height of its antisemitism crisis.


Social media is the main source of current antisemitic wave, AJC concludes
A new report by the American Jewish Committee, released on Friday, found that 73% of American Jews saw or heard antisemitism online in the last year and 21% said that the antisemitism they witnessed made them feel physically threatened.

Top officials at the group say that this pervasive antisemitism online is the fundamental root of the current wave of antisemitic sentiment society-wide, including violent extremist attacks on Jewish communities in the U.S. and globally, and that protecting the Jewish community requires making real progress in tackling that problem.

According to the group’s CEO, Ted Deutch, the report is the first comprehensive survey-based tracking of American Jews’ experiences with and opinions on social media, “and the results are alarming.”

Deutch told Jewish Insider in an interview on Thursday that the report further finds that those pushing antisemitic content have found an “alarming number of ways” to avoid rules on various platforms to safeguard against hate.

Deutch, a longtime former House lawmaker, expressed frustration at the continued lack of action from Congress on antisemitism generally, amid a series of violent attacks across the country and the globe, drawing some parallels between that dynamic and his own struggles in the House to pass legislation in response to school shootings, as such events repeated themselves.

“If we stop it from spreading online, we’ve taken a dramatic step to preventing someone from showing up in D.C., killing two people, and saying, ‘I did it for Gaza,’ or someone in Colorado showing up, throwing Molotov cocktails with people at a march for the hostages, and killing someone there, and saying, ‘I did it for Palestine,’” Deutch said. “This needs urgent attention. It’s not getting it and it’s not acceptable.”


Meet Karin Prien, who could become Germany’s first president of Jewish descent
In Amsterdam in the years after World War II, Karin Prien’s parents’ bookshelves were lined with the works of Jewish authors like Philip Roth, Saul Bellow and Isaac Bashevis Singer. When she was a young child and her family moved from the vibrant and multicultural city of Amsterdam to Neuwied, a small town in Rhineland, their Jewish social life dwindled. In Germany, her mother was afraid to publicly declare her Jewish roots in the country that perpetrated the Holocaust.

Fast forward five decades, and Prien is now a federal minister with the Christian Democratic Union in the German parliament, and one of the most powerful politicians in Germany. She is also the first person with Jewish ancestry to head a German ministry since WWII.

“The fact that I’m a person with a Jewish biography is something unusual in Germany,” Prien told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency at a reception in New York this month. “It’s not normal.”

Now she is in line for another first: She has also emerged as a possible frontrunner as the successor to Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in the 2027 election.

Should Prien win the presidential election, she would be the first person with Jewish ancestry at the head of the German state. Distinct from the chancellorship, the federal president is a primarily ceremonial but still significant role.

“The development of the German-Jewish friendship we have today, some people describe it as a miracle,” she said. “But still, there is a lack of normalcy in the relationship between German Jews and non-Jewish Germans. I think it’s something special when a Jewish person, or a person with a Jewish biography, is in a leading political position in Germany.”

A staunch believer in liberal democracy and a supporter of Israel at a time when faith in both are declining, Prien represents the liberal wing of the center-right CDU as the minister for education, family affairs, senior citizens, women and youth.

“It would be a very strong symbol if a Jewish person would become president of Germany in 2027,” Prien said.




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