Yehuda Kurtzer, at The Blogs

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Feb 25, 2023, 7:34 PM

Beyond the ‘Day of Hate’: A strategy for keeping US Jews safe

Activists protest racism and hate after swastikas were found in Adam Yauch Park in Brooklyn, New York, Nov. 20, 2016. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

In the long run, the focus must be on making antisemitism anathema to America itself. That's what has worked in the past

Jan 8, 2023, 3:59 PM

Lessons for Israelis from the turbulent Trump years

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, July 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Outrage fatigue is real, unlikely partnerships are possible, and other hard-won insights from an American Jew who’s been here…and there

Jul 8, 2022, 11:36 AM

Liberal Jews in the Rebbe’s Christian America

Left: Lubavitch Rabbi Menachem Schneerson at morning prayers at Lubavich headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y., in March 1992.(AP Photo/Mike Albans); Right: From left, Rabbi Levi Shemtov, Rabbi Abraham Shemtov, and National Economic Director Gary Cohn, light the Menorah during the annual National Menorah Lighting, in celebration of Hanukkah, on the Ellipse near the White House in Washington Dec. 12, 2017. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

As the vision of neutrality in the public sphere is defeated, all Jews – not just Chabad – will need a strategy to compete in the marketplace of religion

Mar 15, 2022, 3:05 PM

Ukraine, Russia and the unbearable lightness of ‘never again’

A giant Ukrainian flag flies from a hotel directly across the street from the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., March 10, 2022. (Victoria Pickering/Flickr Commons)

Cambodia, Rwanda, Darfur, Syria and elsewhere: Our insistence on memory — and the belief that it will change things — never quite works

Dec 23, 2021, 12:51 AM

When a US Muslim leader said Zionist Jews can’t be trusted allies

Protesters at San Francisco International Airport condemn then-President Donald Trump's executive order barring travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries, Jan. 29, 2016. (Kenneth Lu/Flickr Commons)

The line she drew between the few 'good' (anti-Zionist) Jews and all the rest sows division and polarization. Jews and Muslims who work together know better

Apr 22, 2021, 2:06 AM

A House bill on Israel is flawed, but our Jewish civil war is worse

Democratic US representative Betty McCollum of Minnesota in July 2020. (Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images via JTA)

The organized Jewish community has to open a wider lane than what now exists for political progressives to stay engaged with Israeli policy

Feb 19, 2021, 1:45 PM

We need to stop casting politicians as moral leaders

Radio personality Rush Limbaugh speaks before introducing then-president Donald Trump at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit, at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, December 21, 2019. (AP Photo/ Andrew Harnik)

When we blur lines between partisan opponents and moral opponents, we divide our worlds in half – between our friends and our enemies

Nov 17, 2020, 11:53 AM

In Georgia, a scary partisan push to pit Blacks vs. Jews

Rev. Raphael Warnock, left, a Democratic candidate in one of two runoff elections for U.S. Senate in Georgia, waves during a rally in Marietta, Nov. 15, 2020. (Jessica McGowan/Getty Images)

Kelly Loeffler's use of Israel as a wedge issue turns Jews' complicated commitments into a tool for use by opportunistic politicians

Jan 25, 2019, 3:03 PM

Zionism’s race from the bottom

Hebron shooter Elor Azaria (left) alongside Likud MK Yaron Mazuz (Facebook video screenshot)

The depravity of using a convicted killer in an election campaign must spur articulation of a morally better Zionism

Mar 7, 2018, 6:26 PM

On friends and Farrakhan: A plea to progressives

Louis Farrakhan. (AP/Paul Beaty)

It's not too much to expect progressive leadership to make wiser choices than embracing Louis Farrakhan in public

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About Me

Yehuda Kurtzer is the President of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America and host of the Identity/Crisis podcast.