The Jews are a famously fractious people, not to mention, according to the Bible’s testimony, a “stiff-necked” one. And American Jewry in particular is deeply divided along political, religious, and other lines, and has always rejected the sorts of central institutions that exist in France, Britain, and elsewhere. Yet somehow, 300,000 Jews from as broad a spectrum as one can imagine came together in the rally at the National Mall last month, with virtually no rancor. In conversation with Dovid Bashevkin, Eric Fingerhut, one of the organizers, describes how the event took shape, and the decisions and logistical efforts that went into it.

In the second half of the podcast, Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff discusses the movement for Soviet Jewry, why some rabbis at the time opposed public demonstration for the cause, and his own role working clandestinely with the Mossad on behalf of refuseniks. (Audio, 95 minutes. Fingerhut begins speaking at 7:26 and Rakeffet-Rothkoff at 56:31. A transcript is available at the link below.)

Stephen Daisley writes about the slaying of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim:

Yaron and Sarah were murdered in a climate of lies and vilification and hatred. . . . The more institutions participate in this collective madness, the more madness there will be. The more elected officials and NGOs misrepresent the predictable consequences of asymmetric warfare in densely populated territories, where much of the infrastructure of everyday life has a dual civilian/terrorist purpose, the more the citizenries of North America and Europe will come to regard Israelis and Jews as a people who lust unquenchably after blood.

The most intolerant anti-Zionism is becoming a mainstream view, indulged by liberal societies, more concerned with not conflating irrational hatred of Israel with irrational hatred of Jews—as though the distinction between the two is all that well defined anymore.

For years now, and especially after the October 7 massacre, the call has gone up from the pro-Palestinian movement to put Palestine at the heart of Western politics. To pursue the struggle against Zionism in every country, on every platform, and in every setting. To wage worldwide resistance to Israel, not only in Wadi al-Far’a but in Washington, DC. “Globalize the intifada,” they chanted. This is what it looks like.