Moving away from the battlefields of the Middle East to the battle for hearts and minds in the West, it’s necessary to consider a microcosm of that battle being fought within the Jewish community. The firm majority of American Jews appear to worry about rising anti-Semitism and to support Israel, but a vocal anti-Zionist minority gets much attention and has gained traction within some Jewish institutions. Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, in his Yom Kippur sermon, wondered if Reform Judaism made mistakes that contributed to this situation:

Judaism does not discredit our loyalties to family, people, and nation. Rather, our tradition insists that the universal begins with the particular. Everything Jewish begins with Jewish peoplehood. Kol Yisra’el areivin zeh ba-zeh—all Jews are responsible one for the other—the sages taught. If you do not feel this special bond with other Jews, you are emotionally damaged, Jewishly.

The weakening of these bonds is my central concern regarding the future of the American Jewish community. I worry about our young people.

We thought we were sensitizing young Jews to the Jewish obligation of social repair. We thought we were conveying the principles of Jewish universalism. We thought we were teaching g’milut hasadim—acts of lovingkindness. . . . We did not expect the Jewish spirit to dribble away while we thought we were passing it on.

To all of us, especially young American Jews: direct your hearts and your eyes towards your people. If they rejoice, rejoice with them. And if they are suffering, suffer with them. Mourn with them. Support them. Help them. Free them. Redeem them.

Hirsch adds some additional reflections in an interview with the Forward.

In October, a young Mauritanian national murdered an Orthodox Jewish man on his way to synagogue in Chicago. This alone should be sufficient sign of the rising dangers of anti-Semitism. Nathan Diament explains how the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act (AAA) can, if passed, make American Jews safer:

We were off to a promising start when the AAA sailed through the House of Representatives in the spring by a generous vote of 320 to 91, and 30 senators from both sides of the aisle jumped to sponsor the Senate version. Then the bill ground to a halt.

Fearful of antagonizing their left-wing activist base and putting vulnerable senators on the record, especially right before the November election, Democrats delayed bringing the AAA to the Senate floor for a vote. Now, the election is over, but the political games continue.

You can’t combat anti-Semitism if you can’t—or won’t—define it. Modern anti-Semites hide their hate behind virulent anti-Zionism. . . . The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act targets this loophole by codifying that the Department of Education must use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of anti-Semitism in its application of Title VI.