Articles

In a recent round of “war games” convened by a group of Jewish philanthropists, nonprofit execs and thought leaders, leaders and experts from across the spectrum of American Jewry explored what the next 25 years could hold for our community. The exercise considered both utopian and dystopian scenarios, ranging from revival through innovation and coalition-building to isolation driven by social fracture and rising antisemitism.

The 47th President of the United States is both a complex and controversial figure. History will evaluate his imprint on our society and evaluate the legacy and meaning of his Presidency. Having edited a volume dealing with his first term, I along so many other political scientists and writers are monitoring this second administration, and in doing so are also trying to better understand the personality, behavior and influences that have shaped this individual and impact his model of leadership.

The Johnson Amendment, a provision in the U.S. Tax Code since 1954, prohibits all 501(C)3 nonprofit organizations from endorsing or opposing political candidates. The amendment is named for then-Sen. Lyndon Johnson of Texas, who introduced it in July 1954.

As a minority community, Jews always understood that their political power and influence would be limited. The extensive investment of Jews in politics today is in part a response to their historical condition of powerlessness. In many ways the storyline associated with securing political influence is central to the contemporary Jewish experience.

In “Wicked,” the Wizard is not the benevolent leader of Oz as he was depicted in “The Wizard of Oz,” but rather a deceptive and manipulative dictator who uses his position to control the people of Oz. It is as if we have awakened, finding ourselves inside a scene from Wicked, where our leaders are proclaiming a “new Jewish world order.”

There is a raw new reality involving where we as Jews find ourselves in this moment. Wherever we sit on the political stage, we collectively realize the intensity and the uncertainty that these past several weeks have produced, but also the possibilities that may lie ahead!

In some measure, this unfolding military operation, “Rising Lion” could conceivably represent the last major barrier to rewriting the Middle East story. This campaign can be seen as a game-changing moment. Not since the end of the Second World War and the founding of the State of Israel has there been this promise and possibility for a different regional reality. On the one hand this conflict ought to drive our imagination as we envision an alternative outcome, even as we encounter our inherent anguish and fear present in times of crisis.

Jews in America are experiencing a crisis of political and communal anomie, as they struggle to find their place. Jews are facing political uncertainties and social disruptions in connection with the Second Trump Presidency, just as they are confronting with mixed emotions Israel’s conduct in Gaza.

Political divisions today are defining not only the American landscape but also the Jewish communal space. One can argue that our society has been transformed by an array of social and political factors. Among the major elements reshaping our society are major population shifts, issues of acculturation and assimilation, the decline of civility, and the impact of such competing ideas as national conservatism, post-modernism, and Christian nationalism.

In this essay, we are taking a deeper dive into key aspects of the US Jewish religious economy. At the outset, it will be important to examine some new generic trends linked to contemporary religious life that are contributing to this transformational moment. Indeed, neither the religious culture we are experiencing or the institutional forms of practice resembles the religious behaviors that defined our parents’ generation.