U.S. Government Announces National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism

On the morning of May 25, 2023, President Joe Biden, First Gentleman Doug Emhoff, Director of the Domestic Policy Council of the United States Susan Rice, and Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt announced the establishment of major U.S. government policies to fight antisemitism. The first-ever U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism is “the most ambitious and comprehensive U.S. Government-led effort to combat antisemitism in American history,” according to a White House statement.

This whole-of-society strategy includes over 100 new actions the Biden-Harris administration will take to raise awareness of antisemitism and its threat to American democracy, protect Jewish institutions and communities, reverse the normalization of antisemitism, and build cross-community solidarity to fight antisemitism. It also makes over 100 calls on Congress, state and local governments, the private sector, and civil society to take steps to counter antisemitism.

To read a fact sheet summarizing the strategy, click here. To read the full strategy, click here.

Read our clergy’s statement on the landmark initiative HERE.

Stephen Wise Temple and AJC Present: Antisemitism in Europe and America Today

On Thursday, March 2, 2023, Stephen Wise Temple hosted a special panel discussion with Katharina von Schnurbein, European Commission Coordinator on Combatting Antisemitism, and Eddo Verdoner, Netherlands’ National Coordinator for Countering Antisemitism.

The event, sponsored by Wise and the American Jewish Committee-Los Angeles (AJC), will draw attention to the deeply worrying trend of rising antisemitism around the world and discuss effective solutions for confronting the various manifestations of contemporary antisemitism.

About the AJC: American Jewish Committee Los Angeles connects the Los Angeles Jewish community with AJC’s global advocacy work. ACJ-LA’s access to foreign diplomats, elected officials, and interfaith leaders throughout Southern California advances AJC’s broader priorities: combating antisemitism, promoting Israel’s place in the world, and countering the spread of radicalism and extremism.

Tal Becker at Stephen Wise Temple:
“Israel and the Jewish Soul: Understanding the Current Moment”

Wednesday, February 8 at 7:30 p.m. | Plotkin Chapel

Over the course of Jewish history, Israel has played different roles in the imagination and the reality of the Jewish people. In the 20th century, many Jews looked to Israel to make them whole and to guarantee Jewish survival. What role does Israel play today in the spiritual, physical, and psychological development of the Jewish people, as we come to terms with a new era of Jewish power and Jewish vulnerability? Dr. Tal Becker, a Senior Fellow of the Kogod Research Center at Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, discussed these topics in a conversation that re-imagined the complex relationship between Israel and the Jewish people, made possible by the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, the Diane and Guilford Glazer Foundation, and the Shalom Hartman Institute.

ParentWise Speaker Series
Professor Sivan Zakai: How to Talk to Your Kids About Hard Things and Current Events

Speaking to children about traumatic events is never easy, especially when those events include tragedies like the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting, attacks on Jewish day schools, or the recent swell of antisemitism both locally and nationally. On the morning of Oct. 27, Wise member Sivan Zakai, a Ph.D. and a professor at HUC-Jewish Institute of Religion, spoke with Wise School parents as part of the Wise Parents Association’s ParentWise speaker series. An expert in curriculum design and teaching controversial issues, she taught our Wise School parents strategies and philosophies on how to have those conversations with their children. The title of her presentation: “Parenting When the World is On Fire: How to Talk with Your Kids About Hard Things and Current Events.”

Zoom Briefing:
Berkeley Law and Jewish Life at U.C. Berkeley

On Oct. 12, Wise held a dialogue with the assistant vice chancellor for executive communications Dan Mogulof, long-serving U.C. Berkeley Hillel director Rabbi Adam Naftalin-Kelman, and two active Jewish Berkeley Law students. The program was facilitated by Rabbi Ron Stern. Though it could not be recorded, the opportunity to hear firsthand from people directly involved in the circumstances proved invaluable.  We learned both about the vibrancy of Jewish life on the Cal campus and the commitment of the entire Cal administration to combating antisemitism, including an initiative begun by Rabbi Naftalin-Kelman in coordination with the university.  See more here. Students affirmed their ongoing concerns and the real insecurities they feel in the midst of the loud-but-limited antisemitic voices on campus. Ultimately, we came to learn that there are free speech issues at a public university that make combating certain kinds of speech difficult, but that the university is committed to doing everything within the law to educate the student body and act against antisemitism when such action is legal and warranted.