The mainstream North American Jewish Diaspora is at a crossroads. Down one path lies U.S. President Donald Trump, American Evangelicals and legacy Jewish organizations like the Anti-Defamation League and American Israel Public Affairs Committee, staunchly defending Israel to the general public; down the other, small-L liberal Jews find themselves awkwardly situated between arguing for Israel's right to exist while not endorsing the government's actions, and lacking significant fundraising capabilities to plea their case more broadly.

In some ways, this schism is reminiscent of the early days of Zionism itself, where politics and money influence public opinion and government action—and each sends followers toward starkly different outcomes. Steering the dialogue are campus protesters, like those at Columbia University, and President Trump, who uses antisemitism as a veil for deportations and crackdowns against liberal higher-education. This divide threatens to reshape the political identity of the United States, undermining its long-held commitment to liberal democracy.

That's the takeaway of a recent article, "The Coming Jewish Civil War Over Donald Trump", published in The New Republic by Eric Alterman, a distinguished professor of English and journalism at the City University of New York. Alterman joins Phoebe Maltz Bovy on The Jewish Angle to discuss this pivotal political moment and what comes next.

Credits

• Host: Phoebe Maltz Bovy
• Producer and editor: Michael Fraiman
• Music: "Gypsy Waltz" by Frank Freeman, licensed from the Independent Music Licensing Collective

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Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump tried to revoke Harvard University's ability to enroll international students—a move that was soon blocked by a federal judge. So, instead, on May 26, Trump floated the idea of taking US$3 billion of grant money, earmarked for Harvard's scientific and engineering research deemed of national importance, and rerouting it to trade schools.

Nevermind the logistics—the Republican president has waged an all-out war on Ivy League education, and Jews are, once again, caught in the middle. The head of the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, has said the White House is "holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus."

But if you ask American Jewish academics, they'll tell you the "fighting antisemitism" argument is a smokescreen to advance a different political agenda. "I don't think the Trump administration's response to it is anything other than a fig leaf for its attempt to crack down on the university writ large," says David Schraub, an associate professor at the Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon, on this week's episode of The Jewish Angle. "We see that because when antisemitism, for whatever reason, isn't available to them as a talking point on the given campus, they just switch to something else. The consistent point is the crackdown, and the justification comes and goes."

Listen to this week's episode for more on how Jews are finding themselves used as pawns in a wider political struggle on modern American campuses.

Credits

• Host: Phoebe Maltz Bovy
• Producer and editor: Michael Fraiman
• Music: "Gypsy Waltz" by Frank Freeman, licensed from the Independent Music Licensing Collective

Support our show

• Subscribe to The CJN newsletter
• Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)
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Over the last year, odds are good that you've seen what's been dubbed "AI slop"—unhinged, nonsensical "art" generated by artificial intelligence tools. Maybe you've seen a bizarre cinematic animated mini-movie on Facebook, surreal pseudo-photographs on Instagram, or propagandistic images on what was once known as Twitter, now X. After seeing enough of this, a realization dawned on Jacob Silverman, a journalist in New York who covers technology and politics: if it's machines making this art, and bots who are showering them with likes, where do humans fit in?

The answer is that actual living people are being squeezed out of what Silverman has, in a recent Financial Times article, deemed the "hostile internet". Elon Musk's X will sell advertisements, and authority, to absolutely anyone; AI-powered chatbots are worryingly easy to manipulate; and it has never been easier for people suffering from mental illness to find positive reinforcement of their ideas, both from distant humans and AI. None of this is to the betterment of humanity.

Silverman joins Phoebe Maltz Bovy on The Jewish Angle to discuss these trends of digital devolution, and how we can navigate these murky waters on a sinking ship.

Credits

• Host: Phoebe Maltz Bovy
• Producer and editor: Michael Fraiman
• Music: "Gypsy Waltz" by Frank Freeman, licensed from the Independent Music Licensing Collective

Support our show

• Subscribe to The CJN newsletter
• Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)
• Subscribe to The Jewish Angle