Transcript [00:00] Everybody, I want to talk about a [00:03] a story, a news item that came out in [00:05] the forward. That's the main progressive [00:08] Jewish news outlet in America about a [00:10] controversy that's brewing at JTS. JTS [00:14] is the Jewish Theological Seminary in [00:16] New York. It's the flagship academic [00:18] institution of the Conservative [00:21] Movement. Now, for those of you who [00:23] aren't Jewish or don't know what that [00:25] means, the term conservative has nothing [00:27] to do with being conservative. When the [00:29] movement was founded, it was the more [00:31] conservative alternative to Reform [00:34] Judaism. But today, the Conservative [00:36] Movement is basically [00:38] a leftist progressive movement within [00:40] Judaism. We'll get to that more in a [00:42] bit. Now, the story that I'm going to [00:44] share with you is somewhat infuriating [00:47] or honestly [00:49] at the same time, it's also completely [00:50] predictable. So, let me read you some of [00:52] this article and here it is. Let's take [00:55] a look. The headline, [00:57] as you can see, the headline is Israeli [01:00] Israeli president [01:03] Isaac Herzog's selection as JTS [01:06] commencement speaker roils graduating [01:09] class. Now, let's take a look at what [01:11] the article actually says. And this is [01:14] really it's This is astounding what [01:15] happened here. [01:17] Check this out. The selection of Israeli [01:19] President Isaac Herzog as the Jewish [01:21] Theological Seminary's commencement [01:23] speaker has divided undergraduates at [01:26] the school with several seniors and [01:29] dozens of other current students and [01:32] alumni [01:33] signing a letter calling on the school's [01:36] chancellor to disinvite Herzog. [01:39] The letter accused Herzog of inciting [01:41] violence against civilians in Gaza. [01:44] A characterization shared by some human [01:46] rights groups and criticized him for not [01:49] taking action against settler violence [01:52] in the West Bank. [01:53] The students added that Herzog's [01:55] involvement in the school-wide May 19th [01:58] ceremony, when he will also receive an [02:01] honorary degree from the seminary, would [02:03] leave them, quote, morally conflicted [02:06] about attending. Morally conflicted [02:10] about attending. Think about that. [02:12] So, let's stop for a second. [02:14] Isaac Herzog is the president of Israel. [02:16] Now, in Israel, the president is a [02:18] ceremonial figure. He has no executive [02:20] power. He doesn't command the military. [02:22] He doesn't make policy. He's a symbolic [02:25] head of state. So, he just basically [02:26] represents the Jewish state. [02:29] And he's about as moderate Well, I [02:30] wouldn't say moderate. He's a He's a [02:31] leftist, but from the perspective of [02:33] these progressives in JTS, he's a [02:36] moderate figure in Israel. Meaning, if [02:38] you're looking at Israel and you're [02:39] hoping for a more left-leaning type [02:42] government, I mean, he was the head of [02:43] the Labor Party, okay? He's a moderate I [02:46] mean, moderate to again, to to [02:48] progressives, he would be viewed as [02:50] moderate. To people to normal people and [02:51] people like myself and to mainstream [02:53] Israelis, he's viewed as someone of the [02:56] left or let's say center-left. [02:59] He spent the better part of 2 years [03:01] trying to broker a compromise during the [03:03] judicial reform debate, trying to [03:05] prevent a collision between the [03:06] government and the opposition. I mean, [03:08] that's kind of the [03:10] you know, at least on the surface, [03:11] that's the game he played. He's [03:13] certainly not right-wing. He's not a [03:14] hardliner. Okay, this is Isaac Herzog. [03:18] But it gets better. Let's keep reading. [03:19] So, I'm going to jump ahead a little. Um [03:22] let's jump down just a bit in the piece. [03:26] Hold on. Let me pull Let me Let me Let's [03:28] see. Where should we go to? [03:31] Yeah, check this out. Herzog has faced [03:34] criticism for comments he made after the [03:36] October 7th attacks in which he said [03:38] that it was an entire nation that was [03:40] responsible for the October 7th attacks, [03:43] which it was, right? We know that many [03:44] civilians in Gaza participated. They [03:45] were celebrating. Um Gazan civilians, [03:49] according to polling, were totally [03:51] supportive of the [03:52] October 7th attacks. Anyway, so Herzog [03:55] faced criticism for comments he made [03:56] after the October 7th attacks in which [03:58] he said that it was an entire nation [04:00] that was responsible. Some said the [04:01] remark carried an implication that there [04:04] were no innocent civilians in Gaza. [04:07] Herzog later said that it had been taken [04:08] out of context and that he did believe [04:10] there were innocent Palestinians there. [04:12] Of course, there are. The Forward has [04:14] has reached out to Herzog's office [04:15] office for comment. In an interview, one [04:18] of the students who signed the letter, [04:20] granted anonymity out of concern for [04:22] professional repercussions, said he [04:24] wanted to fight back against a culture [04:27] of silence around Palestinian suffering [04:30] in the Jewish world. Quote, "I do feel [04:33] powerless," the student said. "I feel [04:35] like there's a genocide happening and [04:37] the silence is killing all of us. The [04:41] silence is killing all of us at JTS, [04:44] where the rabbinical students are [04:45] required to spend a year living in [04:46] Israel, where deepening connection to [04:49] Israel [04:50] is literally written into the school's [04:52] mission statement." [04:53] Now, I want to say something clearly [04:55] about the Conservative Movement. I [04:56] mentioned it at the beginning of the [04:57] video because I think a lot of people, [04:58] including a lot of American Jews, still [05:00] operate under the assumption that the [05:02] Conservative Movement represents some [05:03] kind of middle ground in Jewish life. [05:06] Like it's sort of traditional, but it's [05:08] modern and it has some adherence to [05:10] halakha, uh Jewish law, but is open. [05:14] That is not true. That's what the [05:16] Conservative Movement was or claimed to [05:18] be for decades, but it is not. Maybe it [05:20] never was, but it's not. It's not [05:21] anymore. [05:22] Maybe it never was, like I said. But [05:24] whatever pretense existed in the past [05:27] has entirely collapsed. The Conservative [05:28] Movement uh performs intermarriages. [05:32] It has abandoned Shabbat observance as a [05:34] communal standard altogether, which was [05:36] not the way it was in the past. Uh its [05:38] affiliated synagogues have been [05:40] hemorrhaging members for decades. The [05:42] average age in the Conservative Movement [05:44] is basically a senior citizen. [05:47] Because the people have largely stopped [05:49] believing in anything distinctively [05:50] Jewish. So, the younger people don't go. [05:52] What the Conservative Movement actually [05:54] is today [05:56] is a network of institutions, of [05:58] synagogues, [05:59] with institutional power. [06:01] And it is basically progressive politics [06:04] dressed up uh you know, with a tallit [06:06] and a kippah sometimes. [06:08] Okay, it's the Democratic Party [06:09] platform, the left-wing edge of the [06:12] Democratic Party platform with some [06:13] Hebrew thrown in, you know, and maybe [06:15] kiddush at the end. [06:17] You know, the students at JTS protesting [06:21] Herzog's invitation are the logical [06:24] endpoint of the trajectory of that [06:26] movement. The trajectory it's been on [06:28] for decades. They're not a deviation [06:30] from what the Conservative Movement has [06:31] become. [06:33] Okay? That's what you That's what's [06:34] important about this story. They're not [06:36] a deviation. [06:38] Maybe the older generation and the [06:39] faculty are are are still from the old [06:41] world when they were still Zionists [06:43] there. [06:44] But these students are not really a [06:45] deviation. This is what the Conservative [06:47] Movement has become. They are the [06:48] fullest expression of the Conservative [06:50] Movement. Okay? [06:52] You know, once you once you stop [06:54] believing in absolute truth [06:56] of the Torah, [06:58] this is where you end up. Now, here's [07:00] what I find particularly striking and I [07:01] wrote about this in a column in the [07:03] Jerusalem Post last year. [07:06] So, I want to compare these students to [07:08] a famous case. There was a famous legal [07:10] case in Israel from the 1950s. [07:12] There was a man by the name of Oswald [07:15] Rufeisen. [07:17] He was also known as Brother Daniel. He [07:18] was a Polish Jew who converted to [07:21] Catholicism and became a Carmelite [07:24] friar. Now, he was also a hero. He [07:27] actively fought the Nazis. He worked [07:29] with the Jewish underground. He saved [07:30] hundreds of Jewish lives. [07:33] Uh and uh he he led the resistance. He [07:36] led the Jewish resistance in the Mir [07:37] Ghetto. I mean, he he was really active [07:39] in fighting the Nazis and saving Jews. [07:41] And he was able to do a lot of that [07:42] because he had become a Catholic friar. [07:46] Now, later, he came to Israel. After the [07:48] war, he wanted to live out his life in [07:51] Israel and he applied for citizenship [07:53] under the Law of Return. The Law of [07:55] Return is the Israeli law that grants [07:57] automatic citizenship to anyone who is a [08:00] Jew. [08:02] Okay? Because it was the land of Israel [08:03] was created as a refuge for the Jewish [08:05] people. [08:07] So, at the time, there was a big debate [08:09] in Israel about whether or not Brother [08:11] Daniel should be granted citizenship [08:14] under the Law of Return because he had [08:15] become a Carm [08:17] a Catholic friar. So, the Israeli [08:19] Supreme Court, in a split decision, [08:23] uh ruled against accepting him under the [08:25] Law of Return. They rejected his his uh [08:28] his application to to emigrate under the [08:32] Law of Return. He did end up living out [08:34] his life in Israel, but he was not [08:35] granted citizenship under the Law of [08:37] Return. Okay? So, they rejected him. [08:39] Now, what was the reason? They didn't [08:41] reject him because, you know, he was a [08:43] bad person, right? They rejected him. He [08:45] was a remarkable person. [08:47] And he and he had sacrificed a lot for [08:50] the Jewish people. [08:51] But in the words of Justice Moshe [08:53] Landau, who wrote the majority opinion, [08:57] a convert to Catholicism, quote, "no [09:01] longer shares a common fate with the [09:03] Jewish people and, quote, erects a [09:06] barrier against any future [09:09] identification with the Jewish people." [09:11] Okay? And, like I said, there was a [09:13] dissenting opinion, a lot of debate. I [09:15] don't want to get into that debate, but [09:16] I want to hold this up [09:19] um as a contrast to these students at [09:22] JTS. But I I want to be clear about [09:24] something. I'm not arguing that the [09:25] court was wrong. [09:27] I want to be clear. I'm not saying [09:29] Rufeisen should have been granted [09:30] citizenship under the Law of Return. The [09:32] court applied uh its reasoning. It [09:36] Its reasoning had some coherence to it. [09:38] That Jewish identity is bound up with [09:40] Jewish destiny and with the fate and [09:43] future of the Jewish people. And that [09:45] Rufeisen, through his conversion, had [09:47] placed himself outside of that destiny. [09:51] Even though he personally wanted to be a [09:52] part of it, even though he had fought [09:54] for Jewish lives, even though he wanted [09:55] to live out his days in the land of [09:57] Israel, but converting to a different [10:00] faith, converting to Catholicism, meant [10:02] that he was no longer part of the Jewish [10:04] destiny. Okay, that was their ruling. [10:06] And I don't want to debate their ruling [10:08] right now. There's a lot written on it. [10:09] You can look it up. Look up the Brother [10:10] Daniel case. [10:12] So, but keep that standard in your mind. [10:14] That standard of identification with the [10:16] destiny of the Jewish people. [10:19] Now, ask yourself, [10:20] what do you say about these JTS [10:22] students? [10:24] Because here's what Jewish destiny looks [10:25] like now in 2026. [10:27] The Jewish people, [10:29] after 2,000 years of exile, have [10:31] returned to our land. We have rebuilt [10:33] our nation. We have an army. We have [10:35] Jewish soldiers [10:37] defending Jewish lives in the Jewish [10:39] homeland. And, according to military [10:42] experts, [10:43] such as John Spencer, the head of urban [10:45] warfare at West Point, [10:47] we have the most moral army in the [10:48] world. [10:50] The genocide claim has been debunked, [10:53] and the statistics are clear. You can [10:55] look that up, and all the students at [10:56] JTS know exactly where to find all that [10:59] information. [11:00] Okay? [11:01] The state of Israel, as it exists today, [11:04] is the fulfillment of a [11:07] millennia-old [11:09] dream of our ancestors. Our Our [11:11] ancestors, and the ancestors of all [11:13] those students at JTS, wept, [11:15] prayed, [11:17] died, [11:19] hoping, dreaming that one day they or [11:21] their offspring would see [11:23] the restored nation of Israel to our [11:25] land. The future of the Jewish people is [11:27] the nation [11:29] of Israel in the land of Israel. It's [11:31] the Jewish people in the land of Israel. [11:32] That's That's the future of the Jewish [11:34] people. That's clear. That's where our [11:36] story is going. That's Jewish destiny. [11:39] Now, these students, these people [11:41] training to be rabbis, to lead Jewish [11:44] communities, to represent the Jewish [11:46] tradition, [11:47] they have declared that the soldiers of [11:50] the IDF, of the Israeli army, are war [11:53] criminals. They've accepted the slander [11:55] of genocide against the Jewish state. [11:57] Now, I have children who serve in the [11:58] IDF. [12:00] My own children. [12:02] When these students sign letters [12:03] accusing the Israeli military of [12:06] genocide, they're not making a political [12:08] statement. [12:09] They're making a statement about whose [12:11] side they're on. [12:13] They're not sharing the fate of the [12:14] Jewish people. [12:15] They're standing against [12:18] the destiny of the Jewish people. [12:20] Brother Daniel converted to Catholicism. [12:23] Okay, he left the Jewish faith. And yet, [12:25] he wanted to be part of destiny. He [12:27] wanted to live in Israel, to be counted [12:29] among the people into which he was born. [12:32] And the court said, "No, his conversion [12:33] had severed that bond." [12:36] These JTS students haven't converted to [12:38] another religion, [12:40] but they've converted to something. [12:42] They've converted to progressive [12:44] ideology. [12:46] They've traded the Jewish story, our [12:48] story, the most extraordinary national [12:50] story in human history, for the approval [12:53] of the progressive establishment. [12:56] And unlike Brother Daniel, they don't [12:57] even want to be part of Jewish destiny. [12:59] They want to condemn it. They want to [13:01] put it on trial. [13:03] If Brother Daniel, who saved Jewish [13:05] lives and fought the Nazis, and wanted [13:07] nothing more than to live in Israel, to [13:09] live out his days in Israel, he was [13:11] ruled to have forfeited his place among [13:13] the Jewish people, [13:15] what exactly is the Jewish identity of a [13:17] rabbinical student who calls the Jewish [13:20] army genocidal? [13:22] Oh, I'll let you answer that. [13:24] But notice the language they use. [13:26] "They're morally conflicted. The silence [13:29] is killing us." [13:30] "Genocide." They've absorbed the [13:33] progressive moral vocabulary so [13:35] completely that it has displaced [13:38] everything else. There's no Jewish [13:40] vocabulary left. There's no sense that [13:42] the Jewish people are a family, that [13:44] Israel is our home, that our brothers [13:46] and sisters are fighting and dying for [13:48] the family. [13:49] None of that. [13:51] What there is is the language of [13:53] progressive activism filtered through a [13:55] thin veneer of Jewish words and Jewish [13:58] institutional identity. [14:01] This is what the Talmud warned about. [14:03] You know, in the Talmud it says [14:05] that the Jewish people have three [14:07] primary traits that we're proud of. [14:10] We're merciful, [14:11] we're easily shamed, [14:14] and we're kind. [14:16] Those are beautiful traits. To be [14:17] merciful, to be bashful and easily [14:19] ashamed, to be kind, those are very, [14:21] very nice traits. [14:22] But, [14:24] when those three traits are misdirected, [14:26] when mercy is extended to those who [14:29] committed a massacre against Jews, when [14:32] shame is felt not before God, [14:36] when shame is felt before the [14:37] progressive media narrative, [14:41] instead of before God and Jewish [14:43] history, when when kindness is offered [14:46] to the enemies of our people, [14:49] while our brave, heroic soldiers are [14:52] condemned as criminals, [14:55] then the traits of kindness, [14:57] of of bashfulness, of being easily [14:59] ashamed, of of uh [15:02] of being of of mercy, [15:06] those traits can become not just [15:08] useless, [15:09] they can become dangerous. These [15:10] students don't feel compassion for the [15:13] victims of October 7th. They don't mourn [15:16] the 1,200 [15:18] of our people who were massacred in [15:20] their homes [15:22] and at a music festival. They feel shame [15:24] about Isaac Herzog speaking at their [15:26] graduation. [15:29] That tells you everything you need to [15:30] know. [15:31] Now, there's one student in this article [15:33] who comes across as more measured, okay? [15:35] He He supported having Herzog speak. [15:38] Uh you know, let's read that piece of [15:39] the article here. So, that there was a [15:41] second letter written by some students [15:43] who were saying that they wanted him to [15:45] speak. But listen to this. Listen to [15:47] this. [15:48] It's not like they were all thrilled [15:49] about it. Let me find it. Here. [15:56] Four current JTS rabbinical students uh [15:59] I'm sorry. [16:03] Here Here. Let me find it. [16:08] There was a second letter. It describes [16:10] a second letter by students who wanted [16:13] to affirm that they wanted him to speak. [16:16] Okay? [16:17] They wanted him to speak. [16:20] Um [16:23] So, look what it says here. [16:26] So, you think that those students were [16:27] excited, right? They were They were [16:29] happy about it. [16:32] Gabriel Friedman Nadich, who signed the [16:35] second letter, the letter saying that [16:36] they [16:37] wanted him to speak, [16:39] said that he had been happy to learn [16:41] Herzog would be the commencement [16:42] speaker. [16:43] He applauded Herzog's leadership during [16:45] Israel's judicial overhaul saga, [16:47] but said that the Israeli presidency was [16:49] mostly a figurehead position anyway. [16:52] And while he said he was not closely [16:53] attuned with Herzog's actions since [16:55] October 7th, he was willing to [16:57] countenance a speaker he did not [16:59] perfectly align with. [17:01] "We've all learned to listen to people [17:03] we dis- we disagree with," Friedman [17:05] Nadich said. "We should be able to [17:07] listen to people who we find upsetting." [17:11] Wow, he's so open-minded. [17:15] Right? [17:17] Look at that. [17:18] Compared to his classmates, yeah, he [17:19] sounds very reasonable. He's not calling [17:22] for Herzog to be disinvited. He's [17:24] willing to sit and listen. [17:26] But notice what he actually says. Herzog [17:27] upsets him. [17:29] He finds the president of Israel [17:30] upsetting. This student has also [17:32] absorbed the narrative. He's also, on [17:34] some level, he also accepts the framing [17:37] of as Israel as a as a criminal, [17:39] problematic [17:41] uh army, as a problematic actor. He just [17:44] happens to believe that you should hear [17:45] people that you find objectionable. You [17:47] should listen You should hear them out. [17:49] That's a lower bar than his classmates, [17:51] but it's still a very low bar. [17:54] That's the reasonable That's the [17:56] reasonable position at JTS now. [17:59] That's the enlightened moderate view. [18:01] The enlightened moderate view at JTS is, [18:04] "I think Israel's president may be [18:05] complicit in war crimes, but I think we [18:08] should still listen to him anyway." [18:10] That's where the center of gravity is at [18:12] the flagship institution of the [18:14] conservative movement in 2026. [18:16] Look, [18:17] the conservative movement is not going [18:19] to find its way back. [18:21] It has traveled too far down this road. [18:25] And if you're an outsider to this, if [18:27] you're not Jewish and you're watching [18:28] this video, understand something. [18:30] Just like in the Christian world, you [18:31] have these mainline denominations that [18:33] are just woke progressives and have kind [18:35] of lost their biblical moorings, we have [18:38] the same thing in Judaism. What's called [18:39] the conservative movement, the reform [18:41] movement, they're not They They They [18:43] don't believe in in in the Bible being [18:45] the being a divine book. [18:48] They don't really believe in God in a [18:50] real way. [18:52] They They don't And they've And they've [18:54] And you see how they're just [18:55] disconnecting from their Jewish [18:56] identity. The conservative movement has [18:58] traveled too too far. What we're [19:00] watching in real time at JTS is a [19:03] generation of future rabbis who've [19:06] chosen progressive ideology over Jewish [19:08] peoplehood. [19:10] They've traded their place in the great [19:12] story, the great, majestic, miraculous [19:15] story of the Jewish people's return to [19:17] our land [19:18] for the approval of the progressive [19:20] media establishment and their political [19:22] friends in the Democratic Party. [19:24] They're welcome to making that trade, [19:27] but they shouldn't call it Judaism. [19:30] Thank you for watching. Please make sure [19:32] to subscribe. Please make sure to go [19:34] into the description of this video and [19:36] subscribe to our newsletters [19:38] at Israel 365 Action, Israel 365 News. [19:41] You'll find a link there. And make sure [19:42] you're you're subscribed to the Israel [19:44] 365 News YouTube channel. [19:47] And uh look, [19:49] there are enemies within, and that's [19:51] what this video is about, And we have to [19:53] be very frank about it. And [19:55] the Jewish people's going through a [19:56] major transition right now. [19:59] Bottom line, since October 7th, [20:02] especially, [20:04] going through a major transition. [20:06] And it's a time of choosing. Are you a [20:07] part of it or are you not? [20:09] And [20:11] these so-called rabbinical students at [20:14] JTS [20:15] are choosing just simply not to be a [20:17] part of where of the glorious future [20:19] that awaits the Jewish people.
