It seems like a lot longer ago than just eight months since then-Vice President Kamala Harris tapped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate. Picking the inept Walz to stand beside her on the Democratic presidential ticket was one of a series of blunders that led to her being defeated by President Donald Trump in November. Indeed, so tone deaf was her campaign to the national mood that it is highly likely that she would have lost even if she had not passed over the far more politically adept Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro in favor of Walz.

The arson attack by a person who claimed his motive was support for the Palestinians in their war against Israel on the governor’s mansion in Harrisburg is a brutal reminder of why Shapiro didn’t get a chance to help prop up Harris’s doomed campaign.

Shapiro was a far more impressive candidate than Walz turned out to be. He certainly would have fared better than Walz in the vice-presidential debate against then-Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio). He also might have potentially helped flip Pennsylvania into the Democratic column. Instead, Trump won the commonwealth’s 19 Electoral College votes by a relatively slim but decisive 120,000 votes. Though he was as liberal as Walz on most issues, Harris picked the Minnesotan. The main reason was the widely held perception that Shapiro’s Jewish identity was disqualifying for many in her party’s left-wing base that reviles Israel.

In the end, neither that foolish decision nor a year’s worth of kowtowing to campus antisemites and American Muslim supporters of Hamas was enough to help Harris engender much enthusiasm from the intersectional activist wing of the Democratic Party, as working-class voters of all races turned out to help elect Trump and Vance.

Yet, as the Democratic Party rallies to the defense of elite universities being threatened with defunding by Trump because they refuse to stop tolerating and encouraging antisemitism, Jew-hatred remains a problem for Shapiro’s party.

Antisemitism on the left

The arsonist, who reportedly also brought along a hammer with which he said he planned to assault the governor had he met him, was mentally unstable and had a criminal history. Yet much like the way mobs chanting for Israel’s destruction (“From the river to the sea”) and terrorism (“Globalize the intifada”) have normalized intimidation and violence against Jews, his ravings about “the Palestinian people” and opposition to Israel's war against Hamas illustrate the impact of the lies being spread about a “genocide” being committed in Gaza.

It goes without saying that had someone who was a Trump supporter committed such an attack, the liberal corporate media would have tied the crime to the president, and it would have remained a top story for weeks, if not months. Instead, the press is quickly moving on from the attempt to murder the Pennsylvania governor, and there are no op-eds in The New York Times or The Washington Post claiming that left-wing Democrats have, at the very least, created an atmosphere in which such violence has become imaginable.

Of course, that’s exactly what Democrats and much of the press were saying in October 2018 when a crazed gunman, who blamed liberal Jewish groups for illegal immigration but also despised Trump because of his support for Israel, attacked a Pittsburgh synagogue and murdered 11 Jewish worshippers at a Shabbat service. Indeed, Shapiro himself, then the Attorney General of Pennsylvania, was saying much the same thing himself when he was dropping hints about blaming Trump in the wake of that atrocity.

Shapiro and Muslims

That Shapiro has become an object of such suspicion and distaste for the left is ironic. When it comes to Israel, he is typical of most liberal Democratic officeholders. He was an early and enthusiastic supporter of President Barack Obama and never wavered from that position during that administration’s eight years of criticism of Israel and appeasement of Iran. He has attacked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “one of the worst leaders of all time.”

On Israel and the war in Gaza, he is far to the left of fellow Pennsylvania Democrat Sen. John Fetterman. Shapiro has also been actively trying to build bridges to the anti-Israel left. During the brief period when he was under consideration for the vice-presidential nomination, he disavowed two entirely reasonable op-eds he had written when he was a student because they stated the obvious truth that peace between Israel and the Palestinians was “virtually impossible.”

And just days before the arson attack on his home, the governor was being criticized by some in the Jewish community for his decision to give a $5 million state grant to a Philadelphia mosque—the largest-ever to a Pennsylvania-based Muslim institution—that is notorious as a hotbed of antisemitism. In doing so, Shapiro was sticking to the left’s disingenuous argument that a mythical wave of Islamophobia was morally equivalent to the unprecedented surge of antisemitism that has arisen since the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The decision was announced when Shapiro attended an Iftar dinner at the mosque, where he said the taxpayer funding of the expansion of the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society was a response to what he described as “tumult overseas,” adding that “we’re facing a lot of rising hate here at home.”

Yet none of that has exempted Shapiro from being the object of hatred from the left. The only reason why he is disliked by his party’s left-wing base—and considered “egregiously bad on Palestine” by The New Republic and Slate—is because of his open embrace of his Jewish identity and refusal to completely disavow any support for Israel in the manner of far-left Jewish politicians like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt).

This raises serious questions about more than Shapiro’s political future.

The future for American Jews

Shapiro is one of those Democrats obviously vying for the leadership of his party’s centrist wing. In his case, moderation is more a matter of tone than policy, as demonstrated last July by his graceful reaction to the attempted assassination of President Trump in Butler, Pa. He remains very popular in Pennsylvania, something that will likely be boosted by the sympathy for him and his family after the arson attack. A highly-skilled politician, he is regarded as a heavy favorite for re-election in 2026 and is already on the short list of the most serious contenders for his party’s presidential nomination in 2028.

But it remains to be seen how he will ultimately fare in a party in which radical Israel-bashers like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who is inheriting Sanders’s position as putative leader of the left, seems to best represent the sentiments of Democrats. They clearly want leaders who are willing to wage war on Trump and the Republicans, rather than at least trying to appear to want to unify the country, as Shapiro does.

In the aftermath of Oct. 7, the vilification of nominally pro-Israel Jews, even Obama-supporting liberals like the Pennsylvania governor, has been normalized by the political left on college campuses and in the media. This has created an atmosphere in which Jewish public figures who do not disavow Israel are anathema to the Democrats’ intersectional base.

More than that, it also proves that antisemitism isn’t, as Democrats have long asserted, solely a phenomenon of the extremist right. Rooted in “progressive” orthodoxies like critical race theory, intersectionality and settler-colonialism, it is now primarily a feature of mainstream political discourse on the left. So strong is the hold of these toxic ideas that it has gotten to the point where liberal institutions like Harvard University would rather forgo $9 billion in federal funds rather than adhere to the Trump administration’s attempt to roll back the tide of woke Jew-hatred.

That has not only isolated liberal Jews who have realized that longtime allies in other minority communities have largely abandoned them and institutions where they once felt at home are now hostile environments. It has created exactly the kind of atmosphere in which Jews of all sorts, whether on college campuses or even in the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion, cannot consider themselves entirely safe.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS (Jewish News Syndicate). Follow him: @jonathans_tobin.

As we gathered around the seder table this year to retell the story of our ancestors’ journey from slavery to freedom, I shared a modern-day story of captivity and the longing for liberation—one that is deeply personal to me and that I think will resonate with others.

In May 2023, during my work with the Jewish Federation of San Diego, I visited Kibbutz Kfar Aza on a community mission. San Diego has a long-standing partnership with Sha’ar HaNegev—a collection of 10 kibbutzim and one moshav in the Gaza Envelope. This partnership has created a profoundly deep connection between the two communities. During our visit, we met with Ofir Libstein, the mayor of Sha’ar HaNegev and a resident of Kfar Aza. He shared his vision for Park Arazim, an industrial complex and medical center to be built on the land between Sha’ar HaNegev and the Gaza Strip, offering employment, training, education and health care for both Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza. It was a bold vision of shared humanity and peace.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Ofir was one of the first kibbutzniks murdered while defending his home and community. Just a day before, the residents of Kfar Aza were preparing for their annual kite festival. Each year on Simchat Torah, they would gather to send handmade kites over the Gaza border, each one carrying a note of peace, hope or love. It was a tradition rooted in optimism—a belief that even in a region marked by fear and conflict, there was still a place for peace and coexistence.

That morning, the skies filled with rockets and terror, while the kites lay trampled on the floor as Hamas terrorists launched an attack that devastated the kibbutz. That’s when 27-year-old twin brothers, Gali and Ziv Berman, in addition to many others, were abducted from the youth village of Kfar Aza. They are both lighting technicians—men whose profession is to bring light—and they were known for their deep commitment to family. They chose to remain on the kibbutz instead of moving closer to their work in Tel Aviv to help care for their father, who lives with Parkinson’s disease and dementia. Their choice speaks volumes about their character and love. They have been held hostage for more than 550 days and were only confirmed to be alive after the release of other hostages two months ago.

I returned to Kfar Aza on a small solidarity mission with leaders from San Diego in November 2023, five short weeks after the brutal attacks. I stood in that same youth village where Gali and Ziv had lived. The smell of accelerant still hung in the air. The remains of homes were charred and broken. It was silent but not empty. In the rubble, signs of life still spoke: the neck of a guitar, the ashes of a fire pit where friends once gathered, a half-empty beer bottle standing upright in the dust.

As we waded through the wreckage, Doron Steinbrecher’s mother, Simona, approached us. Doron was also taken hostage from the Kfar Aza youth village. Simona asked if she could speak with us. She told us about her daughter—her light, her life—and how she had convinced the army to let her return to the kibbutz, even before residents were officially allowed back. When asked why, Simona said: “I came to look for something that belonged to Doron. Something familiar. So that when she is released or rescued, she’ll have a piece of home. A piece of herself.” Through her tears, she begged us to do everything we could to secure her daughter’s release.

Doron was released. And her mother was there when she came home. Her love had never left her side.

On Passover, we tell the story of the Israelites, who cried out under the weight of bondage in Egypt, Mitzrayim—“the narrow place” in Hebrew—and were delivered. We recall how redemption came not just from above, but through the strength of belief, the courage of leadership and the power of a people who refused to forget one another.

The story of Gali and Ziv, the memory of Ofir, the kite festival, and the courage of a mother searching through ashes—these are our modern-day echoes of that same journey.

When we raised the matzah—the bread of affliction—we did so with the urgency of hope.

And when we opened the door for Elijah, it was a gesture of action as much as faith. Because we are still waiting and working for freedom in our time.

May Gali and Ziv, and all of the hostages come home soon. May every family waiting in anguish feel the embrace of a world that remembers them.

And may we, as a people, hold fast to the light, even in the narrowest places. 

When the children’s clothing company Tottini invited her to a design meeting in 2022 to discuss her curating a collection, Lizzy Savetsky wasn’t sure why she needed to schlep from Dallas to Lakewood, N.J. 

“I thought, ‘Can’t we just do this over Zoom?’” the 39-year-old Jewish social media “influencer” and pro-Israel advocate told JNS. (Her following on Instagram was about 415,000 at press time.)

But after she had handled fabric samples in Tottini’s warehouse and outlined patterns and imagined outfits, Savetsky was brought back to a childhood dream.

“From when I was in the second grade, I used to stay up at night when my mom thought I would be sleeping and I’d be in my closet trying on clothes and putting together outfits,” she told JNS during an hour-long conversation in her apartment building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. “Fashion has always been such a huge part of my self-expression.”

Clad in a denim jacket and jeans and a large, diamond-encrusted, chai necklace, Savetsky told JNS that she opted for Uggs for comfort.

“I don’t think dressing well is frivolous at all,” she said. “If anything, it’s a reflection of how we want to present ourselves from the inside, and I think we actually don’t put enough thought about that, especially the Jewish community, into the idea of ‘packaging.’”

She cited the example of the “PR war” in which Israel is involved. “The idea of packaging matters, and I think it’s the same way for us as individuals,” she told JNS.

‘Wild West’

After earning a master’s degree in multicultural education at the University of Pennsylvania, Savetsky found herself feeling “so burnt out from the academic space and turned off by that pseudo-intellectual environment,” she told JNS.

“I didn't even know what the word ‘woke’ was, but this was 2010, and all of that was just starting, and I felt it in a very profound way,” she said. “I was so idealistic, and I loved doing my field work and working with the students, but in terms of the academic space, I just felt like these are not my people.”

She launched an online presence the following year and became a fashion and lifestyle blogger. In 2013, she shifted to Instagram.

“I remember going to my parents and saying, ‘I’m going to quit my job and just do my blog and Instagram full time,’ and they were like, ‘What’s a blog?’” she said. “They were so confused, because it was such a new career path. Nowadays, people see being an influencer as a career, but back then, nobody did that.”

Savetsky had listed that she is a Zionist on her social media biographies since 2017. But everything changed after war broke out between Gazan terror groups and Israel in 2021 in what would be called “Operation Guardian of the Walls.”

“Before May of 2021, I would have told you that I was a combination of a mommy fashion lifestyle hybrid influencer, who still was very outspoken about Judaism and Israel, though that wasn’t what I led with,” she said. 

“I had been unapologetic about my stance and have been loud and proud, but 2021 was a real turning point for me when I saw the social-media world just explode with hate for Israel,” she told JNS. (She estimates that she lost 30,000 followers on social media in 2021.)

The Jew-hatred that spread online was a wake-up call for her to pivot in the way that she leveraged her prominent voice.

“I didn’t know that Instagram or social media could be used for advocacy, because obviously, when I started this platform in 2011, it was just aesthetically pleasing images and a grid,” she said. “I never in a million years thought that Instagram would be the vehicle that I would be using to stand up for the Jewish people.”

“It’s sort of like the Wild West for me, making it up as I go along and blazing a trail,” she told JNS. “It has felt so natural, even more so than the mommy fashion lifestyle blogging stuff, it feels like exactly what I was supposed to be doing.”

Juggling act

As her platform shifted toward full-time Jewish advocacy, Savetsky’s work as an influencer had to evolve, including the decision which sorts of brands made good partners.

The Jewish-owned brand Tottini felt like a natural fit that helped her align her work and her values.

“I am a mom who dresses my kids, and I’m also screaming into my megaphone about antisemitism,” she said. “I think Jewish people as a whole are juggling with this globally,  trying to figure out how to live our normal lives and also step into this new role as being a voice for the Jewish people.”

She told JNS that she has sent “a ton” of shipments to Israel, particularly in the past year, from her Tottini line. 

“When I call them up and I say, ‘Look, we need to hold on launching, because the war just started back up,’ they say to me, ‘Of course, no problem,’ because they understand,” she said of Tottini.

Domestically, she said it is important to her that her designs remain affordable for families. “They can come to one place and get Shabbos clothes, swimsuits, cover-ups and even camp clothes—all in a one-stop shop and not walk out having to get a second mortgage,” Savetsky said.

She told JNS that she is “on a very different path than other fashion influencers, and I had already made this commitment to myself that I wanted to devote my platform full time to the Jewish people and spreading the truth for Israel.”

“Especially after Oct. 7, I had a long-term partnership with Saks Fifth Avenue, and I had content due around Oct. 10, and I just said to them, ‘I can’t do this right now,’” she said. “I don’t know if I’d be able to work with a brand that didn’t get ideologically where I am right now. I could not ask for a better partner in Tottini, and I get emotional even talking about it.” 

It feels like God “handed me this opportunity,” she said.

‘So fun’

Savetsky told JNS that she works with Tottini and its factories abroad to select fabric a year in advance. This year’s spring-summer line is inspired by her Texas upbringing. 

“The seersucker and gingham fabric choices are a nod to my southern roots,” she said. “I grew up in Texas, and it just feels sweet and proper to have kids dressed in those styles.”

“Seeing how the factory is able to bring my vision to life is the coolest feeling in the world,” she said. “I can come up with these insane ideas and then execute them, and it’s so fun that they let me do it.”

“If I say I want to put a gingham ruffle on a strawberry swimsuit, they are like, that’s crazy, but OK, we’ll try it.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League, boycotted the Jerusalem International Conference on Combating Antisemitism in late March to protest the event’s inclusion of so-called “far-right European politicians.” Israeli Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli countered that the “right-wing” European party members he invited were “allies” in combating antisemitism.

A month earlier, Chikli explained the invitations, saying, “antisemitism is a growing problem in Europe due to Muslim immigration. The European right-wing parties have a point because they realize the problem and are presenting a solution. They understand the challenge of radical Islam, and they are willing to take the necessary steps.”

The ADL has a 20-year record of determining “extreme antisemitism” in different places and among different groups, and for the last 10 years, it has released findings in its “Global 100: An Index of Antisemitism.” Countries are ranked based on how many antisemitic stereotypes out of a total of 11 statements people there agree with. Those who agree that six or more statements are “probably true” are considered by the ADL report to be “harboring” antisemitic views.

Over the years, the report has included results from religious groups, including Christians and Muslims in Western Europe (such as in 2004, 2015 and 2019, and 2023). Yet that data, which shows Western European Muslims harboring significantly more antisemitic views than others in Western Europe, is now missing from the ADL’s website.

After compiling the results of ADL survey reports from 2015 to 2023, we found a grossly disproportionate, two-to-four-fold excess prevalence of Jew-hatred among the Muslims in the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain and Italy.

A reported instance where statistical adjustment to remove “confounding” or bias was performed on the ADL’s Western European survey data yielded even more alarming results. Applying multivariable adjustment (controlling for country of residence, age, religion, income, gender, contact with Jews, etc.) to ADL’s 2004 survey data, Yale University educators, in the peer-reviewed The Journal of Conflict Resolution, demonstrated that Western European Muslims had an 8-fold excess risk of harboring extreme antisemitism relative to Christians.

Moreover, when the ADL released the original raw April 2004 survey data, “Attitudes toward Jews, Israel and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in 10 European countries,” no indication whatsoever was made that the survey included a Muslim sample.

We recently discovered that the attempted concealment by ADL of its own disturbing findings on the attitudes of Western European Muslims on antisemitism is an ongoing matter of grave, urgent concern.

As confirmed by the ADL itself in email correspondence, the ADL has scrubbed from its “Global 100,” public antisemitism survey results hub any Western European demographic data by religious affiliation, including Islam, for its 2015, 2019 and 2023 results.

The timing of this removal is disquieting because the data appears to have been made completely unavailable in March, on or about the time Greenblatt decided not to attend the antisemitism conference.

The ADL justified making the data inaccessible so abruptly because, as they said in their email, “religious affiliation has proven less generalizable” compared to other demographic variables, such as education and age.” Yet this didn’t seem to be a problem before. Another alleged reason for making the religious affiliation data unavailable, the organizaiton said, was that it was awaiting the completion of “internal research and peer-reviewed analysis.”

These claims are disingenuous and ring hollow. First, there is copious independent data from Western European academic and governmental surveys that confirm ADL’s findings of excessive antisemitism within the Muslim vs. non-Muslim populations of Western Europe.

Second, as already stated, almost 20 years ago, when the ADL allowed outside investigators access to their raw data for appropriate statistical analysis and peer-reviewed publication, the Western European religious affiliation data ADL had concealed indicated Muslims were 8-fold more antisemitic than Christians.

Lastly, even after the ADL’s private correspondence acknowledging its religious affiliation purging, there is still no public explanation on the ADL Global 100 website providing examples of what the data revealed and “rationalizing” its removal.

ADL’s pattern of blatant and arbitrary censoring of its own extreme antisemitism survey index scores on Western European Muslim antisemitism is disturbing and disorienting to those trying to assess Muslim antisemitism objectively and place it into perspective. We urge the group to desist from such censorious behavior and share data openly and transparently to facilitate effective strategies that combat the modern global scourge of disproportionate Muslim antisemitism.

Rasheedul Mowla, 28, of Brooklyn, N.Y., pleaded guilty in federal court on Thursday to trying to support the terror group Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, which he sought to join in 2017.

The U.S. citizen faces up to 20 years in prison, according to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Mowla aimed to join a “violent foreign terrorist organization that has conducted and inspired terrorist attacks worldwide, killing numerous innocent victims, including American citizens,” stated John Durham, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

“Thanks to the diligent efforts of law enforcement, Mowla’s plan to join ISIS was thwarted,” he said. “This office remains steadfast in its efforts to pursue and bring to justice those who support terrorism.”

Jessica Tisch, commissioner of the New York City Police Department, stated that Mowla “wasn’t just planning to join ISIS—he was ready to kill and die for them.”

“That kind of threat demands a swift response, and thanks to the work of the NYPD and our federal partners, it was stopped before anyone got hurt,” she stated.

Mowla traveled to Saudi Arabia in June 2017 in an attempt to enter Syria and join ISIS. He was deported back to the United States in August 2017, per the Justice Department.

He admitted to authorities that he knew, when he traveled to the Middle East, that ISIS is a terror group and that if he joined ISIS in Syria, “he was planning to shoot weapons and willing to die on behalf of ISIS,” the Justice Department said.

“He sought to jeopardize the welfare of his own country to align with a foreign terrorist organization known for killing American soldiers and innocent civilians,” stated Christopher Raia, assistant director in charge of the FBI New York field office.

U.S. President Donald Trump named Mark Levin, the Jewish Fox News host, to his “revamped” Homeland Security Advisory Council, which the president said consists of “top experts in their field, who are highly respected by their peers.”

Levin, who won the JNS Shield of Jerusalem award last year, has been supportive of Trump’s policies for the most part but has been noticeably critical of Steve Witkoff’s approach to the Israel-Hamas war and Iran as Trump’s special Middle East envoy.

Trump had dismantled the advisory panel when he took office in January, amid allegations that the Biden administration was misusing resources.

The president said that the council “will work hard on developing new policies and strategies that will help us secure our border, deport illegal criminal thugs, stop the flow of fentanyl and other illegal drugs that are killing our citizens and make America safe again.”

Other new members of the council include former South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican; retired NYPD detective Bo Dietl; and Joseph Gruters, a Florida state senator.

The co-chairs of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism condemned the Passover attack on the home of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish.

Reps. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) and Chris Smith (R-N.J.) issued the statement on Thursday after they said that “the Pennsylvania State Police has now confirmed that the Passover attack on Gov. Shapiro and his family was motivated by antisemitism.”

Shapiro “has nothing to do with Israel’s foreign policy, yet he was targeted as an American Jew by a radicalized extremist who blames the governor for Israel’s actions,” they stated. “That is textbook antisemitism.”

“As Jews across the globe celebrate Passover, a holiday commemorating the liberation of the Jewish people from bondage and oppression, this attack is a bitter reminder that persecution of Jews continues,” the duo added.

Cody A. Balmer, 38, of Harrisburg, Pa., was arrested after calling police an hour after the attack on the night of April 12 and admitting to firebombing Shapiro’s mansion while the governor, his family, guests and staff slept on the first night of Passover.

“As co-chairs of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, we strongly condemn this antisemitic violence and urge all Americans to oppose antisemitism in all its forms,” the congressmen stated. “We are thankful that Gov. Shapiro and his family were physically unharmed, and we hope that this individual will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

According to state police, Balmer broke into the governor’s mansion at about 2 a.m. on Sunday and threw several Molotov cocktails of gasoline in Heineken bottles, causing “significant damage.”

He told 911 operators that he wanted Shapiro to know that he “will not take part in his plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people,” per information that the state police filed to obtain a search warrant.

The suspect also told 911 operators that he had to “stop having my friends killed” and “our people have been put through too much by that monster,” according to the warrant.

Some 400 Jews, Hindus, Christians, Venezuelans, Iranians, Iraqis and others braved near freezing temperatures on a windy Wednesday in Toronto to send the message that anti-Zionism is Jew-hatred.

The non-Jewish allies represented “ethnicities and nationalities, who have seen their own identities attacked by others,” Amir Epstein, co-founder and director of the Jewish civil-rights group Tafsik, which organized the rally, told JNS.

Epstein told JNS that the event aimed to take back the narrative that Jew-haters have corrupted.

“This is the first rally where we are fighting back against anti-Zionism, and we’re doing it to tell people it’s just another form of antisemitism,” he said. “For way too long, we’ve not adopted our own identity, but as Jews, we should define Jews.”

“Our haters should not get to define us anymore. They seek to define what we are, what we believe, what our identities are,” he added. “They’ve convinced others that Zionism is colonialism. But Zionism has been intertwined with Judaism since the beginning, since Moses. We can and should define ourselves.”

The main theme of the event was to “define Zionism according to the facts, according to thousands of years of documented history,” Ali Siadatan, Tafsik’s director of education, told JNS. 

Siadatan, of Iranian descent, gave a speech at the event.

“Throughout the world, a fictional and nefarious definition is provided that is conspiratorial and false, and then that is used to persecute Zionists,” he told JNS. “We just wanted to stand against that and set the record straight—that it’s not a nebulous idea. It’s a very well-defined idea with deep roots among Jews and Christians.”

The former Ottawa-area legislator Goldie Ghamari, a first-generation immigrant, told attendees at Mel Lastman Square that she isn’t Israeli. “I’m not Jewish. I’m Iranian, born in Iran,” she said. “I’m also a proud Zionist.”

“Do not let terrorists define your identity. You are indigenous to Israel. That is your birthright,” she said. “The silver lining of the genocidal massacre of Oct. 7 was that it brought our societies, our cultures and our civilizations together.”

Toronto Zionist Council president Guidy Mamann, activist Esther Mordechai, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem national executive director Donna Holbrook, activist Michelle Factor and recent Venezuelan immigrant Alessa Polga, of Ladies of Liberty Alliance, also addressed attendees.

Salman Sima, a former Iranian political prisoner who spoke at the event, told JNS that both the mullahs in Tehran and terror supporters in the West manipulate language.

“The jihadists in Canada are using the same tactic that the Islamic regime in Iran has been using for over 46 years,” he said. “The Islamic regime covers antisemitism under the banner of anti-Zionism. This playing with words is so familiar for Iranians.”

“In 1979, the unity between leftists and Islamists ruined my beautiful homeland, Iran. The same forces of evil are working here against our Canadian values,” Sima said. “We don’t want jihad. We don’t want Sharia law.”

Having lost his freedom once in Iran, Sima told JNS that he doesn’t want to lose it again in Canada.

“For the sake of freedom, we need to fight together against antisemitism,” he said. “We cannot rely on the government. The rally was for the people. It was not for politicians that just do the talking.”

John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, which is part of the U.S. Military Academy, sent a note to Epstein to read at the event.

“I’m not Jewish, but I am a champion of truth. And the truth is this. Anti-Zionism is Jew-hatred,” Spencer stated in the note. “I’ve seen the double standards, the demonization and the effort to strip Israel of its right to exist. That’s not justice.”

“That’s antisemitism, repackaged,” he added.

Holbrook, of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, told JNS that she and her organization sought to show “unconditional Christian support for Israel and the Jewish community.” They also aimed to “clearly state what Zionism is,” she said.

A former U.S. Department of Homeland Security official who openly praised Hamas after its terror attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, was fired recently after 16 months of paid leave, The Daily Wire reported.

Nejwa Ali, who was in charge of vetting asylum seekers, was placed on administrative leave pending an “investigation” by then-Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas on Oct. 19, 2023. She was not officially fired until the Trump administration did so on Feb. 10, Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin confirmed to the Wire.

Ali’s leave initially came after the news outlet revealed her Hamas sympathies, highlighting repeated posts she made with pictures of Hamas terrorists parachuting with guns and writing statements, such as, “F*** Israel and any Jew who supports Israel.” This prompted a congressional hearing.

In its request for the hearing, the House Committee on Homeland Security stated Ali was a former spokesperson for the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States.

The Daily Wire reported that Ali’s LinkedIn profile stated she served as a public affairs officer for the “PLO office in D.C.,” though her LinkedIn no longer lists that title under her previous experience. However, her profile name is “Nejwa Free Palestine from Apartheid Israel A.”

In April, the U.S. government announced it would start screening social-media posts from those who apply to immigrate to the United States for Jew-hatred.