Most Americans reject Jew-hatred, though troublingly, nearly a quarter of them found recent antisemitic attacks to be “understandable,” according to a new survey from the Anti-Defamation League.

Three, in particular, stand out: Harrisburg, Pa.; Washington, D.C.; and Boulder, Colo.

“We are in a window of opportunity where the majority of Americans support anti-discrimination policies in the intervention of local, state and federal government in combating antisemitism,” Matt Williams, vice president of the ADL’s center for antisemitism research, told JNS.

“That’s really great news, and it means that we can work to mobilize the support for most Americans to help reduce anti-Jewish prejudice,” added Williams, who conducted the survey, which was released on Friday. “That window of opportunity is closing.”

Ideas that two years ago would have been deemed “extraordinarily fringe—the belief in false flags around attacks on Jews motivated by anti-Israel animus—now sits at almost a quarter of the U.S. population overall,” Williams said.

“We’re looking at it hitting younger Americans much harder, and the trends and the trajectory of the normalization of these kinds of conspiracy theories that fuel prejudice toward Jews is something that my team has been tracking for a few years now,” Williams said. “We’re seeing it hit a level of saturation.”  

The survey, conducted by the ADL based on June 10 responses from the Ipsos Observer Omnibus, found that 24% said it was “understandable” that a gunman shot and killed two Israeli embassy staffers as they were leaving a Jewish museum in Washington; an attacker firebombed ralliers in Colorado as they called for the release of hostages in the Gaza Strip; and an arsonist set the Pennsylvania governor’s residence on fire as Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, and his family slept inside on Passover.

Some 13% said that those three attacks were “justified.”

The survey also found that other antisemitic views have purchase in up to a third of the population, including that American Jews are more loyal to Israel and the United States (34%); that Jews disproportionately influence politics and the media (30%); and that Jews should have to answer for the Israeli government’s actions (27%).

The ADL survey found that those under 45 believed at nearly double the rate of older Americans that Jewish Americans are responsible for Israel’s actions.

Williams told JNS that there are three reasons that young Americans are likelier to harbor Jew-hatred.

First, he said, younger people have a “zero-sum mindset” that success only comes at others’ expense. “Younger Americans are more likely to think they live in that world than older Americans, and that creates walls between in-groups and out-groups,” he said. He added that many people see Jews as high achievers.

Another factor is that “we’re swimming in an era of misinformation” and “ambient conspiracy theories,” according to Williams. “What happens when you marry conspiracy theories with a zero-sum mindset is that it makes antisemitism start to make sense.”

“If you’re thinking you live in a world where the achievers are keeping you down by definition, and we’re going to start to give you explanations about how those achievers got into the places where they are and the implications of what it means for them to be on top, those sorts of types of explanations—drawing on conspiracy theory belief—begin to fuel a kind of animus,” he told JNS.

The third factor, to Williams, is “social norms.” He told JNS that “the social cost of prejudice has dropped just precipitously.”

The survey found that 68% of respondents believe that phrases like “Globalize the intifada” and “From the river to the sea” could worsen violence against Jews.

More than 70% of respondents support the government taking action to combat antisemitism, saying college campuses should be held accountable for it.

“There aren’t huge differences between political ideologies that we find,” Williams said. “If anything, probably the most predictive factor politically on if someone is going to be antisemitic is how dispossessed they feel from either of the parties.”

Those on the fringes can feel “dispossessed” because Republicans or Democrats don’t go far enough for their taste, or can be those in the middle who feel partyless.

“We find this interesting ‘W’-shape to antisemitism,” he told JNS. “Higher on the fringes and more in the middle, so it really is a story of political dispossession more than of partisanship.”

Williams thinks that the way to fight antisemitic conspiracy theories is to minimize people’s exposure to such conspiracies and to help them hone the skills to identify them as conspiracies when exposed to them. It’s also important to “make sure that broad swaths of Americans can be successful, and we need to make sure that people know that Jews are working to do that, too,” he stated.

“The goal is to make people feel embarrassed that they have that attitude, that set of beliefs,” he said. “I want antisemitism, ultimately in this context, to be impolite.”

The White House is seemingly denying a report from The New York Times, which cites an unnamed Israeli official who claimed Israeli intelligence determined that some of Iran’s underground stockpile of enriched uranium survived Israeli and American airstrikes in mid-June.

“As President Trump has said many times, ‘Operation Midnight Hammer’ totally obliterated Iran's nuclear facilities,” Anna Kelly, a White House deputy press secretary, told reporters after being asked about it. “The entire world is safer thanks to his decisive leadership.”

However, Jonathan Ruhe, director of foreign policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), told JNS the comments by Israeli officials “underscore that Iran’s nuclear program has not been eliminated, despite impressive Israeli-U.S. action to obliterate many key sites and personnel.”

“Even if Iran’s primary enriched uranium reserves are stuck underground, IAEA inspectors warned long before the recent strikes that they cannot verify this is Iran’s entire stockpile,” he told JNS. “This uncertainty is worsening as Iran now expels inspectors.” (The Islamic Republic implemented a law in July suspending cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency and expelled its members.)

Following the U.S. strikes on Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that the nuclear facilities have been “completely and totally obliterated.” Israeli intelligence said Iran’s nuclear program had been set back “years,” a claim that was supported by a July Pentagon assessment, which states the strikes set back the program by “at least one to two years.”

Iranian state media claimed most of the uranium stored at the Fordow had been “moved to another location” before the strike. U.S. and Israeli intelligence differ on how much, if at all, enriched uranium at other nuclear sites had been moved beforehand.

“With its best nuclear capabilities destroyed, Tehran will compensate by making any future reconstitution even harder to detect and interdict,” Ruhe told JNS. “Forcing Iran to open up its books and fulfill its safeguards obligations should be paramount.”

Columbia University is close to a deal with the Trump administration to restore “most” of the $400 million in grants and contracts the federal government froze in March, The Washington Free Beacon reported.

The draft agreement, which Columbia’s trustees met to discuss on Sunday, would “compensate the victims of unlawful discrimination and increase the transparency of its hiring and admissions process” but lacks some of the more “onerous provisions” that the White House initially demanded, including “a consent decree and reforms to Columbia’s governance structure,” per the Free Beacon.

A White House official told JNS that the university and the White House are close to a deal.

Ari Shrage, co-founder of the Columbia Jewish Alumni Association, told JNS that the reported proposal risks letting the university evade accountability. (JNS sought comment from the school.)

“We are deeply concerned that the deal on the table with Columbia lacks the essential governance reforms required to make meaningful change,” he said. “This sends the wrong message not just to Columbia but to all universities looking on and wondering what they can get away with.”

To Shrage, “now is the time to finally hold the university accountable and send a clear message that antisemitism will not be tolerated.”

Elisha Baker, a rising senior at Columbia, told JNS that the reported agreement fails to address the university’s “dysfunctional” governance structure.

“The university senate, for the entire past two years, has been the number one inhibitor of strong action to hold people accountable to Columbia’s mission and prevent discrimination,” he said. “They have rolled back protest regulations when what we needed were stronger regulations, and they blocked disciplinary proceedings when what we needed was accountability.”

Baker told JNS that he wants Columbia to restore its federal funding.

“I don’t want to tear down the university,” he said. “I want this to be a deal that’s a win for the Jewish community, a win for the university, and a win for the United States and American values.”

Eden Yadegar, who graduated from Columbia in May, told JNS that the reported terms are “disheartening.”

“I am a proponent of a strong deal that follows through on the promise of holding universities that promote antisemitism and anti-Americanism accountable,” she told JNS.

“Based on what’s been reported, this deal seems like it would result in leaving discipline in the hands of leaders with no will to drive change,” she said, “and some of the very faculty members that have been fueling the hostile environment that has been dominating campus since Oct. 7.”

In a world beset by escalating global tensions and nuclear uncertainty—from the battlefields of Ukraine to the threat matrix in the Middle East—the United States has recently stepped up to show leadership and reasserted its commitment to global nuclear safety. But there’s one glaring danger Washington has yet to address: the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant in Armenia.

Located 22 miles from the Turkish border and within an active seismic zone, Metsamor is one of the world’s oldest and most dangerous nuclear plants. Constructed in the 1970s, it uses a Soviet-era reactor that lacks a containment vessel, which is a basic feature in modern nuclear safety design. It was temporarily shut down after a devastating 6.8 magnitude earthquake shook Armenia in 1988, but was inexplicably reopened in the mid-1990s. Today, it quietly continues to operate, posing a ticking time bomb at the heart of the South Caucasus.

An accident at Metsamor wouldn’t just endanger Armenia, it could destabilize the entire region. The South Caucasus is a critical artery for East-West energy transit, connecting the Caspian basin to European markets through pipelines that bypass Russia and Iran. Any nuclear fallout here would ripple far beyond the immediate area, affecting NATO allies like Turkey and Georgia, jeopardizing European energy security and sending shockwaves through global markets.

The threat is not merely technical. Metsamor is also a geopolitical liability. Maintained with assistance from Russia’s Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation, the plant is a tool of Kremlin leverage in the region. In a time when the United States is working tirelessly to counter Russian influence, allowing Armenia to remain tethered to Moscow’s nuclear umbilical cord undermines those efforts.

Even more concerning is Armenia’s deepening alignment with Iran. Armenia has long served as a quiet yet significant economic proxy for Tehran. Back in 2012, Reuters reported that Armenian banks were complicit in helping Iran sidestep international sanctions by obfuscating payments and deceiving Western intelligence agencies. In 2019, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Armenia-based Flight Travel LLC for facilitating operations tied to Mahan Air, an airline linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The Armenia-Iran relationship continues to strengthen. The two nations inked an agreement in 2022 to expand the North-South Transit Corridor through northern Iran, marking another potential sanctions workaround. And just last month, Iranian civilians reportedly sought refuge in Armenia, underscoring the country’s role as a safe haven for the Islamic Republic’s economic and logistical interests.

Compounding these concerns is a persistent and deeply troubling undercurrent of antisemitism in Armenian society, an issue that should factor into Washington’s assessment of its strategic partnerships. In January, the Anti-Defamation League released findings from its latest global index on antisemitism, covering more than 100 countries. It revealed that 57% of Armenians agree with negative stereotypes about Jews and harbor elevated levels of antisemitic attitudes. To put that in perspective, only 49% of respondents in Iran expressed similar views.

This is not just about attitudes. It represents a toxic ideological undercurrent that contradicts American values and raises red flags about Armenia’s suitability as a responsible regional actor, especially one operating a dangerous nuclear facility with the potential to destabilize an entire region.

If the United States is serious about nuclear safety, nonproliferation and confronting malign actors, then it must take a proactive stance on Metsamor. The plant’s continued operation not only represents a looming environmental catastrophe, but it also serves as a nexus of strategic vulnerabilities.

Washington has shown courage in fostering a rules-based international order. Addressing Metsamor should be the next step in that same vein of principled leadership. Whether by working through the U.N. nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency, offering financial and technical incentives for decommissioning or coordinating with NATO and regional partners, the time to act is now.

The dangers of Metsamor are not theoretical. They are immediate, multifaceted and growing. If America wants to prevent the next nuclear crisis before it erupts, it cannot afford to look away.

A cohort of 23 middle and high school English and social studies teachers from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Texas and one from Poland, recently completed a five-day Jewish Foundation for the Righteous summer institute in Newark, N.J.

The group, Alfred Lerner Fellows, all of whom were already teaching about the Holocaust, learned about “the complex history of the Holocaust” and addressed “new teaching techniques for introducing the subject of the Holocaust into their classrooms,” according to the foundation, which funds righteous gentiles 73 years old and above in 10 countries.

Experts from Yad Vashem, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the American Jewish Committee and from more than half a dozen U.S. and Canadian universities addressed the fellows.

Mary Beth Ely, of Liberty Park Middle School in Vestavia Hills, Ala., told JNS that she expected “to deepen my understanding of Holocaust history, and I was honored and proud to learn from renowned scholars from around the world whose expertise and passion brought the material to life.”

“I gained new insight into the dangerous and moral choices of rescuers, the ‘choiceless choices’ faced by Jews during the Holocaust and the importance of teaching students to recognize human agency and resistance,” she said. “I’m returning to my classroom with a renewed sense of purpose and powerful tools to help students think critically about the Holocaust, history, justice and antisemitism.”

Chrissy Hoerlein, of Simon Kenton High School in Independence, Ky., told JNS that she participated hoping to increase her knowledge and “better serve my students and develop lessons.”

“I could not have imagined the caliber of professors and lecturers. They were able to present new information in ways that enabled me to make deeper connections between events, laws, policies and propaganda relating to the Holocaust,” she said.

People could opt to help others during the Holocaust if they chose to do so, she said.

“I will be taking many lessons back to my classroom, but the most important, in my opinion, is giving the students a chance to do a deep dive into the stories of those who suffered in the Holocaust using primary sources or objects that allow everyone to see that at the end of the day, we are all the same,” she told JNS.

“We are all humans who want love, understanding, to care for our families and to live without persecution,” she said.

Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) introduced legislation late last month to honor military service members who took part in the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The Iranian Campaign Medal Act “authorizes the secretary of defense to establish and award a U.S. military decoration to service members who served in Iran in direct support of ‘Operation Midnight Hammer.’”

“No matter what the mission is, American servicemembers always rise to the challenge, and ‘Operation Midnight Hammer’ in Iran is no exception,” stated Gonzales, a U.S. Navy veteran. “There is no other military in the world that could have executed a precision strike on nuclear sites with such excellence, and the men and women who made it happen deserve full recognition for their efforts.”

Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), one of 12 original co-sponsors of the bill, all Republicans, stated that he is “proud to honor the courageous servicemembers who carried out the mission. The world is a safer place thanks to their efforts.”

Rep. Mark Alford (R-Mo.), another co-sponsor, said “it was not just the pilots. It was also the maintenance, planning, operational and support personnel whose unparalleled coordination made this mission a resounding success.”

“The Iranian campaign was the ultimate testament to President [Donald] Trump’s peace through strength agenda,” he stated.

Two more Republicans co-sponsored the bill on July 2.

As the father of Alisa Flatow, a 20-year-old woman who was murdered in 1995 by a Palestinian suicide bomber sponsored by Iran, I know too well the agony of losing a child to terrorism. I also know what happens when terrorists are given lifelines instead of life sentences. And when justice eludes the victims and their families.

That is why, even amid the anguish of Israeli hostage families pleading for their loved ones’ return, I must sound a note of caution: a ceasefire that leaves Hamas standing is not peace. It’s a guarantee of future bloodshed.

No one can look into the eyes of the parents whose sons and daughters are being held in Gaza and not be moved. As a father, I empathize deeply with their desperation. But hard experience teaches us that temporary reprieves can come at a terrible long-term cost. Calls to halt Israel’s military campaign in Gaza or to release hundreds of convicted terrorists in exchange for some—but tragically, not all, and in stages no less—of the hostages will only embolden Hamas and set the stage for the next massacre.

Israel has been down this road before. In 2011, more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners were released to bring home one Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. Many of them went on to orchestrate or participate in attacks that murdered Israelis in cafes, buses and homes. In fact, some of those freed terrorists helped plan and execute the horrific assault on Oct. 7, 2023, which left 1,200 Israelis dead, countless others wounded, and entire communities traumatized.

Hamas is not simply a political rival. It is a genocidal organization dedicated to the eradication of Jews. Its fighters butcher civilians, commit rape and torture, and proudly hide behind children. Its charter is a document soaked in antisemitic hatred. When we talk of a ceasefire, we must understand what it means: time for Hamas to regroup, rebuild its tunnels, smuggle in fresh arms and prepare for the next round.

I have seen what happens when terror is appeased. I buried my daughter because the world refused to confront the networks that armed and financed her killers. I have spent decades watching international donors rebuild Gaza, only to see concrete meant for schools turned into terror tunnels. Each time the world presses Israel to hold back, Hamas emerges strengthened—and plots its next atrocity.

This is why the only moral, and ultimately, the most compassionate, course is to ensure Hamas is decisively defeated. A ceasefire that leaves its leadership or military infrastructure intact simply pushes off the horror to another day. And who will pay the price then? More families like mine, lighting memorial candles instead of birthday candles.

To the families of the hostages, I say: Your suffering is unbearable, and your loved ones are in all our prayers. But the surest way to bring them home safely—and to prevent future kidnappings—is by dismantling the machinery that took them captive in the first place. Every Hamas commander left alive is a ticking time bomb. Every rocket not destroyed is aimed at another family’s home.

A lasting peace cannot be built on deals with murderers who have sworn to strike again. It requires the elimination of the terror threat—root and branch. Only then can Israeli and Palestinian children alike have a chance at a future without fear.

I lost my daughter to terrorists who were allowed to flourish. Let us not make that mistake again. The world must stand firm with Israel’s right—and obligation—to finish the job and free not just today’s hostages, but future generations from Hamas’s grip.

The night before the Consulate General of Israel in Miami was slated to send a delegation of senior U.S. officials to Israel to learn about the reality and complexities on the ground in the Jewish state, two Israeli embassy staffers were gunned down outside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C., on May 21.

A scheduled participant sent a condolence message to Maor Elbaz-Starinsky, the Israeli consul general in Miami, which was “very, very caring and empathetic,” the diplomat told JNS. In the same message, the official asked if it was safe to go to Israel.

The diplomat didn’t say it in his response to the official, but he told JNS that his reaction was that he hadn’t asked if Miami was a safe place to go. “We are taking the utmost measures, and I think it will be safe, and everything is planned carefully, but we also need to be mindful that terror can strike and is striking anywhere,” he told JNS.

One of the “stranger” parts of his Miami posting has come outside of the office. When there is an antisemitic incident in the United States, parents of other kids at the Jewish day school where he sends his children call him and ask, “Maor, is it safe to send our kids to school?”

“I keep telling them, ‘Listen. I’m not in charge of the security of the school. You are the Americans. You need to speak to your authorities, to your law enforcement, to your elected officials, to your Congress people. I can’t vouch for security,’” Elbaz-Starinsky told JNS. “I have my own security apparatus in place as an Israeli, as an Israeli diplomat, but you want me to be in charge of American Jewish security in the United States? This is not how it works.”

When Naftali Shavelson worked at the Consulate General of Israel in New York, where he served as director of print and online media for two-and-a-half years, the Yeshiva University alumnus often felt like he doubled as a two-way cultural translator.

“I think Israelis often have a hard time understanding American Jewry, and American Jews absolutely have a hard time understanding Israeli society and culture,” Shavelson, now a consultant who recently made aliyah, told JNS.

“Israelis reach out to their American friends when there’s an attack in America and they’re concerned for them, and Americans reach out to their Israeli friends when there’s an attack on Israel,” Shavelson said.

Since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that has meant many occasions for Americans to contact Israeli relatives and friends after attacks from Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and directly from Iran. The degree to which American Jews are safe stateside has come into question for Israelis after embassy staffers were gunned down, Jewish marchers were firebombed in Boulder, Colo., antisemitic encampments have spread on college campuses and protests across the country have included direct praise of Hamas.

‘A long time coming’

Ariella Rada, the New York consulate spokeswoman, had been worrying about an attack like the one in Washington. “I have to say that it’s been a long time coming,” she told JNS. “Not just for us, but for anyone living here in New York or across the United States. We’ve all seen the terrifying rise in antisemitism. We’ve been warning about this for years.”

“Everywhere we went—at events, in articles, in conversations—we kept repeating that the numbers are skyrocketing,” she said. “Jewish leaders, the State of Israel, and so many others have been sounding the alarm.”

“What we’re seeing now is the direct result of unprecedented incitement right here in our streets. In New York, in Washington, on college campuses,” she said. “Nearly every few days, there’s another protest. Many of them are violent. Many are led by pro-Palestinian activists chanting slogans like ‘globalize the intifada.’”

That phrase is a clear call for violence against Israel and against Jews, in the United States and globally, according to Rada.

“We’ve seen rising antisemitism in different parts of the world, and we’ve tracked incidents here too, but I don’t think anyone truly believed something this severe could happen on U.S. soil,” she told JNS. “That’s what made it so shocking.”

The current situation in the United States is “frightening,” she said.

“Jews are afraid to walk down the street wearing a yarmulke or a Star of David. It’s unthinkable that we’ve reached a point where Jews in New York, the city with the largest Jewish population in the United States, feel they have to hide who they are,” she said. “Something deeply wrong is happening, and it’s being driven by terrorist-affiliated groups who are spreading hatred, trying to portray Israel and the Jewish people as the enemy.”

“We can’t afford to ignore it any longer,” she added.

‘A bridge’

The Chassidic leader Nachman of Breslov (1772-1811) wrote that in life, a person must cross a “very, very narrow bridge” and that the key is not to be afraid at all. (The popular Hebrew song alters the mystic’s language somewhat.) Israeli consulate staffers see themselves as bridges that, in part, help mitigate fears.

In her role, Rada often finds herself “navigating conversations that reflect the different perspectives and realities between the U.S. and Israel” with relatives, friends and colleagues back home in Israel. (The Ethiopian native grew up in southern Israel.)

“There’s a natural curiosity, and at times concern, about developments here, especially during moments of heightened tension like the recent embassy incident or the troubling rise in antisemitism,” she told JNS. “There are certainly moments where I help provide context or clarify misconceptions.”

The conversations are two-way for her, and she also shares “the complexities of Israeli society and the emotional weight events can carry for people back home” with colleagues and friends in New York.

“Serving as that bridge is both a responsibility and a privilege,” Rada told JNS. “It’s a powerful reminder of how critical our work is as Israeli diplomats in the United States, Israel’s closest ally. Especially in times like these, when antisemitism is on the rise, it reaffirms not only the importance of strengthening the U.S.-Israel partnership, but also the enduring necessity of a strong, secure Jewish state.”

Shavelson told JNS that working at the consulate “felt like a bridge between Israelis and Americans to kind of decipher things that were happening on the ground, for one group or the other.”

The consulate in New York focuses much more on outreach than do the embassy in Washington or the mission to the United Nations, both of which have more expressed political and diplomatic goals, according to Shavelson.

He found himself helping Israelis understand better what Jewish life looks like in America and aiding Americans in painting a better picture for themselves about what Jewish life is like in Israel.

Part of that was telling both that the experience is richer and vaster than the tragic attacks that make the news.

“By and large, the attacks, however tragic, don’t necessarily define at least so far the broader Jewish community in either place,” he told JNS. He thinks Israel is trending toward more security while Jews are feeling increasingly unsafe in America.

“By and large, I think when you’re not in a place, it becomes much easier to consider it and think about it and assimilate it in terms of headlines,” he said. “But headlines are not real life.”

‘Heightened sensitivity’

Delphine Gamburg, deputy consul general at the Israeli Consulate in Chicago, told JNS that the attack in Washington affected staff deeply.

“There’s a new sense of solidarity and resilience among us,” she said. “Especially among our American employees, who now realize they, too, can be targeted. That tragedy was a big shock, but it also brought a stronger sense of purpose to our mission.”

Day-to-day operations haven’t changed at the Chicago consulate after the Washington attack, but there is “now a heightened sensitivity around the work we do, especially from those who haven’t experienced this kind of threat before,” Gamburg told JNS.

“We’re here to represent and explain Israel, even when that becomes more difficult,” she said. “Since Oct. 7, that role has become far more challenging, especially in progressive spaces like Chicago. Some of our friends and partners are now hesitant to speak up or attend our events. I understand their fear, but that’s why we have to keep going.”

Gamburg, who grew up in France, was familiar with this sort of Jew-hatred. “I never expected to see it here in the United States. Not like this. It’s heartbreaking,” she told JNS.

“When I first came to America nearly 20 years ago, it felt like a refuge—a place where Jews could live openly and proudly,” she said. “Now, I’m seeing a fear among American Jews that reminds me of what my parents warned me about growing up in France.”

Jonathan Harounoff, spokesman for the Israeli mission to the United Nations in New York, told JNS that even 21 months after Oct. 7, “it can be jarring for observers to see the streets of New York and other major U.S. cities be lined by people pledging support for Hamas and in favor of globalizing the intifada.”

“The ignorant and appalling expressions of support for terror groups remain a very disconcerting result of this conflict,” Harounoff said.

“I do not have fears of working at an Israeli institution, only pride,” he said. “But as we’ve been saying since the aftermath of Oct. 7 terror attacks, when genocidal chants were being bellowed on our streets and college campuses, dangerous words can lead to dangerous, violent outcomes.”

“As these attacks on American soil show, these deranged terrorists are not just being critical of the Israeli government; these are abhorrent houndings of Jewish people and Jewish spaces,” he added.

There’s no better time than summer to embrace an ancient Jewish practice that could transform how we connect with each other: kvelling.

Kvell—the Yiddish word meaning to burst with pride and joy over someone else's accomplishments—has quietly sustained Jewish families for generations. Yet this concept has remained largely unknown outside of Jewish circles. And I think it’s high time for that to change.

That’s why I wrote Kvell: A Word You Should Know, to share our people’s best-kept secret for health and happiness. From my experience and backed up by the latest psychological research, it holds the key to happiness at home, in the workplace and in our communities.

Summer naturally creates opportunities for kvelling: Parents spend extended time with their kids, witnessing daily moments of growth and achievement. Whether it’s a child mastering a new swimming stroke at the local pool, showing courage on their first day at sleepaway camp or simply helping a neighbor carry groceries or mow the lawn, this season provides countless moments to soak it all in. The slower pace allows us to truly see and celebrate small victories that during the school year’s hectic schedule might pass unnoticed.

Of course, the idea extends far beyond family. Unlike other positive psychology concepts that focus inward, this one is fundamentally about others—celebrating their efforts, recognizing their potential and expressing genuine delight in their success.

Consider the grocery-store cashier who remembers customers’ names and warmly greets their visits, creating such positive energy that people line up for that register even when other lanes are empty. Think of lifeguards who go beyond their duty to warn beach-goers about potential hazards, earning heartfelt appreciation from grateful swimmers. These moments of mutual recognition and celebration create ripples of positivity that extend far beyond the initial interaction.

The science supports what Jewish grandparents have long known intuitively. Research published in the monthly journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience shows that receiving affirmation activates the brain’s reward centers—the same areas that light up when individuals experience pleasure. Neuroscientists Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman found that positive language strengthens areas in the frontal lobes, promoting cognitive function and building resilience. A single encouraging word can influence gene expression related to stress regulation.

For the person doing the kvelling, the benefits are equally profound. The act releases endorphins, boosts immune function, reduces stress and increases empathy. It creates what researchers call a “helper’s high”—a neurological reward for lifting others up.

It is a practice that builds bridges rather than walls, that seeks to elevate rather than diminish. When we gush over a neighbor’s garden, a colleague’s presentation or a stranger’s act of kindness, we contribute to what psychologists call “positive contagion”—the spread of good feelings and prosocial behavior.

This month, in celebration of American ideals of liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we might consider how such words embody these very principles. The freedom to express joy in others’ success, the pursuit of collective happiness through individual recognition—these reflect democracy’s highest aspirations.

Summer camps, where children from diverse backgrounds come together, offer perfect laboratories for kvelling. When counselors celebrate each child’s singular talents—the shy kid who finally speaks up, the athletic child who helps a struggling teammate, the artistic camper who shares their creativity—that’s what they are doing. These experiences shape young people’s understanding of community and mutual support.

Unlike kvetching, which is so negative, kvelling represents our people’s wisdom for the world at its best. It costs nothing but attention and genuine care. It requires no special training, just the willingness to notice and celebrate human potential and achievement.

In our current world, such verbal kindnesses also offer a path toward love and healing—one moment of recognition, one burst of pride in another’s bounty, one heartfelt celebration at a time. This ancient Jewish wisdom could be exactly what modern America needs.