Emily Tamkin on a politically divided American Jewry

The United States has historically been unusually resistant to antisemitism, for a number of reasons: some that speak well of America; others that are more the result of Americans preferring to pick on other marginalized minorities over Jews. But right-wing antisemitism has flourished in the age of social media and President Donald Trump's first term in office, and left-wing antisemitism has skyrocketed since Oct. 7. Now the U.S. seems less apart from other countries vis-a-vis antisemitism. And with Donald Trump back in the White House, he's brandishing a shiny new executive order for combatting antisemitism. His administration has begun arresting immigrants and people on student visas—who are all in the country legally—for participating in the student encampment protests, or, in one case, co-authoring a student op-ed critical of Israel. His administration is also defunding a higher education institutions, starting with elite Ivy League universities such as Columbia and Harvard, ostensibly in the name of antisemitism. Phoebe Maltz Bovy, The CJN's opinion editor, is a dual Canadian-American citizen, watching the chaos unfold from downtown Toronto. To better understand the nuances of the situation, she sat down with Emily Tamkin, a journalist based in Washington, D.C., who writes for the Washington Post, Slate, The New Republic and The Forward. Hear their conversation in the debut episode of The Jewish Angle, a new weekly podcast by The CJN, that analyzes the uncomfortable new political realities for Jews in a rapidly evolving cultural landscape. Related links Subscribe to Emily Tamkin's Substack: ET Write Home Read Tamkin's piece, "Trump’s Crackdown on “Antisemitism” is Making Jews Less Safe", in The New Republic Her article, "Is this extremist Zionist group trying to protect Israel—or just punish left-wing Jews?", in The Forward Phoebe reviews Tamkin's book Bad Jews in The CJN (from Oct. 2022) Credits Host: Phoebe Maltz Bovy Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer & editor), Marc Weisblott (editorial director) Music: "Gypsy Waltz" by Frank Freeman, licensed from the Independent Music Licensing Collective Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The Jewish Angle