David Robbins

NYC-based public relations pro passionate about lifting up those making an impact | Alum of @Columbia's @CU_SPS_NECR & @HofstraU's @HerbertSchoolHU

[Ammi Hirsch @AmmiHirsch]

My guess is that @bradlander knows that the “genocide” smear is a lie, an ancient blood libel dressed up for modern consumption. If I am right, it begs the question, why does he — a self-proclaimed liberal Jewish Zionist — continue to spread this fabricated falsehood that empowers our ideological adversaries and militant enemies who seek the destruction of the Jewish state and the Jewish people?  As a liberal Jewish Zionist myself, I hope that once the campaign is over — whether Mr. Lander is elected or not — that he uses his platform to speak truth to power.

https://t.co/bzrxXKSHab

[eJewishPhilanthropy @eJPhil]

Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, Stephen Wise Free Synagogue’s senior rabbi, denounced anti-Zionism as a "monstrous ideology that contravenes every liberal principle that we hold dear."

Read Nira Dayanim's full coverage of his fiery address: https://t.co/GxmlgVt1E6

[Stephen Wise @FreeSynagogue]

At our Re-CHARGING Reform Judaism conference, we tackled one of the most pressing issues facing the Jewish community today: #Antizionism and the impact of growing hostility toward Jews and Israel on the next generation. See some highlights of these conversations here w/ @DaraHorn, @adam_louis52328, @juliajassey, @RoyaTheWriter and Rabbi Ashira Boxman 📺⬇️

[Ammi Hirsch @AmmiHirsch]

Here is an example of conversations we had at our @FreeSynagogue Re-CHARGING Reform #Judaism conference about #Zionism in the Reform seminary:

[Ammi Hirsch @AmmiHirsch]

Today @FreeSynagogue — where hundreds of Reform rabbis & Jewish community leaders are gathered for our “Re-CHARGING” conference — I addressed my deep concerns over the Reform movement and its seminary's commitment to #Zionism. My full remarks here —> https://t.co/bcY2Ys9vSm

[Ammi Hirsch @AmmiHirsch]

The entire philosophy of Western #liberalism is under assault. Increasingly we are living a surreal reality.

[Ammi Hirsch @AmmiHirsch]

The Jewish community's — specifically our Reform movement’s — enthusiasm for #Zionism is often buried under an avalanche of provisos.

[Ammi Hirsch @AmmiHirsch]

The Hebrew Union College should not be ordaining #antizionist clergy.

[Ammi Hirsch @AmmiHirsch]

There is a loss of will to define and defend the values we uphold, at a time that urgently calls for moral clarity and institutional vigor within our Reform movement.

[UJA-Federation of New York @UJAfedNY]

We're deeply disappointed by Mayor Mamdani’s decision to veto Intro 175, legislation that would require clear safety plans around schools.

Our statement with @JCRCNY, @ADL_NYNJ, @AJCGlobal, @OrthodoxUnion,
@Teach_NYS, @RabbiAssembly, @StandWithUs, @Conf_of_Pres & @URJorg.

[Ammi Hirsch @AmmiHirsch]

There’s a post Oct. 7 phenomenon: People like @zibbyowens standing in the breach & putting themselves on the front lines of a moral struggle, knowing what the cost will be. It is profoundly inspiring & deeply moving.

These amazing #Jewish thought leaders have persisted, driven by their sense of moral probity and fortified by their Jewish identity. It's the classic Jewish story.

Our full conversation -> https://t.co/ALs0dqPhZi

[Ammi Hirsch @AmmiHirsch]

The assault on Temple Israel was not a natural disaster, a tsunami, a hurricane, a tornado that struck without warning. Hateful deeds are the end-result of hateful thoughts and hateful words — ignored, indulged, coddled, appeased, or encouraged by moral, political, legal and civic authorities. https://t.co/2Id74E292U

[Ammi Hirsch @AmmiHirsch]

Hollywood was built by Jews — but for decades, Jewish identity has been something to downplay. @JonahPlatt reflects on how fear and self-censorship have shaped Jewish representation, and why October 7th was a wake-up call. Our full convo: https://t.co/HiNJHLhLjH

[Ammi Hirsch @AmmiHirsch]

It's easy for us to recognize "classic" antisemitism, but @JonahPlatt explains why it can be harder — especially for young Jews — to recognize antizionism that goes beyond legitimate political critique as modern antisemitic libel. Our full convo: https://t.co/HiNJHLhdu9

[Stephen Wise @FreeSynagogue]

.@JonahPlatt has emerged as one of the Jewish people’s most compelling advocates. Watch as he tells our Rabbi @AmmiHirsch how he connects with young Jews — and gives us the pride to stand up for who we are. https://t.co/IMDsQ1rHAK

[Adam Louis-Klein @adam_louis52328]

Today’s attack in Sydney only reaffirms the ongoing reality of antizionism as an essentially violent ideology—one that drives out Jewish communities wherever it takes hold, through exclusion, discrimination, and even murder.

This is not about a political opinion that “crosses the line” into antisemitic violence. We are dealing with antizionist violence itself: the targeting of Jews as "Zionists," legitimized by specific antizionist libels.

This pattern is not new.

In Iraq in 1948, Shafiq Ades—a wealthy Jewish businessman who posed no threat to the state—was executed as a “Zionist traitor.” The label alone was enough to mark him for death. Two decades later, in 1969, nine Jews were hanged in Baghdad’s central square, accused of “Zionist” crimes as crowds gathered to celebrate their execution.

Across North Africa, similar patterns unfolded. In Tripoli in 1945, more than 140 Jews were murdered in a three-day pogrom sparked by rumors that local Jews supported "Zionist" aims in Palestine. In Oujda and Jerada (Morocco) in 1948, riots on the eve of Israeli independence killed dozens and triggered a mass exodus. In each case, accusations of “Zionist disloyalty” were enough to unleash violence against entire Jewish communities.

In Mandatory Palestine, the Mufti of Jerusalem incited mass violence by spreading libels that Jews were plotting to seize the Al-Aqsa Mosque—libels that helped ignite the major anti-Jewish massacres of 1920, 1921, 1929, and 1936, and that would later form part of the theological basis of Hamas’s genocide of October 7.

Under the Soviet antizionist campaign, the basic ideological architecture of antizionism was crystallized. The USSR canonized the core libels—“Zionism is racism” and “Zionism is Nazism”—and fixed Israel as the symbolic enemy of humanity. These same slurs now circulate every day, used to harass Jews online, mark them as enemies, and legitimate their social shunning and professional discrimination. The racialized figure of the "Zionist” forged in Soviet propaganda is the same target animating antizionist movements in the West today.

Since October 7, antizionism has entered the mainstream—but it is increasingly misrecognized in two ways: either collapsed into classical antisemitism, or legitimized as a neutral “political opinion.” In this environment, the genocide libel—a false, defamatory, and endlessly-repeated claim—functions as the primary mechanism for targeting “Zionists”—casting Israel as the embodiment of absolute evil, and anyone associated with it as a legitimate target.

Until we confront antizionism itself—as a distinct ideological formation with its own pattern of violence, its own trail of harm, and its own constitutive libels—we will remain unable to protect Jewish communities in the West.

What is at stake is not a “conflation” between Jews and Zionists, but the power of anti-Israel hatred itself, which produces the category of “the Zionist” and uses it to justify discrimination, exclusion, and violence wherever antizionism takes hold.

[Ammi Hirsch @AmmiHirsch]

.@ADL’s @JGreenblattADL told me some on the right are “working through” the concerning elements of #antisemitism. Soberly, he observes that this isn't happening in the same way on the left...

[Ammi Hirsch @AmmiHirsch]

I really appreciate @JGreenblattADL’s assessment of #antisemitism. When we first spoke on @FreeSynagogue’s “In These Times” in 2022, he differntiated anti-Jewish animus from the left and right. Watch his take on how it’s manifesting on the far right today: https://t.co/JDXjj5FICI

[Jonathan Greenblatt @JGreenblattADL]

Thank you, Rabbi @AmmiHirsch, for having me on the 'In These Times' Podcast for such an urgent discussion on the evolving landscape of antisemitism in the US, and how we can combat all of these threats, no matter which side of the political aisle they're coming from.

[Ammi Hirsch @AmmiHirsch]

Three years ago, @ADL's @JGreenblattADL offered one of the most memorable descriptions of antisemitism I’ve ever heard. I asked him to join me again to explore the forces threatening American Jewish life and what Mamdani's mayoralty means for Jews... 📺: https://t.co/JDXjj5Ggsg