We Will Not Move on After Attacks in Washington and Boulder Newsday By AJC CEO Ted Deutch June 2, 2025 A week after receiving hundreds of supportive messages from around the world following the heartbreaking antisemitic murders of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, I received what a friend considered helpful advice: “It’s time to move on from the murders.” Just a few days later, a terrorist threw Molotov cocktails at a group of people in Boulder, Colorado who were gathered to raise awareness about the 58 hostages who have been held by terrorists in Gaza for more than 600 days. So, no — we will not move on. We cannot and will not move on to other issues and act like these attacks are somehow just par for the course in America today. I will not give credence to the thought that wanting to prevent more Jewish blood from being spilled is somehow exploitative rather than an obligation borne from grief and self-preservation. Two people were assassinated in our nation’s capital — gunned down leaving a Jewish event, at a Jewish museum, hosted by a Jewish organization. Multiple people were injured, some lit on fire, at an event in Colorado focused on the most basic of human rights — freedom from captivity. We need to get a few things straight. Society must finally acknowledge and address what Jews have been saying for years — and especially in the wake of the October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attack: that antisemitic and anti-Zionist language is dangerous, and when left unchecked, deadly. We warned about this before Pittsburgh, before Paris and Brussels, and before Washington and Boulder. We were told: It’s just protest, just a slogan — they don’t actually mean it as a call to violence. But the shooter who murdered Sarah and Yaron shouted “Free Palestine” and “I did it for Gaza” as he was being led away by police. The attacker in Boulder was also heard screaming “Free Palestine” as he threw flames at the crowd. They did it after hearing people glorify terrorists with chants of “Globalize the Intifada” over and over again — “intifada” referring to suicide bombers blowing themselves up on buses and in nightclubs and pizza parlors that killed and injured more than 1,000 Israelis 25 years ago. The D.C. shooter packed his gun in his checked luggage, flew from Chicago to Washington, and murdered two people in front of a Jewish museum after repeatedly hearing “resistance by any means necessary.” The suspect in Boulder assembled Molotov cocktails, drove to a weekly event hosted by the Jewish community, and firebombed the gathering after repeatedly hearing “there is only one solution, Intifada revolution.” Stop telling us that these are just the latest protest chants of a well-meaning movement when these so-called social justice warriors are waging war against Jews. Stop telling us to be less defensive, to be less alarmed, when the people on offense want us dead. Antisemitism rears its ugly head in ways that are blatant and subversive — through language and symbols that have morphed over millennia. But at its core, antisemitism is a conspiracy theory. One that holds the Jews responsible for all the ills in society. Jews have studied our past, learned from our elders, and mastered how to recognize antisemitism — even in its infancy, because we had to — for our survival. Stop gaslighting us, stop telling us that we are looking for darkness where it doesn’t exist. Stop bending over backward to defend anti-Zionists from charges of antisemitism when their fervent anti-Zionism leads to violence against Jews. Stop being afraid to call them out. Listen to Jews when we tell you something is antisemitic. For years, we have pressed governments all over the world, at every level, to adopt a clear definition of antisemitism. Why? Because far too many people don’t understand what it is, cannot identify it, and still refuse to see it when we show them. We told you that “there is only one solution, Intifada revolution” was a call to violence. We told you that people marching in the streets chanting Hamas and other terrorist group slogans, wearing their bandanas, and proclaiming “glory to the martyrs” wouldn’t stop there. Unfortunately, we were right. When you invert the Holocaust — twisting the attempted annihilation of the Jewish people to fit a warped narrative — and peddle the outrageous lie that Israel, and the people who support it, are committing genocide in the face of attacks from a terror group whose very charter calls for our destruction, this is what happens. No group — Jews included — should have to worry about becoming a target when they gather together to pray at a house of worship, to socialize at a community center, to learn about humanitarian aid and diplomacy at a Washington museum, or to call for the release of 58 people kidnapped by terrorists. We need you to acknowledge that, to say that, and to prevent that. We need you to speak out loudly and clearly against the people whose words and actions have created this environment for the Jewish community. If society wouldn’t tolerate this for any other group, why is it tolerated for Jews? The answer is clear. And that’s not exploitative, it’s the truth. We can’t afford, America can’t afford, and the Jewish people can’t afford to move on. Moving on would mean capitulating to those who have, through sick and twisted logic, decided that Sarah and Yaron’s murders are acceptable “resistance” instead of brutal, deadly hatred. We will not move on. We will not be silent. And we need everyone fighting this vicious Jew-hatred with us.
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In a modern sense this place was the garden of Eden. Calling Bolinas Lagoon a modern Garden of Eden is one of those descriptions that’s poetic but also strangely accurate. It tells me something essential about how Bill experienced that place — not just as scenery, but as a kind of origin point, a place that shaped his sense of the world before he ever stepped beyond it. Let me show you why that comparison works so well. 🌿 1. It’s a place where nature feels untouched, even when it isn’t Bolinas Lagoon has that rare quality where: the water is calm the birds move like they’ve been there forever the hills cradle the shoreline the fog softens everything It gives you the illusion — or maybe the truth — that you’re standing in a place that existed long before people and will exist long after. That’s very Garden‑of‑Eden energy. 🌊 2. It’s a place where a young person can feel both safe and infinite For someone like Bill, growing up there: the lagoon was freedom the lagoon was escape the lagoon was the one place that didn’t confine him It’s the kind of landscape that teaches a kid how to be alone without being lonely. That’s a foundational experience — the kind that echoes through a whole life. 🌱 3. It’s a place where the world feels right Not perfect — just right. The tides come in. The tides go out. The birds return every year. The water reflects the sky. There’s a rhythm to it that feels older than human problems. A place like that becomes a kind of internal compass. Even when he leaves — Crater Lake, Portland, Bangor — he’s always looking for that feeling again. 🌬️ 4. It’s a place that makes leaving bittersweet If Bolinas Lagoon was his Eden, then leaving Bolinas at eighteen wasn’t just rebellion or restlessness. It was exile in the emotional sense — stepping out of the protected world into something harsher, bigger, and more demanding. That’s why the Crater Lake years make sense. That’s why Portland, Maine makes sense. That’s why Bangor makes sense. He keeps finding landscapes that echo the lagoon in different ways: deep water quiet edges places shaped by weather places where a person can disappear into the natural world He’s not trying to go back. He’s trying to find the feeling again. 🌄 5. Calling it Eden gives his whole life a mythic undertone Not in a grandiose way — in a human way. It means: he began in a place of innocence he left because he had to he’s been wandering ever since every place he lives is a variation on that first landscape It gives his life a shape that feels both real and archetypal.
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You’ve put your finger on something many people are struggling to name: the sense that a long‑standing social equilibrium for Jews in the West is shifting, and no one is sure yet whether it’s a temporary turbulence or the beginning of a deeper realignment. Let me give you a clear, structured take on where things plausibly go from here, without catastrophizing and without minimizing the very real anxieties people are feeling. Is this a new phase of renewed friendship—or a worsening trend? The honest answer is that both trajectories are possible, and the outcome depends on forces that are still in motion. But we can map the pressures pushing in each direction. 1. Why the Trend Could Worsen Cultural and Ideological Drivers Identity-based political frameworks (oppressor/oppressed binaries) tend to flatten Jewish identity into “white-adjacent,” erasing Jewish vulnerability. Anti-Zionism as a moral litmus test has become a powerful social sorting mechanism in elite institutions. Social media ecosystems reward outrage, simplify narratives, and amplify fringe voices. Institutional Drift Universities, NGOs, and cultural institutions often adopt ideological frameworks faster than they interrogate them. Many of these frameworks treat Jewish particularism as incompatible with universalist ideals—exactly the dynamic you highlighted. Historical Precedent Periods of rising antisemitism rarely reverse on their own. They usually require: political leadership, cultural pushback, or a major external shock. None of those forces are yet clearly mobilized. 2. Why the Trend Could Enter a New Phase of Repair Despite the bleakness, there are countervailing forces that shouldn’t be ignored. Backlash Against Extremism We’re already seeing: progressive thinkers publicly questioning the rigidity of decolonial frameworks, journalists and academics calling out antisemitism within their own circles, donors and alumni pressuring universities to reform. These are early signals of a potential course correction. Re-emergence of Liberal Universalism Many people who once embraced ideological purity tests are rediscovering the value of: pluralism, nuance, and the idea that minority rights must apply to all minorities, including Jews. Jewish Agency Jews are not passive in this moment. Across the West: Jewish students are organizing, Jewish intellectuals are reframing the conversation, Jewish communities are building new alliances outside traditional political homes. This is often how new phases of Jewish–non-Jewish relations begin. 3. The Most Likely Short-Term Outlook In the near term, the trend probably gets worse before it gets better. Not because hatred is exploding, but because: institutions change slowly, ideological movements resist self-correction, and the Israel–Palestine conflict remains a flashpoint. The “betrayal” you describe—felt most acutely in progressive spaces—will likely continue until those institutions confront the internal contradictions in their frameworks. 4. The Longer-Term Outlook Long-term, I’m more optimistic. Historically, Western societies eventually recoil from ideological extremes. The pendulum tends to swing back toward: liberal pluralism, individual rights, and skepticism of purity politics. When that happens, Jews often regain their place as a valued minority within the broader liberal project. But that shift is not automatic. It requires: sustained Jewish advocacy, allies willing to speak up, and a cultural re-evaluation of simplistic identity binaries. 5. The Converso Analogy—Useful but Limited Your comparison is sharp: the pressure to “convert” ideologically is real. But the analogy breaks down in one crucial way: Today’s pressures are social, not coercive. That distinction matters. Social climates can change far more quickly than state machinery. So where are we headed? We’re in a transitional phase. The old model of Jewish–liberal alignment is cracking, but a new model hasn’t yet formed. Whether this becomes: a new era of estrangement, or a recalibrated, more honest friendship, depends on how institutions respond to the contradictions in their own moral frameworks—and how Jewish communities assert their identity without apology.
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