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Masada, Ein Gedi, Dead Sea

Drive through the awe inspiring Judean Desert past the lookout, where Eliyahu Ha’Navi hid from King Achav…

Jerusalem Jewish Quarter

The cobblestone streets and hidden alleyways of the lively Jewish Quarter are a must-see for every traveler to Israel. Remnants of the ancient city walls remain from the time of King Hizkiyahu and the first Beis Hamikdash…

Bar Kochva Underground

A fascinating underground secret tunnel hideout used by Jews during the Bar Kochva revolt against Rome…

Explore the original ancient city of Jerusalem including King David’s palace and King Hizkiyahu’s water tunnel…

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Leonardo Plaza Hotel, Jerusalem

The five-star Leonardo Plaza Jerusalem Hotel is situated close to all the capital’s famous attractions, making it the ideal base for an unforgettable leisure break. The onsite services and facilities are second to none – from a superb spa complex, gourmet restaurants and breathtaking views over both the New and Old City.

David Dead Sea Hotel

David Dead Sea Hotel Resort & Spa is the largest hotel in the Dead Sea. It offers the guests 600 spacious suites of various sizes with a balcony overlooking the breathtaking scenery of the Dead Sea or the hotel pool.

Kibbutz Lavi Hotel

The Kibbutz Lavi Hotel began in 1962 as a group of houses in the kibbutz near Tiveria. Today the Kibbutz Lavi Hotel boasts 184 rooms, including suites, deluxe rooms, and garden rooms, as well as a lovely restaurant, a spacious lobby, and halls of various sizes equipped with audio-visual equipment.

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Jewish National Fund-USA is currently running much-needed volunteer missions in Israel for variety of ages and groups, from teens to adults. JNF-USA Volunteer in Israel Missions are your opportunity to build Israel now and make a difference for the future. Rebuild communities with us by planting, cleaning, painting, and repairing to prepare them for returning evacuees.

Spend 4 meaningful days with us providing hands-on support to our beloved friends from communities across the Israel Envelope and the Galilee. When you help a community move back, watch a child walk into their school, dance with an IDF soldier, see the gratitude in a farmer’s eyes, you will never be the same. You will be part of history.  First there was Herzl. Then there was Ben-Gurion. Now, there’s you .  Make history. Volunteer in Israel. 

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• December 22, 2024 - December 29, 2024

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Specially designed tours of Israel for active seniors.

• May 04, 2025 - May 13, 2025

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Join Jewish National Fund–USA’s holiday day trips.

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PRESIDENT’S SOCIETY MISSION

Experience Israel like never before on a tour reserved for our members of President’s Society. New mission dates coming soon.

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QUEEN OF SHEBA - WOMEN'S MISSION TO ISRAEL

Embark on a journey with fellow women supporting Israel. New mission dates coming soon.

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Travel to Israel with friends old and new from the South. New tour dates coming soon.

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Experience the rich flavors of Israel’s north through food, wine, and cooking. New tour dates coming soon.

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Discover the diverse cultures, communities, and religions that were born in Israel and coexist today. New tour dates coming soon.

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Join our weekly day tours once resumed. Volunteer day trips are currently running regularly.

Jewish National Fund-USA is a living, breathing organization and it's part of building the future of Israel. On every trip, they show me something I've never seen or heard of or shine a new light on a place I've been to and loved before. They have the connections to offer a perspective on Israel that most tourists never get to see. – Dr. Kenneth Fried

About Jewish National Fund-USA's Travel & Tours

Jewish National Fund-USA is currently running volunteer missions in Israel. Additional tours have been postponed to late 2024 and early 2025. We look forward to returning home; visiting our communities in the Negev and Galilee, meeting the special people that make Israel the incredible land it is, and taking a behind-the-scenes look of how vision comes to life with Jewish National Fund-USA's work on the ground. 

Discover the magnificence of southern Israel and the Negev, take in breathtaking views of the Galilee, experience the rich culture and multi-layered history of the old city of Jerusalem, visit the iconic neighborhoods of Tel Aviv, enjoy authentic cuisine, but most importantly, make memories that will last a lifetime. Start your adventure by exploring Israel’s iconic sites including the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv's sunny beaches, Masada's grand views, and more. From there, take the path less traveled to explore Israel’s north and south. Travel to southern Israel with us; get glimpses of blooming fields in the Negev desert, taste delicious local fruits and vegetables, and meet the farmers who are making innovative agri-tech advancements. Get to know the people who have made new lives all across the region, and see how we inspire the transformation of the sand dunes into vibrant communities. Northern Israel brings with it a change of scenery. Travel through the lush green mountains, experience local wineries, enjoy an authentic kibbutz experience, and connect with local artisans, businesses, and entrepreneurs who make the region into a thriving community. Join us on our exclusive, curated, high-end tours that will take you off the beaten path. Find the trip that's right for you. We've got your backstage pass to Israel.

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Jewish Israel Tour Package, 5 Days From Jerusalem

• Best price guaranteed
• No booking fees
• Spiritual or religious tour
• Customizable
• duration 5 days
• tour type Group Request as private
• age requirement 4-99 yrs
• max group size 45
• guiding method Fully guided
• Tour Code BM-38516

• Starts Jerusalem, Israel
• Ends Jerusalem, Israel
• Day 1: City of David and Underground Jerusalem Tour
• Day 2: Masada and the Dead Sea Tour
• Day 3: Golan Heights Tour
• Day 4: Northern Galilee
• Day 5: Caesarea, Acre and Rosh Hanikra Tour
• Overnight accommodation
• Air-conditioned vehicle
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• Hotel pickup and drop off
• Food and drinks, unless specified
• Personal Itinerary can be tweaked and customized.
• Protected Travel within your own bubble.
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• Privacy Enjoy a tour focused solely on you or your travel group.
• Earn US$ 35+ in travel credits.
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• 25,000+ trip reviews, with an average rating of 4.8 out of 5.
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No additional cancellation fees apply for this Jewish Israel Tour Package, 5 Days From Jerusalem tour. You can cancel the tour up to 17 days prior departure and avoid paying the full amount, but your deposit paid is non-refundable. No refund applies for cancellations within 16 days of departure.

For any tour departures within 14 June 2024, full payment is required. For tours that depart later than 14 June 2024, a deposit of 25% is required to confirm this tour, and the remaining balance will be charged 16 days before trip departure.

Jewish Israel Tour Package, 5 Days From Jerusalem tour requires that you have adequate and valid travel insurance covering medical and personal accidents, including repatriation costs and emergency evacuation. World Nomads offers travel insurance for independent travelers and intrepid families.

For this Jewish Israel Tour Package, 5 Days From Jerusalem tour getting the required visa(s) is the responsibility for each individual traveller, as visa requirements vary depending on your nationality. We recommend to check with your local embassies representing the countries that you are traveling to, as part of this itinerary.

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Israel Tours & Trips from Jerusalem

Find your perfect adventure! We have 65 tours of Israel that start in Jerusalem, Israel. The most popular month is September, and tour lengths range between 3 and 10 days.

65 Israel tour packages from Jerusalem with 72 reviews

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Jewish Israel Tour Package, 7 Days

Made the days interest and showed a lot of care. Great ambassadors of the company.

Mini Jewish Tour Package, 6 Day

Had a fantastic tour. Bein Hareim tours were really flexible and facilitated a change we asked for.

Biblical Lands 5 star - 8 days

Tailor-Made Best Israel Tour with Daily Departure & Private Trip

• Book With Flexibility This operator allows you to rebook your dates or tours with them for free, waiving change fees.

Jerusalem and Dead Sea 4-Day Journey

I’m very satisfied for tour ... Tour guide ranya is excellent

Jerusalem & Tel Aviv Adventure 7D/6N

• 10% deposit on some dates Some departure dates offer you the chance to book this tour with a lower deposit.

Jewish Israel Luxury Tour 10 days (Single, 5* Hotel)

Jewish Israel Luxury Tour 10 days (2+Travelers, 4* Hotels)

Israel Uncovered (Summer, 7 Days)

• €100 deposit on some dates Some departure dates offer you the chance to book this tour with a lower deposit.

• Coach / Bus

Israel Uncovered (Winter, 7 Days)

Holyland Pilgrimage Trip Experience - 8 Days

The Jerusalem hotel was magnificent.

Jerusalem & Dead Sea Experience 4D/3N

8 Day Ultimate Israel and Jordan Tour Package

We saw some things that have no comparison to anything else in the world. We loved the Arab food especially at our tent hotel at Wadi rum.

8 Day Israel Tour Package

It is a wonderful way to tour the Holy Land. It was laid out very nicely.

Israel Explorer - 6 days

What people love about israel tours from jerusalem.

Very knowledgeable and pleasant guides. Made the days interest and showed a lot of care. Great ambassadors of the company.

Had a fantastic tour. Our guides were really fantastic and knew their stuff. Bein Hareim tours were really flexible and facilitated a change we asked for. Would definitely recommend.

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Middle East crisis — explained

The conflict between Israel and Palestinians — and other groups in the Middle East — goes back decades. These stories provide context for current developments and the history that led up to them.

Conservative Christians are lending support — and cash — to Israel at war

Jaclyn Diaz

Evangelicals from Brazil wade, pray and get baptized in the Jordan river in Israel. Maya Levin for NPR hide caption

Evangelicals from Brazil wade, pray and get baptized in the Jordan river in Israel.

TEL AVIV, Israel — David Ndayishimiye, a 21-year-old evangelical Christian, says he's long felt a calling to support Israel.

After the attacks of Oct. 7 in Israel, he felt that call more urgently. That day Hamas killed more than 1,200 people and took 240 people hostage, according to the Israeli government.

The University of Missouri, Columbia public affairs and policy graduate student wondered how best he could do this living in Missouri.

"I was really looking into a way to support Israel, because ever since I was young, since my teenage years, I had an urge to stand with Israel, because I'm a Christian," he tells NPR.

Ndayishimiye's support for Israel is connected to his family and faith's interpretation of biblical teachings about the Holy Land.

David and his group that traveled with the Philos Project volunteered at a farm called the Kibbutz Moran in Galilee in April. Josefa Gonzalez/David Ndayishimiye hide caption

David and his group that traveled with the Philos Project volunteered at a farm called the Kibbutz Moran in Galilee in April.

In April, Ndayishimiye fulfilled that yearning to show support for Israel directly when he visited that country, he says. He spoke with NPR before his trip and expressed his excitement at the chance to go, to learn more about the country and to better understand the current situation in Israel during wartime.

Before his trip he felt the need to show up for Israel as public support for the country is faltering in the U.S. after a months-long conflict in Gaza, and as pro-Palestinian protests are blocking roads , roiling college campuses and U.S. politics.

"I think that if we stand with Israel we'll be on the right side of history. That's my belief," he said.

With antisemitism on the rise, and Israel facing criticism from some U.S. lawmakers, students, human rights groups and other countries for its actions in Gaza, where, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed, other Christians and Christian organizations say they are feeling the call to support Israel now more than ever by donating, visiting in person and volunteering.

The Picture Show

Photos: campus protests continue nationwide as some turned violent.

Conservative Christians, and evangelicals especially, have been staunch supporters of Israel for decades, citing a religious connection to the Jewish people and the land. This support stems from the belief by some denominations that the end times prophecy will take place in Israel, and that Israel is the rightful land for Jews, according to their interpretation of the Bible.

Ndayishimiye joined a nine-day trip to Israel organized by the Philos Project, a nonprofit based in the U.S., which says it "seeks to promote positive Christian engagement in the Near East." Representatives for Philos, as well as other Christian groups supporting Israel, including Christian Friends of Israeli Communities and HaYovel, say their work has taken on a renewed importance since the attacks of Oct. 7.

In the immediate days after Oct.7, Christianity Today reported that millions of dollars in donations were sent to organizations and ministries in Israel to respond to emergency needs.

The Associated Press reported in March that the major Christian pro-Israel group in the U.S., Christians United for Israel, raised and sent more than $3 million to Israeli first responders, healthcare workers and Oct. 7 attack survivors. CUFI declined to speak to NPR for this article.

Columbia to continue talks with student protesters after deadline to clear out passes

But it's not all about money.

It has become a tremendous boost in morale when people are spending money to come to Israel, to listen and to lend a hand to a nation still trying to heal from trauma, Faydra Shapiro, the executive director of the Israel Center for Jewish Christian Relations, says. The group is dedicated to "building better relations between Christians and Jews, in Israel and around the world" through trips and educational programs.

"It's been extraordinary. And it's been important for us to remember that it's not us and them, it's not us and the world," Shapiro says.

Christians from San Paolo, Brazil get blessed in the Jordan river in Israel on May 11, 2024. Maya Levin for NPR hide caption

Christians from San Paolo, Brazil get blessed in the Jordan river in Israel on May 11, 2024.

Christians' early ties with Israel

Ndayishimiye says from his understanding of the Bible, he believes "Israel is a very special place. And it has a very special place in the heart of God."

The war has not scared off other devoted Christians who feel the same way as Ndayishimiye. There are still groups arriving to Israel for visits to Biblical sites like the Sea of Galilee, where pilgrims from all over the world come to be baptized every year.

Two weeks ago, a group of about 100 visitors from Brazil arrived to be baptized and shared similar sentiments to Ndayishimiye and his support for Israel.

Evangelicals from Brazil wade, pray and get baptized in the Jordan river in Israel on May 11, 2024. Maya Levin for NPR hide caption

Cleo Ribeiro Rossafa, 54, spoke to NPR as members of her group immersed themselves into the very water believed to be where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. It was Rossafa's 18th time in Israel, she said.

It's what many evangelicals believe is part of the "Abrahamic Covenant." This is the idea that God promised land that is now Israel and the Palestinian territories to Abraham and his descendants.

Research indicates that 51% of American evangelicals believe similarly that Jews are God's chosen people. Evangelicals are also the most likely group of Christians to make donations to Israel a priority, according to a 2021 survey from Grey Matter Research and Infinity Concepts .

Christian support for Israel emerged in earnest during the '60s and '70s, Daniel Hummel, a research fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and expert on U.S.-Israel relations and American evangelicalism, says. He is also the director for The Lumen Center, in Madison, Wis., which focuses on the study of Christianity and culture.

The Six-Day War (also called the 1967 Arab–Israeli War), which was fought between Israel and an alliance of Arab states including Jordan, Egypt, and Syria "brings us to the forefront of American evangelicalism," Hummel says.

This moment "is really significant" as for many Christians, particularly Pentecostals and fundamentalists, it appears to fulfill their belief that explained a prophecy of the end times, Hummel says.

He says the Six-Day War seems to fulfill particular biblical prophecies that some Christians understand the Bible says, which includes Jews kicking out Gentiles (non-Jews) from Jerusalem before the end times as more than 200,000 Palestinians were displaced. That sets off a lot of speculation within this facet of Christianity about whether the end is near "and Israel is sort of part of that story," Hummel says.

By the time the Yom Kippur War broke out in 1973, there are a lot of evangelicals in Israel that subsequently helped Israel respond to the war effort. That included manning food kitchens, driving ambulances and praying for Israel's success. This service work continued during subsequent Arab-Israeli conflicts that continued well into the '80s, '90s and early 2000s, Hummel says.

And where there were a few small organizations in the '60s and '70s, there are now dozens of organizations, based internationally or in Israel; most often, fundraising for Israeli needs and relying heavily on conservative, American evangelical funding, Hummel says.

This support also bleeds into the political for evangelical Christians in the U.S. that skew heavily Republican. They are among the biggest supporters of Israel in this war.

This is how the Republican Party became so strongly pro-Israel

This conflict feels different for Israel support even among evangelical circles, Hummel says.

There's something unique about Oct. 7 in that the conflict is becoming part of the U.S. culture wars, is playing out online and drawing a level of polarization that just didn't come up in the '80s and '90s, he says.

On the contrary, Shapiro of the Israel Center for Jewish Christian Relations says post-Oct. 7, 2023 she has seen "a change in emphasis" in this support from Christian Zionists.

"What I am seeing is that this is even less and less political, it is less and less about Zionism or about particular policies, and I'm seeing more and more of a kind of feeling that Oct. 7 was like a watershed civilizational moment," she says.

She says she finds that many Christians are asking themselves: "What if it were us? What is right for us as Christians? Here is a chance for us to show that we've learned something from history."

Not all Christian organizations have come out in support of Israel's war

There are also a number of Christian organizations that are taking a different approach to Israel's war in Gaza and are, instead, speaking out against the war and the loss of Palestinian lives in Gaza.

Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon leads one of those groups. She is the executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace, a broad coalition of American Christian denominations and organizations that has actively been calling for the end of Israel's military actions in Gaza.

She says the interpretation some Christians have of the scriptures and the Old Testament has resulted, in her opinion, in a false binary.

Cannon says she knows a number of Christians calling for the support for Israel's war efforts.

"Some are unilaterally supportive of Israel's military right to defend itself," she says. That has translated to people making solidarity trips or volunteering to join the Israeli military.

Capitol Police arrest demonstrators with Christians for a Free Palestine for protesting inside a U.S. Senate cafeteria for a ceasefire and aid for Gaza, Washington, D.C., on April 9. Allison Bailey/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty hide caption

Capitol Police arrest demonstrators with Christians for a Free Palestine for protesting inside a U.S. Senate cafeteria for a ceasefire and aid for Gaza, Washington, D.C., on April 9.

But the core belief within CMEP is "common principles of peacebuilding, nonviolence, demilitarization," Cannon says. "We're not pro Israeli or pro Palestinian, but we're advocates for human rights."

Dozens of activists from another group that opposes the war, Christians for a Free Palestine, were arrested in Washington, D.C. in April. Other groups, including Mennonite Action have organized regular protests against the war on Capitol Hill.

More than 140 Bishops and leaders from national and international churches and church-based organizations representing Catholics, Lutherans, Mennonites, Quakers, and Evangelicals signed a letter from CMEP published in March calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

The letter called on the U.S. and other powers to cease arms sales to Israel and for Israel, the U.S. and other countries to abide by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Christian support brings millions in money and volunteers to Israel after Oct. 7

Valentina Miroshnochenko from Sochi immerses herself in the Jordan river in Israel on May 11, 2024. Maya Levin for NPR hide caption

Valentina Miroshnochenko from Sochi immerses herself in the Jordan river in Israel on May 11, 2024.

Sondra Oster Baras, the founder and international president of Christian Friends of Israeli Communities, says her group has seen a jump in fundraising. Her organization focuses specifically on the communities in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which CFOIC calls "the heart of Biblical Israel."

"People are in touch with us all the time [asking], 'How can we help?' They want to hear the latest. They are donating money for the security needs in Judea and Samaria, which is our focus right now," she says.

Oster Baras and her group refer to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria, a Biblical name for this region, and believe that this region is not occupied territory — a position at odds with much of the international community. Israeli nationalists who believe the West Bank should be part of Israel also use the term "Judea and Samaria" to describe this particular region.

Oster Baras lives in Karnei Shomron, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank.

Israeli settlers step up attacks on Palestinian farms, expanding West Bank outposts

Oster Baras, who is Jewish, says she fell into building up CFOIC Heartland, an organization that says it "enables Christians to connect with the Jewish communities (settlements)" in the West Bank. She started the group almost 30 years ago to focus on building Christian relationships and support for Israel. Most of CFOIC's tour participants are evangelical Christians who come from all around the world including the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Australia, she says.

"We're reaching out to anybody. But really, we're looking for friends," Oster Baras says. "All we're looking for is people who love Israel."

As of March, CFOIC started seeing an increase in people reaching out and arriving for solidarity missions, she says.

"We are in the middle of a war. It's certainly not a time when people looking for sun and a bit of archaeology and a bit of culture are coming to visit Israel," she says. "These are people who are raising money and giving money to help Israel in any way possible."

CFOIC fundraising money goes toward "beefing up civilian security measures," which includes surveillance cameras or communications equipment in what CFOIC calls "the third front" of the war, Oster Baras says.

Israeli settlers in the West Bank are an increasingly controversial and tense issue. There are reports of settlers increasing their attacks on Palestinian villages, burning homes, killing animals and ripping up plants and olive trees and expanding their outposts. Much of the international community condemns the settlers and their outposts as a violation of international law.

Remnants of the violent attack on the Palestinian village Duma by Israeli settlers on April 13th.15 homes were damaged by arson and six residents injured by bullets, according to the head of the village council on April 18, 2024. Maya Levin for NPR hide caption

Remnants of the violent attack on the Palestinian village Duma by Israeli settlers on April 13th.15 homes were damaged by arson and six residents injured by bullets, according to the head of the village council on April 18, 2024.

Ibrahim Fatthi, 34 surveys the damage outside his home after the violent attack on the Palestinian village Duma by Israeli settlers on April 13th.15 homes were damaged by arson and six residents injured by bullets, according to the head of the village council. April 18, 2024. Maya Levin for NPR hide caption

Ibrahim Fatthi, 34 surveys the damage outside his home after the violent attack on the Palestinian village Duma by Israeli settlers on April 13th.15 homes were damaged by arson and six residents injured by bullets, according to the head of the village council. April 18, 2024.

"I have to be extremely clear on this: We are not in any way involved in anything military. We are purely involved in things that are seen as defensive, protective measures for a community in a civilian capacity," she says.

The community has faced an increase in threats since Oct. 7, she says.

"It has become critical. And our Christian audience really understands that and has stepped up to the plate," she says.

The Christian Zionist organization, HaYovel, is similarly raising money for the protection of West Bank settlements. The group launched Operation Ittai when the war broke out, raising almost $3.7 million of its $29 million goal as of May 8 to go toward defense equipment in the other Jewish settlement communities in the West Bank.

"It really becomes a moral duty to stand with the Jewish people. We see Israel really fighting alone now. The international community is giving Israel a really hard time and that's hard for us to see," Joshua Waller, the director of operations for HaYovel says.

Members of the Evangelical group HaYovel take care of trees they planted earlier in the year outside if the Israeli settlement of Gitit on April 18, 2024. Maya Levin for NPR hide caption

Members of the Evangelical group HaYovel take care of trees they planted earlier in the year outside if the Israeli settlement of Gitit on April 18, 2024.

(L-R) Katie Hutsler, Zandri , Tessa Waller and Payton, members of Evangelical group HaYovel take care of trees they planted earlier in the year outside if the Israeli settlement of Gitit on April 18, 2024. Maya Levin for NPR hide caption

(L-R) Katie Hutsler, Zandri , Tessa Waller and Payton, members of Evangelical group HaYovel take care of trees they planted earlier in the year outside if the Israeli settlement of Gitit on April 18, 2024.

Waller and his family, originally from Tennessee, have dedicated their life to their organization's efforts in Israel. Waller's father founded the group 20 years ago. He lives now full-time in Israel.

HaYovel usually brings hundreds of volunteers, many from the U.S., annually to work on Jewish farms on settlements in the occupied West Bank. The group frequently brings visitors to plant trees in the area. Since the war started, "the only thing that changed for us was that it just became much more of a need," Waller says.

Thai farmhands in Israel face a grim choice: work in a war zone or go home to poverty

After Oct. 7, thousands of foreign workers left Israel after more than 50 citizens of Thailand who worked on the country's farms were killed or taken hostage.

Palestinian workers are also still banned from returning to work in Israel. But there remains a pressing need for farm hands to pick fruit and vegetables and milk cows.

With Palestinian laborers shut out of Israel, Indian workers line up for jobs there

In the absence of these workers, volunteers from around the world have been filling the needs of Israel's agricultural industry.

CFOIC received a group of visitors' in April, which included some Christians from the U.S., Scotland and Australia. The members of the group had been to Israel before but came this time "to bring support and comfort and to understand better," Oster Baras says.

They also volunteered on farms in the Jordan Valley, she says.

Frequently, visits from Christians to Israel in this time, like Ndayishimiye's own trip, have included making stops at communities attacked on Oct. 7, including the Nova rave site and kibbutzim ravaged by Hamas militants near the Gaza border, and hearing stories directly from survivors.

"That was a very, very important encounter for people from abroad," Oster Baras says. "To meet [them] in person and hear their story. It was just amazing."

Their trip involved a visit to communities in the Gaza envelope, which includes the southern areas of Israel within a few miles of the Gaza Strip border, and to Kfar Aza, a kibbutz attacked on Oct. 7.

This face-to-face effort is so important, Oster Baras says.

"We say this to every group. Before they leave, we say 'you are now our ambassadors,' " she says. "There's so much misinformation, there's so much distortion, so many lies that are being put out all over the world about Israel, and with the increased influence of social media, this is even worse. And this is how we combat it."

Members of the Evangelical group Hayovel take care of trees they planted earlier in the year outside if the Israeli settlement of Gitit on April 18, 2024. Maya Levin for NPR hide caption

Members of the Evangelical group Hayovel take care of trees they planted earlier in the year outside if the Israeli settlement of Gitit on April 18, 2024.

Cannon, with CMEP, believes some of those trips are "trauma tours" that can tread a fine line with voyeurism.

"People are going [on the tours] to empathize with Jewish grief and suffering, but there's a criticism that there's a certain co-opting of trauma. That's deeply disconcerting. Because we want to come alongside of Jewish families who are suffering. But solidarity and empathy is different than voyeurism," she said.

After his recent visit, Ndayishimiye says he feels more confident in his position on the war and in his belief that he must stand with Israel. In his interpretation of the Bible, the Word of God mandates the support of Israel.

His trip has supported his positions, he says. "I'm very confident now in my ability to speak up for Israel."

Maya Levin contributed to this report.

Correction May 28, 2024

An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of photographer Josefa Gonzalez.

• Israel Palestine

In a City of Ancient Jewish Mysticism, Israelis Arm for a Fight

In Safed, a center of kabbalah, ordinary citizens shocked by the Oct. 7 attacks are carrying military-grade weapons.

Prayers at Safed Old Jewish Cemetery this month. Credit...

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By Damien Cave

Photographs by Amit Elkayam

Reporting from Safed, an epicenter of Jewish mysticism.

• Published May 23, 2024 Updated May 28, 2024

Eyal Ben-Ari tugged at the heavy assault rifle hanging over his shoulder as he tiptoed out of his pink house at sunrise, hoping not to wake his wife or six children.

Walking to synagogue in Safed, a hill town above the Sea of Galilee known for centuries as a center of kabbalah, or ancient Jewish mysticism, he said he still didn’t feel great about the gun.

Listen to this article with reporter commentary

Sleeping with the rifle under his pillow, he worried about it being stolen. After his 13-year-old son came home with a toy replica, Mr. Ben-Ari considered returning the real thing, doubting his decision to join the newly formed civilian militia that had given him the weapon.

“I feel like it’s very — artificial,” he said, struggling to find the right word in English, looking down at the gun. “It’s not human. It’s not life.”

At the synagogue, men with graying beards and black suits — all fellow members of the Chabad movement, an ultra-Orthodox sect of Judaism — slapped Mr. Ben-Ari on the back. They were happy to see him. Happy to see his gun. It was the only one there, but far from unique. In this small city near the Lebanon border, where Hezbollah’s rockets have often rained down in recent months, Israel’s deep sense of vulnerability has led to a surge of citizens arming themselves.

In Safed, as in the rest of Israel, people fear a repeat of Oct. 7, when gunmen with Hamas crossed from Gaza into Israel and killed 1,200 people in rural villages, army bases and cities, according to Israeli authorities. The police and the military were slow to respond that day. In many communities, the only ones fighting back were volunteers with rapid response teams that are known in Israel as Kitat Konenut.

Before the attack, much of Safed didn’t think it needed such a group. For decades, this city of 40,000 has drawn the very religious and very creative, those seeking to commune with nature, art and wine, or pray at Safed’s main landmark — a hillside cemetery where 16th-century rabbis lie in graves painted baby blue to signify bringing the sky and heaven down to earth. Madonna, a kabbalah convert, visited in 2009.

These days, tourists are too afraid to come. Safed, called Tzfat in Hebrew, now sees itself a city under siege, Israel in miniature, struggling to reconcile God, love, and light with grief, rage, fear and a craving for protection.

“People are concerned,” said Yossi Kakon, Safed’s mayor, in an interview at his office overlooking the city. “They want guns.”

He stood up. On his hip sat a black pistol, newly acquired.

100,000 New Guns

Guns, of course, have long been like stars of David in Israel: too common to discuss.

Military service is compulsory, and full-time soldiers and reservists are required to carry their weapons at all times, which means they show up in unexpected places: with backpack-laden students on public buses; bumping into the legs of fathers pushing strollers in Jerusalem; on the shoulders of young women by the beach in Tel Aviv.

The Kitat Konenut have also been woven into the country’s security fabric for decades. Many of the groups formed around kibbutzim and villages near Israel’s borders after the Arab-Israel war of 1967.

The earliest volunteers for the Kitat Konenut were often sharpshooters or veterans with elite military training. Over time, the groups seemed less necessary and as some of their old guns started to disappear to theft or loss, the Israel Defense Forces, or I.D.F., imposed tighter restrictions: guns had to be kept at an armory, with keys held by a trusted local leader.

On Oct. 7, some of those leaders were the first ones killed . Those who had guns saved lives. In the village of Pri Gan, Azri Natan, one Kitat Konenut fighter in his 70s, told me he held off gunmen for hours, alone, firing from behind a palm tree in his yard.

Stories like his led Israeli politicians to champion more arms for civilians. Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s right-wing national security minister, has made it a personal priority.

In March, after making the process for getting a gun easier and faster, he announced that 100,000 licenses had been approved since October. Another 200,000 were in the pipeline.

“Weapons save lives,” he said.

Critics, however, worry that even with Israel’s background checks and training requirements, too many guns are being given out with too little concern for how they might fuel internal tensions.

Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank are among those arming most rapidly, at a time when settler violence is at its highest level since the U.N. began recording attacks in 2006. And while hundreds of new rapid response teams have formed in municipalities that are majority Jewish, Arab communities — including those close to Israel’s borders — have not been granted the same leeway to form armed volunteer groups.

To many Arab Israelis, who make up about 20 percent of the country’s population, Mr. Ben-Gvir’s gun campaign looks like a threat — a politically motivated tool for intimidation or state-sanctioned violence, engineered by a government minister from a settlement, who has brandished a weapon in public and has several convictions for incitement to racism.

“Just thinking that Minister Ben-Gvir is behind this means that his motives are racist and anti-Arab,” said Asad Ghanem, a political science professor at the University of Haifa. Mr. Ben-Gvir’s spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.

Habib Daoud, the owner of a restaurant in Rameh, an Arab town near Safed, said, “People are afraid, yes, but we’re more afraid because the guns aren’t in our hands.”

Safed’s volunteer fighters insist their mission is purely defensive. With the exception of local colleges that draw students from across the area, the city’s Arab population — a prewar majority — has mostly fled, or been expelled since 1948, never to return, as part of what Palestinians call the Nakba. The old Arab Quarter is now the Artists’ Quarter. The main mosque is a gallery with white walls and chic lighting.

The threat, for Safed’s Jewish community, feels just over the horizon. It’s a community that has voted more strongly for right-wing parties like Mr. Ben-Gvir’s in recent years, and so for many now — especially without tourists around — time is spent preparing for the worst. Rabbis and civilian officials now carry pistols. Instead of praying or glassblowing with tour groups, residents are adding bomb shelters to schools. At a city government warehouse, shelves are packed with black flak jackets in shiny plastic.

In Safed, the responses to the war fall on an especially wide spectrum. At one end, there is unconditional love and Kabbalah’s emphasis on bringing light to the world, with expressions of sadness for the suffering in Gaza wrought by war sitting alongside a hunger for safety; at the other are dark visions — an apocalyptic belief that the Jews of Israel are at the start of a holy war, a bloody battle to end all wars and produce a Messiah.

‘We Can’t Rely on Anyone’

Mr. Ben-Ari falls somewhere in the hazy middle. At home one evening, his nurturing instincts were on display when one of his daughters accidentally tipped over a giant jar of instant coffee in the kitchen and he simply smiled at the powdery mess.

He grew up on a kibbutz. He said he became religious only after serving in the military and going to India with plans to become a yoga teacher. Now he laughs at the memory — “that was a long time ago,” he says — but with his faith and his job as a social worker, he still seems eager to make people feel better. The gun doesn’t exactly help.

“My clients, many of them, are afraid of it,” he said.

His wife, Lihi Ben-Ari, is too.

“I don’t like it,” she said, sitting at the kitchen table with two daughters sculpting clay.

“At first, it was fine — we were scared,” she said. “Now?”

She walked to a bedroom and pulled out the toy assault rifle belonging to their son, delivering a scolding glare that softened into a shrug of what-do–you-expect.

“The soldiers have become the superheroes,” she said. “Everyone wants to be like one.”

Mr. Ben-Ari, 44, said he was constantly telling his son that his military-grade weapon was just for defense, “that it’s not something we like.”

“It’s a duty,” he said.

That is also the argument made by Safed’s Kitat Konenut leaders. One night, Netanel Belams and Shmuel Tilles, described by city officials as the commander and deputy commander of the group, agreed to meet at a wine shop at the base of the Artists’ Quarter.

Mr. Tilles, the shop’s owner, greeted customers seeking craft beer or a nice Cabernet with “Shalom,” meaning peace, while holding a high-powered rifle with a red-dot sight for quick target acquisition at close range.

He and Mr. Belams hesitated to describe their previous military service but confirmed they had both worked with the special forces. Over craft beer in plastic cups, they explained that their mission now was simple.

As Mr. Tilles put it, speaking in English with the hint of a Bronx accent brought to Israel by his parents decades ago: “Our job is to bring security to our people.”

He said they effectively formed the Kitat Konenut on Oct. 7 when around 15 seasoned combat veterans in Safed, in close contact with the Israeli military, got ready in case Hezbollah decided to bring their own forces into Israel. When that didn’t happen, they made plans to officially form a rapid response team that would coordinate with the authorities in an attack.

More than 100 men volunteered. The commanders selected 60 to 70, favoring those with combat experience. The government provided weapons and paid for training, which they’ve done around once a week.

In photos of their sessions, most of the men — including Mr. Tilles and Mr. Belams — have the long beards associated with the Orthodox community, known as Haredi in Israel. They are a small minority in the Israeli military because of a longstanding exemption from conscription for those studying in seminaries, but their presence in Safed has been expanding for a while and the war has made them more unified and organized.

Politically, they mobilized a few months ago to elect Mr. Kakon — Safed’s first Haredi mayor. And with the Kitat Konenut, they have found a new community role. Terms like “religious Rambo” are now thrown around by secular officials in Safed with a degree of admiration.

And yet, in a crisis, it’s hard to tell how obedient they would be to the traditional chain of command. Mr. Belams in particular did not hide that he sees his role as ordained by God.

“After Oct. 7, we saw that we can’t rely on anyone — not the I.D.F., the police or the state,” he said. He added that he believed he was on the front line of a holy war that would bring about the end of times and the messiah’s coming to Earth.

“This is the start of Gog and Magog,” Mr. Belams said, referring to a battle prophesied in the Bible that some Jews believe will lead to Messianic redemption.

Mr. Tilles tried to make clear that fighting was not their first choice. “I’m into wine. I don’t even want to do this,” he said. “It’s only because of the threat.”

He added, however, that the same kabbalah tenets that tell him to “make this a place that God could dwell in with peace and love” also say that “when somebody comes to kill you, you’ve got to protect yourself first.”

Asked about the war in Gaza, he argued that because Hamas, in his view, teaches children to hate and murder Jews, Israel has to fight with an expansive definition of national defense.

“It’s a war over here. There’s no such thing as innocent,” he said. “You can’t say we have to give our enemies food in order for them to one day come back and kill us.”

For many of his neighbors, it is a question of priorities. Is Safed (or Israel) more likely to thrive by focusing on war and weapons, or through introspection and deeper change?

At a small gallery near the wine shop, Avraham Loewenthal, an artist and kabbalah devotee originally from Michigan, tried to elevate the conversation.

“The war is really between love and hatred — between focusing on the bad in others or trying to understand them and find the good,” he said. “Are we blaming others for all the bad in the world or striving to see how together we can make it better for everyone?”

He said he felt deep pain from the suffering of the people in Gaza and also that Israel has no choice but to keep fighting to disable Hamas and other terror groups. Asked if he was able to extend his unconditional love to those shooting rockets at Israel — in February an attack killed one soldier in Safed, and wounded eight more — he initially gave a roundabout answer. A few days later, he emailed a clarification.

“It is hard to believe there is goodness in people who are doing horrible things,” he wrote. “We need to do everything we can to stop them, but trying to see God in everyone is what we are here to do.”

Seeing Threats Among the Neighbors

At Mr. Ben-Ari’s home, the journey also continues. His wife is still struggling with how to reconcile her faith with his weapon.

“It’s not our way,” she said at one point.

Mr. Ben-Ari said he felt a little better knowing that his rabbi approved — he asked before joining the Kitat Konenut. But he still can’t shake the sadness of seeing divisions being sharpened. After the Hamas attack, one of his daughters started saying “I’m afraid the Arabs are going to take me.”

“She’s 4,” he said.

He admitted that after Oct. 7 he also lost “that safety feeling” around Arabs in Israel and elsewhere. Safed’s right-wing chief rabbi, Shmuel Eliyahu, has a long history of pushing for Jews to expel Arabs outright (his office declined interview requests), but Mr. Ben-Ari seemed heartbroken by his own personal shift. Fear, sadness, responsibility, he made clear, they were hardening hearts and daily life in Safed.

Did that mean he would keep the gun if or when the war ended?

The weapon sat in his lap, marked by two colorful stickers: one identifying the weapon and its owner as part of the Kitat Konenut; the other a symbol for the Chabad movement.

Mr. Ben-Ari paused and thought for a minute about the question. Then he said yes.

“The situation needs this,” he said, as his children played all around him. “It needs me.”

Adam Sella contributed reporting from Safed.

Read by Damien Cave

Audio produced by Jack D’Isidoro .

Damien Cave is an international correspondent for The Times, covering the Indo-Pacific region. He is based in Sydney, Australia.  More about Damien Cave

Our Coverage of the Israel-Hamas War

News and Analysis

Israel’s military said its troops were pressing on with their ground assault of Rafah , even as international outrage  over its operation there intensified in the wake of a deadly airstrike  on a camp for displaced Palestinians.

The temporary pier that the U.S. military constructed and put in place to provide much-needed humanitarian aid for Gaza has broken apart in rough seas , the Pentagon said.

Spain, Norway and Ireland formally recognized an independent Palestinian state . The previously announced moves by the three European nations are largely symbolic , but serve as a rebuke to Israel.

U.S. Military Aid Project: The Pentagon predicted that a stream of humanitarian aid would be arriving in Gaza via the floating pier, but little relief has reached the besieged strip .

Ari Emanuel’s Condemnation: The media executive condemned Netanyahu  for his leadership since the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, a conspicuous statement from one of Hollywood’s most powerful figures.

Amal Clooney Weighs In: The prominent human rights lawyer was on a panel that recommended arrest warrants  for leaders of Israel and Hamas. She had been criticized earlier for not speaking out on the war.

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This influential pro-Israel group is legitimizing the Gaza genocide on British campuses

We are no longer able to ignore institutions operating across British university campuses that seek to insulate Israel from critique. Like the many “charitable” British institutions that have been flagged as complicit in Israel’s colonial project, hasbara hubs operating across British universities are also implicated in rationalizing Israel’s Zionist project. Furthering the de-legitimization of Palestinian narratives and deflecting from the ongoing genocide in Gaza, they provide the necessary rationale and distraction for “unfinished Zionist business.”[1]  

British campuses now form an epicenter of resistance to the genocide, but for some time, they have also figured as key sites for the management of Israel’s legitimacy . Pro-Israel advocates have long inferred that the boycott movement comprises “pro-Palestinian troublemakers” who are “importing divisions” onto British campuses. Yet this conveniently sidesteps the spectrum of invested communities seeking to uphold Israel’s expansionist endeavor whose commitments are a priori inscribed into campus life. One such community, often overlooked for various reasons, is the Union of Jewish Students (UJS).

The Union of Jewish Students, the self-proclaimed representative body for over 9,000 Jewish students in the United Kingdom and Ireland, is a key cog but often unscrutinized player in British Zionist hasbara politics. Its Israel advocacy is well-known. Like many of its parent bodies, it is preoccupied with the management of Israel’s legitimacy by “explaining away” and deflecting from Israel’s coloniality. Their settler-colonial links often escape scrutiny , are dwarfed by bigger friends of Israel , or remain buried under unfounded charges of antisemitism, as in the case of Professor David Miller .

The very tangible links between the UJS and its Israeli sponsors have been dismissed as a vague association or a “four times removed connection between a JSoc [Jewish Students Society] in Bristol and the World Zionist Organization.” One might consider such assertions evasive, representing something of an inversion of the antisemitic conspiracies of which Miller has been deemed guilty.

Likewise, the Community Security Trust (CST) insists the UJS is a “ Union for Jewish students ” rather than an “agent for Israel,” an accusation also listed as an example of antisemitism. 

But of course, few people would maintain the latter. The UJS is not an “agent” of Israel, but it is committed to Israel. Certainly, in its capacity as a union, the UJS provides core services for its membership, which has diversified over the years — but this pastoral element is arguably surpassed by its Zionist leanings, an outcome of the intimate and reciprocal relation with the Zionist movement through Israel’s “quasi-governmental” institutions[2], which function to uphold Israel’s settler colonial occupation . 

Looking past customary deflections, it is clear that the UJS is both a beneficiary of and embedded within a Zionist settler colonial movement through which Israel’s prerogatives are invariably, albeit not always successfully, upheld. 

Revisiting these external links, I trace how they manifest in their institutional commitments and remain normalized within the fabric of campus life. For some, involvement in such organizations can mean the beginning of lifelong careerist trajectories in sync with Israel’s colonial endeavor.

‘Enduring commitments’

Like any other student collective, the UJS is neither homogeneous nor monolithic in membership. However, despite the odd anti-Zionist candidate and signs of dissent , its prescribed organizational remit means there is a uniformly pro-Israel outlook reflected in its institutional links , campaigns , conference motions , and electoral outcomes. While its membership rotates, its institutional commitments do not waver against its (pro)Israeli sponsors and a highly partisan executive structure, currently led by Arieh Miller , who was formerly employed by the Zionist Federation and the Israeli Embassy.

This pro-Israel skew is evidenced by UJS’s largest funders. The United Jewish Israel Appeal (UJIA), the UK branch of the Keren Hayesod, is the backbone of Israel’s economy. It is also possibly the main source of the UJS’s funding . The Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) and Community Security Trust (CST) , and allegedly the Israeli Embassy , also fund the UJS, as do other “charitable” trusts/trustees believed to have highly dubious investments in “right-wing” think tanks .

Enshrined in its constitution , the UJS professes an “enduring commitment” to Israel and maintains this in its four core principles . Its efforts on this front are well recognized and rewarded within global and national student circles. 

This explains why the tenor of accepted union policy may, at times, read remotely sympathetic , at least to (newer forms of) Palestinian dispossession, it does not translate into a defining institutional position. 

Settler-colonial networks

UJS’s historical and contemporary ties to Israel’s national institutions provide the central plank for its advocacy — the World Zionist Organization (WZO), the Jewish Agency, and the Keren Hayesod. These are the founding institutions of Israel’s settler colonial and apartheid regime.

From its earliest configuration, the UJS was a constituent member of the World Zionist Organization. UJS’s parent body, B’nai B’rith , and the WUJS ( World Union of Jewish Students ), to which the UJS is party, both squarely fall within the WZO as direct members and Hasbara advocates .

Although a national institution of Zionist settler colonialism , the Jewish Agency has a strong diasporic presence. Historically it played a pivotal role in establishing Israel, notoriously through its  “Population Transfer” Committee[3]. Ever since, it has been integral to realizing the Zionist dream of aliyah (immigration to Israel) and the establishment of a Jewish ethno-state. It offers Jews worldwide a stress-free relocation package and facilitates the maintenance of  “Jewish domination”[4] across Israel and the “Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

Normalizing settler colonialism on campus

It is quite something, then, to learn that the Agency plays an active and integral role in the life of the UJS, so integral that the UJS is home for two, sometimes three, of the Agency’s schlichim (emissaries), who are also IDF-trained campus fellows and sit directly within the UJS Executive body .

Agency schlichim , alongside JSoc sabbatical officers, engage Jewish students from the moment they step foot on campus, and are recipients of UJS annual ‘ Israel Engagement’ Awards . 

Much like settler-chaplains working in British universities, these IDF-trained emissaries are very much Israel’s “in-house” advocates who assume a student “support” function that some might consider far exceeds their “pastoral” role of cultivating a “living connection” to Israel. An analogous scenario involving any member of the Palestinian resistance sitting on the executive body of a Palestinian, Muslim, or solidarity student union would raise more than eyebrows.

This signals the way pro-Israeli institutions remain integrated and normalized within British higher education, with little of the scandal and surveillance associated with their pro-Palestinian, especially Muslim , counterparts . 

The recent case of IDF reservist and Chaplain Zecharia Deutsche serving Leeds and other Northern Universities has spotlighted the embedded infrastructure of pro-Israel institutions, and their urgency to entrench their position , within British higher education. 

In one way or another, these institutions sustain UJS’s commitment to Israel within Higher education. Campus security ( CST ) Chaplaincy services (UJC) and campus-based ‘educational thinktanks’   privilege a Zionist framework where advocating for Israel remains a prerequisite for inclusion in the Jewish Zionist student community. Non- Zionist Jewish students calling for a ceasefire in Gaza have been virtually ex-communicated , ostracised , and excluded from stated pastoral remits. This reflects political objectives, not the prioritization of welfare, often projected on behalf of Jewish students.

No less influential in exerting pressure, and (in)directly aiding JSOCs on campus, however, are the assembly of external bodies, agitating to quell anti-Zionist activity and delegitimize Palestinian voices , often by litigious means. 

Hasbara on campus

How these intimate ties to Israel translate into institutional commitments is indicated by the portfolio of “ Israel Engagement ,” “Incubator” programmes ,” the role in anti-BDS initiatives, IHRA campaigns, and Birthright tours.

Perhaps the most egregious of commitments are the Birthright tours, a UJS fixture since 1999. Despite new Israeli settlements being prohibited under the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, UJS’s itinerary has come to include new settlements , including controversial sites of settler land-grab . The unease (CA2) it has generated amongst some students has been ignored and leadership delegations have continued, even amidst the ongoing genocide.  

However, even campaigns that do not directly relate to “Israel engagement” are circumscribed by pro-Israel prerogatives. This is most obviously evidenced in UJS’s “relentless campaigning” across universities to adopt the highly contested IHRA definition of antisemitism, widely evidenced as instrumental to repressing anti-Zionist critiques.   

This Israel-heavy skew bears out in UJS’s scale of expenditure. In 2018-19, of UJS’s reported annual budget of 1 million GBP, 15% was allocated to ‘Israel Engagement’ and 25% to ‘Campaigns’ featuring a predominantly anti-BDS outlook. At this point, the overall budget pertaining directly to Israel was in excess of Jewish welfare (‘Life on campus’) and broader services, meriting 12% and 15% respectively. Whilst the focus on welfare appears to have since expanded, so too, if only marginally, has its budget on “Israel Engagement.” One might consider this a welfare issue.

Compared with other student unions, this scope of funding and support from (quasi)statist and British institutions are unparalleled. Yet, paradoxically, despite this degree of investment, it does not signal UJS’s efficacy as an advocacy group on campus. Rather, where they arguably find favor, lies in the status they occupy within university spaces, as students , and the attendant ( affective) politics of “feeling safe,” routinely harnessed in campaigns to intimidate Israel’s critics. The impact of this strategy in shaping campus relations historically and constraining the scope for Palestinian activism is yet to be fully acknowledged. 

The East is a career

While it is clear that the UJS is anchored to Israel’s quasi-national institutions, it is also host to numerous beneficiaries of a pro-Zionist careerism. 

Through an active pro-Israel campus coterie, hasbara culture is rewarded and upgraded for life-long candidates . During and long after their departure from campus, Israel’s most ardent advocates provide a stream of labor into pro-Zionist institutions in Britain and Israel, including advocacy thinktanks , the Knesset, and the IDF, as UJS are proud to declare.

This is why allusions to the UJS as “ Pawns of Israel, ” or as “ infiltrated by the Israeli lobby ” remain at best partial, not only because they infer a lack of agency amongst activists and characterize the lobby as “Israel meddling in British politics,” but because they submerge the way Israel’s endeavor, reminiscent of Europe’s colonialism in the “East,” is in its widest sense something of a career.

The recently suspended mouthpiece for Israel’s genocide, British-Israeli settler Eylon Levy, is just one example of a UJS executive member “progressing,” or rather failing, in pro-Zionist institutions. There are many others whose trajectory from the UJS to pro-Israel establishment politics has not gone unnoticed. 

These obvious examples should not eclipse the diffuse nature of Zionist advocacy across a range of well-documented “civil society” networks and the even wider range of non-Jewish right-wing collectives that have extended their unequivocal allyship on campus. This represents a distinct political alignment that prevails in the establishment, although remains widely undisclosed .

If the dismantling of Israel’s punitive regime is to begin with arms embargoes and calls for divestment , it can only end by decolonizing Zionist institutions that sustain its settler-colonial logic.

It is worth learning from historical example. In the early seventies, expressions of support for Palestinian emancipation in the wider Zionist student movement (then deemed radical) were swiftly quashed by the World Zionist Organization, leaving them ostracized and under-funded to the point of dissolution.[5] At this juncture, Jewish students condemned “the attempt to create artificial student bodies” and the “imposition of the Israeli party structure on Jewish…student movements in particular.”[6] These were, it seems, unplanted seeds for a future that might have shed the role of upholding Israel’s colonial project. That decolonial future is still to be realized, but first, those ties must be dissolved.

For Nadine Abdel-Latif and the children of Gaza. 

Appreciation to my Reviewers. Any errors are mine.

[1] Fayez Sayegh, Zionist Colonialism in Palestine , p. 221

[2] David Miller at al, What Is Islamophobia? pp. 23-25.

[3] Jeff Halper, Decolonizing Israel, Liberating Palestine , p. 62.

[4] Human Rights Watch, A Threshold Crossed , p.7.

[5] Julian Voloj, “ Einstein’s Children: Chapters in the History of the European Union of Jewish Students ,” p. 76.

[6] Ibid, p.87, fn.10

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Shaida Nabi, Thank you and please continue to investigate the damage from corrupt Hillels operating on US college campuses.

One of the best known campus organizations to claim affiliation with Judaism is  Hillel . Most Hillels on university campuses are tied to Hillel International, an  explicitly Zionist organization . Hillel’s erasure of anti-Zionist Jewish students’  perspectives  causes further damage . It is particularly harmful when the sole campus organization dedicated to Jewish culture is Hillel or any other Zionist organization. Non- or anti-Zionist Jews do not have a space that represents their identity or values, and they are excluded and shut out. 

https://electronicintifada.net/content/why-campuses-need-non-zionist-jewish-spaces/30996

~ “Lag BaOmer – the Rafah version” ~ Memorial Day reminded community members of Emory Hillel’s legal advisor, Mark Goldfeder, 49-page suit alleges the groups–>>>AMP and SNJP distributed ‘toolkits’ and ‘material support’ for campus protests–>>>TENTS …. while Israel continues peacocking incinerating women and children with 2000lb bombs in TENTS in Rafah.

Here’s a snapshot at how Israelis celebrated Rafah tent massacre:

Israelis celebrate Rafah massacre as Jewish holiday bonfire This year, Israelis used the occasion to mock 45 Palestinian men, women and children killed in an attack on a Gaza camp On Sunday night and Monday morning, Israeli social media was abuzz, sharing jokes and memes mocking the Rafah massacre. One of the most shocking images from Rafah on Sunday night was a man holding up the body of a child that had no head. A member of a popular right-wing Israeli Telegram group  shared a photo  of the man holding the dead child mocked up as an advert selling chicken. “Fresh chicken 1 shekel a kilo,” it said. MiddleEastEye

EMORYINC, —>>> YOUR SETTLER-COLONIAL LOGIC IS DEAD

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The Museum of Jewish Heritage is hosting free tours for 8th graders

The museum is trying to combat a rising tide of antisemitism.

Earlier this week, the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust at 36 Battery Park in downtown Manhattan announced the debut of a new program that seeks to fight the rising tide of antisemitism across the city. Over the new three years, starting this fall, the cultural institution will host free tours for up to 85,000 8th grade students at NYC public schools and charter schools. Given that the city's school district is the largest in the nation, this is a pretty big deal.

The idea was first raised by City Council member Julie Menin after the October 7 attacks on Israel. According to NYPD data , since then, Jews have been the target of 62% of all hate crimes in the city. What's more, antisemitic acts of violence have risen by 45% in 2024 compared to last year, reports the New York Post . Clearly, there's room for education.

"We needed a proactive approach to combat this hatred at its roots," Menin, who is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, said in an official statement. "That’s why I approached the Museum of Jewish Heritage with the vision of a universal field trip program."

We needed a proactive approach to combat this hatred at its roots.

The decision to target 8th grade students follows current guidelines that require local schools to teach about the Holocaust through an explicit curriculum that starts that year.

The new program is a pretty hefty effort that, according to NBC , will cost around $2.5 million, a figure that makes sense considering that students will be granted transportation, guides and take-home materials to look through in addition to the actual guided tours that "will focus on the global history of antisemitism and propaganda that precipitated the Holocaust, as well as offering an experience for students to reflect on current events." 

As for which schools will participate in the project, it will be up to the institutions themselves. They will be able to sign up through the museum's website.

The Museum of Jewish Heritage is not the only one doubling down on its efforts to provide a safe haven for Jews by educating the general public about the perils of antisemitism and general hatred. In fact, earlier this week, the Jewish Children's Museum in Crown Heights hosted an event celebrating its mission throughout the past 19 years.

The only way to combat the raging antisemitism we see across New York City is through educating our children.

"The only way to combat the raging antisemitism we see across New York City is through educating our children and the Jewish Children’s Museum has been at the forefront of this for two decades," said Devorah Halberstam, the Museum’s director of external affairs, in an official statement. "We’re going to redouble our efforts to familiarize New York City’s youth with Jewish life, history and culture, promoting a spirit of acceptance and understanding."

Given the current status of affairs, the various initiatives feel heart warming and necessary. Here's to hoping that they will actually make a change.

• Anna Rahmanan

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Nikki Haley consoles victims of Oct. 7 Hamas attack on trip to Israel-Gaza border

F ormer presidential hopeful Nikki Haley consoled an Israeli community that had been ravaged by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, during a Memorial Day trip she made to the Israel-Gaza border.

Haley, 52, assured citizens of the Middle East ally that the US remains committed to supporting Israel despite the spate of anti-Israel protests that have swept the country.

“What I will tell all Israelis: America is with you. Americans are with you — 1,200 people were brutally murdered. Let’s not forget what happened on Oct. 7,” she said in a video posted on X by Danny Danon, a Likud member of the Knesset, who accompanied Haley on her trip.

“Because Hamas has said they’re going to do it again. We owe it to make sure it never happens again,” Haley contined.

Danon heaped praise on Haley for her record on Israel, hailing her as a “sincere advocate for the Jewish people.”

“It is with the greatest pleasure that I extend a warm welcome to our esteemed friend, Ambassador Nikki Haley, as she arrives in Israel,” Danon  posted on X .

Haley served as former President Donald Trump’s US ambassador to the United Nations from 2017 to late 2018, during which she underscored her support for Israel and feuded with critics of the Jewish state.

Her visit included a tour of the Kibbutz Nir Oz, which was brutally targetted by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, during the “Nova” music festival.

Today I visited the sites of the massacres in Israel's South together with Ambassador @NikkiHaley .

She spoke of the strong support of the American people to continue fighting until Hamas is completely eliminated and all the hostages are returned.

Watch>> pic.twitter.com/YDfjylZiDL

She spoke to nearby survivors who recounted painful and emotional accounts of what transpired on that day.

Footage showed her appearing to wipe tears away from her eyes as she heard harrowing tales from some of the survivors.

Former U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley visited the site of the Nova Festival attack in southern Israel earlier today.

Haley heard the harrowing testimonies of some of the survivors and paid her respects to the 364 people who lost their lives. pic.twitter.com/5KLHOR9Yf3

Haley called for the elimination of Hamas and the release of the remaining hostages held captive by the terrorist organization.

At one point, Haley pinned the blame for the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre on Russia, China, and Iran while stressing the intricate planning behind Hamas’ bloody onslaught.

“China’s been funding Iran the entire time. Russia’s intelligence helped them know where everything was. Iran helped get them trained. So this isn’t Hamas,” she said .

Together with Ambassador @NikkiHaley , we toured Israel's South today.

We visited Kibbutz Nir Oz, the site of the 'Nova' festival, and Sderot, and spoke with survivors of the October 7th massacre.

During the tour, Ambassador Haley said: "Don't listen to what is being said in the… pic.twitter.com/p2CEhzrVjY

“If we really mean it’s never going to happen again, we have to be honest and truthful with ourselves who did this.”

Haley did not provide proof that China and Russia were directly linked to the attack. However, both countries are known to support Iran, which backs Hamas.

She also took a not-so-subtle jab at President Biden, chiding that “the sure way to not help Israel is to withhold weapons,” referring to the pause on shipments of heavy bombs to Israel amid a standoff over Rafah, according to the Times of Israel .

Haley was the last major contender left standing against Trump, 77, in the 2024 GOP primaries for the presidency.

Months after she dropped out of the race, she managed to earn the votes of tens of thousands in the Republican primary.

Last week, Haley declared that she intended to vote for Trump in the Nov. 5 presidential election. Trump, in turn, later said that he believes she will be “on our team in some form.”