What does Jewish peoplehood mean in 2026?

What does Jewish peoplehood mean in 2026?

74% of young Jews worldwide say they can positively shape their community, nearly twice the optimism rate of Jews over 60. After October 7, hostile campuses, and the Iran war, that wasn't the finding anyone expected. In this conversation, Dr. Shelley Kedar, Chief Impact Officer of The Jewish Agency for Israel, walks through the One People Report, the agency's first global survey of nearly 1,500 Jews across Israel and 18 countries, and what its data says about a generation rising into the moment. She discusses the toll on Israel's "serving generation" of reservists, the Jewish Agency's expanding camp and emissary programs (including 300 children of long-serving reservists heading to European camps this summer), and the widening Israel-Diaspora conversation. Kedar closes on the line that has become the report's unofficial thesis: "We shouldn't confuse unity with uniformity."

Can Iran fans wave the old flag at the 2026 World Cup?

The White House's point man for the 2026 World Cup, Andrew Giuliani, on how the US is bringing Iran's national team into Los Angeles, and why he insists Iran policy hasn't bent for the tournament. Speaking to Idan Kweller in an interview recorded days before kickoff, Giuliani details the security architecture behind the first 48-team World Cup: more than 400 law enforcement agencies coordinating, counter-drone (counter-UAS) coverage across 150-plus day-of events, and visa wait times cut from as high as 700 days in Brazil to under two weeks. Asked whether President Trump wanted calm with Iran to keep the tournament quiet, Giuliani says it "has not influenced any decisions from a national security perspective," while framing the event around America's 250th birthday. The conversation turns pointed on Iran. Giuliani lays out the choreography of moving all 31 Iranian players from Tijuana into Los Angeles, home to the largest Iranian population outside Tehran, and addresses whether fans can wave the pre-revolution flag, drawing a line between FIFA's in-stadium rules and First Amendment expression outside. He also delivers a direct message to Israeli fans traveling to the US and closes on Trump's "America first… but it doesn't mean America only" framing.

NGO monitor founder: Hamas-linked groups shaped NYT op-ed

Dr. Gerald Steinberg, founder of NGO Monitor, traces how Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, which he says has documented Hamas ties, helped shape a viral New York Times op-ed on Israeli sexual violence, published the day before a landmark report documenting Hamas atrocities on October 7. In this wide-ranging interview, Steinberg explains how NGOs with combined budgets in the billions coordinate simultaneous media campaigns to reframe Israel as perpetrator and Hamas as victim, what he calls "The Eighth Front" of the October 7 war. He details open-source evidence linking Euro-Med's founder, Rami Abdu, to Hamas leadership, including photographs with senior Hamas figures and a 2011 Israeli Defense Ministry designation of his activities as part of Hamas's propaganda operation. On Nicholas Kristof's column's central "dog" allegation, Steinberg points to a critical inconsistency: the lawyer who made the claim had given an extensive interview to a separate outlet just days earlier, with no mention of the incident. "Every NGO actor in the Israel demonization world knew this report was coming," Steinberg says. "It could be a headline story. That's the name of the game." Steinberg, who is stepping down as NGO Monitor president after 25 years to hand leadership to Olga Deutsch, places today's campaigns in a historical arc stretching from Soviet-era anti-Zionism through the 1975 "Zionism is racism" UN resolution to the Durban process, arguing that a network of radical-left and Arab-aligned actors captured the NGO sector by the early 2000s and now operates as a largely unaccountable political industry with no checks, no competition, and billions in annual funding. He says cracks are beginning to show, and the blowback against the Kristof column may mark a turning point.

Ethiopian Jewish leader: Israel must learn to unite

Dr. Shmuel Legesse, an Ethiopian Jewish writer and activist, described his life’s mission as a call to strengthen Jewish unity, defend Israel’s legitimacy, and give voice to the Ethiopian Jewish experience during a conversation on The Jerusalem Post podcast. Legesse said his sense of purpose began in childhood in Ethiopia, where his father would bless him and tell him he would one day “speak to the whole world” on behalf of his people.

'Blood on their hands': Rabbi Brander on haredi draft refusal

In this conversation with The Jerusalem Post's senior field reporter Sam Halpern, Rabbi Dr. Kenneth Brander, President of Ohr Torah Stone (OTS), opens up about the haredi draft, women in combat, the Jerusalem Day flag march, and the dangerous misuse of the term "Amalek." Anchored by the death of Maj. (res.) Itamar Sapir, the 26th OTS alumnus killed in the war, Brander argues that religious Jews who refuse to enlist are violating Jewish law, rejects the phrase "settler violence" while condemning the "1% of 1%" who cross the line, and says flatly, citing the Talmud, that there is no longer a nation of Amalek. Brander leads a 32-institution Modern Orthodox network whose students and faculty are serving at extraordinary rates. His son has done over 400 days of reserve duty. He speaks not as an outside critic but as someone whose community is bearing the cost.