Today is Yom Ha'atzmaut, Independence Day in Israel. The 1950 American Jewish Year Book, in our collections, captured the founding year as it happened: UN admission, first elections, 247K immigrants in 13 months.

exhibits.stanford.edu/bermanarchiv...

Wexner Foundation alumni, whose careers were supported by Epstein-linked money, are launching a fund for Epstein survivors. @jewishcurrents.bsky.social has the story: jewishcurrents.org/jewish-leade...

Congress thinks my college is failing on antisemitism. My Jewish students disagree A new House report on campus antisemitism seems to have involved minimal engagement with actual Jews at actual universities

The House released an antisemitism report naming Sarah Lawrence College and didn't speak to @joelhs.bsky.social, the sole full-time Jewish Studies Prof on campus. In his piece for the @forward, he says the federal govt is speaking over Jews, not for them.

forward.com/opinion/8197...

Antisemitism on campus is not one problem but three, finds a new report from the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at @brandeisuniversity.bsky.social. Nearly half of Jewish students reported experiencing prejudice in fall 2025.

👉 www.brandeis.edu/cmjs/antisem...

A farewell to Hampshire College, site of my Yiddish awakening For the Forward's archivist, the 1980's in Amherst, Massachusetts, was a little like 'Yentl' come to life

Hampshire College is closing. @forward.com archivist Chana Pollack remembers it as the site of her Yiddish awakening, and the original home of the Yiddish Book Center. forward.com/culture/8188...

Antisemitism on campus is not one problem but three, finds a new report from the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at @brandeisuniversity.bsky.social. Nearly half of Jewish students reported experiencing prejudice in fall 2025.

👉 www.brandeis.edu/cmjs/antisem...

A farewell to Hampshire College, site of my Yiddish awakening For the Forward's archivist, the 1980's in Amherst, Massachusetts, was a little like 'Yentl' come to life

Hampshire College is closing. @forward.com archivist Chana Pollack remembers it as the site of her Yiddish awakening, and the original home of the Yiddish Book Center. forward.com/culture/8188...

Grateful for the chance to discuss my forthcoming volume, SANCTIONED BIGOTRY, out next month with @yalepress.bsky.social

Antisemitism in America isn't just a conspiracy theory — it has been a political project to deny Jews equal rights. Historian Britt Tevis makes the case with 178 archival documents. Interview in the Documensch newsletter and on our website.

bermanarchive.stanford.edu/antisemitism...

For Yom HaShoah: James Young's 1995 essay on how Holocaust memory is shaped by medium and nation:

“The ‘art of memory’ remains incomplete…until we who remember the Holocaust have grasped — and then responded to — current suffering in the world.”
exhibits.stanford.edu/bermanarchiv...

For Yom HaShoah: James Young's 1995 essay on how Holocaust memory is shaped by medium and nation:

“The ‘art of memory’ remains incomplete…until we who remember the Holocaust have grasped — and then responded to — current suffering in the world.”
exhibits.stanford.edu/bermanarchiv...

Text-based graphic with 4 paragraphs of text and the Nexus logo reads "“Never Again” is not a slogan. It is a call to action. A demand that we prevent not just the violence of the Holocaust, but the steps that created an environment where that violence was possible. The Holocaust did not start with gas chambers. It didn’t start with pogroms. It didn’t start with the night of broken glass. It started with words, with the normalization of hate, with the dehumanization of a vulnerable community, with the erosion of democracy. Antisemitism thrives when our safeguarded institutions weaken, when pluralistic democracy is threatened, and when people look away. Yom HaShoah is a reminder: protecting democracy and fighting antisemitism are intertwined."

Today is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

"Never Again" is not a slogan. It is a call to action. A demand that we prevent not just the violence of the Holocaust, but the steps that created an environment where that violence was possible.

Musician & poet Alicia Jo Rabins shares a Book Notes playlist for her feminist Jewish memoir When We're Born We Forget Everything: slections from Arvo Pärt, Leonard Cohen, klezmer & more. largeheartedboy.com/2026/03/27/a...

Better Together: New Jim Joseph Foundation case study on a shared Jewish campus in Newton, MA. Hebrew College, Temple Reyim, Keshet, Jewish Women's Archive & others. The collaboration is saving money and sparking ideas.

jimjosephfoundation.org/wp-content/u...

42 Jewish authors slam Jewish Book Council for ‘bias toward centering Israeli and Zionist voices’ - Jewish Telegraphic Agency The open letter accuses the literary organization of betraying its mission.

Closing the Book: 42 Jewish authors accuse the Jewish Book Council of sidelining non-Zionist voices. www.jta.org/2026/04/10/c...

Jewish Electoral Institute: 63% of Jews are pro-Israel and critical of Israeli policy.

www.jewishelectorateinstitute.org/survey-shows...

Two new polls this week: Pew finds 60% of Americans view Israel unfavorably (up 20 pts since 2022), while 56% of U.S. Jews lack confidence in Netanyahu.

www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

🗃️ The Berman Archive holds Charles Liebman's foundational essay on Reconstructionism in America — cited in the piece — in our collection: exhibits.stanford.edu/bermanarchiv...

Mordecai Kaplan founded Reconstructionism on the idea that Jews should choose Judaism freely, not out of obligation. A new bio by Jenna Weissman Joselit asks why that vision never quite took hold.

👉 www.jta.org/2026/04/07/c...

Former CEO Jodi Bromberg put the stakes plainly: "The question it leaves in the minds of families like mine is: Whose priority are mixed-heritage and interfaith families in Jewish life?"

National support group for interfaith Jewish families guts staff amid funding crisis - Jewish Telegraphic Agency 18Doors now has four people on staff, down from 15 last year.

18Doors, the national interfaith Jewish family nonprofit, cut nearly 2/3 of its staff after a funding shortfall citing donor shift toward Israel & antisemitism causes post-Oct. 7.

www.jta.org/2026/04/07/u...

Jewish protesters hold Passover Seder at Palantir's NY HQ over ICE contract NEW YORK (RNS) — After Mayor Zohran Mamdani made a brief appearance, some demonstrators traveled to the Palantir headquarters, where about 15 protesters were arrested.

Jews for Racial & Economic Justice (@jfrejnyc.bsky.social) held a Passover Seder outside Palantir's NYC HQ to protest its $30M ICE contract: ~15 arrested in lobby sit-in.
religionnews.com/2026/04/07/j...

The Iran War, Outside the Box  - Berman Archive The U.S. strikes on Iran began during Shabbat Zachor and continued through Purim—a holiday, as Rabbi Tarlan Rabizadeh points out, that most American Jews forget takes place in Persia. We wanted to tal...

We interviewed Rabbi Tarlan Rabizadeh when the war began. She discusses the mood in the Iranian Jewish community, thinking beyond political boxes, and Jews under the crescent. bermanarchive.stanford.edu/the-iran-war...

Our narrow straits: On Iran, freedom and the importance of asking questions This is heavy for me to speak about, not as a rabbi but as the daughter of Iranian refugees. Over the past few weeks, what is happening in Iran has not felt distant to me. I carry it with me,...

As Trump threatens to destroy Iranian civilization by tonight, Rabbi Tarlan Rabizadeh writes about what this war means to Iranian Jews in the diaspora, and why Passover's tradition of asking questions has never felt more urgent. ejewishphilanthropy.com/our-narrow-s...

‘Proactively fall in line’: Holocaust Memorial Museum quietly changed content after Trump returned to office Two former employees said they believed the museum was altering its content preemptively to avoid unwanted negative attention from the Trump administration.

Preemptive strike: The Holocaust Memorial Museum quietly pulled resources on American racism & Nazi ideology and canceled a democracy workshop, moves two former staffers say were preemptive self-censorship under Trump. www.politico.com/news/2026/04...

Jewish families and a rabbi ask to join lawsuit to block Oklahoma Jewish charter school - Jewish Telegraphic Agency “I am passionate about Jewish education," said a Tulsa rabbi. "But the mixing of religion and government creates opportunities for religious coercion.”

A coalition of Oklahoma Jews moved to intervene in the federal lawsuit against a proposed virtual K-12 that would become the country's first publicly funded religious school, arguing the state's existing defendants can't be trusted uphold the constitution.

www.jta.org/2026/04/06/p...

Passover in San Francisco Looks Nothing Like the One I Grew Up With Maybe it makes sense that Passover in San Francisco doesn't look like Passover anywhere else.

In SF, Passover this year includes an Asian-Jewish brunch in Oakland with ube macaroons and cardamom matzoh, an adults-only "liberation chic" seder at Or Shalom, and a USF climate-justice seder in partnership with @joindayenu.bsky.social.

👉 www.thebolditalic.com/passover-in-...

West Philadelphia sees a revival in the Yiddish language and traditions A rag-tag group of younger adults has rediscovered the West Germanic language and culture for heritage and politics.

salute to @danblacksberg.bsky.social and his cohort featured in this article. also lol @ the subtitle "A rag-tag group of younger adults has rediscovered the West Germanic language"

Two women race to save Persian Jewish music before it fades Using tapes of their grandfathers singing in Iran, Galeet Dardashti and Jacqueline Rafii are transcribing and adapting songs that echo centuries of tradition

Two women cantors are racing to preserve Persian Jewish liturgical music before the diaspora loses it entirely. Galeet Dardashti sings with her grandfather's archival recordings; Jacqueline Rafii turned old cassette tapes into the first written notation. [@forward.com] forward.com/culture/8169...

At Synagogues, Tensions Are Boiling Over Disagreements about Gaza and Zionism have divided congregations.

A Conservative shul in NJ becomes a case study in American Jewish rupture over Israel and Gaza. Read Eyal Press’ sweeping piece for the New Yorker. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...