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February 1, 2026
Key Developments and What We're Discussing Today:
- Almost 844 days after the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack, the remains of Staff Sergeant Ran (Rani) Gvili were returned to Israel, where his family can finally lay him to rest. For the first time since 2014, there are no Israeli hostages in Gaza.
- "Never Again" must mean "never again" for anyone, not only Jews. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz's comparison between what is happening now and Anne Frank was appropriate. We cannot deny the parallels between the rise of authoritarianism in Germany and its ascendancy in the Republican Party. We ignore those parallels at our peril.
- Nexus, a leading antisemitism organization, launched the Nexus Center for Antisemitism Research on Thursday, to be led by Aryeh Tuchman, former director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism. This is a major step forward in understanding and fighting antisemitism.
- Republicans launched a baseless attack against Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss stemming from encampments at Northwestern University in 2024.
- The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has accepted the estimate of the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry that approximately 71,000 Palestinians were killed during the Israel-Gaza war, noting that the number does not include missing residents who are potentially buried under rubble.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attempted to shift the blame from his failures during the Gaza War to President Biden by lying about Biden's strong support for Israel during the Gaza War, another reminder that "pro-Israel" is not the same as "pro-Netanyahu."
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Greetings!
The October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Simchat Torah resulted in 1,182 fatalities (including 44 Americans) and over 4,000 wounded. 251 hostages (210 alive, 41 dead bodies) were taken during a day of brutal savagery and sexual violence. It was the largest single massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, with more than one in every 10,000 Israelis killed, and the third overall deadliest terrorist attack in the world to date.
Almost 844 days later, Staff Sergeant Ran (Rani) Gvili's remains were returned to Israel, where his family can finally lay him to rest. For the first time since 2014, there are no Israeli hostages in Gaza.
Watch these short videos of Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Israeli soldiers in front of Ran Gvili's coffin, and the relief from knowing they are all finally home.
But too many did not come home alive.
UnXceptable wrote, "While the chapter of hostages in Gaza has closed, the wound of October 7th remains open. We will never forget the 43 hostages who survived capture only to lose their lives due to malfeasance."
Some will tell you that October 7 proves that peace between Israel and the Palestinians is impossible. The opposite is true. October 7 proves that peace is essential. A two-state solution remains the only solution that will ensure Israel's future as a Jewish, democratic state.
I understand why some people think that peace is impossible after what they saw on and following October 7. If that includes you, you owe it to yourself to internalize Gershon Baskin's response.
"Never Again" must mean "never again" for anyone, not only Jews. January 27 was International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Nexus President and National Director Jonathan Jacoby noted that "The Holocaust did begin with gas chambers. It began with words, discrimination, and normalization of hate--and with discriminatory laws and policies that sought to marginalize, isolate, and scapegoat."
On January 25, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who wrote his master’s thesis on Holocaust education, said, “We have got children in Minnesota hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside. Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank. Somebody is going to write that children’s story about Minnesota.”
The next day, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) condemned Walz for "exploiting the Holocaust" for "political purposes." I do not know to what extent, if any, Trump's ousting of USHMM board members appointed by Biden (talk about exploiting for political purposes) or his appointment of new board members had anything do with the Museum's condemnation of Walz.
But I do know that the USHMM was wrong. If the USHMM thinks this is about politics, then they've unwittingly proven why one lesson of the events leading up to the Holocaust must be the importance of political involvement and democracy.
We must never forget that the Holocaust was inflicted on a particular people (Jews) by particular people (Nazi Germany and its collaborators) at a particular time (mid-twentieth century) in a particular place (Europe). Many were complicit and share responsibility. Too many were silent.
But if acknowledging the Holocaust's particularity prevents us from learning universal lessons, we rob ourselves of the ability to prevent future, albeit not identical, tragedies. The world lets tragedy happen to any people powerless to stop it unless good people speak up and say no. These are political issues. Those who self-righteously say we shouldn't "politicize" the Holocaust are saying we shouldn't learn from it or prevent its recurrence. It's all about politics.
If "Never Again" means never again another Holocaust, and if the Holocaust is unique (it is), then "Never Again" means nothing because a unique event cannot be repeated. For "Never Again" to have any meaning it must mean "Never Again" to the events that led up to the Holocaust and "Never Again" to other instances of inhumanity to each other that do not approach the level of inhumanity displayed in the Holocaust. To give it meaning, we must compare events happening today to events that happened then. Otherwise, "Never Again" is nothing but a slogan.
Dr. Deborah Frip, President of Teach the Shoah Foundation, wrote that "If we believe that any comparison to the Holocaust is offensive, then we will never learn the lessons of the Holocaust...The purpose of Holocaust education is to be able to make accurate and apt references to the Holocaust. We must make these comparisons, and we must use them as a call-to-action to stop bias before it leads to suffering and violence."
Some comparisons to the Holocaust, such as comparing abortion to the Holocaust, are inappropriate and offensive. Moreover, while Trump is governing as a fascist, Trump is not Hitler. While nearly all Republicans in Congress support Trump and his fascist policies, they are not Nazis. But we ignore the parallels between the rise of authoritarianism in Germany and its ascendancy in the Republican Party at our peril.
Nexus launched the Nexus Center for Antisemitism Research (NCAR) on Thursday. This is a major step forward in the fight against antisemitism. Nexus created NCAR to improve the quality of research, data, and analysis available to combat antisemitism and promote Jewish safety.
NCAR will be led by Aryeh Tuchman, former director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism. NCAR will also undertake scholarly research and analysis on antisemitism through a team of experts in Jewish history and political science, led by its Director of Scholarship, Eric Alterman, CUNY Distinguished Professor of English and Journalism at Brooklyn College.
Read more about NCAR here and in this news article. Read more about Nexus here.
Congressional Republicans are attacking Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss. Republicans launched a baseless attack against Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, the frontrunner to succeed Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), stemming from his decision not to send police to clear encampments at Northwestern University in 2024.
Here are the facts: The Evanston Police Department felt strongly that there was not a public safety threat and that mass arrests were likely to escalate, not de-escalate, the situation. You don’t shut down protests because they are offensive, even if they are deeply offensive. You shut them down if they are public safety threats. The experts believed strongly that the Northwestern encampment was not a public safety threat. Biss acted accordingly.
Now people who weren’t there, who don’t know anything about the situation, are trying to politicize it. We should never make public safety decisions based on politics. Biss didn’t. His critics wish he had.
The Northwestern encampments began in the morning. Northwestern called Biss late the same night and wanted police action the next morning. To my knowledge, no university responded even remotely like that. Northwestern had not told the students that they would be suspended, expelled, or otherwise disciplined for violating university policy. No university in the country requested police to clear encampments the same day that encampments went up, and those that did eventually request police did so only after intermediate steps failed. Northwestern went from doing nothing straight to the last resort in about 12 hours.
Many universities never summoned police to clear encampments for obvious reasons: The risk of violence and the risk of drawing even more attention to the protesters. Police action is exactly what the protesters wanted. Police clearing the encampments would have given them publicity they could have never garnered on their own. There was no threat to public safety when Northwestern asked for the police, and it would have been a major undertaking for Evanston police, who presumably had other things to do.
Emotions were running high. I understand the visceral reaction: Send in the cops, beat some heads, and throw them in jail. Does that remind you of anything happening today? The emotions are real, but we have to think rationally.
If it’s not clear to you why Biss handled this appropriately, read these articles on how to effectively and lawfully handle Gaza protests from Wesleyan University President Michael Roth, Cornell Professor Glenn C. Altschuler and David Wippman, emeritus president of Hamilton College, and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) has endorsed Biss to succeed her in Congress. Illinois House Majority Leader Robyn Gabel has endorsed Biss. Both are accomplished legislators. Both are Jewish. Both were represented by Biss in the Illinois Senate. Both are currently represented by one of his primary opponents, Laura Fine, in the Illinois Senate. Think about that.
No wonder more than 75% of Biss’ fourth quarter contributions and 85% of his total donations have come from Illinois donors. No wonder 92% of Fine’s fourth quarter fundraising came from out of state.
In Case You Missed It:
- Sigal Samuel: Your friends are still acting like everything is normal in America. What do you do?
- If the USHMM wanted to condemn someone, maybe they should have condemned Vice President JD Vance's insensitive Holocaust Remembrance Day post, which said nothing about Jews or antisemitism. Read more from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, which noted that Vance "previously failed to condemn a college student’s antisemitic question; remains close with Tucker Carlson; and has said several times that antisemitism is not a problem in the conservative movement."
Tweets of the Week. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Aaron Regunberg, Yair Golan, and Andrew Nadeau.
Video Clip of the Week. Stephen Colbert.
Music Clip of the Week. Bruce Springsteen: Streets of Minneapolis. And yet we cannot forget this.
The Fine Print. I read every reply to this newsletter. I reply as often as I can. All I ask is that you read the Fine Print before you reply or send me anything.
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Be sure to read my posts on distinguishing anti-Zionism from antisemitism, how to heal the generational rift on Israel and antisemitism, and the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
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