Here are the opening words from the opening address at the 2019 Jewish Leadership Conference (JLC) on November 10, 2019 in New York, by Eric Cohen, Executive Director of The Tikvah Fund and JLC co-chair, as published by the Jewish News Syndicate:
Jews like to worry, and the past year has surely given the Jewish people many causes for concern—and even alarm.
Around the world—from the Poway synagogue shooting, to the Holocaust-haunted streets of Berlin, to the Orthodox neighborhoods of Borough Park—the number of physical assaults on Jews, simply for being Jews, is on the rise. To the mad white supremacist, the Jew is vermin. To the radical woke activist, the Jew is a fascist. And to the Islamic fundamentalist, the Jew is a heretic.
Yet stand up to them all we will.
Around the world—even in America—the extreme left treats Israel and the Jewish people as villains and thieves: occupying land that is not ours, manipulating world affairs with our wealth, targeting and attacking Palestinian children. These anti-Semitic attacks are of course offensive and absurd—and even more ridiculous when one considers the amoral ruthlessness and Judenrein policies that stain so much of the Middle East. But somehow it has become a badge of progressive honor to call for boycotts on Israeli companies and war crimes tribunals for Israeli leaders.
Yet stand up to the progressive squad we will.
Around the world—even in America—Jewish students are being mistreated on college campuses: Jew-haters are provided student activity funding and special safeguards, while Zionist clubs are banished from campus. Jewish students are afraid to speak their minds in the classroom, while the crazy carnival of “intersectional” activists—with no Jews allowed—are provided safe spaces.
Perhaps the most egregious example of the corruption of the modern academy is the story of Oberlin College, which over the past few years has appeased anti-Semites and dehumanized a local bake-shop, all in the name of radical politics. Oberlin is what happens when truth itself is abandoned: bakers and Jews alike become collateral damage—or deliberate targets—in the unjust crusade for social justice.
Yet stand up for truth and civility we will.
Around the world—even in America—a campaign has begun to treat the rituals, rites and beliefs of traditional Jews as backward and bigoted. Bans on Kosher food. Bans on circumcision. Efforts to shut down Jewish schools for focusing too much on the transmission of Jewish identity. Efforts to ostracize traditional Jews who do not acquiesce to progressive dogmas about gender and marriage.
Yet stand up for religious freedom we will.
The balance of Cohen’s address is here.