5/13/26
By Trey Dimsdale, AHA Foundation President
Earlier this month President Trump designated May 2026 Jewish American Heritage Month. The United States boasts the largest Jewish communities outside of Israel and Jewish people from around the world have contributed to our shared flourishing from the inception of this nation through to the present day. In fact, the earliest experiments in religious pluralism were in colonial America when Jewish refugees fleeing persecution in Europe landed on the shores of the New World.
This, in part, is why the surge of antisemitism in the United States and across Europe is so concerning. Jewish ideas, ingenuity, creativity, energy, sweat, and tears have been a part of every era of our history. Unfortunately, it seems that only Jewish Americans take the threat posed by resurgent antisemitism seriously. Non-Jews ignore these trends to their peril, because antisemitism is not merely a Jewish problem. Antisemitism is a civilizational problem.
I know that those who follow Ayaan’s work through AHA Foundation are fully aware that we stand shoulder to shoulder with our Jewish friends and neighbors in the face of anti-Jewish hate that too often spills over into anti-Jewish violence. This posture is morally repugnant, so all decent people should oppose it. But as America focuses attention this month on Jewish American Heritage, it might be good to reflect on some of the reasons why Ayaan and this Foundation offer our unwavering support to Jewish communities around the world. Here are three.
“There is no rational, open, liberal political or social ideology that starts or ends with suspicion or hatred of Jews. In our present age, we are seeing antisemitism come from both the right and the left. Every form of it is authoritarian and violent.”
First, the persecution of Jews never ends with Jews. For a variety of reasons, Jewish communities have been uniquely vulnerable to scapegoating and persecution and are often the first members of a society to be targeted as agitators and malcontents threaten peaceful, open, and democratic societies.
Second, antisemitism is driven by illiberal ideologies. There is no rational, open, liberal political or social ideology that starts or ends with suspicion or hatred of Jews. In our present age, we are seeing antisemitism come from both the right and the left. Every form of it is authoritarian and violent. No form of authoritarianism should be welcomed into our society.
Third, civilizations perish when they reject and attack the ideas that formed them. Many of the ideas that make the West a place where all people can flourish trace their origin to a uniquely Jewish moral and ethical system. It was within Jewish communities that the idea of individual dignity first took root among ancient societies that viewed people only through the lens of class. The unique structure of Hebrew society and the remarkable success that the Jewish people have had in preserving their distinctiveness allowed these ideas to remain in conversation with others. These ideas are inextricably intertwined with the nonnegotiable concepts of human dignity and individual worth upon which all our Western values and freedoms rest.
We are grateful for your consistent interest in our work and especially grateful now as we advocate on behalf of American Jews and Jews from around the world.