The Biggest Threat to the Jews? The Partisan Divide.

The central existential threat to Jews in America today is the toxic nature of partisanship in American political culture. I believe we are at a critical juncture for a new American Jewish conversation on this issue that asks us to consider how our political choices as Jews implicate our collective identity as Jews in America.

Thankfully, Jews have come a long way as Americans and as stakeholders in American democracy, which obligates us to act politically not just on behalf of parochial Jewish interests but also on behalf of what is best for the country. And yet the cost of toxic partisanship — a social ill that Jews are complicit in helping promote — is severely taxing Jewishness and Jewish communal life in America.