Noam: Hey everyone, welcome to Wondering Jews with Mijal and Noam.
Mijal: I’m Mijal.
Noam: And I’m Noam. And this podcast is our way of trying to figure out the Jewish world. We don’t have it all figured out, but we’re going to try to figure out some big items together.
Mijal: As we always say, we really love to hear from you, so please email us at wonderingjews@jewishunpacked.com and call us at 833-WON-Jews.
Today, I am really, really excited to introduce Ted Deutch. Ted is CEO of the American Jewish Committee, also known as the AJC, a leading global Jewish advocacy organization, dedicated to combating antisemitism, promoting human rights, and strengthening Israel’s place in the world. Ted joined AJC after over 12 years in the US House of Representatives, where he championed US-Israel cooperation in technology, trade, and energy while fighting efforts to delegitimize Israel. He co-founded the Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism and worked globally to address online hatred. He and his wife, Jill, live in Boca Raton, Florida with their three adult children. Ted, it’s really great to have you here at Wondering Jews. Welcome.
Ted: Thanks so much. It’s really a pleasure to be with you both.
Mijal: Can I just say beyond the very impressive bio of all the important things you’ve done, I just want to mention how I met you. I don’t know if you remember, Ted, but it was at the Washington rally in the mall and I was supposed to speak soon and I was really nervous and I was like in the back by the grass. And I don’t know how I saw you there. And I basically asked you if I could practice with you and you just let me practice giving you my speech a couple of times and gave me some feedback.
Ted: I loved that moment. It was a historic day and we were standing backstage and I was thrilled to offer whatever advice I can and then you were unbelievable. So, so powerful. And in fact, I think there’s at least one AJC video that includes a clip of you and I am very proud every time they show it because we had that moment backstage as it were before you went out.
Mijal: It was very kind, thank you. It’s my first memory and it’s really shaped how excited I am that you’re here with us right now.
Noam: And I share in the enthusiasm of having you with us. I live in South Florida as well. So right near you. And it’s awesome to have you on this show. It’s awesome to be able to talk with you about some serious issues, serious content that you have a tremendous amount of experience in.
But here’s something that we do, Ted. We always start with a question from a listener. Here’s what a listener named Charles asked. The question is, what has been your hardest moment personally since the 7th of October and what has been your best moment since the 7th of October?
Ted: That’s a great question. Well, there have been a lot of hard moments for all of us. Obviously, we were in Israel just a few weeks after October 7th. I had a group of AJC leaders. We went and we met with leaders in the government, but we spent time with residents of Kfar Aza who were obviously, were all staying together in a kibbutz and we spent time and each one of them went around one after another and told their stories of loss from October 7th and everyone, one after another, a husband, lost a daughter, lost a cousin and a nephew, lost a husband and a son. they told their stories and they were, as they told us while we were there, they were still sitting shiva. I mean, was well past, a couple of weeks past the 70s, but they were still in mourning. It was technically shloshim, but for them, it felt like every day as they discovered more and more about what happened, the pain only got worse.
It was a very, very low point for me, but a real, it was the stark reminder of exactly what happened on October 7th and helped, I think, to guide me and for all of us who have had the opportunity to interact with Israelis and have been to the South and who have seen what Hamas did on that day. It was a very, very difficult day for me.
But ultimately it was really all about what had happened in that community and in Israel that day that we’ve all been struggling with and doing our part to help address and defend Israel all those weekends since. The good moments there actually have been, there’ve been a lot of positive moments in the work that we do. There’s one that stands out. I did an event on Long Island. This was at the end of last year and we had a room full of people and one woman stood up and she said, I’m so glad that we’re all here together. And then she proceeded to tell this big group of people that before October 7th, she was involved in a million different organizations and activities. She went through all of them and she talked about, she talked about all that she did to help people learn to read and feed the hungry and take care of the homeless. And she worked at the hospital and she worked to advance reproductive rights. It was a very, very lengthy list. And she paused for a moment and she got really emotional. She welled up and she said, but right now, she said, and for the rest of my life, she said, I am all Jewish all the time.
And I think about that, was, it just was this moment when, that’s driven so much of what we’ve done. And I keep thinking about her and then every college student that I’ve met on campuses who are standing up in these really difficult times and everyone I see wearing dog tags and wearing a yellow ribbon and speaking out and being proud and being passionate. And that moment really, really stands out for me.
Mijal: Ted, I wanna ask you, because that phrase, I think you said right now, I am just Jewish all the time. So I remember when I first heard about you and your work, I was like, I was like, interesting. Ted, and I didn’t know you then, Ted went from working in Congress to running a Jewish organization. In a sense, I don’t know if you would describe you as shifting to being all Jewish all the time, a little bit as well. What it was like to be a congressman, which for many people it’s like the pinnacle of their career, and then, you know, deciding very consciously to go and become a Jewish leader in a Jewish organization.
Ted: I appreciate that. I had never thought of it, I suppose that’s one of the reasons that moment probably resonated so much with me because that is a decision that I made. I was very proud to serve in Congress. Loved politics, loved them. I spent a lot of time working on behalf of the entire community on a whole host of issues from gun violence prevention to animal rights, making sure that people with eating disorders are treated fairly by insurance companies and all these issues, the beach renourishment, all these things that matter when you represent a big community.
But the things that I was most passionate about were all the things that I worked on in the Jewish community. It was starting the antisemitism caucus. It was starting the Congressional Hellenic Israel Alliance, which sounds fairly obscure, but bringing together Israel and Greece and Cyprus and the US and then advancing legislation to strengthen those relationships. And all of the things that we did to lift up Israel in Congress and then toward the end of my tenure, really fight back against this rising antisemitism that we saw even among my colleagues. I loved all of the work on behalf of the Jewish community.
And you’re right. And now I get to spend literally every moment of every day, working only on the things that I’m most passionate about, which is standing up for the Jewish community, strengthening our community, strengthening Israel, and fighting back against the forces that continue to strike against us, both literally in Israel, as Israel faces the seven-front war of self-defense, and actually here in the United States and around the world too, with the rising antisemitism that we’ve seen on campuses and in the streets.
Noam: So I want to talk about that in your work about AJC, but I got to be straight with you.
Ted: Okay. Please do.
Noam: Just like, for people that aren’t professional Jewish people, could you just say, and do you know what it stands for, the AJC stands for?
Ted: Do I? Are you asking me how? Are you asking your producer?
Noam: No, not asking – you! Yeah, I’m about to, Ted, I’m about to test you after you tell me what the AJC is. I’m gonna test you if you know what the other names of the other acronyms of the Jewish organization stand for. So let’s start with the AJC.
Mijal: Noam, are you saying a lot of establishment Jewish organizations have like a lot of letters in their names that many people don’t know what they mean?
Noam: There are so many letters and then you’re asked to, and you can’t cheat when I ask you this, Ted. You can’t cheat and try to guess the names of everyone. I know that you know what AJC stands for, but.
Ted: Right. So like, American Jewish Committee is an organization that has been around for 118 years. Our organization works to create a world where Jews, Israel and democracy can all flourish. And we do it by amplifying voices across our community and across the world. We work with 25 offices around the U.S. We have 15 offices around the world, but we operate in, with Jewish communities in over 50 countries. And we work with leaders who can help change the environment to make things better and stronger and safer for Jews, leaders in government and diplomacy and in education and in business and in civil society. It is a significant mandate. We do a lot, but we do it with this incredible amount of passion.
Again, around the world, I’m just back from Brazil. I’m happy to talk about the incredible conversations that we had with our partners from across Latin America and the Brazilian Jewish community. And I’m off to London and Paris and Amsterdam next week to obviously talk about the challenges of antisemitism in Europe. Then we build coalitions and we, again, we work to create change, positive change that creates a safer world for the Jews.
Mijal: Ted, I’m just curious, how would you explain in like a simple way for people who are not so familiar with this field, what is the difference between what AJC does and what ADL does? Because ADL is known by many people to be like, another–
Noam: God, so what, I actually, okay.
Mijal: sorry, you wanna say anything about the alphabet? The Anti-Defamation League. But there’s a lot of work fighting.
Noam: I’m gonna cross that one off the list then. Okay, fine.
Mijal: Yeah, sorry, I know, I’m sorry, Noam. Yeah.
Ted: Was that I was going to get I was going to quiz on that too?
There are a lot of organizations in the Jewish world. And there are there some who have been around for a long time who do really important work. And there are some newer organizations, especially in some new newer voices, especially since October 7th, who are doing incredibly important work. AJC works in collaboration with a lot of them.
In our case, we work, as I said, both to stand up for the Jewish community and to advocate for Israel. And we really do it globally. And so we work with the ambassadorial core and consuls general all around the United States. And we work in capitals all around the world. The meeting that we just had in Brazil with Koniby, which is the confederation of Brazilian Jewish federations that came together, where we worked to help advocate, what we do is we’ll advocate with a community in another country on their behalf and then with them on behalf of Israel. And it’s really the advocacy we do at the highest levels, the deep relations we have with the administration, both the current administration and I know we’re going to get to a conversation about the incoming administration with the relations that we have in Congress and particular at this point, my own.
And then it…the work we do on behalf of Israel’s place in the world, we’re the only Jewish organization with a full-time presence in the Arab world. And through our office in Abu Dhabi and our office in Jerusalem, we’ve been working to help advance, strengthen the Abraham Accords, expand the Abraham Accords, working toward further normalization between Israel and other countries. And working in the inter-religious space, both in the United States and around the world, to help make sure that Indonesia, for example, a country we do a lot of work with, that the largest Muslim country in the world, that is Indonesia, has the opportunity to develop closer ties both with the Jewish community and with Israel. It’s that diplomatic work that we do and the work that we do at the highest levels of government, even as we’re working with civil society here. And we work with ADL and we work with some of the other, I know you’re going to quiz me, but we work with a lot of other Jewish organizations.
After October 7th, it should be clear to everyone that, that we don’t have the luxury of claiming that we own one particular issue or not. have, when there is an opportunity to work together and to collaborate, our numbers tell us that if we’re not working together, then we’re not capitalizing on our full strength.
And October 7th also tells us that we can’t rely on others to come to our aid. We really have to be in a position to stand up and defend ourselves.
Noam: I just want to compliment you for a second. I don’t want to compliment you too much because it’ll make me feel awkward and you feel awkward and Mijal feel awkward. here’s what I want to comp…
Ted: I would push the envelope. would go, yeah. I would encourage you to go as far as you can. I’ll tell you what it’s like.
Mijal: No, go for it. I don’t feel awkward.
Noam: Should I try? I should just go… I think that that approach of working together with people is that that’s a vision of yours that goes through your entire organization. I think that what you do so well as an organization, what AJC does so well, and I have the good fortune of doing a lot of work with people on your team, like Laura Shaw-Frank and many others, is like, is this genuine belief, and someone just said this to me recently, they said, parents in, I’ll say LA, I’m making up the city, it’s not LA, parents in LA are fighting with other Jewish parents in LA, are fighting with other Jewish parents in LA for who gets the credit for the work that’s being done in certain X school, let’s say, and they’re fighting with each other.
And meanwhile, Hamas is trying to destroy the Jewish people and young Jewish kids are feeling more alienated and isolated than ever. What are we doing fighting over and squabbling over and not?
And what I’ve seen AJC does is actually does an amazing job of saying we’re able to sandbox with others, collaborate with others, work together with others. And it’s a, for giving a rebuke or muss or schmooze to everyone who’s listening.
That is so important to be able to work with each other, to be able to figure out how to solve problems together. When that’s the thing that matters more than anything else. So really kudos to you, Ted, for leading that culture at AJC.
Ted: No, I appreciate that a lot. Education, which you touch on, is a great example. We do a lot of work, through our Center for Education Advocacy, we do a lot of work engaging with university presidents, which we do in collaboration with Hillel and other groups. Our campus global board, the kids who serve on our campus global board, which is by its name, obviously we have leaders from every continent, almost, still none from Antarctica, but we’ve got these great Jewish kids from all around the world who are engaged. They’re also involved, many of them in other organizations. There are lots of organizations working on campus and there is…
Look, there are those even within the community who have said, well, why don’t you just figure this out and have, we should have one group that deals with college campuses, but the needs are enormous. if, and aren’t we in better shape if we have multiple people who are in multiple organizations who are willing to work together, which includes these organizations that have been around for a while. And it includes especially so many of the newer groups, with, that have been started in just over the past year or the past few years by younger people whose voices are, we have to acknowledge, the most relevant here because they’re in the middle of it.
Mijal: I have a question for you that maybe I’ll play a little bit devil’s advocate. One concern that I think many people have, especially with fighting antisemitism, is that it’s very hard. It’s almost like I think I see a lot of like throwing spaghetti on the wall that so many people are just trying so many different things. And there’s moments when I wonder like, how can we actually measure if, if and how we’re being successful.
I know that I’ve been at times, there’s like some very powerful religious teachings like the Lubavitcher Rebbe, for example, who would speak about responding to hatred with just like doubling down on love for fellow Jews. And sometimes I have wondered how much, I guess how much agency we have mentioned, Ted, you said before, we learned since October 7th that we can’t expect from other people to stand up, to come be our allies, have to stand up for ourselves, which is almost like a little bit pessimistic, like failure maybe of like, like, you know, people, expected it to look differently. And I’m curious to where that extends and how much do we believe that all of this, yeah, how do you measure success? Sorry, it’s a very long and willy question.
Ted: Well, two things. First, I’m not suggesting that because of the disappointment that so many of us felt in the days after October 7th that we didn’t have more people standing up and condemning the horrific acts by Hamas. And then further, when the protests started, before the IDF even marched into Gaza to defend Israel and the Jewish people, when the protests were only about supporting the actions of a terrorist group, why that wasn’t met with universal outrage.
I’m not suggesting that with all that frustration, we should walk away from other groups. We can’t afford that. Our Muslim Jewish Advisory Council does really important work that I think long term is going to be even more important than it has been. And the work we do with the Latino community and the work that we do in the black community, in the work that we do, in the inter-religious space, all of that matters. And so I want to be clear about that and how you measure the success, there is the opportunities that we have to stand with people and to see them speak out. AJC takes a lot of decision makers to Israel. We take heads of private schools, we take university presidents, we take… I just met a member of the Congress in Brazil that was in Israel on a Project Interchange trip, that’s our decision-maker trip to Israel, just a couple weeks before October 7th.
You see the success when the people who come on those trips speak out, which they do, and you can measure the number of times they speak and they publish articles, and when they’re in government, they urge action by the government. You see that in inter-religious work that we do.
Coming up in another, I think next week or in two weeks, we’re going to be announcing a new effort with the Catholic Church that we’ve worked on because of longstanding ties to the church. There are constant ways to announce the ability to do more with those other groups in terms of just the day-to-day battles against antisemitism.
Look, there are different ways to approach this and for some, And some play a role, I think are an important role, of just constantly hammering on institutions to do more. AJC works with a lot of those institutions to try to get them to do more. So for the trainings that we do with university presidents and their senior staffs, and the trainings that we do for colleges all around the country, and the meetings that we convene with the heads of schools around the country to help them understand what antisemitism is, and so that they can better respond to it when it happens in their schools. I that’s what you measure, is you measure changed environment and you measure responses when problems arise. It’s hard and what we’ve seen well before October 7th, remember, for a year before October 7th, we thought we were in the biggest antisemitic period that any of us could remember, starting with Kanye’s antisemitic tirade and then the people…
Mijal: I miss those days, Ted.
Ted: Yeah, right. Which we thought, remember, that was the, this is the worst. had these, these really important national conversations about antisemitism. It’s right after I started at AJC. And you’re right. I, I do as well, but we have to, those are ways that, that we measure from the measure, outcomes of the work that we do in all those areas.
But Mijal, your last point is also really important. We can’t allow the entire discussion within the Jewish community, especially among young people, but overall as well, to be only about the way that we fight back against antisemitism. Yes, we have to respond when they allege that Israel is a colonial, a settler colonial enterprise, and they discount thousands of years of connection to Israel. And when they turn the term genocide on its head and we can go on and on, yeah, we have to respond, we have to educate. But if we’re not also focused on what makes us proud as Jews and what we’ve contributed to the world and all of the things that we need to focus on when things calm down, which eventually they will, then the antisemites are setting the agenda and we can’t allow them to set the agenda. It has to be a big and bold and proud Jewish agenda set by us and proud of who we are as a people.
Noam: I like that, I’m with you on that.
Mijal: Wait, Ted. Where do you think we are… Like, we are overestimating the threat? And where are we underestimating? Like, are there parts where Jews are just being like, whoa, like, calm down, you’re just being a little bit, you know what I mean? Too much, it’s…
Noam: sensitive.
Mijal: sensitive, I don’t know, I don’t have the right words. Where are we? Yeah, like quick reactions, like you know a place you’re like, it’s not so bad here, you know, relax, and a place where you’re like, my gosh, we should be paying attention.
Ted: Yeah. Well, notwithstanding my last comment, I’m not going to tell you to relax anywhere. mean, the challenges are real, but there are, we have to point out when something happens that makes the Jewish community unsafe whether it’s a perception of safety and on a college campus when an encampment prevents Jewish students from being able to walk safely across the quad and their campus. Yeah, we have to respond to that. Sometimes there are protests and people feel unsafe and we respond and the community, especially because of social media, responds to everything everywhere. But where do I think there’s not enough attention?
Look, the extent to which the Iranians can continue to not only foment antisemitism through what the Director of National Intelligence in the United States has pointed out is their active participation in these protests on college campuses, there are threats against the Jewish people and the very real threat of terrorist actions against the Jewish community across Europe and the threats that we’ve seen discussed here in the United States. That’s, again, all of it’s important, but I want, and especially as there’s a new administration coming in, I want to be sure that as they start fresh, that in addition to focusing on the Iranian threats to Israel through their terror proxies, that they are equally focused on threats to the Jewish community in the US and around the world that Iran and the IRGC and Hezbollah play and that they’re leading a global effort to help safeguard the Jewish
Ted: Sorry, is that a little too serious, Mijal?
Mijal: No, no, no, no.
Noam: Speaking of serious, I could get us not serious for a second. Very quickly, I’m going to quiz you. UJA.
Ted: What do they mean? It’s United Jewish.
Noam: Okay, one for one. Okay, no, JDC.
Ted: is the Joint Distribution Committee. It’s the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Yeah.
Noam: This is that. wow. That’s amazing. OK, I’m ready for this one. American Jewish Congress.
Ted: Yeah, you should know, I interned for the American Jewish Congress when I was in college back in the day. It was an organization that once had a big, I mean, a really strong presence in Washington. anyway.
Noam: Okay, that you knew. second to last one. A-E-Pi. No, I’m kidding, that’s an easy one. Okay, fine. Okay, Mijal, could you do this one? Chabad, Chabad. That’s it, this is trick one, Chabad. Mijal, you have to answer this one.
Ted: If Chabad actually is an acronym that I’ve never heard that before and so this is a takeaway for me. Go ahead.
Noam: It is. is. Mijal, do it. Chachma, bina, da’at. It stands for three. Yeah, chachma, wisdom, bina, and da’at. Bina. How do you translate bina?
Mijal: Chachma, Bina, Wadat. sorry, I have to pronounce it like a Lubavitcher would, right? Chachma, Bina, and Das.
Ted: Yeah.
Mijal: mystical feminine wisdom i don’t know it’s like a form of wisdom you can go into vina and like talk whatever just
Noam: What, physical feminine wisdom? Okay.
And da’at, okay, what’s da’at? Knowledge, okay, so that’s what it stands for. Okay, so now let’s back to serious for a second, but you did a really good job.
Ted: That’s amazing that I survived representing as many Chabad that I was close to and remain close to without knowing that. I’ve got some points to make to my rabbis. Yeah.
Noam: Ted, Ted, it’s awesome. It’s awesome. Here, let’s get serious again. Okay, that was my interlude. That was very serious for my part. That was my interlude. The current political climate of the day. Let’s talk about that. What does it look like? Is it good for the Jews right now? Is Donald Trump winning and the people he appointed? Are we in a good position? How do you see the Jewish future in this climate, after this huge moment in American history.
Ted: Well, listen, from our perspective, we’re very clear throughout the election. I mean, AJC is fiercely nonpartisan. It is an incredible position for me to be in after being in perhaps the most partisan place in America for as long as I was. I was a Democratic member of the House. And look, I will just make the observation that as we. Correct.
Mijal: But from Florida, right? Sorry, I’m sorry, I just gonna, I just, I just wanna name that. I’m in New York, okay? Democrat from New York, Democrat from Florida, two different political creatures, if I may. Go ahead, Ted, sorry.
Noam: from Florida. So Democrat from Florida, what is that? Like a right-wing Republican from Portland?
Ted: I will just say, regardless of where Democrats or Republicans come from, the responsibility that elected officials especially have to call out antisemitism wherever it comes from, and even more so when it comes from within their own party, that’s never been more important, which gets to this broader issue. Support for Israel needs to remain bipartisan. That’s sort of underlying all of the things that we work on, making sure that the incoming administration is as successful as it possibly can be to defend Israel and the Jewish community. In the first Trump term, AJC worked effectively with the administration, especially on efforts to advance Israel’s place in the world. We’ve been going, I alluded to this, we’ve been going to making trips to the Gulf for decades and have continued since October 7th and have through our office in Abu Dhabi engaged at the highest levels on a regular basis because we think that this is so important and the incoming, the new Trump administration, we believe and are really hopeful that they’re going to make this a priority and expanding the Abraham Accords and further normalization with Saudi and other countries, make that a priority and we intend to work closely with them to do that. I think that’s absolutely in the best interest of Israel and the Jewish people.
And same when it comes to confronting Iran. I mentioned earlier, the US needs to lead the global effort to confront Iran. This is a country that is a threat to Israel, a threat to the Jewish people around the world, and violates the human rights of its own people every single day. We’ll work closely with the Trump administration on that.
I can talk much more about global, but in the United States, the position that the president-elect has laid out when it comes to campus and making sure that the law is enforced so that Jewish students are safe on college campuses is, I am confident, is only going to strengthen the ability for an organization like AJC that works with university presidents to really make sure that they’re doing everything that they must because they’re going to be under such close scrutiny, not just from the Jewish community, but from the administration as well. So we look forward to working closely with the administration. I know Senator Rubio and I worked together in Congress. We know how committed he is to the U.S.-Israel relationship, his knowledge of foreign policy, particularly in the region, the Western Hemisphere.
I think is going to be really helpful. We’ll look forward to working with him. I served with Elise Stefanik and with Mike Waltz in Congressman Waltz’s case. He’s someone who understands the importance of being strong in the way that he approaches Iran and the U.S. approaches Iran and the world. And as an organization that that is engaged at the UN on a regular basis and knows the challenges that Israel faces, Elise Stefanik, I am confident, will be very clear about what can and cannot be tolerated at the UN. And in many instances, the ability for the administration to, at this moment when the Jewish community and Israel need that strength, I think that the, our broader community has opportunity to work with the administration to ensure that they’re successful.
Mijal: And that was beautifully optimistic and positive, which is very rare right now when talking about the Jews. Are there any areas of concern with the incoming administration as someone who’s thinking from a nonpartisan perspective about Jews, Israel and human rights?
Ted: Yeah, yes. Look, it’s clear that the Jewish community and Israel are always stronger when the US is strong and respected around the world and engaged in the world. And on this front, we want to make sure that some of the conversations that we heard during the campaign and some parts of the Republican Party that are more isolationist, that we’re very clear that American leadership really matters going forward, not just American leadership in the world. there are, look, we saw in the last Trump administration the way the administration interacted with Europe and and with NATO and as we get ready for a new Trump administration, understanding again that Israel and the Jewish community really are strengthened when there is a strong and respected U.S. We want to make sure that those voices that call for a withdrawal of American leadership are not the voices that carry the day.
Noam: What would you say, one more political question, and Mijal, I want you get to the heart and soul of Ted. You’re going to get in there. But I want to ask one more political question. 20 Democrats voted for something that was pretty antagonistic towards Israel recently.
Mijal: Wait, can you tell our listeners what they voted for in case not everybody follows the news as carefully as you do?
Ted: Yeah, well, they were votes on on withholding offensive weapons systems for Israel.
Noam: Yeah, so here’s my question to you. I mean, you don’t know this, but I know this about you, Ted. You were in a film of ours called Unsafe Spaces, where I think after you gave a rousing speech when you were a member of Congress, and you were explaining why opposing funding of the Iron Dome is incredibly problematic, and you were appropriately and passionately lambassing people on the left who did not agree with you, and maybe there was a one or so people on the right as well who didn’t want to support funding for the Iron Dome. And you made your way into our film where we have you giving that amazing speech.
But so you’re talking about the, we’re talking about the moment that 20 Democrats opposed funding for arms supplies to Israel right now. And Is there a future for the world of people who are proudly liberal, proudly Democrat, and also proudly Zionist? Is there a future for that?
Ted: Yeah, yes, yes, there is a future. There has to be a future. We can’t afford, this gets to the point I was trying to make before, is support for Israel, it continues to be broadly bipartisan in the United States, and that’s true in the US Congress as well. But it would be helpful for the Democrats as they chart a course forward to push back against some of the really outrageous things that have been written that suggest that perhaps the reason that the vice president didn’t win the election is because she didn’t distance herself from the administration’s support of Israel or that there was too much of a tolerance for Israel as it defended itself after the October 7th attacks.
The criticism of that can’t just come from outside organizations, podcasters, and others. It needs to come from within the Democratic Party
And as Democrats, I thrilled to hear that I’m in this film, Noam, but as a lot of people came up to me after I gave, think I know the speech you’re referring to, after I gave the speech on the House floor and said, I’m so glad that you did that. You know, I don’t want to be associated with this view that Israel, that our ally is an apartheid state, that it doesn’t deserve these defensive weapons that save civilian lives, including the lives of Palestinians, to which my answer is thank you very much. I’d like to hear more people say that out loud. And then that’s the best response to to what we saw. The best way to marginalize the voices that take positions that are damaging to Israel is for the other voices that they sit next to in their chambers speak out firmly against what they’re trying to do and in support of Israel and the Jewish community.
Mijal: I’ll ask one last question. So Ted, in preparation for our conversation today, I actually asked some people who are involved with AJC, I’m not gonna name them, but I asked them like, what are you curious about? And a bunch of them said something along these lines, like Ted has a really powerful Jewish identity and soul and he cares so much. And they wanted to, to hear more where it comes from. I know it’s like a big question, but you wake up in the morning and you spend all your time fighting for the Jewish people. You’ve done this for years. And I wonder if you can just share what motivates you at the deepest of levels.
Ted: This was the, this was the soul part. is that’s where your friction.
Noam: Yes, who are you? Ted? Ted, who are you? Who are you, Ted, inside?
Ted: Yeah, look, I it is as we record this, it is almost Thanksgiving. And I’m privileged to run the American Jewish Committee. The biggest difference between AJC and lots of other organizations is that we’re proudly, fiercely fundamentally Jewish and we do what’s in the best interest of the Jewish people every day. Why do I do that?
My grandparents came to America from Russia and Belarus and Lithuania. My grandfather had a push cart in the market in Chicago selling fish, which he sold only until he realized that none of the girls would dance with him, so he started selling produce instead. He was basically a vegetable peddler. My father, who never went to college, graduated from high school, and then went to fight the Nazis in the Battle of the Bulge. And a piece of shrapnel went through his helmet and almost killed him.
What I think about all the time, especially on Thanksgiving, which is the most American, it’s just the most American holiday, but for proud Americans and for proud Jewish Americans, it’s such a special day to think about people like my dad and what he constantly drilled into us, which is we are Jewish and we are American and they’re inextricably linked and we have to always do what we can to make sure that both are strong. And that’s what all those people did who went and fought and throughout our history, the Jews who went and fought on behalf of our country. But for me, it’s what I think about all of the time.
I grew up in a place in Pennsylvania where in my high school of about 2200 kids, you could count the number of Jews on one hand. And I was always different than I was always. I was always the one that people turned to when they had questions. I was the one that was on the receiving end of antisemitism and the one who was the pro-Israel community and the one who was the rebbe and what I was the guy and there was immense responsibility that I felt to get it right. And having spent every summer of my life at Camp Ramah living this fully Jewish experience and then trying to bring that into this life that I had in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, that’s what prepared me for what I do now. It’s all of these Jewish experiences that I’ve had that I try to bring into the work that I do every single day.
And finally this, it’s why of all of the things that I get to do in this position, running this incredible Jewish organization, I just did Kabbalah Shabbat in Sao Paulo and And as I’ve been privileged to do in Athens and in Mumbai and in literally all around the world in Tashkent. mean, and the thing that drives me is this understanding. And I said this in Shul in Sao Paulo, that we do this work so that that this incredible people that survived for thousands of years can gather together in prayer at the end of a really challenging week, every single week in every corner of the world and feel comfortable wherever they are because we are ultimately all one people. That’s what I bring to this and that’s how I managed to keep going. And I hope to infuse our work with as much of that. It’s not just Yiddishkeit, it’s just a Jewish passion and pride as I can.
Mijal: I love that. Thank you, Ted.
Noam: Well, Ted, thank you so much for joining. You’re a holy Jew and a holy American. So thank you so much.
Ted: It’s high praise on both counts. Tell me again, it’s, it, Chabad is.
Mijal: Chochmah Bina da’at.
Noam: Chochmah bina da’at. Yeah, there you go. All right.
Ted: Chochma, bina, and da’at. Okay. Anyway, thanks so much for having me. This was really great.
Mijal: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Ted. Thank you.
Noam: Thanks, Ted. Be well.