Franklin Foer offers his take on the future of American Jews

PROVIDENCE — After Oct. 7, Franklin Foer told the audience at Temple Beth-El, “I felt like something fundamental in the Jews’ place in American society was shifting.” He had been delving into the issue of rising antisemitism in American society before that, but, he said, he couldn’t find a way into the story that felt compelling.

That shift gave him the push to tell the stories that resulted in “The Golden Age of American Jews Is Ending,” published in April 2024 in The Atlantic magazine.

Foer, an author and staff writer for The Atlantic, spoke Oct. 22 about the article and the future of American Jewry as part of Beth-El’s yearlong series on American Jews. He said that American Jewry is different from any other Jewish community in the diaspora.

In the article, he chronicled the rise of antisemitism on the left with examples of incidents in the San Francisco Bay Area, on college campuses and in progressive circles around the country. And he discussed how liberalism ushered in an unprecedented era of safety and prosperity for Jews in America.

The article sparked widespread discussion and debate, including opinions that it was a dangerous story and that it underplayed continued antisemitism during the decades-long period that Foer’s article described as a time when Jews were able to peacefully integrate into American society.

In a roughly 70-minute conversation with Rabbi Sarah Mack, senior rabbi at Temple Beth-El, Foer offered his thoughts on the climate for American Jews in general.

He outlined how Jews “busted into the mainstream” during the post-World War II years, when “our differences could be celebrated. We had all this pent-up creativity and energy that could contribute to society.”

But in the past 25 years, he said, “We’ve lost that vision. As it’s ebbed, our insecurity has grown.”

“Antisemitism is so confusing to explain to the outside world,” Foer continued. “Racism is very clearly understood. Judaism doesn’t fit that template. Antisemitism supports racism and is about power. Antisemitism becomes anti-Judaism.”

He said he wants to retire the term Zionism because after most countries are settled, the “-isms” are retired. “Anti-Zionism is a fantastical notion. Israel is just not going to disappear. There is a group of people with an army. Maybe we should talk about a solution that doesn’t involve erasure.”

Foer has written extensively on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including the July 2026 Atlantic article “How Netanyahu Lost America,” which argued that Netanyahu had shattered Israel’s relationship with American Democrats. In the article, he chronicled Netanyahu’s rise to power and how it coincided with the alienation of many American Jews on the left and the right from Israel’s policies.

He told the audience that he fears that the original vision that Israel was built on is slipping away and that it no longer has a stable majority.

In American politics, he said, what confuses many people is that Jews believe in universalism, social justice — and peoplehood. There are times when those ideas are in tension.

Now there is a shift in American Jews politically. Jews are moving away from traditional party labels. Being part of the party of no party allows you to make decisions as to what is best for you, he said. But it leaves Jews more exposed.

Foer is now working on a film and another book. The book is about the history of American Jews since 1945, he said. His work has focused on the downsizing of the federal workforce and politics, as well as American Jewry.

In his Beth-El talk, he discussed soccer, the subject of “How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization,” his 2004 book. “The game is everywhere,” Foer said. “There is so much political power.”

“One of the most interesting things in soccer is there is still a club in most European cities that identifies as a Jewish team even though the team is no longer Jewish,” Foer said. “That tells you something about antisemitism. You don’t need actual Jews for antisemitism to persist.”

Mack ended the conversation by asking Foer if he sees hope for American Jews.

He said, “I think about the history of this diaspora, which is so incredible. The prosperity and achievement is without parallel.

“It is true that we feel threats like we have never experienced. We have to be realistic about the things we do still have. America does remain an exceptional nation. We have a country where all these different people peacefully coexist. That dream of pluralism is not one that I’m willing to surrender. Judeo-pessimism is real. But if we succumb to pessimism, we aren’t thinking strategically.”

“Most Americans still really like Jewish people,” he said. “What happens on the fringes is something we have to resist.”

FRAN OSTENDORF is the former editor of Jewish Rhode Island. You can read Franklin Foer’s articles at theatlantic.com, but a free one-month trial subscription is required.