Current sectionJewish WorldShare to FacebookShare to XArticle printing is available to subscribers onlyPrint in a simple, ad-free formatSubscribeComments: Zen reading is available to subscribers onlyAd-free and in a comfortable reading formatSubscribeA 1909 postcard depicting Jewish immigration from Russia to the U.S. The history of U.S. Jews and the history of Jews in Palestine developed in parallel. Merging them to criticize the State of Israel is an anachronism. Credit: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs DivisionJews in America sit in a fragile place within the country's racial order, where partial acceptance into whiteness has brought both privilege and a sense of alienation. As tensions around race and the unresolved legacy of slavery continue to shape life in the U.S., Jews are increasingly pulled into these fault lines and are becoming a stand-in for wider societal discontent08:35 AM • June 26 2026 IDTTwo year ago, The Atlantic's Franklin Foer published "The Golden Age of American Jews Is Ending," a cover article in which he argued that an "unprecedented period of safety, prosperity and political influence" for Jews in the United States was coming to an end. Foer suggested this Golden Age might be ending not just for Jews, but also "for the country that nurtured them." Foer warned readers that forsaking the Jews in your country often means the end of your society as you know it, and while he admitted it is "hardly an iron law of history," there was an air of prophecy in this pronouncement with which I largely agree. But it doesn't get to the core of what ultimately accounts for America's Jewish problem – the complicated and fraught history of racial passing in the United States.In the NewsThe Burden of Being Jewish in America's Race War'After Oct. 7 I've Had to Come Out All Over Again – as a Jew Who Loves Israel'Netanyahu's End-of-term Frenzy Shows He's Counting on an Inconclusive ElectionIsrael's Claims of Free Rein in Lebanon Crumble Under Pressure From TrumpIsraeli-Lebanese Officials to Meet for Fourth Day of Talks, Embassy SaysRemembering and rebuilding two years laterICYMIAs the World Watched Gaza, Israeli Settlers Charged Ahead in the West Bank. A Clash Is ImminentWhere Does Andy Burnham Stand on Israel and Palestine?Trump's Iran Deal Castrates Netanyahu, but It's Still Catastrophic for IsraelReport: Netanyahu 'Likely' to Sabotage Iran Deal, U.S. Officials Tell TrumpThe IDF's Russian Roulette in Lebanon Continues – and No One Can Explain WhyShin Bet and IDF Planned to Warn Netanyahu Before Oct. 7. Mossad Head Refused