There’s a film playing in movie houses in major cities across America, and let me tell you—It’s a scary one. The setting itself is ominous: a haunted courthouse, possessed not by zombies or dead people, but by no-shows and noncompliance, indifference and contempt for the law.

Yes, I am talking about phantom District Attorneys in Los Angeles, San Francisco and now, with the election of the progressive Alvin Bragg in Manhattan—all top cops who are actually topless, nakedly unwilling to enforce the law. That’s a lot of horror and gore for already anxious citizens to endure during a pandemic.

Each of these prosecutors has made it plainly known that certain statutory crimes—stolen goods of $1,000 or less, resisting arrest, fare beating, small drug offenses, prostitution and trespassing—are not crimes requiring incarceration. With no cash bail, wrongdoers are given a mere “desk appearance ticket,” which they routinely violate by never showing up again. (That, too, apparently, is not a crime.)

If “smash and grab” retail theft is not an enforceable criminal act, soon assailants will no longer wear masks—and I don’t mean the N95 kind. They’ll simply smile for the camera while exiting Apple Stores or Walmart, AirPods in ears and hand drills in hand.

Many other crimes aren’t even being prosecuted at all. Thousands of felons have freely and gleefully left courthouses while planning their next heist. Soon TV’s “Law & Order” will be more aptly named, “Lawlessness & Disorder.”

Serious jail time in this new shrunken penal colony is being reserved only for murderers and, perhaps, some rapists. To be “progressive” in the criminal justice system these days is to dispense with the death penalty in all instances, regardless of how gruesome the crime and deserved the punishment.  Life imprisonment without parole is also becoming a relic of a bygone crime control era. Nowadays, district attorneys are recommending a maximum 20-year lifetime imprisonment.

Thanks to modern medicine and lifestyle choices, Americans are living longer. Thanks to district attorneys who have turned their offices into civil rights law firms, criminals will be spending less time in jail. All the better to avail themselves of their longer lifespans.

Bragg boasted that his reforms will make New York City safer. He must be referring to the same-named city on some other planet. Anyone who was living in New York from the mid-1960s through the mid-1990s remembers what urban menace looks like. Classic movies depicting that era, such as “Death Wish,” “Taxi Driver,” “The Warriors,” and “American Gangster,” show the harsh consequences of being soft on crime.

The title “Mean Streets” says it all.

New York’s new mayor, Eric Adams, himself a former policeman, warned criminals: “You won’t sell guns and drugs soon on our street.” Unfortunately, the Mayor doesn’t have a partner in his new District Attorney, who is more interested in making sure that low-level offenders are “made safe from the dangers posed by mass incarceration.”

You can direct state prosecutors to achieving criminal justice reform and the overturning of wrongful convictions. Noble goals, for sure, but with such an emphasis, protecting the public from criminality becomes peripheral. It’s nearly impossible to achieve both.

Lethal dangers lurk on our city streets. In 2020, homicide in the United States had its highest-ever yearly increase—29 percent.

Especially with crime on the rise. Lethal dangers lurk on our city streets. In 2020, homicide in the United States had its highest-ever yearly increase—29 percent. By the end of 2021, homicide levels reached record numbers in Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; Louisville, Kentucky; St. Paul, Minnesota; Portland, Oregon; Tucson, Arizona; Toledo, Ohio; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Austin, Texas; Rochester, New York; and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Each of these cities is led by progressive prosecutors who have instituted their twisted notions of crime control and progressive political agendas.

Portland is a tragic example of the heresy and rank hypocrisy of subverting the rule of law with selective enforcement. No city was more insistent on defunding its police in order to demonstrate how much black lives mattered to the people of Portland. And predictably, criminals decided to show their civic pride by smashing statues, destroying businesses, running wild through courthouses and turning those crunchy-granola streets into a progressive prison for law-abiding citizens.

A year later, Portland’s mayor has been screaming “Mayday!” Black Lives Matter is now charging him with treason for having restored funding to the police and ordering them to prioritize violent crime. The same with the mayor of San Francisco, another Black Lives Matter bastion, who recently said, “It’s time that the reign of criminals who are destroying our city . . . come to an end.”

So much for the ludicrous experiment of sending social workers to crime scenes rather than trained crime fighters.

Tolerating some crimes sends a message to hardcore, violent criminals that it’s open season on victims.

To do otherwise is civic insanity. Tolerating some crimes sends a message to hardcore, violent criminals that it’s open season on victims. Ordinary citizens are then placed on notice that the true muggers are the prosecutors who gave criminals a license to steal.

It cannot be lost on anyone paying attention to the culture wars that Critical Race Theory has had a role to play here. Progressives see the disproportionate numbers of persons of color incarcerated and instantly think: racism, inequity and oppression. Jails, demonstrably, have a disparate impact on the marginalized segments of society. How to then bring about equity? Simply toss more white collar criminals, Asians, Indians, and Jews in jail, while at the same time, reducing the prison population of Black Americans?

Equity, these days, means that such lopsided outcomes must be overcome—one way or another.

The optics of incarceration is an eyesore for the intersectional crowd.

Where is the “equity” in permitting lawbreakers to go unpunished while spreading fear among law-abiders?

But Lady Justice is blindfolded for a reason. Our legal system is clearly not without moral failure, but that doesn’t mean the answer is replacing a “Broken Windows” crime strategy with one that says: “Take whatever you wish; smash and burn whatever pleases you; hold-ups and robberies are now on the house.”

Where is the “equity” in permitting lawbreakers to go unpunished while spreading fear among law-abiders? Criminal laws are written by legislatures. District attorneys are charged with enforcing them. They may be elected officials, but politics cannot color their discretion. They are first and always public prosecutors, not criminal justice reformers. They are required to uphold the rule of law, and not serve as the enablers of lawlessness.

Thane Rosenbaum is a novelist, essayist, law professor and Distinguished University Professor at Touro College, where he directs the Forum on Life, Culture & Society. He is the legal analyst for CBS News Radio. His most recent book is titled “Saving Free Speech … From Itself.”

American Jews are being asked to get used to something that European and Middle Eastern Jews have been accustomed to for thousands of years, namely, to live with targets on their backs.

The United States was always different. Yes, Jew-hatred has always existed even here in America but almost never in an open, brazen, or violent manner. It was always much more of the we-won’t-let-them-into-our-country-club variety or quotas at leading Universities. To the extent that Jews died as a result of American antisemitism it was, in the most egregious case, by not allowing them to enter the United States during the holocaust, especially after FDR’s disastrous appointment of anti-Semite Breckenridge Long as head of the visa section of the State Department during World War II.

But with that painful and monumental exception, the United States has been one of the greatest blessings to world Jewry in our long and painful history.

Until now.

The nonstop and deadly attacks on American Jews and especially synagogues boggles the mind. Are we caught in some weird Hollywood nightmare? From Pittsburgh to Poway to Jersey City to Monsey to Texas, with many painful stops in-between, American Jews are now accustomed to dead congregants, flashing police lights, and security whenever they go and pray.

It was something that as an American Jew I had to get used to when I first moved to Oxford, England to serve as Rabbi in 1988 when I was sent by the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The tank-like military vehicles and soldiers with submachine guns you saw outside Shuls in London, Rome, Brussels, and Berlin were…. well, downright un-American.

But no more. Welcome to the new status quo in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, and St. Louis.

But things won’t get better until the Biden Administration stops its pathetic game of pretending that Islamic terrorism is only “extremism” – as President Biden called the Texas attack – or that it’s not the Jews specifically who are being targeted, which was the astonishing conclusion of the FBI in Colleyville.

Particularly painful were the comments of FBI Agent-in-Charge Matt DeSarno who actually said that the attacker was specifically focused on an issue “not directly connected to the Jewish community” and there was no immediate indication that the man had was part of any broader plan.

Come again?

The agent’s comments strain incredulity. Seriously? The hostage-taker, who did not go to a McDonalds or a Shopping Mall, or a Church, but to a Synagogue – although the Jews are just 2% of the population – was not focused on something connected to Jews? He was not motivated by hatred of Jews? He was not trying to murder Jews? He was not specifically attacking Jews? It wasn’t a Rabbi whom he took hostage?

Never in the history of political correctness has a more confusing statement been made about a blatantly anti-Semitic attack than this one in Texas.

One wonders whether the FBI – who otherwise performed flawlessly and brought about a miracle by saving the Rabbi and the hostages – received their political marching orders from political higher ups.

Who told the FBI to declare that the terrorist, who was a British national, was not guilty of a hate crime? Have they examined all his online posts? Do they think that he was simply driving down the interstate in Dallas and decided that in order to free “Lady Al Qaida”, Aafia Siddiqqui, he should specifically take four Jews hostage in an out-of-the-way Synagogue rather than any place else in the Lone Star State?

Here’s the truth.

Islamist radicals hate Jews in their gut. They are congenitally anti-Semitic, as terrorist Siddiqui showed in her trial where she “demanded” that no Jews serve in the jury. They do not hate Israel because of any dispute with Arab neighbors but because it’s a Jewish state.

They are anti-Semitic to their core.

And when the United States overlooks that insidious and murderous hatred and negotiates with Islamist radicals and legitimizes them, that hatred trickles down to the kind of attacks we saw in Texas by radicals who believe that Jews are the source of the world’s evil and control all the world’s governments.

And when the United States overlooks that insidious and murderous hatred and negotiates with Islamist radicals and legitimizes them, that hatred trickles down to the kind of attacks we saw in Texas by radicals who believe that Jews are the source of the world’s evil and control all the world’s governments.

Iran speaks openly about annihilating six million Jews. Yet the Biden Administration is engaged in talks with them that will ultimately legitimize their nuclear program.

Hamas’ charter demands the murder of every Jew in every place on earth. Yet the Biden Administration is reversing Trump-era suppression of funds that cuts off the terror organization.

What are we to think when the greatest and most moral nation on earth, America, does not tell Islamists clearly and unequivocally that unless they repudiate any and all threats against Israel and Jewry – especially those of a genocidal nature –  that the US will have nothing to do with them and will keep them on an enemies list?

The Texas attack dare not become the new normal for American Jewry. Having lived in Western Europe for 11 years, I know what that normal looks.

I know what it’s like to hear my students on campus tell me that they take their kippahs off because they’re afraid to wear them and get attacked.

I know what it’s like to hear from residents that I should not put up a public Menorah because I’m just going to bring the haters out to attack the community.

And I know what it’s like to grow accustomed to hearing elected officials and Members of Parliament give speeches laced with Jew-hatred, as British Jews because accustomed to with Jeremy Corbin, and which American Jews are now hearing from Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.

All this was utterly foreign to American Jewry. And it must remain so.

Ultimately, we have no one to rely on but ourselves.

We must take to the airwaves to demand accountability from elected officials to protect the Jewish community and to never excuse any form of antisemitism.

We must advertise against Hollywood influencers who spew anti-Israel hatred and anti-Semitic bile, which is becoming increasingly frequent, and which our organization, the World Values Network did, against Dua Lipa and the Hadid sisters during the May, 2021 Gaza War.

We must, as a community, oppose any new deal with Iran that funds the regime without a total and complete cessation and repudiation of any and all threats against Jewry and Israel and an end to their nuclear program.

We must choose and support elected officials who have no qualms about calling out Islamist attacks for what they are, not extremism but terrorism.

Finally, we must reach out to our Muslim brothers and sisters and make it clear to them that they dare not allow a great world religion to be represented or usurped by murderers and Jew-haters. It’s time for our Muslim brothers and sisters to repudiate the likes of the Texas terrorist even more vehemently than us Jews and help create a new era of Jewish-Muslim peace.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, whom the Washington Post describes as “the most famous Rabbi in America,” has just published “Kosher Hate: How to Fight Antisemitism, Racism, and Bigotry.” Follow him on Instagram and Twitter @RabbiShmuley.

For ten summers I studied at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem (SHI). I gathered with rabbis from around North America representing the diversity of the Jewish People: Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox leaders including members of the LGBTQ+ community. Our teachers—among them the institute’s founder, Rabbi David Hartman of blessed memory—challenged us and inspired us to think creatively and critically about our tradition and its texts. One of the Institute’s most inspiring and unique programs is the Muslim Leadership Initiative, which brings together members of the North American Muslim and Jewish communities for study and dialogue about the complex religious, political, and socioeconomic issues facing people in Israel and Palestine.

Given my experience at the Hartman Institute, my relationships with its leadership, and my great esteem for the values the Institute carries, I was both surprised and horrified to read about a controversy involving it this past week. 

The North American offices of the SHI reached out to Big Duck, a Brooklyn-based marketing and branding firm that focuses on helping nonprofits. According to a statement released by the SHI leadership, the Big Duck team immediately began asking them about the Institute’s position on BDS and its operations in Israel. Based on the Institute’s responses, Big Duck declined to work with them.

The Institute decided to make the incident public, writing in their statement: “Big Duck’s claims to not apply litmus tests nor to adhere to a BDS policy as a company are belied by their application of a litmus test here, and by their allowing those employees who support BDS to exercise a veto over business decisions on the basis of that commitment. We believe that if and when companies decide to refuse business of North American Jewish organizations because they have a relationship with Israel, those organizations should be accountable to that reputation publicly and transparently.”

It is deeply concerning to me that apparently in part because of concerns raised by some Big Duck employees about working with a Zionist entity (notwithstanding the thoughtful, reflective, and inclusive way the Institute understands and expresses its commitment to the national aspirations of the Jewish People), an organization so objectively worthy of respect has been effectively “canceled” by a U.S.-based corporation simply because it is Zionist.

Demonization of this sort is antisemitism pure and simple and should be called out as such.

Most insidiously, over time such occurrences become normalized. What is shocking soon becomes expected and even accepted.

Incidents like this should concern us as American Jews for many reasons. Most insidiously, over time such occurrences become normalized. What is shocking soon becomes expected and even accepted.

Rabbi David Hartman of blessed memory once taught me an important lesson that can help us navigate this moment. In a lecture he gave in Jerusalem in May of 2012 about a year before he died, he spoke about what he considered to be one of the central lessons of our Torah. I was living in Israel with my family at that time and I was privileged to hear the lecture in person. At one point, Rabbi Hartman asked why God didn’t simply choose to create humanity in a way that would “hard-wire” the behavior God wanted from us into our very DNA. Why not create us to be wise, compassionate, just and moral creatures?

Our job is to find worthy teachers who can guide us so that we might become students who attain discernment and moral refinement.

Rabbi Hartman answered by quoting Maimonides’ “Guide for the Perplexed”: “If it were part of God’s will to change [at God’s desire] the nature of any person, the mission of the prophets and the giving of the Law would have been altogether superfluous” (Part III, chapter 32). Rabbi Hartman suggested that the very purpose of Torah, the teachings of the prophets, and the wisdom of the sages is to empower us to become moral beings who will, throughout our lives, pursue wisdom, compassion and justice. This is part of the way that God ennobles us and elevates us by allowing us to choose the good rather than by programming us simply to be good. Our job is to find worthy teachers who can guide us so that we might become students who attain discernment and moral refinement.

The type of litmus test that Big Duck seems to have applied to the Hartman Institute is the antithesis of the type of inquiry and reflection that Maimonides suggests and that Rabbi David Hartman embodied.

As difficult as it can be, our response to incidents like these—beyond calling out actions like Big Duck’s as antisemitic when, forgive me, they look like antisemitism and quack like antisemitism—is to roll up our sleeves and patiently and even lovingly teach. Instead of ignoring, dismissing or canceling those who might simply be ignorant of the history of the Zionist movement and our People’s ancient connection to the land, we should remain in dialogue with them so that we might, in time, help them to attain greater discernment and wisdom.

I’m not so naïve as to believe that our efforts will always be met with success, but I have found that sometimes they are. If we see educating others—Jews and non-Jews alike—about what Zionism means and what it means to us as part of our collective and personal mission, we just might, over time, move the needle.

Rabbi Hartman saw this as a deeply spiritual task. God’s central role, argued Rabbi Hartman, is as a teacher. The function of revelation as he put it is “to educate you slowly so that you will change and grow.”

Our tradition imagines that God created us in God’s own image. One implication is that part of our very purpose then is to, like God, be teachers of truth, understanding, compassion and justice. It can be wearisome, certainly, and there are times when we might be tempted to just throw our hands up in disgust and walk away, but that would be a mistake. Instead—slowly, patiently, bit by bit—let us become more educated about our own history, texts, traditions and national aspirations so that we might, in time, educate others as well.

Rabbi Hartman argued that these efforts are part of God’s deepest desire for humanity. As he put it that evening in Jerusalem, God’s prayer is that “you should be a mensch—and the only way you’re going to do that is through your own efforts.”

I would suggest we take his teaching one step further: It’s not enough for us to be mensches; we have to commit ourselves to helping others—even those with whom we might find ourselves in conflict—become mensches as well.