When New York Times columnist Bret Stephens spoke in San Francisco in 2017, activists protested his visit inside Congregation Emanu-El’s main sanctuary, and an op-ed writer condemned his appearance in a piece for J.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist returned to Emanu-El Tuesday night for a conversation with Rabbi Emeritus Jonathan Singer, this time uninterrupted, in front of an audience of about 500. The topics ranged widely, from the global perception of Israel, to the erosion of healthy political discourse in the U.S., to potential threats to the future of the Democratic Party.
Stephens’ political ideology does not fit into a neat category. He calls himself a neoconservative, but he also said on Tuesday that he voted for the Democratic candidate in the last three presidential elections.
The same goes for his thoughts on President Donald Trump, whom he described as a “long-term disaster for the moral and political health of the United States,” while also giving credit to the president’s actions with which he does agree.
“Every now and then he does things that we think are in the interest of the United States, or in the interest of peace, like arranging a hopefully final cease-fire” in the war between Israel and Hamas, Stephens said. “That’s something everyone should have cheered.”
He criticized the activists in the “cease-fire now” movement who have been calling for an end to the fighting since the beginning of the war, but who were mostly silent after the U.S. brokered a deal between Israel and Hamas.
“People who are marching for a cease-fire but fail to feel any relief, or give any credit to the administration that brought it about, should ask themselves why,” Stephens said.
Before joining the New York Times’ opinion section in 2017, Stephens wrote and edited for several publications, including the Wall Street Journal and the Jerusalem Post, where he also served as editor-in-chief until 2004. Stephens has been a staunch supporter of Israel throughout his career.
He said he is worried about Democrats’ chances to secure power and offer candidates with appeal to centrist voters. He sees the rising influence of charismatic progressives like Zohran Mamdani in New York City’s mayoral race as a “gift to MAGA.” In a recent N.Y. Times column, Stephens called Mamdani a “longtime anti-Zionist of a peculiarly obsessed sort.”
If Mamdani is elected, Stephens said, “Republicans are going to run against ‘Mamdani Democrats’ … He’s going to be the new face of the Democratic brand,” which may lead swing voters to lean more Republican. “I think if you’re a Democrat in a purple district or state, it’s going to be a real problem for you.”
Although the talk was not disrupted, a dozen protesters stood outside the synagogue, shouting “Free Palestine!” and other chants. Attendees exiting the synagogue were handed flyers leveling allegations against Stephens, including “applauding Israel for its crimes against humanity.”
Stephens proactively rebutted the protesters’ arguments during the talk.
“I think there is legitimate criticism of Israel. You can say that Israel’s policies are stupid, heavy-handed, unnecessary — all of that is fair game,” he said. But the messaging of most pro-Palestinian activists, he argued, is not “out of concern for Palestinians. I think it’s out of hatred for Israel … So much of what passes as criticism of Israel, much of which is legitimate, is tipping over into a kind of hatred that is indistinguishable from antisemitism.”
Addressing California politics, Stephens said gerrymandering by both parties will further contribute to political polarization. He called Proposition 50, the state’s attempt to redraw its congressional districts to counter Texas’ partisan redistricting, a “race to the bottom.”
“We are carving up America into little ideologically cleansed districts,” which he said can then trickle down to universities and news outlets and lead to growing distrust in those institutions. A Gallup poll tracking views of U.S. institutions shows a growing majority of survey respondents have “very little” trust in newspapers.
In addition to writing for the N.Y. Times, Stephens is also editor-in-chief of SAPIR, a quarterly journal of essays on American Jewish life that launched in 2021. From the start, he said, he has sought to give space to writers from both the left and the right.
“People with whom you disagree are still almost always operating in good faith, and seeking good ends that you share, even if you vehemently disagree on the means,” he said. “Generally speaking, that’s the case in America, and we have forgotten that. We have substituted political judgment with moral judgment, and that is on us individually to change. You have to go and talk to people on multiple sides and listen with respect.”
Stephens is no stranger to harsh criticism from the left, which he said he welcomes.
“It’s better when you’re boo’d,” Stephens said on an Oct. 9 episode of Live from the Table, the podcast of Manhattan’s Comedy Cellar. “If you’re not boo’d, who are you?”