Tipsheet

WaPo Finally Takes Down Post About 'Where Jews Belong,' but Why Was It Up in the First Place?

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  May 25, 2025 9:00 AM

Days ago, as Townhall has been covering, two Israeli embassy staffers were tragically murdered after attending an event at the Capital Jewish Museum. A suspect, Elias Rodriguez, has been charged. There's been plenty of questionable media coverage, but The Washington Post on Friday put a truly troubling post on the matter, which has since been taken down.

While the thoroughly ratioed post is no longer up, screenshots abound. Further, as of early Sunday morning, the article in question still contains the language in question about "where Jews belong." There's also an archived version from Friday morning. "For U.S. Jews, D.C. museum killings deepen resolve — and fear," read the headline in question. "The killings of two Israeli Embassy staffers amplify the confusion felt since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks about where Jews belong," the subheadline continued. 

The piece took four authors to write. Two more are listed at the bottom as having contributed to the report. There may have also been others involved with the headline, such as editors. 

The line in question may be in reference to a rabbi, Rabbi Ruth Balinsky Friedman, mentioned at the start of the article, though that is not made clear. As the piece mentions:

“Where do we as a people belong?” she said. “Where do I belong?” And if Jews belong in America, “why are people shooting us in broad daylight?”

...

For many Jewish Americans across the country, the shooting near the D.C. museum has reinforced a sense that they’re unsafe — not safe to wear a yarmulke and not safe to go into Jewish institutional buildings, no matter how much is spent on security. For others, the attack on the young couple fueled their strength and confidence — in their faith, in their connection to Israel, in their visible Jewishness. And for yet others, May 21 was just another sad, complicated day to be an American Jew.

The Jewish community has invested many millions in securing its buildings. What does it mean, Friedman said, that people could still be murdered right on the sidewalk?

She felt “tremendous sadness” after “seeing the tragic loss of life and in such a senseless way,” she said. The couple was attending an event about humanitarian causes, including Gaza, she noted. “They were fighting for the thing this shooter thought he was supporting.”

That seems to be the only line about where Jews "belong," which, as many users have pointed out over X, should be wherever they want to belong. Others have pointed out to imagine if social media posts in question asked this about any other group. It makes it even more bizarre a choice to have used it for the since deleted social media post, then. 

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The rest of the piece, in addition to mentioning the murder victims, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, also discusses other Jews and how they have felt unsafe since the October 7, 2023 attack that Hamas perpetrated against Israel. 

As if asking where Jews "belong" wasn't problematic enough, there's also commentary about Israel that is tied to the Gaza region included in the piece:

In 2022, a man with a gun and explosives held four people, including a rabbi, hostage at Congregation Beth Israel, a Dallas-area synagogue.

Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker was the leader of Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville and among those held for 11 hours. The man repeated antisemitic, anti-Israel and anti-U.S. comments during the ordeal, he said.

...

“This is traumatic for Jewish communities through the country. The same way Palestinian people need love and support along with humanitarian aid, the same way as the Israeli public has been crying out for the return of hostages and an end to war. That’s the kind of love and support we need right now.”

It is too early to draw conclusions about the D.C. shooting, said Rabbi Nancy Kasten, a Dallas-area interfaith activist who knows people who were held hostage at Congregation Beth Israel in 2022 and others who attend the synagogue.

Her worry, she said, was that politicians would use the museum killings as an excuse to limit free speech. “I do not see that those tactics have worked in the past and don’t know why we would think they could work to keep Jews, Israelis or anyone else safer in the future,” she said.

For now, she is focusing on an event she’s been planning, titled “Two Peoples, One Land: What Americans Can Do to Promote Peace in Israel and Palestine.” However, she said, “I wonder how it will fall now.”

The comments that the article has generated over The Washington Post website, over 400 as of early Sunday morning, are also troubling in nature, especially as people use the opportunity to further go after Israel and lament the plight Gaza supposedly finds itself in. There's no mention of the October 7 attack in many of these comments. 

This isn't the only problematic coverage from The Washington Post. As Matt covered on Saturday morning, there was even a piece from the entire editorial board that wasn't great. 

The editorial, "An act of antisemitic terrorism in the nation’s capital," started off nicely enough and then completely fell apart. As the piece laughably concluded with:

It is essential that everyone speak out clearly and unequivocally against political violence. Whether it emanates from the fever swamps on the left or right, whether it’s Islamophobia or antisemitism, whether it targets a presidential candidate or the chief executive of a health insurance company, politically motivated violence in America cannot be tolerated. Such acts need to become counterproductive — and punished to the fullest extent of the law — to keep them from becoming contagious.

The problematic post in question about where Jews "belong" was taken down some time on Saturday. A new one in its place involves a thread claiming the issue was over "the proper context." 

Like the since deleted post, the explanation post has also been ratioed.