Associate Head of School, the Ramaz School
Joined January 2011
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Joshua Lookstein retweeted
"This is not an ending, for UJA will grow from strength to strength as it continues to lead our community. But it is a new chapter — and I look forward with excitement and hope to all that comes next."
In his parting message, our CEO, Eric S. Goldstein, looks back on his 12-year tenure — and ahead to UJA's next chapter.
#ShabbatShalom, #ChagSameach, and thank you, Eric.
Read more: ujafedny.org/news/a-new-chap…
Joshua Lookstein retweeted
It’s hard to remember a more likable team in New York sports history. They just all seem like great guys.
Joshua Lookstein retweeted
Yesterday, we stood outside the United Nations and said enough is enough.
With our partners, interfaith allies, and community, we sent a clear message to world leaders — one that we’ll continue to send until antisemitism no longer spreads unchecked. No more excuses. Take action. End global antisemitism.
Joshua Lookstein retweeted
Dear Arabs, what do you want the Jew to do?
You killed the dhimmi in Algeria, and 70 years later you killed his grandson in Israel. Do you at least understand why the Jews are fed up and are fighting back?
For two thousand years, the Jews were scattered around the world. They were everybody's easiest target: peaceful and successful. You could steal their wealth and they wouldn't fight back. After two thousand years, they decided those days are over. They decided to take back what is theirs.
And everyone is up in arms. How dare they!
Jews did not shed their peacefulness and patience overnight. The world really, really pushed them.
Take this "settler" who was murdered on September 20th in the "West Bank." Netanel Shukrun a father of six from Alei Zahav, was raising his family in his ancestral homeland because of the Arabs.
On the morning before Yom Kippur, he took his 16-year-old son to the Ein Re'aya spring near Neve Tzuf to immerse before the holiest day of the year. As they sat in their car afterward, an Arab Palestinian opened fire. His son survived. Netanel did not.
His grandfather, Rabbi Jacob Chekroun, was the grand rabbi of Médéa in Algeria. In March 1957, a terrorist shot him near his synagogue, and he died of his wounds the next day. The newspapers of the time called him a born pacifist, respected by everyone, with warm relations with Muslim families. It didn't save him. After his murder, the family left for Israel.
Even there, the Muslim world mobilized to prevent them from existing, claiming Jerusalem isn’t theirs although it is mentioned more than 800 times in the bible and ZERO times in the Quran.
You left them no choice but confrontation. That is why the Jews built a country and a strong army. Going back to living under anybody’s mercy is out of the question.
Joshua Lookstein retweeted
I was incredibly proud to join students from RAMAZ, SAR, and Park East day school this morning for prayers right outside Gracie Mansion aka Mamdani’s house.
I was blown away by how well-spoken the Ramaz and SAR students were and deeply moved by the Rabbis and community leaders.
The timing was not lost on us : as we come off Rosh Hashana and head into Yom Kippur, their powerful words gave us all much to reflect on. One rabbi reminded us that during this time of self reflection and change amidst the High Holidays, we are also called to confront those who have hurt us. That is the essence of why we were here today.
Yet the man who has built a career demonizing the only Jewish state, as one speaker pointed out, effectively maligns these amazing students.
Today wasn’t a protest. It wasn’t political. It was the Jewish community at its best: bringing light into darkness and standing proudly & loudly amid a torrent of hate.
Our message to the flag burners, the mask wearers, and the “globalize the intifada” mobs: we are not afraid to face you and we are not going anywhere!
Thank you Rabbi Heskel & Joshua Lookstein, Rabbi Avi Weiss, Impact, and everyone else who organized this event. Every single Jewish school must follow your lead. You have just helped create dozens of powerful Jewish activists & leaders!
Wishing everyone who celebrates a Shabbat Shalom, a meaningful fast and a Shana Tova!
Joshua Lookstein retweeted
I am so proud to be a friend and supporter of @rabbichaim. It was an honor to daven by his side this morning outside Gracie Mansion, and by the side of Rav Haskel Lookstein and @JoshLookstein. I was moved to see so many students of Ramaz and SAR joining together to show that despite all the hatred and lies perpetually aimed at us, there continue to be Jewish New Yorkers who refuse to abandon our people -- forever and always including our over six million Jewish brothers and sisters in Israel.
Joshua Lookstein retweeted
The world lost a giant today. I lost a close friend. The basketball world lost a beloved star. Our Jewish community lost an ally and someone who knew exactly how to show up.
Mike Sweetney wasn’t just a friend. He was family. When you needed him, he was there. Always. You didn’t even have to ask.
The very first message I got after October 7th, 2023 was from Mike checking if I was ok. He knew I was in Israel.
A couple of years later, when Iran attacked Israel with ballistic missiles, the first message I got was from Mike. He knew my son, Noah was there and wanted to make sure he was ok.
When we would run a charity event for troubled teens, Mike would show up.
He was there for our student-athletes at Yeshiva University day in and day out, regardless of his other responsibilities and jobs. His dedication to mental health awareness and his willingness to share his story for the benefit of others was the work of a selfless human being with a huge heart.
Mike - we love you and we will miss you. Thanks for everything.
If you would like to assist the family, please feel free to reach out directly and I will give instructions.
Joshua Lookstein retweeted
Today, Congresswoman Hillary Scholten issued the following statement after Twitch streamer Hasan Piker said that American Jews who support Israel are inviting violence. jewishinsider.com/2026/08/ha…
In his stream, Piker directly discussed and targeted Michigan State Senator Jeremy Moss, showing his picture while stating that “eventually someone will come around and take action not against Israel, but against American Jews.”
My family went to see Spider Man last week and it was great until Mark Rufallo showed up and I spent the rest of the movie so angry that I had paid to watch him. And now so many others. How can the petition not even mention the victims?!?!
Mark Rufallo is joined by his Marvel friends Benedict Cumberbatch, Cate Blanchett, Don Cheadle, and many more in a petition to free none other than Marwan Barghouti, former head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.
The signatures keep coming: Ian McKellen, Tilda Swinton, Sting, Annie Lennox, Richard Branson, Margaret Atwood, Javier Bardem, Gary Lineker.
None of them mention what he was convicted of. I do, in the video.
I’ve spent years calling out Ben Gvir and Smotrich for their hateful rhetoric. I don’t give my own side a discount, so I’m not giving one to a man convicted of five murders, including one at a bat mitzvah.
“But he’s the only alternative to Hamas”— a movement offering a choice between a mass murderer and a murderer of five is telling you something. So is every celebrity who signed without reading the verdict.
Joshua Lookstein retweeted
Josh Kushner bought the lakers for 12 billion. Couldn’t spare a couple shekels to save Lavi? Cmon man.
Joshua Lookstein retweeted
The bagel didn’t begin as a trendy brunch accessory or an Instagram prop. It began as a workaround.
In medieval and early modern Europe, Jews were often barred from guilds, from owning land, from baking and selling bread like everyone else. In many places, Christians were prohibited by church rules from baking on Sundays, while Jews were restricted or harassed if they tried to compete during the week. So Jews did what they have always done under pressure: they adapted.
The bagel’s shape wasn’t an aesthetic choice. Boiling dough before baking made it durable, portable, slow to spoil, and distinct enough to skirt guild regulations. It could be sold informally, carried easily, eaten without utensils. It was food designed for a people who were never sure when they would be allowed to stay, trade, or move freely.
That pattern repeats across Jewish history. Blocked from farming, Jews turned to trade. Blocked from guilds, they turned to craftsmanship outside them. Blocked from universities, they built their own systems of learning. When one door closed, another had to be invented.
Antisemitism always pretends this is proof of something sinister. “Why are Jews everywhere?” “Why are Jews successful?” “Why are Jews different?” But these questions say nothing about Jews - and everything about societies in decline, looking for someone to blame.
The real answer is mundane - and uncomfortable for those asking.
Jewish success is not the result of victimhood or special treatment. It is the product of hard work, a culture of debate, innovation, and agency. Jewish life prizes learning, not as memorization but as argument. The Talmud is a record of disagreements, not dogma. Children are taught to question, to challenge assumptions, to take responsibility for their choices. Truth is something you wrestle with, not something handed down.
When economies falter, when institutions rot, when leaders fail, scapegoats become convenient. Jews are accused of being too weak, then too powerful; too poor, then too rich; too separate, then too influential. The accusation shifts, but the target stays the same.
The bagel is a quiet rebuttal to all of that. It’s not a symbol of dominance. It’s a symbol of survival. Of ingenuity born from exclusion. Of resilience shaped by pressure. Jews didn’t thrive because the world was kind to them. They thrived because the world wasn’t - and they refused to disappear.
Every society that turned on its Jews later learned the same lesson: the problem was never the Jews. It was the society unraveling, desperate for someone to carry its guilt.
The bagel endured. So did the people who made it.
Israel is the underdog the world can’t seem to accept - because against all odds, the Jews refused to disappear.
No oil. No vast empire. Just a small patch of land, smaller than New Jersey, surrounded by enemies. Betrayed by the British during the Mandate. Embargoed by the U.S. when five Arab armies invaded in 1948. Genocided in the Holocaused, Ethnically cleaned by the Arab countries in the Middle East. Targeted by terrorists. Smeared today by Qatar’s billion-dollar propaganda machine.
And still - Israel thrives.
Long before the Balfour Declaration, Jews began returning to their ancestral homeland. They bought land - legally - from Arab owners and the ottoman empire. Swamps. Rocky hills. Dessert. Malaria-infested valleys. They drained, planted, built.
Before 1948, Jews never took land by force. And when war finally came, it was because five Arab armies invaded on the day Israel declared independence. A defensive war, against a genocidal coalition vowing to wipe them out.
But Zionism isn’t built on victimhood. It’s built on responsibility. On the belief that Jews must shape their own future - not wait to be rescued - instead - to built their own country in their ancestral homeland. And that mindset paid off.
Today, Israel leads the world in medical breakthroughs, agricultural innovation, defense technology, and humanitarian aid. It’s the only Western country with a birth rate above replacement. It consistently punches far above its weight in Nobel Prizes, Olympic medals, and tech startups.
While billions are poured into the Palestinian cause - backed by 22 Arab states and 50 Muslim countries - Israel thrives through education, innovation, and grit.
But in an era addicted to victimhood and “oppression Olympics,” the world can’t handle an underdog that refuses to be a victim. A nation that stands tall, defends itself, and wins.
And unlike its neighbors, Israel protects holy sites for all faiths. Muslims and Christians enjoy more freedom under Israeli rule than anywhere else in the region.
The world can’t stand it - because the Jews didn’t stay in their assigned role. They rose. They built. They won. And they’re not going anywhere.
Joshua Lookstein retweeted
This is 2026. People cosplaying as things they don’t have the authority, the talent, or the track record to actually be. Just for content.
A mayor playing president. A founder playing operator. A content creator playing one-on-one thinking he’s a pro. A 25yr old with a ring light playing economist. Everyone auditioning. Nobody building.
Were raising a generation that learning the reward isn’t in doing the thing it’s in looking like you did the thing. The clip is the career. The pose is the product. The soundbite is the substitute for a life’s work.
Don't fall for distractions
Joshua Lookstein retweeted
@NYCMayor , you keep using the word “genocide” when talking about Israel.
If you truly want to understand what genocide looks like, as Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, I would be happy to personally arrange a tour of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for you.
Words matter. Especially from elected leaders. Jews in New York are being threatened and attacked, and rhetoric that demonizes Israel and the Jewish state has consequences.
I hope you are simply ignoring the impact of your words and not purposely trying to normalize antisemitism.
My invitation is sincere. Come to the Museum. Learn what genocide actually means.
We’re horrified — but not surprised — by today’s brutal attacks on the Upper West Side, when a man shouting “Allahu Akbar” stabbed two New Yorkers, one Asian and one visibly Jewish. We’re grateful to the NYPD for its swift response in apprehending the suspect and pray for the victims’ full recovery.
Words have consequences. Read our statement. ⬇️
Joshua Lookstein retweeted
At 6:29 a.m. on October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a murderous attack on Israeli civilians - men, women, and children. It was the deadliest act of terrorism and antisemitic violence against the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Among those murdered, burned, raped, and slaughtered were Israelis and Americans; Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
No one can rewrite history and turn the aggressor into the victim. Nothing can obscure the atrocities committed by this abhorrent terrorist organization against civilians in their homes, in their own country.
The people of Israel will stand united against any attempt to do so.
In the face of terrorism and the darkest forces of hatred - which New York City knows all too well from the horrors of September 11 - truth must always prevail.
The remarks by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani are a reckless distortion of the truth. They are pure antisemitism, with no basis in fact. They are dangerous, inflammatory, and have no place anywhere - certainly not in 2026.
At a time when populism is on the rise and some leaders count on the public having a short memory, we will not allow anyone to question the right of the people of Israel to live in security in their own country. Nor will we accept any attempt to equate despicable terrorist organizations with the Israel Defense Forces - our safeguard. The IDF operates according to clear values and in accordance with international law, with a deep conviction in the justice of its cause.
To do what he does at his advanced age, Lionel Messi is like the Haskel Lookstein of soccer. #GOAT
Joshua Lookstein retweeted
I'm half-Syrian, half-Lebanese, and here's why I can't stand people like Greta Thunberg. She quit school to chase climate activism while millions of children in my region quit school because their families can't afford it. She skips university "for Palestine" while our youth can't afford tuition, transport, or a functioning country to build a future in. She's never had a job; our people can't find one. She travels around the world (on a bicycle, of course) and sails to Gaza on a whim; our people can't get a visa to leave the misery they were born into. She has the luxury of adopting foreign causes; we don't have the luxury of just one problem. Millions of us live abroad because that's the only way to build a sustainable life. She acts like suffering belongs to Palestinians alone, while everyone in the Middle East lives in hell too, and it's not because of capitalism or climate change. It's because of a destructive ideology that uses the Palestinian cause as its tool. And like Khamenei, like Sinwar, like Arafat before her, she wears the keffiyeh — the uniform of that ideology, not a symbol of peace.
Then there's the shirt: "Yalla Intifada." The First Intifada (1987–1993) began as a mostly grassroots uprising — strikes, boycotts, stone-throwing — and still killed roughly 1,100 Palestinians and 160 Israelis. The Second Intifada (2000–2005) was a different animal entirely: a sustained campaign of suicide bombings that ripped through Israeli buses, cafés, and markets, deliberately targeting civilians. It left close to 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis dead. "Intifada" doesn't mean "ceasefire." It doesn't mean "peace talks." It means uprising by force, and the second one was defined by terror attacks on ordinary people.
So while Greta claims to be protesting an alleged genocide, the slogan on her chest is a celebration of the exact kind of violence that killed thousands, most of them Palestinian. She isn't standing against death. She's wearing merchandise for it.
@GretaThunberg #Intifada #Israel
Joshua Lookstein retweeted
FIFA world cup semifinals: THE JEW VIEW.
Four countries left. One question that actually matters: Who should Jews root for?! Let's see...🤔
A completely objective, deeply petty, historically rigorous ranking.
🇫🇷 France:
✔ Expelled the Jews in 1182. Let them back.
✔ Expelled them in 1306. Let them back.
✔ Expelled them AGAIN in 1394. Practice makes perfect.
✔ Framed the only Jewish officer on its General Staff for treason (the Dreyfus Affair) — a trial so antisemitic it inspired a journalist named Theodor Herzl to invent modern Zionism.
✔ Then Vichy France helped deport 75,000 Jews to the camps.
⚽ Points for: 3rd largest Jewish community on Earth. Accidentally created Zionism. Excellent kosher wine.
📂 Current form: Record antisemitism. Aliyah applications through the roof.
JEW VIEW SCALE: 4/10 for inventing modern Zionism (by accident)
🇪🇸 Spain:
✔ Invented the Inquisition (1478). Nobody expected it.
✔ Then 1492: convert, leave, or die — fifteen centuries of Spanish Jewry ended with one royal signature.
✔ The expulsion decree stayed legally in force for 476 years.
✔ Spain revoked it in 1968. Yes. THAT 1968.
⚽ Points for: Offered citizenship to Sephardic descendants in 2015. Only 523 years late. Great tapas (we checked — not kosher).
🇮🇱 Current form: ~40,000 Jews left, and a government going for Western Europe's gold medal in anti-Israel hysteria.
JEW VIEW SCALE: 1.5/10 for knowing what they did, but refusing to admit or talk about it. Ok
🏴 England:
✔ Invented the blood libel — Norwich, 1144. History's worst export.
✔ First country in Europe to expel its ENTIRE Jewish population (1290). The ban lasted 366 years.
✔ In 2025, Jews were murdered outside a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur.
⚽ Points for: The Balfour Declaration. 5th largest Jewish community in the world. Readmitted the Jews in 1656 because Cromwell heard we were good for business — flattering AND insulting.
🥯 Current form: Despite scyrocketing record of antisemitism, multiple shootings, stabbings, and bombings, the North London bagels are holding the line.
JEW VIEW SCALE: 3/10 – "giveth the blood libel, giveth the Balfour"
🇦🇷 Argentina:
✔ Opened the door to thousands of Nazis after WWII. Eichmann. Mengele. A whole retirement plan.
✔ In 1994, the AMIA bombing killed 85 people — the deadliest attack on Jews outside Israel since the Holocaust.
✔ Iran and Hezbollah. Still unpunished.
⚽ Points for: The Mossad caught Eichmann in Buenos Aires anyway — thanks for the address. Largest Jewish community in Latin America. Current president studies Torah, wept at the Western Wall, and says he wants to convert. The most philosemitic head of state on Earth.
✡️ Current form: From Nazi haven to "is the president having a bar mitzvah?" in one generation.
JEW VIEW SCALE: 7.5/10 for “character development”
So, who are YOU rooting for?
Joshua Lookstein retweeted
@RealCandaceO
I used to like you and thought you were smart. But the way you constantly tell just outright , disgusting lies about Jewish people is beyond disgusting. I hope you wake up one day and apologize for your senseless bashing of Jews. The evil things you believe, are beyond any Jewish person's imagination. They just sound so insane. It wouldn't matter but you have so many followers who believe your crap. Have some sense of decency, as did the Jewish Jesus you believe in and just stop. If someone is evil, it's not because they're Jewish. It's because they themselves are evil. And you are living proof of that.