Jews Are Afraid Right Now, by Sheila Katz
We have been pressured to denounce a foreign government we do not vote for, as if our participation in domestic conversations about justice and equity depends on it. Before the attacks of the past two weeks, when we spoke out, we were told we were overreacting, not focusing on the most vulnerable populations, or even that we deserved condemnation, and vitriol, because we simply supported Israel’s right to exist.
Our position on this war, or on Israel, does not affect how extremists perceive us. To them, we are all Jews, and that alone makes us targets for hate and violence.
Allies, it’s time you step up.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Three times…
In April, a man firebombed Governor Josh Shapiro’s home on Passover, claiming he was acting “for Palestinian people.” Days ago in DC, a shooter shouted “Free Palestine” after killing two people he believed were Jewish as they left a Jewish event.
Then Sunday, in Boulder, a man set twelve people on fire—including a Holocaust survivor—while yelling “Free Palestine” and “End Zionists.”
Just because this violence isn’t coming from white nationalists doesn’t mean you should stay silent.
Just because the GOP exploits antisemitism to undermine democracy, or because some high-profile Jewish leaders support or enable both the GOP’s efforts and Israel’s far-right government—despite the objections of most American Jews—doesn’t justify attacking Jews.
Just because American Jews are majority white, politically well-organized, and disproportionally affluent (even though one in five struggles to get by) doesn’t mean we aren’t vulnerable to hate crimes.
As an upper-middle-class white cisgender gay man, no one questions me if I experience homophobia. It’s accepted that I can face that of hatred, despite my many layers of privilege.
But antisemitism? Cue the shrugs, gaslighting, and “social justice” psychobabble.
Across my career in advocacy and social justice work, I have directly experienced what Sheila Katz describes above. It only got worse after October 7.
We don’t excuse or justify violence against Russian civilians for Putin’s war in Ukraine, or against Chinese citizens for the genocide of the Uyghurs. We don’t call for attacks on Sudanese or Burmese people in response to atrocities in Darfur or against the Rohingya. None of their diasporas face widespread calls for violence.
So why is this different? Please, spare me the “It’s about Zionists, not Jews” excuse.
Do you really want to support political violence? What is this, January 6?
We need you to call on others to stop dehumanizing Zionists - or being silent when we - Zionists, Jews, or both - are dehumanized by others.
Just as I ask straight allies to act against anti-LGBTQ hate, I’m asking non-Jewish allies now: speak up for us too.
Yes, it can be socially risky in progressive spaces to appear as if you’re supporting Israel in any way, even if it’s challenging against antisemitism and not defending Israeli government actions. I’ve paid the price for taking that risk myself.
But doing what’s right often requires being uncomfortable. It might save someone’s life, including mine.
History shows us what happens to everyone when a society ignores antisemitism. Jews get hurt, but the rest of the population suffers mightily, too.
It’s in your best interest to stop this scourge before it consumes us all.
You can make a difference. For starters, read and share resources that help people understand where criticism of Israel ends and antisemitism begins. Elevate voices of nuance and empathy from the many people and NGOs I list below.
Despite being only 2% of the country, we’re 7.5 million people. All but 14 states have smaller populations, the equivalent of Wyoming, Vermont, DC, Rhode Island, Alaska, the Dakotas, and Delaware combined. If you can humanize residents of those places (regardless of who they supported for president), you can with us, too.
We need you to speak up now.
You Don’t Get To Burn It Down If You’ve Never Built A Damn Thing, by Eric Ward
You are out here treating struggle like a spoken word night gone off the rails. Quoting Audre Lorde to justify war crimes. Invoking King while denying Jewish and Palestinian suffering. Using “decolonization” like a bludgeon with no vision for life after death.
Let’s be clear: the legacies of radical thought are not yours to cosplay.
We’ve buried mentors and friends who gave everything to this work. They held coalitions together across race, religion, class, and creed. They did not sacrifice for hashtags. They did not sacrifice so you could embrace nihilism.
This is not speaking truth to power. This is performance art for your echo chamber.
And it’s killing people.
Not every oppressed person becomes free by killing their neighbor.
American Jews: Turning Inward Won’t Make Us Safer
Receding from Jewish life or abandoning Jewish values that gave us meaning for generations won’t make us safer.
Are we really going to change who we are because of someone else?
Our fear is valid. It’s outrageous that we need armed guards and metal detectors at synagogues, community centers, and schools, yet still wonder if that’s enough.
But becoming insular and holding prejudice towards others won’t make us safer. The postwar Golden Age of American Jewish life thrived through shared values centered on strengthening democracy through coalition building, not isolationism.
We’re not as alone as we think.
A majority of American Jews Gen X and younger have non-Jewish partners and extended family. Given how very real antisemitism actually is, to paraphrase my late Bubby, it’s a miracle to have millions of folks partnering into the Jewish community.
Imagine taking the plunge of throwing your lot with us given the historical risk that comes with it. Yet they have, by the millions.
And all of us exist in America thanks to non-Jews who welcomed us, or at least viewed our ancestors as human enough to move here. Without it, even those us who converted would have never had exposure to Jewish life.
Social media distorts our world. Algorithms are designed to make us angry to increase engagement. It’s making us lose grip on reality.
The post-10/7 “Jewfluencers” and many establishment organizations have taken advantage of it, monetizing on our anger and fear, focusing on the worst incidents of antisemitism rooted in anti-Zionism (while ignoring any antisemitism when it comes from Trump/Netanyahu-aligned sources), making us feel like it’s anti-Zionist antisemitism everything everywhere all at once.
I’ve experienced this radicalization firsthand. Once at a Jewish event I ran for work last year, people kept screaming at me, “The whole world hates us! They want to throw us all into the sea. They want us dead.”
We were sitting in a fancy living room in Newport Beach.
If the claim was true, we wouldn’t have been sitting in that living room.
The flood of antisemitic posts and comments we see online? While huge volumes are bots deployed to instill fear and anger, too many are real. It especially hurts when they’re from people we know.
But that still doesn’t justify changing the core of who we are, nor letting ourselves fall for those preaching fearful, hateful scapegoating of others.
As we search for Jewish cultural, spiritual, and/or political homes, don’t fall prey to calls for “unity” that are designed to silence dissent about Israeli policy.
And we can’t sit idly by as our pain gets weaponized by Trump and the GOP. Shutting down schools, deporting people, and banning Muslims and nonwhite people won’t make us safer.
Circling the wagons with hardline litmus tests on Israel politics isn’t working. Our non-Jewish friends and allies (and more progressive children and grandchildren) will rightly see hypocrisy if we silence criticism.
Calling out the double standards on Israel only works when we don’t apply them ourselves. It builds space for us to welcome allies who want to stand by our side, but need the language and tools for nuanced debate modeled for them. Failing to do so only creates a bigger vacuum for antisemitism to spiral.
As Michael Koplow brilliantly wrote in his recent column, “We should not self-flagellate as victims of antisemitic violence, and we should also not refuse to admit that there is a causal effect between what happens in Gaza and what happens here.”
Let’s uplift the NGOs that build domestic coalitions rooted in shared values and refuse to let Israel drive drunk when its government’s policies amount to just that.
But no matter what our views are on Israeli government policies, we have every right to live openly and proudly as Jews without fear of violence. Yes, even rightwing Jews with views many of us may find bigoted and repugnant.
No matter what kind of Jew you are, you deserve to safely embrace Jewish life in its kaleidoscope of pathways, including positive relationships with Israel if that’s what sparks your soul.
We’ve got 5,785 years behind us and infinitely more ahead. You know the saying at our holidays: “They tried to kill us. They didn’t. Let’s eat.”
We’re angry. We’re afraid. And we’re not going anywhere. Am yisrael chai.
Improve Your Feeds
Cut through the extremist noise by adding these sources to your feeds, improve your algorithms, and spread healthy discourse.
Organizations:
Realign for Palestine: Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn
Jewish Council for Public Affairs: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok
Nexus Project: Instagram, Bluesky, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn
Jewish Democratic Council of America: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter
Israel Policy Forum: Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Israel Policy Pod
National Council of Jewish Women: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter
New Israel Fund: Instagram, Facebook, Groundworks Podcast (in partnership with ALLMEP)
Alliance for Middle East Peace: Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook
New Jewish Narrative: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Bluesky
People: