“Convincing people not to be Zionist is not the work that Palestinian people should be forced to do. Debating your right to existence and trying to meet someone who doesn't believe in your human rights and your life with love is not your job. As Jewish folks, that's where we fit in.”
What is your group's objective? And why did it start?
We started end of March of this year. Post October seventh, there has been a lot more intense Zionism from mainstream Jewish institutions. Though it has always been there, it's suddenly become a lot more suffocating and inescapable. We were in this place of struggling to practice Judaism and experience community, in a place that felt safe and aligned with our values. We don't need mainstream Jewish organizations that are aligning themselves with violence, the militarized nation-state, and genocide. We can build a meaningful Jewish community with each other wherever we are, and that process has been really beautiful, and really wonderful.
There is such a deep hurt when we watch all of these people that we are supposedly in community with, say openly really terrible racist, warmongering, genocidal things. Here, we are coming together and saying our Judaism is not that. We're reclaiming that space, and reclaiming culture and community. And centering justice and Palestinian Liberation in our Judaism in a way that feels authentic, real, and alive. Our objective is to reclaim our spaces and our practices from Zionism. Zionism has perverted Judaism in a lot of ways. We want to recenter the core values of Judaism, like the central value of Tikkun Olam, which means to repair the world or putting good into the world.
Can you talk about the work you’ve done at the Liberated Zone for Gaza (the Palestine Solidarity encampment at Queens)?
When everything started on Friday, May 10th, we showed up in solidarity with the all-day protest. And then we were just like, oh, well, it's Friday. And we're here in the community, showing up as Jewish people. So we might as well do Shabbat. So we picked up supplies and did a quick impromptu Shabbat, and shared Challah and blessings with our friends and community members.
It was a really beautiful experience to do that in the community. We've been here most days since, we set up some of the first tents that went up, and we've attended workshops and teach-ins, we've taken night watch shifts when we are able, and we've helped with breakfast and coffee. We've been around and helping with things as we can, and we camp and are here as bodies. We did Shabbat this week as well. We prepared discussion questions, lit candles, brought enough “wine” (juice) for everyone, brought bread, and did the three big prayers with and for anyone who wanted to be a part of it.
And I think in many ways for us as a collective, being here in this physical space, doing the work or just being bodies, bodies in bringing supplies and things like that feels like doing the work of Tikkun Olam. It's a way of enacting and standing on our principles. Because for us solidarity isn't just something we say or talk about, it's something we strive to enact in practice. Last Friday we did the mourner's kaddish at the vigil for the murdered scholars in Gaza, because we want to extend our Jewish rituals, our mourning practices, and our community gatherings, to include the people and things that are important to us. And right now, that is Palestine and the people organizing for Palestine solidarity.
So I know of a few other small anti-Zionist Jewish organizations. Have you guys worked with them at all?
Yes! We're friends of the local Independent Jewish Voices chapter - a group that organizes for Jewish solidarity with Palestine. They have been doing the work of being Jewish allies in Kingston for a very long time. They are the folks that often cosign and co-organize many of the rallies downtown, and have speakers on behalf of local anti-Zionist Jews. They participated in one of the first things we did with Alt Jews, which were a few closed events for anti-Zionist Jewish folks, because we were like, how do we make it less intimidating to get in a room together? Right now it is so stigmatized and alienating from mainstream Judaism to say out loud that you're an anti-Zionist Jew. It’s been really beautiful coming together with people from vastly different lived experiences, and relationships to Judaism, cultures, and practices.
Who are your constituents or core demographic?
Jewish folks who feel aligned with the values of anti-Zionism, anti-genocide, anti-war, and anti-racism. A lot of our members are also queer and trans. And I think as we grow, we're hoping to involve Israel-critical Jews. We want to start educating people about anti-Zionism. And then we’re moving more into solidarity work as well. So our Shabbat was not just for Jewish folks, it was for everyone who wanted to be part of this practice. We're inviting folks to share space with us, talk about values, and be part of practice. Judaism is so co-opted by Zionism, that it feels really important to be showing up as Jewish folks to say this is not who we are and
this is not what our practice is.
What is the biggest challenge for your group right now?
I think the ongoing challenge is finding people. Zionist Jewish organizations are huge, well-funded organizations, they have full-time staff members who are paid to do organizing and they have a monolith over the community. The main challenges are finding and connecting with more people and getting people informed that we exist as a justice-oriented alternative. There is a Jewish community for anti-Zionist Jews and we want you to be part of it.
What has your group accomplished? And why are you proud to be part of it?
I think we've accomplished beginning to find our people, and I've accomplished feeling a new connection to Judaism. I feel like we have reached people and people have shared with us that it is meaningful, what we have created. We had a Passover Seder and that felt like a big deal because we were able to talk about liberation, not just the historic liberation of Jewish people from Mitzrayim but about hoping and fighting for the liberation of Palestinian people today. Alt Jews is a community outside of Zionism, and it's beautiful, celebratory, and life-giving.
One of the things that felt like a huge accomplishment was the Shabbat we hosted on Friday in the encampment. We were able to facilitate critical conversations about what being Jewish right now means, and what Jewish values mean, even with a lot of folks who weren't Jewish. Being able to engage in those types of conversations, share values that resonated with other folks too, and to share space in the Liberated Zone felt magical and transformative.
Famously Jewish people are supposed to question, debate, and critically engage with our theological texts, practices, and cultures. So why wouldn't we engage critically with Jewish Zionism? Why wouldn't we say this doesn't sit right with me? That it doesn't align with my values as a person and as a Jewish person specifically?
How do you handle fractures in your community specifically as anti-Zionist Jewish people? How do you move forward from that?
I think there's a lot of grief. Both because as people who care about people's lives and care about Palestine, it's deeply surreal. We're grieving the mass loss of Palestinian life every day. But at the same time, there's grief about the future of mainstream Jewish society that is so invested in Zionism. Because we believe that everyone has the potential to change and grow. Many of us in Alt Jews have had complicated relationships with Zionism in the past and went through huge processes of unlearning. It's possible and it's necessary for us to move forward. It’s also difficult to decide where to put our time and energy: do we try to convince fence-sitters critical of Israel to become anti-Zionists and care about the humanity of others? Or do we spend most of our time contributing to more tangible actions for Palestine like working at the encampment or at protests?
There is a lot of Jewish trauma, especially in the generation above us about the Holocaust. So it is so hard for folks, I think, to let go of the State of Israel as a promised safe place in a world that feels unsafe. It's deeply hard to have those conversations; I don't want to sit here and debate other people's humanity with you. But we are in a position where we are deeply, deeply privileged. We are shielded from the majority of anti-Semitism claims because we're Jewish, and shielded from racism because we're white. Convincing people not to be Zionist is not the work that Palestinian people should be forced to do. Debating your right to existence and trying to meet someone who doesn't believe in your human rights and your life with love is not your job. As Jewish folks, that's where we fit in.
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