For many American Jews protesting for the Palestinians, activism is a journey rooted of their Jewish values

In April 2024, during Passover, a bunch of American rabbis approached a border crossing in Israel. Attached to Rabbis for TruceThe group joined Jewish Israeli activists who were attempting to deliver food to the population of the Gaza Strip.

Seven months had passed because the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 and the following Israeli attack on Gaza.

One of the American rabbis told reporters from Democracy Now! that this was the one way she could imagine to rejoice Passover, a vacation that celebrates the history of liberation from oppression and slavery. Marching to the gates of Gaza with food for ravenous Palestinians was in step with the Passover commandment to ask the hungry to each table.

As of April 2, 62% of America was Jewish consider Israel responded “acceptably” to the Hamas attack. But amongst U.S. Jews ages 18 to 34, that support drops to 52%, with 42% saying Israel's response is “unacceptable,” in response to a Pew Research Center poll.

Many of those young individuals are involved in various Jewish organizations which have been mobilizing for a ceasefire since October, resembling IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace. Public attention focused on the protests on campus, through which many Jewish students participated – I’m a member Faculty of Justice in Palestinewhich was formed in response to concerns concerning the freedom of expression of US students mobilizing for Palestinian rights.

But a peace and non secular scholarI do know that the involvement of some US Jews in Palestinian solidarity movements began years before the present war. ethnographic researchThe activists emphasized that they were inspired to act due to their Jewish identity and values, not regardless of them.

Journey to Activism

Many respondents got here to activism for Palestinian rights after fighting the best way to reconcile their beliefs and ideals with the truth of Israeli policies that they don’t support – policies they are saying are sometimes carried out of their name is cited.

My book 2019“Days of Awe” examines American Jewish critics of Israeli policies and Zionism – support for a Jewish state within the Middle East. Some activists have focused on the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967, which they see as a departure from the country's ideals as a Jewish democracy. Others strongly disagreed with the concept of ​​Zionism, because the creation of the brand new state required the expulsion of the Palestinians.

Their activism has taken different forms: from protests within the West Bank against the occupation to Formation of anti-Zionist synagogues within the United States to rewrite Jewish liturgy to reflect solidarity with Palestinians and other oppressed people.

For example, an interviewee in his mid-20s recounted an experience from a Birthright trip to Israel in 2008, a free tour designed to strengthen young Americans' connection to the country. The trip coincided with Operation Cast Lead. in Gaza, which lasted about three weeks and resulted in a couple of dozen Israeli deaths, about 1,400 Palestinian deaths And Thousands of individuals were displaced.

A tour guide was reluctant to reply the young man's questions on the conflict, prompting the coed to examine it after returning to campus within the United States Palestinian experiences with the Nakba – meaning “catastrophe” in Arabic – of 1948, the 12 months the State of Israel was founded, when a whole bunch of 1000’s of Palestinians were expelled from their land or fled.

This respondent and others say their journey toward activism began because their understanding of Jewish values ​​didn’t align with what Israel was doing within the name of Jewish security. It has also been a journey of “unlearning” or criticism – difficult narratives that emphasize the concept of Jewish return to Israel or downplay Palestinian displacement.

They drew on Jewish tradition in recent ways—what I call “critical care.”

Take IfNotNow, an American Jewish group that opposes Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories. The movement was born through the 2014 Israel-Hamas war, when a bunch of young Jews organized a public recitation the Kaddish of the mournersthe Jewish funeral prayer. By reciting the names of each Jewish and Palestinian victims, they hoped to make use of Jewish tradition to counter the devaluation of Palestinian lives.

When I asked Rebekah – a pseudonym for a student within the American South who I interviewed for my book – how she understood her Jewishnessshe told me, “I always maintained that the foundation of my activism was my Jewish ideals, the radical equality that I had absorbed at home.”

Shadow of history

For Rebekah and lots of other American Jews, the cultural memory of the Holocaust and the common refrain of “Never again” inspires their activism for Palestinian rights.

“When you grow up in Hebrew schools, you grow up watching the nightmarish Holocaust films,” she emphasized. “The conclusion of this training should have been clear: 'You can't do that to another group of people!'”

This lesson is reflected within the cry: “Never again to anyone“, has been heard at demonstrations in recent months.

Another interviewee also claimed this their solidarity with the Palestinians relies on the legacy of the Holocaust: “It was difficult for me to understand the Holocaust because it was so enormous – it happened because many people made a conscious decision not to do anything. I didn't want to do anything.”

For these respondents, discriminatory or violent measures contradict their understanding of Jewish values, which they assert through their solidarity with the Palestinians.

Another interviewee told me: “I consider myself a spiritual Jew. I can separate Zionism from Judaism and believe in equality. Because I am Jewish, I protest – I am shaped by humanistic values, which form the main framework for my organization. The experience of doing solidarity work actually strengthened my Jewish identity. … My Judaism is reflected in my commitment to upholding universal humanistic values.”

Here and now

In 2017, several dozen Americans met with other activists within the southern hills of Hebron, within the West Bank. She founded a so-called “Sumud” camp – a Palestinian concept meaning steadfastness – to protest the Israeli military’s decision to declare the world a “closed military zone,” meaning Palestinians must leave the world.

The activists wore T-shirts that read “Occupation is not my Judaism.” They say the occupation dehumanizes Palestinians and Jews alike – which is why in addition they seek their very own liberation. Therefore, their “critical care” is just not nearly highlighting what Judaism is just not. It's also about rewriting what they consider Judaism is.

Many of those organizations The Role of Decentralized Zionism in Jewish Texts and Liturgies. Instead of emphasizing the concept that the “Jewish homeland” lies within the historical region of Palestine and Israel, some emphasize “doykayt.””, Yiddish for “hereness”: the concept that the true homeland of Jews is anywhere on the earth.

Doykayt is only one example of how these activists are embracing often ignored points of Jewish history, including marginalized voices like Arab Jews and Ethiopian Jews, while discovering recent ways to live their Jewish values. Through their activism, they seek to convey their understanding that Jews can’t be free until the Palestinians are free.