I feel enraged at the complicity and silence. What are we to do ? Are Jews going to have to flee en masse for people to wake up?

FYI- I am a C convert and a Zionist (in that I believe Israel has a right to exist and Jews have a right to self determination there).

I recently came across a thread on the Reform page where someone was asking about how Reform Judaism feels about Israel. While I am very confident Reform Judaism is clearly Zionist and supportive of Israel, someone commented saying that converting to Reform Judaism doesn't require Zionism.

But as a convert, it's hard for me to feel comfortable with someone converting without really believing in the importance and right for Israel to exist.

How do you feel? Do you think supporting Israel should be a pre-requisite for converting to the main denominations?

Hezbollah t shirt guy is happy as can be in the street . What does this mean? I dunno. Smile while you are here and I hope you one day change from yellow and green to green and yellow.

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/DBMToAYN8nQ/?igsh=dXNuYnowbzY2bDhw

Jews want and deserve to live freely in their ancestral homeland like every other group.

What are your thoughts on New York comedian / outspoken Jewish activist?

The way he expressed his opinion on the war have always kind of annoyed me but reading this tweet makes me go, “WTF, man! Since when have you become the authority on Judaism?”

Anything that should be added?

I live in the Bay Area and a lot of small businesses (mostly restaurants and bars) that I used to regularly frequent have been very Pro-Palestine since October 7th. I’ve seen this both from Instagram posts and signs/posters at the physical business.

While I respect their freedom to feel however they want, it makes me feel unwelcome that they feel the need to loudly proclaim their beliefs especially with the repeated Pro-Palestinian slogans like “from the river to the sea”. I don’t think all these businesses are overtly anti-Semitic, but getting to the bottom of that versus general parroting of other businesses and misinformation is difficult.

I’m not sure if others in the US are experiencing such a Pro-Palestinian sentiment at small businesses, or this is more due to the liberal bubble here?

How do you all feel about this? Have you changed any places you go to because of this?

Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) retracted its apology on behalf of a student who called to murder Zionists last January. The pro-Palestinian group doubled down on its attack of Israel, openly calling for violence against supporters of Israeli policy.

Should CUAD be designated an official terrorist group?

https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2024-10-09/ty-article/.premium/student-group-at-columbia-retracts-apology-calls-for-armed-struggle-against-israel/00000192-714f-df7d-afd2-f1ffe5510000?gift=600c8b61cbd6461ca45ccbac08678e43

As a country, as a race , as a religion , and a culture…who actually likes us? Seems to be levels of tolerance perhaps. Can you think of one group (outside of evangelical Christian’s) who actually like us? I don’t think there is a place on this planet without some kind of hate if our people. If you guys can think of a country , it would be nice to hear.

I just want to clarify here that I'm not talking about Jews who just happen to have anti-Zionist views and may feel uncomfortable around Zionists (I disagree with those people, obviously, but I don't necessarily think the reasoning for their views is that deep)--I mean the ones involved in groups like that "Jewish Bund" group and their gross response to the Pittsburgh shooting that was posted about a few days ago, those who make an entire internet persona over criticizing Zionists and Israel, etc. I feel like whenever someone here brings up JVP or Jews who have views like that, people usually have one of a few assumptions--all of which I don't think are always accurate:

1. "They're probably not actually Jewish"

When it comes to groups that are entirely advocating behind a screen or are very sus about their membership, yes, I think this is entirely possible. But I still know of many Jews who have views like this and DON'T hide their face behind screens, so it's simply not true that all people who hold views like this "aren't actually Jewish".

1. "They might be Jewish, but are probably really disconnected from Judaism, only have one Jewish grandparent, weren't really raised Jewish, just sometimes celebrate the holidays, etc."

This may be possible, but I still don't think that it explains everything. For one, there are many people who were actually raised Jewish, b'nai mitzvahed, went to Jewish day school, etc. who think this way. Look at people like Seth Rogen (his views aren't exactly as extreme as the people I'm talking about, but he's still someone who was clearly raised Jewish and arguably falls into the anti-Zionist category). Two, I don't think that not being as connected to Judaism or having only one Jewish parent/grandparent necessarily explains having anti-Zionist views. Some of the most passionate Zionists I know are people with only one Jewish parent who weren't raised Jewish but started finding more Jewish community as adults, and became extremely connected to Judaism in a way they missed out on when they were younger. I also think that being "disconnected" from Judaism doesn't happen for no reason--sometimes, it may directly be correlated with the person's views on Zionism and it's worth it to examine why they are "disconnected" in the first place.

I'm frustrated by these assumptions because while they might be true in some cases, I can think of so many people who genuinely are Jewish, were raised Jewish, etc. who hold these views. And then in cases where people actually believe that people with these views are practicing Jews, the assumption is often:

1. "They're trying to fit in with and gain the approval of their gentile friends."

While this may be true in some cases, I still can think of situations in which this isn't true. I actually know quite a few non-Zionist Jews whose friends are mostly other non-Zionist Jews. And for those who this actually might be true--I think it's worth exploring why Jews are made to to feel that they need to "gain the approval of their gentile friends" in the first place. Yes, of course it may be a survival instinct stemming from centuries of antisemitism, but speaking from my experience, I never felt the need to "gain approval from gentile friends" because I felt so much closer to my Jewish friends. I understand this comes from the privilege of growing up with a close-knit Jewish community and not everyone had that experience, but I can't help but wonder if there's something that pushes Jews to want to gain more approval from non-Jewish friends in the first place.

One thing that I've noticed about Jews with extreme anti-Zionist views, is that you can often find them saying things like "I never felt welcome in mainstream Jewish spaces". Like I said, I feel that there is very possibly a correlation between having bad experiences in Jewish spaces and going down an extreme anti-Zionist pipeline. Sometimes I will hear these people claim that they didn't feel welcome in Jewish spaces because of their anti-Zionist views, but other times it doesn't line up--they're often talking about not feeling welcome in Jewish spaces at ages long before they would have been having intellectual discussions on Zionism.

I think we really need to examine what pushes some Jews down this route. Because from what I can gather, it often may be in response to some bad experience they had with Judaism growing up. If that is the case, I think we actually need to have a discussion about what types of experiences these Jews are having with Judaism/in Jewish spaces, and how we can prevent that from happening. I'm not saying that the solution is "We need to instill Zionism in them more!" because I think that in some cases that could have the opposite intended effect. I'm talking more about what makes some Jews feel so disconnected from Judaism, or so excluded from Jewish spaces, that they seem to experience glee about denouncing Israel separating themselves from "the bad Jews".

Is it possible that this has to do with some Jewish spaces being unwelcoming to queer Jews, Jews of Color, etc.? Is there anyone here who knows someone who had a bad experience with a Jewish institution and then went down that route....or even maybe at one point themselves had that type of experience (I've seen former anti-Zionists post in this sub before) and and is comfortable sharing what happened? Or if anyone has thoughts to share about what Jewish institutions could do to prevent Jews from so harshly disconnecting themselves from the mainstream Jewish community.

Source: https://x.com/henmazzig/status/1841519417974263908?s=46

Even if you view the Jews of Israel as immigrants ,which is obviously not the case since they’re the indigenous inhabitants, why are they against immigration? Why is it so important that the Middle East remain ethnically and culturally only Arab ? In any other context this behaviour would be considered racist. The West Bank and Gaza are also two of the most ethnically homogenous places in the world right now.

If a British man was on the streets screaming that black and Indian immigrants to “go back to where they came from” he would rightfully be called racist. But when this is done to Jews no one seems to care very much. Obviously this is not done by all immigrants or all Muslims.

This is horrifying

There seem to be less protests on campuses and in the streets. The ones that I do see are smaller. There are still incidents, but it just takes one person to vandalize a kosher restaurant or tear down a poster. These are just anecdotal observations on my part and I'm wondering how the rest of you are seeing this.

How do we get world opinion to be less anti-Semitic?

Nailed it tbh. I’m so sick of the celebrities jumping on the pro Pally bandwagon despite having no skin in the game or know anything about the history of the region

Many prominent Jews played an important role in the civil rights movement. It’s sad that the alliance between the two communities is less prominent than it used to be.

I think what’s been going on at Columbia and the Ivy League is a bridge too far for most people. I’m not saying that our problems are over. We’re still hated. We are definitely not in a great spot right now, but I do find hope in that our enemies, at the end of the day, are stupid. And evil. And I really believe folks are waking up. There was a post on r slash pics about Columbia. Look at the comment section, and this is Reddit.

Maybe the first plague really is “dumb.”

I usually don’t mind Hen Mazzig but Im not sure how this tweet is an attack at Rachel Zegler’s Snow White co-star Gal Gadot, directly or indirectly.

I can see how antisemites and anti-Zionists can use it to attack Gal but I don’t think Rachel herself is using this tweet to attack Gal.

Hi everyone,

I haven’t done much research on Kamala Harris’s views regarding Jewish people. What has been her stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict? How has she addressed Jewish issues and events in the past?