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

(The Conversation) — In April 2024, all thru Passover, a community of American rabbis approached a border crossing in Israel. Affiliated with Rabbis for Ceasefirethe community joined Jewish Israeli activists attempting to carry meals to Gazans.

It had been seven months since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, assault and Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza.

Among the American rabbis suggested reporters at Democracy Now! that this changed into once the one map she might perchance perchance imagine marking Passover, a vacation that celebrates the story of liberation from oppression and slavery. Marching to the gates of Gaza with meals for ravenous Palestinians changed into once per Passover’s crucial to ask the hungry to every table.

As of April 2, 62% of American Jews imagine Israel has responded to Hamas’ assault in an “acceptable” map. Yet that give a take to drops to 52% amongst U.S. Jews ages 18-34, with 42% asserting Israel’s response has been “unacceptable,” in step with Pew Study Center polling.

Many of those young folk are fervent on the range of Jewish organizations which have mobilized for a finish-fire since October, equivalent to IfNotNow and Jewish Advise for Peace. Public consideration has smitten by campus protests, which integrated many Jewish college students – I am a member of College for Justice in Palestinewhich formed in accordance with concerns about freedom of speech for U.S. college students mobilizing for Palestinian rights.

However as a peace and religion studentI do know that some U.S. Jews’ involvement in Palestinian harmony movements began years sooner than essentially the most traditional warfare. In my ethnographic researchwhich integrated in-depth interviews and participant commentary work, activists emphasised that they were impressed to behave as a result of their Jewish identity and values, now not in spite of them.

Crawl toward activism

Many interviewees came to activism for Palestinian rights after wrestling with the correct technique to sq. their beliefs and beliefs with the actuality of Israeli insurance policies they attain now not give a take to – insurance policies that they in actuality feel are most continuously invoked of their identify.

My 2019 e book“Days of Apprehension,” examines American Jewish critics of Israeli coverage and Zionism – give a take to for a Jewish dispute within the Center East. Some activists smitten by the Palestinian territories Israel has occupied since 1967, which they take into narrative a departure from the nation’s beliefs as a Jewish democracy. Others figured out themselves in complete difference with the root of Zionism, given how the appearance of the recent dispute necessitated Palestinian displacement.

Their activism has taken diversified shapes: from protests within the West Bank in opposition to the occupation, to forming anti-Zionist synagogues within the U.S., to rewriting Jewish liturgy to copy harmony with Palestinians and other oppressed folk.

As an instance, one interviewee in his mid-20s shared an experience from a 2008 Birthright day hunch to Israel, a free tour designed to make stronger young Americans’ reference to the nation. The day hunch coincided with Operation Solid Lead in Gaza, which lasted about three weeks and resulted in a pair of dozen Israeli deaths, approximately 1,400 Palestinian deaths and hundreds of folk displaced.

A tour handbook changed into once reluctant to answer to the young man’s questions about the battle. This introduced about the coed, upon his return to campus within the U.S., to study the Palestinian experiences of the Nakba – meaning “Catastrophe” in Arabic – of 1948, the year the dispute of Israel changed into once established, when a complete bunch of hundreds of Palestinians were compelled off their lands or fled.

This interviewee and others sigh their journeys toward activism began because their thought of Jewish values changed into once inconsistent with what Israel changed into once doing within the identify of Jews’ security. It changed into once additionally a walk of “unlearning” or critique – keen narratives that emphasize the thought that of Jewish return to Israel or that downplay Palestinian displacement.

They were tapping into Jewish custom in recent ways – what I discuss over with as “severe caretaking.”

Grab IfNotNow, an American Jewish community in opposition to Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories. The motion changed into once born all thru the 2014 Israel-Hamas Battle, when a community of young Jews organized a public recitation of the mourner’s kaddishthe Jewish prayer for the unnecessary. By reciting both Jewish and Palestinian victims’ names, they hoped to employ Jewish custom to mission the devaluation of Palestinian lives.

After I asked Rebekah – a pseudonym for a college student within the American South whom I interviewed for my e book – how she understood her Jewishnessshe suggested me: “I in actuality have in any appreciate times maintained that the premise for my activism changed into once my Jewish beliefs, the unconventional equality I had absorbed at home.”

Shadow of historical past

For Rebekah and many other American Jews, the cultural reminiscence of the Holocaust, and the novel chorus “By no methodology All all over again,” conjures up their activism for Palestinian rights.

“Rising up in Hebrew faculties, you grow up with the nightmarish Holocaust films,” she stressed out. “The conclusion of this training might perchance perchance also honest peaceful had been sure: ‘It’s seemingly you’ll perchance be in a procure 22 situation to’t attain it to another community of folk!’”

This lesson is reflected within the bawl “By no methodology again to anybody,” heard at demonstrations over the final few months.

One other interviewee likewise asserted that her harmony with Palestinians is grounded within the legacy of the Holocaust: “For me, thought the Holocaust changed into once laborious as a result of the enormity of it – it took place because loads of folk made a wide awake decision to achieve nothing. I didn’t have to achieve nothing.”

For these interviewees, discriminatory or violent insurance policies contradict their thought of Jewish values, which they suppose by standing in harmony with Palestinians.

One other interviewee suggested me: “I maintain in thoughts myself a non secular Jew. I am in a procure 22 situation to separate Zionism from Judaism and I imagine in equality. On narrative of I am Jewish, I sing – I am told by values of humanism, which is the fundamental framework for organizing. The experience of doing harmony work in actuality bolstered my Jewish identity. … My Judaism interprets into my commitment to uphold universal humanist values.”

Here and now

In 2017, loads of dozen Americans gathered with other activists within the southern hills of Hebron, within the West Bank. They established what they known as a “sumud” camp – a Palestinian thought denoting steadfastness – to sing the Israeli militia’s decision to content the space a “closed militia zone,” meaning Palestinians must roam away.

The activists wore shirts exclaiming “Occupation is Not My Judaism.” Occupation, they are saying, dehumanizes Palestinians and Jews alike – so that they are within the hunt for their maintain liberation, too. Consequently of this fact, their “severe caretaking” is now not comely about underscoring what Judaism is now not. It’s additionally about rewriting what they imagine Judaism is.

As an instance, various these organizations decenter Zionism’s unbiased in Jewish texts and liturgies. In procure 22 situation of emphasizing the root that the “Jewish home” is within the historical draw of Palestine and Israel, some emphasize “doykayt,” Yiddish for “hereness”: the thought that that Jews’ superb house is wherever they are on this planet.

Doykayt is comely one instance of how these activists embrace most continuously-overpassed aspects of Jewish historical past, including marginalized voices equivalent to Arab Jews and Ethiopian Jews, as they sight recent ways to live their Jewish values. By their activism, they are attempting to carry their thought that Jews cannot be free except Palestinians are free.

(Atalia Omer, Professor of Religion, Battle and Peace Reports, College of Notre Dame. The views expressed in this commentary attain now not necessarily replicate those of Religion Facts Provider.)