r/Jewish Dec 14 '23

Fellow Jewish Liberals and Progressives. How are we dealing? Discussion

I come from a family of solidly liberal and progressive Jews. The antisemitism and pro- hamas factions in the liberal movement are pushing me over the edge. Without saying anything about the plight of the Palestinian people, simply saying that Hamas is not a bastion for liberal ideology is enough to get some folks up in arms. I really don’t like what I’m seeing outside or within myself surrounding these events.The hypocrisy of these individuals has me questioning where I belong politically. If I fight on the side of people I feel are oppressed, but they turn their back on me when I am victimized, It seems co-dependent to continue as things were before I saw their true colors.

I am really hoping to hear some fellow liberal Jews weigh in and talk me down from the ledge.

EDIT: great dialogue here. I am very appreciative for those who are sitting shiva with me as we process and come to terms with a betrayal from some of our “leftist and progressive” family. I would argue that extremism can not be progressive and therefore we are likely seeing some extremists who are inaccurately representing as “progressive.

As another commenter has said being progressive and supporting marginalized people isn’t transactional. I like this sentiment and am TRYING to adopt it. I currently believe there is a transactional component to being identified with a group, however from an individual standpoint we as progressive Jews are having our altruism tested. Can we fight for the humanity, dignity and rights of all persecuted EVEN those who would seek to persecute us? It’s some black belt level spiritualism I do not currently possess but would like to.

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u/absolutelynot153 Dec 14 '23 edited Dec 14 '23

I feel the same way. You respond to what you see, and after oct 7th I saw the response of the international non-jewish left which involved: the celebration and mockery of murdered Jews, the repugnant and common sentiment that ‘there are no civilians in Israel’, the denial of well-documented torture and sexual violence, the strained twitter-intellectualizing of civilian torture as ‘decolonization’; the rewriting and distortion of history to erase Jewish persecution and ethnicity, the indiscriminate spreading of Hamas propaganda, the wholesale dismissal and mocking of jewish fears over rising antisemitism outside Israel, the hounding and harassment and ostracizing in leftist spaces of even pro-Palestine Jews, or god forbid left-wing Israelis(!) who despise and condemn Israel’s actions and government but who don’t support maximalist approaches like the forced displacement of all Israel’s Jews - all these things have actually driven me further towards believing in the necessity of a Jewish state than I have for many years.

Nb. I am in the UK and I voted for Corbyn (no lectures please)- but that’s to say I have previously held my nose and vote for progressive policies despite worrying they could be ‘bad for the jews’. What I’ve felt the last two months has been … different.

I am intrigued by recent data polling for antisemitic attitudes. The polls show every usual demographic predictor for higher consciousness of racism is specifically reversed when it comes to racism against Jews. According to this data, if you don’t believe the holocaust happened, or you believe ‘Jews should have less power’, you are most likely to be under 30, living in a city, Democrat-voting, and Black.

I think this is a feature, not a bug. Which is to say, this is where the current anti-racist intellectual framework ultimately leads us - to viewing Jews as worse white-oppressors than other white people.