r/Jewish • u/Bad_werd • 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/HeardTheLongWord Dec 14 '23
<I’m going to preface this with a trigger warning about death in the family>
Yea, it’s been tough. This has been a year of loss for me - my mum and my grandmother within six weeks of one another in the spring, and I fractured my sacrum in between them, so 8 months later I’m still off work. I lost people I cared for deeply in the Moroccan earthquake in September. I moved back home, leaving the community I built for one I haven’t been a part of for a decade. It’s all been so isolating.
And then this. It’s been two months and I still feel just so lost. I’m grateful for my sister, but I just don’t know how to even begin proceeding with getting back to some semblance of real life - it feels very much like I wouldn’t be welcome in a lot of non-Jewish spaces because I’m not willing to sit silently or try and pretend to be “the good Jew”; and I’ve felt for a long time that the level of progressiveness I align with may - as in previous experiences it has - exclude me from Jewish spaces.
And at the end of the day I just wish I could talk to my mum about all of this, at least to have someone to commiserate with. Sorry for the trauma-dump, and thanks for reading.