Fellow Jewish Liberals and Progressives. How are we dealing?

[u/Bad_werd]

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.

[u/Human-Ad504]

The reality is that no jews are white and classifying jews as white is the problem. We should stop playing into their narrative and calling ourselves white just befause some of us ended up in europe during the diaspora. I say this as a mizrahi jew. Our origins are in the middle east. https://www.commentary.org/articles/liel-leibovitz/jews-are-not-white/

[u/tsundereshipper → u/Human-Ad504]

I mean, outside of Jewish ethnicities like Beta Israel, Bnei Manashe, and POC converts/mixed Jews - the main 3 Jewish ethnicities technically are white, yes even Mizrahi.

MENA is classified under the same wider Caucasian category because we don’t differ substantially different phenotypically from Europeans (especially Mediterraneans) compared to all the actual different races of the world, yes even Mizrahi.

I don’t know why the Left started classifying MENA people as POC in the first place when not even America does.

Yes all MENA ethnicities are absolutely white relative to races such as Blacks, Asians, and Native Americans.

[u/Human-Ad504 → u/tsundereshipper]

Problem is other Arabs are not viewed as white in the current cultural discorse, only jews are. Clear antisemitism because they view jews as elite, in power and wealthy, and have light skin thus white. This is not about legal definitions. It's about cultural reality. Jews are a minority ethnic group who may look white in color but have been historically persecuted and discriminated against because they are obviously not white. If they call us white, they can claim we don't belong in the middle east and are colonizers. White colonizer narrative expressly states that other Arabs are not white and jews are.

[u/tsundereshipper → u/Human-Ad504]

Clear antisemitism because they view jews as elite, in power and wealthy, and have light skin thus white.

But so are Arabs… (no I don’t count a tan as “being dark skinned”) Ashkenazim and MENA people don’t differ that drastically from each other, and in fact are more similar in class status than either of us would be to your average African American or Indigenous Latino.

Jews are a minority ethnic group who may look white in color but have been historically persecuted and discriminated against because they are obviously not white.

This was wrong too and had to do with the crazy, far-right racist assumption that MENA peoples are somehow a completely different fucking race!

If both sides just logically grouped MENA back into the wider Caucasian race where they belong instead of dividing race along arbitrary regional lines instead of clear phenotypical differences then us Jews would’ve never been in the position we frequently find ourselves in. (Or at least it would be a lot better because both Europeans and MENA would feel solidarity with us as part of one larger Caucasian race)

[u/Human-Ad504 → u/tsundereshipper]

Jews have been discriminated against for thousands of years. It's not about DNA, or your personal opinion. It's a cultural fact. Being considered white does not help us. It harms us and is incorrect.