AIPAC is the closest the Jewish community comes to endorsing and participating in blood sports. The first one takes place in the Verizon Center, which turns into an enormous Roman Colosseum, complete with political gladiators. But, instead of fighting each other with swords or tridents, they battle for the love and adulation of the crowd with applause lines, tossing piece after bloody piece of red meat to the fawning masses. The politicians feed off the cheers while AIPAC participants gnaw on the steaks.

But the other blood sport that AIPAC inspires takes place in Mt. Vernon Square, right outside the convention center. Yearly, a protest contingent inevitably appears, fully equipped with signs calling for a Palestinian state from the river to the sea, accusing Israel of war crimes and genocide, and reminding everyone that Zionism=Racism. Traditionally made up of far-right Islamists and far-left activists, with a few members of Neturei Karta thrown in for good measure, they merge with people protesting the Occupation to form an angry mob, only held at bay by the police and the enormous glass windows of the convention center. AIPAC participants, looking through the panes that separate them from their antagonists, treat this spectacle with the special sense of bravado that comes from a noxious mixture of self-righteousness and sturdy walls.

It was into this combative and troubled climate that I made my way, a volunteer for one of the organizations presenting at AIPAC. Last year, my first chance to attend the AIPAC Policy Conference, I jumped at the chance to watch presidential candidates pander to me, even if I didn’t necessarily agree with their positions. (As a New York liberal, the only chance I get to see a presidential candidate locally would be at the $10,000-a-head dinners in NYC when the candidate needs money to go down to Iowa, Ohio, or Florida and genuflect to those more strategic voters.) And it was quite a year to attend, surrounded by Trumpian drama and completed by the thundering applause he received for his ability to complete full sentences, read off a teleprompter, and hit at every frustration that the audience had with the past eight Obama years. I had floor seats to the American-Jewish community’s mass dereliction of duty, as they provided a standing ovation to a xenophobic white nationalist, simply because he echoed their talking points at that particular moment. Needless to say, it was not the Jewish community’s finest hour.

This year, I declined to attend the general sessions. The meat being thrown to the crowds this year was going to be rancid and the rhetoric either inflammatory or stale. It was preordained by the results of the election, the state of the American and Israeli democracies, and the hyper-partisan environment that was already infecting U.S.-Israel relations. I couldn’t bear to be in the same stadium with members of the administration, let alone watch my fellow landsmen fawn over the emissaries of a fascist.

But my discomfort extended beyond the speeches at the Verizon Center, and into the oft-repeated critiques of AIPAC’s role in implicitly enabling the continuation of the Occupation through silence and legitimizing the activities of two race-baiting right-wing heads of state through an unstoppable commitment to bipartisanship and an immovable rejection of any criticism of Israeli government policies. This wasn’t an organization that could speak for me or represented my views on Israel, Palestine, and the U.S.-Israel relationship in the way I would want. While I believe firmly in their mission, a stronger U.S.-Israel relationship, I continue to remain concerned about the detritus left by the wayside as AIPAC pursues its goal.

In an attempt to cleanse my palate, and perhaps to seek a morsel of absolution for my sin of association, I traveled beyond the confines of the convention center to the demonstration developing outside, where I knew that a different type of protest was brewing. This year, Mt. Vernon Sq. was emptier than usual, and almost exclusively controlled by IfNotNow, the scrappy upstarts of the Jewish world, who chose that spot to plant their flags (specifically Palestinian flags, from what I could see), and once again do battle against the gigantic institutions of the Jewish world. Shouting for an end to the occupation, striving to link the Jews inside to the historically unpopular Trump Administration, and summoning up a facet of the values they were taught in youth groups and religious school, the IfNotNow protests of Sunday afternoon sought a greater recognition that AIPAC and its support for the Occupation doesn’t represent all American Jews. (As if any statement could be agreed upon by every Jew in America. There’s even an anti-chicken soup contingent out there.)

I waded into this crowd of happy warriors, who were singing traditional Jewish songs I knew (albeit with unfamiliar melodies,) but my level of anxiety didn’t recede. I had only found the opposite side of the spectrum, AIPAC’s rhetorical counterbalance. I was in the presence of iconoclastic idealists, people whose sense of Jewish morality was so great, and whose belief in their cause was so strong, that they would damage or destroy pillars of American Jewry and tear the community and Israel asunder in order to further their more perfect world.

AIPAC’s implicit support for the occupation is mirrored by IfNotNow’s rejection of an explicit position on the continued existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. Both sides are equally unwilling to risk taking a stand that might compromise their greater mission, while continuing to shelter people and positions working to destroy the two-state consensus and the continued existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. Rejecting the occupation and supporting Israel seems like it should be a feasible political platform, but it was all but invisible. I couldn’t attain absolution for my sins from equally guilty sinners.

AIPAC ended without the hoopla that had plagued it a year ago, but the quiet conclusion should not fool anyone into believing that it signals concord. Uncertainty about Israel’s future, the growing rifts in the American Jewish community, and the potential collapse of American democracy leave all American Jews with a minefield of issues buried right below the surface. Public battles over agendas and associations have left nothing but scorched earth and bruised feelings, and everyone has retreated to their corners. As for myself, I continue to hope that the organizations with both a hope for and a stake in Israel’s future as a Jewish, democratic country will continue to grow, nudge the agenda, and reclaim their place as the true voices of America’s Jews, because we are in sore need of that rarest of qualities, a Jewish consensus.

Image of IfNotNow Protesters via Twitter.

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David Friedman isn’t having an easy time in the final steps towards becoming Donald Trump’s ambassador to Israel and the controversy over his appointment reveals deep rifts within the Jewish community.

The bankruptcy attorney’s Senate confirmation hearing last Friday revealed his contradictory stances on Israel, his complete lack of experience in foreign relations, and the outright cronyism of the new administration. Friedman used the opportunity to retract controversial statements he’s made in the past, leading one senator to comment to Friedman that he was there “having to recant every single strongly held belief that you’ve expressed.” But he couldn’t escape several activists protesting his appointment.

Yesterday, the resistance continued, and I and two dozen members of the movement If Not Now protested David Friedman outside his Midtown Manhattan law office. Since Friedman’s Senate confirmation hearing last week didn’t go so well, we thought we’d host our own. We took over the lobby of his office, set up a very official-looking podium (made of cardboard), and proceeded to grill Friedman (played in drag by one of our members) about why he should be chosen to represent the United States to the State of Israel. And, what did we decide? We decided that Friedman is a terrible choice and should not be chosen as Ambassador. Sad!

This conclusion was no surprise, and the reasons are simple. Friedman has advocated strongly for settlements in the West Bank, with word and pocketbook. He has written that Palestinians have no legitimate claims to the land. He’s even insisted that liberal and progressive Jews who are critical of Israeli state policies are “worse than Kapos,” associating a majority of American Jews with people accused of collaborating with the Nazis and condemning their fellow Jews to extermination.

While Friedman used his confirmation hearing to qualify and walk back his hateful remarks, these views echo the racist and xenophobic language of white supremacists like senior White House advisor Steve Bannon. Bannon talks about the current global climate as a struggle between the “Judaeo-Christian” West and the Muslim Middle East. For people like Friedman and Bannon, Israel is the buffer between the West and radical Islamic terrorists hell-bent on destroying us. They paint all Muslims with the same brush, and ignore the nuances of a diverse Middle East, and lets blind hatred rule the day.

According to that so-called logic, Israel is perfectly justified in creating a state where Palestinians are subject to violence, racism, and second-class citizenship. American Jews overwhelmingly oppose such a philosophy. But in part because of the influence of conservative donors like Sheldon Adelson, many Jewish community leaders either espouse similar beliefs or silently tolerate extremists in their midst.

Our alternative “hearing” was a way to use protest, media, and theatre to imagine the world as we’d like to see it. Like Melissa McCarthy’s portrayal of Sean Spicer on SNL or Keegan-Michael Key as Barack Obama’s Anger Translator, humor or mockery can make us challenge our complacency. While many Jewish organizations would rather speak delicately about Trump, this protest took on Friedman’s abhorrent views.

It was also, however, a painful reminder that the delicate tapestry of American Jewish life is quickly unraveling. Young Jews are fed up with the contradiction between our progressive Jewish values and the institutional Jewish establishment’s support for Israel, without nuance, at any moral, political, and financial cost.

The fantasy of the protest wasn’t just Friedman admitting what he really thinks. It was the tough line of questioning, how we wish our government and mainstream Jewish institutions would challenge Trump and his administration. And, like many protests, it provides hope that these unraveling threads might be rewoven into something vibrant and beautiful.

You can watch our “hearing” of Friedman below:

Dan Rosen writes about media, Internet culture, and the networked life. He is currently struggling with the realization that nothing is implausible anymore.

Photo credit Gili Getz.

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Wednesday was a day of protest. Well, every day these days is a day of protest, but the final day of November was special. Throughout that day, Jews came together under the banner of #JewishResistance to protest Steve Bannon’s appointment and call for his immediate termination as chief strategist. Again, this has been happening since he got the job, but what made November 30 special was its breadth. There were over thirty actions in all, all across the United States, plus a solidarity event in London.

The organizer of this initiative was If Not Now, a grassroots organization of mostly young Jews focused on anti-Occupation work, started in reaction to Operation Protective Edge in 2014. It explicitly calls for an end to American Jewish institutional support for the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. So it might seem odd that a group so focused on international affairs has pivoted so neatly to tackle anti-Semitism at home, but on their website, If Not Now explicitly recognizes and stands against anti-Semitism, and notes that even if as few as three of their members recognize a need, they will swarm to meet it. Clearly, they recognized this domestic need, and have organized spectacularly in response.

Rain along the east coast dampened turnout, but New York City carried on. First a small number of activists gathered outside the Birthright headquarters (Birthright is largely funded by Trump donor Sheldon Adelson), and using blue yarn to be reminiscent of the tzitzit, drew a symbolic line.

Which side are you on? This is the question put to our Jewish establishments, who to our chagrin and their shame, continue to either remain silent on Bannon or outright support him, emboldening the white nationalists who harass Jews, Muslims, and People of Color across the nation.

Later that evening, a larger group, about 35 people, gathered at Brooklyn Bridge. No yarn here, but chanting, signs, and singing in Hebrew and English dominated this space. “Which side are you on?,” sang the activists as we all linked hands and stretched out along the pedestrian walkway. We didn’t have the numbers to span the bridge, but we took up space, and made our voices heard.

Jewish protests are a bit different than the others I’ve been to. Singing takes a much greater precedence. Shouting common slogans will occur (“Show me what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like!”), but so will songs like Olam Hesed Yibaneh (“Build This World from Love”). Symbolism is common in our culture and religion, and this is just as true in our civic activities— whether it’s blue yarn, or the use of a shofar or gragger (Boo Nazis!).

The police seem to understand that most Jewish protests tend to be low key, or at least the smaller ones do. There were only a handful to watch us gather and then take the bridge, and their body language remained relaxed. The police officers by the bridge were explicit in wishing us well, telling us what to do to avoid traffic issues, and being generally warm towards the group – something that I have not seen be the case for larger protest groups, especially when those groups are majority People of Color. It was surreal, if heartening to see explicit police support. “Good luck out there!”

I don’t know if anyone else saw us— the rain kept many indoors. But we were one protest of many, and this is just the beginning of something much bigger. We’re picking up speed, and hitting the public eye:

Fight the Neo-Nazi Alt Right. Check out @IfNotNowOrg: the faces of the #JewishResistance https://t.co/J86J6uvQ3x

— Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) December 1, 2016

See you at the next protest.

Photo Credit B. Lana Guggenheim.

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As you might have heard, the Zionist Organization of America invited recent Trump hire (and all-around hateful shmuck) Steve Bannon to speak at their gala last night in Manhattan. In response, hundreds of Jews and allies (including Muslims) protested the event, launching what they called the “New Jewish Resistance.” (It trended on Twitter, so it’s catching.) Bannon was a no-show, though whether or not that was related to the protest was unclear.

But was remarkable wasn’t just how many people showed up, it’s who they were. The Left, Jewish and otherwise, loves to talk about unity when lots of us can’t stand each other for one reason or another. But last night, people who normally avoid being in the same room joined together to march. Honestly, it felt a bit like a pre-Chanukah miracle.

There were four main organizers of the event, and they fell across the spectrum of leftist Jewish activism. T’ruah, for example, is opposed to BDS, and Jewish Voice for Peace supports it. Jews for Racial and Economic Justice remains neutral, saying the issue falls outside their “focus area.” But perhaps the most interesting group was the youngest of the four major organizers: If Not Now.

If Not Now exists to organize all Jews against the Israeli Occupation of Palestinian territories to move existing American Jewish organizations to condemn the Occupation, as well as to stand against anti-Semitism. Sounds simple enough, right?

Well, in theory. Even a friend of mine who attended an If Not Now training expressed skepticism— one umbrella for all anti-Occupation Jews is a mighty big umbrella, spanning from pro-BDS anti-Zionists to liberal Zionists critical of specific Israeli policies and politicians, and an ensuing difference in philosophy on every facet of identity, from religiosity to secular politics.

For the brief period the protest was stationed in front of the hotel hosting the ZOA gala (the police threatened the assemblies with arrest if they didn’t keep moving after only a few minutes), the group sang “Hinei Ma Tov,” a song that celebrates Jewish unity. For a moment, that struck me as ironic— we were inherently divided, since one gathering of Jews had come to protest the actions of another. And then, during that song, of all times, a man who had been holding a JVP banner approached a man who was waving a small Israeli flag.

“Do you know what that flag represents?” He asked.

“That I support a Jewish state,” replied the other.

The anti-Zionist insisted that carrying the Israeli flag represents Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Zionist insisted that he dislikes the current administration. The first man said that carrying the Israeli flag would offend half the protestors. The second man tried to brush him off.

This argument, ensuing during a song about Jewish unity, should have reinforced that there’s a problem here. But the anecdote sticks out because it was the only one I witnessed. Protestors holding Zionist signs marched alongside people wearing BDS pins. Literally every person there had people there with whom they strongly disagree. But finally, after all that big talk, the idea that anti-Semitism, racism, and bigotry are monsters worth fighting before getting to other issues was at the fore.

Despite how scary the current national political climate is, the protest was a reminder that it’s also kind of exciting to see what’s next. And it’s not that the issues of Israeli policy and its relationship with the United States aren’t important and complicated, but the ability to acknowledge that while still fighting a common enemy felt, finally, like more than a line.

How the argument between the two protestors end, as hundreds sang in Hebrew, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity?”

“In four years,” said one of the men, “We can go back to arguing with one another.”

Photos by Dan Rosen via Flickr

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