I refuse to identify with a false binary — you care about social justice or you’re pro-Israel. You support Palestinians or you support Jews.
This narrative does not reflect the community or family I was raised in, but is being imposed not just on the global discourse, but on our own campus and community institutions.
Why do I bristle at the term “anti-Zionist”? Because it forces a binary on a deeply complex identity. Yes, if you choose to attack Zionists, you are choosing to attack Jews. I can be a Zionist and be deeply critical of the actions of the Israeli government.
And when people say you must choose — and that Jewish safety, identity or belonging are conditional on being the “right” kind of Jew — that’s not solidarity, or liberation; that is a failure to see our full humanity. No group holds all the truth in a complex geopolitical conflict. Even narrowing the conflict to Israel vs. Palestine oversimplifies and erases a myriad of governments, ethnicities and socio-economic strata that govern the current situation in the Middle East as well as American Jewish identity.
The history of the Jewish people in Israel didn’t begin in 1948. That year marks the founding of the modern state, but Jewish presence in the land of Israel spans over 3,000 years. To reduce Jewish connection to the land to a post-Holocaust narrative — or to ignore the millennia of forced exile, persecution and annihilation we have endured in dozens of countries around the world — is a dangerous whitewashing of history. One which is showing violent results right now.
If your movement for justice makes room for everyone — except 82 percent of American Jews — then it’s not justice. No, criticism of Israel is not antisemitism. But oversimplifying and misrepresenting Zionism is.
A recent Pew Research poll found that 82 percent of American Jews identify as Zionist. Those of us embedded in the local Jewish community can attest that this is reflected in our town as well. But what I see every day around me is also reflected in another survey done in 2024 that found that only 14 percent of Americans could correctly define the term.
Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland, Israel. That doesn’t mean allegiance to a political party or government. It doesn’t negate anyone else’s rights. It means that, after millennia of exile and persecution, Jews deserve a place to call home. And I encourage you to ask us to say more. Because such a fundamental belief in our identity does not also tie us to a particular political party or belief in how that should be manifested.
Stop imposing an oversimplified binary on an entire people. Let me tell you about our Jewish community. I cannot represent them. We are a religion, a culture, an ethnicity, a history. We are Orthodox, Hasidic, Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, Renewal, Modern Orthodox, Haredi, secular and more. We are Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi. Right here in Champaign-Urbana, we are Jewish American, Russian, Ukrainian, Moroccan, Iranian, Argentinian, Chinese, Japanese, Trinidadian, Belarusian, Mexican, Ethiopian and so much more.
To borrow the language from the very organization I serve, the Champaign-Urbana Jewish Federation: I fervently strive for lasting peace and prosperity for all in the Middle East, as well as right here at home. I mourn the loss of life suffered by Israeli residents in the horrific Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, by civilians caught in this war — Palestinian, Arab and Israeli alike — and by Israeli troops fighting to defend their country.
While many might be critical of specific actions of the government, I urge all to be careful not to delegitimize the democratic, multi-ethnic state of Israel, which provides civil rights to Jews, Druze, Arab/Palestinian Muslims,Christians, Baha’i, Bedouins and others living there.
We are seeing the violent results of an “anti-Zionist” narrative right now at home. On May 21, two people were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. The event they were attending was a reception for young professionals — Jewish and non-Jewish — focused on “turning pain into purpose” and fostering bridge-building across the Middle East and North Africa. The shooter was affiliated with a group known for spreading antisemitic propaganda in our own community.
On June 1 in Boulder, Colo., a man set fire to a group of Jews holding a peaceful gathering for the remaining hostages still in captivity — civilians taken during the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. The attacker said he wanted to “kill all Zionist people.” The headlines that followed referred to the victims as “protesters” or “demonstrators” — as if they weren’t Jews being Jewish, gathering in grief and solidarity for our stolen family members.
In both instances, nearly every post I saw was filled with comments justifying these murders. These are not abstract debates. This is a real-world escalation of hate and an orchestrated campaign of dehumanization against those of us living and working in Jewish communal spaces. It is a rebranding of Zionism and Jewish identity that we do not ascribe to. And yet, headlines erase all of that — collapsing the violence into the tired, reductive frame of “Israel vs. Palestine.” Our community is not immune. I fear the escalation of such rhetoric here at home.
This moment demands nuance. I believe in dignity, safety and liberation for all people. But peace built on the demonization of a principle of Jewish community is no peace at all.