Jewish Atlanta’s Big Tent Closed to Anti-Israel Left
The community may accommodate a range of viewpoints, but Israel is where a line is drawn.
Dave Schechter is a veteran journalist whose career includes writing and producing reports from Israel and elsewhere in the Middle East.
Back in February, as I interviewed Jewish activists opposing the planned Atlanta Public Safety Center — derisively referred to as “Cop City” — the conversation turned to Israel.
A young man said: “Anti-Zionism was a major part of what brought us together in the first place, even before the forest movement, and kind of a big part of what leads us to feel alienated from most mainstream Jewish communities.”
A Georgia Tech graduate recalled a controversy pitting the Hillel chapter against campus socialists who hosted a pro-Palestine event. The implicit message, she said, was: “If you are anti-Zionist, you can’t be Jewish. That’s the entire thing. And it’s infuriating.”
Their opinions about Israel were, they said, in accord with their Jewish beliefs and the Judaism they practice.
The Jewish community may think of itself as a large tent, capable of accommodating a range of viewpoints, but Israel is where a line is drawn.
Self-described “pro-Israel, pro-peace” J Street is inside the tent. The Atlanta chapter co-sponsored a pro-Israel rally after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks and a vigil for Israelis held hostage in Gaza, and took part in the Washington, D.C., rally for Israel.
Groups further to the left are considered beyond the pale. The tent flaps are closed to Jewish Voices for Peace and IfNotNow.
JVP calls itself “the largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the world . . . organizing a grassroots, multiracial, cross-class, intergenerational movement of U.S. Jews into solidarity with the Palestinian freedom struggle . . .”
IfNotNow is “a movement of American Jews organizing our community to end U.S. support for Israel’s apartheid system and demand equality, justice, and a thriving future for all Palestinians and Israelis.”
While a substantial majority of Jewish Atlanta supports — albeit to varying degrees — Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, a Jewish anti-Zionist/anti-Israel minority appears to be growing, particularly among young adults.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta was concerned enough in mid-October, when an anti-Israel protest was advertised online, to advise local news media that the Federation “ . . . wishes to make this very clear: The event planned by Jewish Voice for Peace and If Not Now in Atlanta does not have the support of and does not represent the overwhelming majority of Atlanta’s Jewish Community. These organizations challenge Israel’s very right to exist.”
Another statement has been prepared, to be released should it be considered necessary.
A couple of weeks before war paused and Palestinians jailed by Israel were exchanged for (most but not all) Israeli women and children held hostage, a Jewish anti-Zionist activist emailed me: “Honestly, what would be amazing is seeing Jewish institutions and community spaces in Atlanta really wrestling with how to include and support community members who range from anti-Zionist to liberal Zionist. What would be even more amazing is seeing our communities wrestle with why so many Jews are cheering on a literal genocide (and then vehemently opposing those who don’t share this stand), and also believe this genocide [will] make us safer.”
A liberal Zionist differs from an anti-Zionist, as Sara Yael Hirschhorn explained in an op-ed published by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency: “A liberal Zionist can hold two ideas in their head at the same time in this historical moment: both that Israel can and must do what is necessary to defend herself and that a diplomatic solution to the Palestinian issue is the only way to avoid permanent war. Liberal Zionists can see merit in the Palestinian cause but full-throatedly declare that liberation cannot come by raining rockets over coastal Israel, murdering families in their homes or taking grandmothers and babies captive.”
Most of what I have heard from Jewish Atlantans has been less “cheering on a literal genocide” than regarding the Palestinian death toll as the regrettable cost of fighting Hamas, mixed with concern about how the war will end and what will come after.
Jewish Democratic State Rep. Esther Panitch told the online news site, State Affairs, that “outlying groups” like JVP and IfNotNow are being used as tokens by anti-Zionist/anti-Israel groups to claim Jewish support. “And don’t forget, there were Jews who supported the Nazi party before they were killed. So, I put those in the same category” she said.
JVP, which opposes Panitch’s (thus far unsuccessful) effort to see the state adopt a definition of antisemitism, responded on “X” (formerly Twitter): “The reality is this: There is a sea change happening within the Jewish community, and it is terrifying to Zionists like Rep. Panitch. A growing movement of Jews is no longer willing to unquestionably pledge their allegiance to Israel . . . As Jews, we are awakening from the lies we have been told about Israel; we are seeing with our own eyes the terror and deprivation that the occupation of Palestine has wrought, and we refuse to accept —much less justify — this deplorable state of affairs . . . Rep. Panitch is desperate to delegitimize the hard truths that are being revealed. Attempts to silence us will only make our calls for justice louder, and our numbers grow.”
Rather than seek an invitation to join the mainstream Jewish community, the anti-Zionist/anti-Israel left is erecting its own tent. As the war continues, it bears watching whether the latter becomes more attractive to liberal and progressive Jews.
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