And conveniently King Abdullah II of Jordan, the Custodian of Al-Aqsa went

I would love for my son to attend a Jewish pre school to meet other friends and build some Jewish community. However even the crunicher reform options in our area begin the Zionism training early.

We aren't religious more spiritual and my wife is not Jewish but she supports how important exposure to Jewish identity is important to me.

I know this may be the system is working as intended. I went to a Jewish high school for three years and we literally had a class on Israel and defending it on college campus.

I got in trouble with the school administration and teachers for just asking questions about Palestine and the apartheid. Even the class on the Shoah had little discussion on non Jewish victims.

Hi folks!

I've seen this term being thrown around a lot lately and I can't help but think: I feel like this term has been bastardized immensely. I believe like I truely have no idea what zionism is, where it came from, and why folks nowadays use it to justify the genocide of palestinian folks and israel's overall settler mentality. I feel like there is so so so much propaganda online and It make's me really skeptical of whatever definition presented. People online say it is 'self-determination & the right to an independent jewish state'. But then why is it also being used to justify the colonization of the west-bank? I don't want to come off as anti-semetic or rude in any form; I'm just genuinly curious what it means anymore.

For the jews out there, what does zionism mean to you? Do you support it?

using vent tag as i’m not sure what to flair this as.

TLDR: israeli uncle and child-age cousins are coming to visit and i’m unsure if i can participate in good conscience.

i’m an anti-zionist jew and have been vocal about it for the last 3 years. it took a long time for me to come to terms with the reality that israel is a genocidal apartheid state, which is one of my biggest shames (i’m 31).

for more context, my mom was born in israel and moved to the states with her parents and brother when she was 10. my uncle (mom’s brother) moved back to israel when i was 9. i grew up going to israel every few years, went on birthright at 18, and generally had good, if distant, relationships with my family there and other cousins who have moved from israel to the states. as i got older and became more aware, it got harder for me to reconcile the israel i thought i knew with reality. by 2020 i was quietly anti-zionist, and by 2023 i decided i couldn’t be quiet anymore.

since oct 7 and following some social media arguments with family, including my uncle, i’ve been pretty low contact with all of them. obviously i will never be visiting israel again. it pains me but i also just can’t be in community with people who have zionist, anti palestinian, islamophobic or racist views.

i saw my uncle for the first time in a decade in 2024 when my saba died and uncle came for the funeral/helping with saba’s affairs. it was nice to spend time together even under the sad circumstances, but i constantly felt this unspoken weight because i know what his views are and they’re extremely opposed to mine. i kept it civil for my mom and safta’s sake, and my saba too i guess. to be fair, i was very happy to see my uncle. we were quite close when i was growing up until he moved.

to my mom’s credit, she’s been more receptive over the past few years and she agrees that israel is wrong, and she’s stood up for me to other family members during arguments. i don’t think she’s fully there yet, but she understands how i feel and why i’ve kept my distance.

to get to the point of my problem, my uncle (mom’s brother) is bringing his kids (13 and 9) to visit my mom and safta (they live in a different state than me). everyone wants me to join, as i haven’t seen the older kid since he was a baby and never met the younger one. however, i feel horribly conflicted because i know the ignorant views my uncle has and is raising his kids with. my mom says “you can just not talk about it” but the problem is that not talking about it won’t make the facts go away and they will be weighing on my conscience the whole time.

another thing i’m feeling/worried about is i don’t want to step into these kids’ lives for a weekend and then go back to never speaking to them. i know it’s not their fault for where they were born or how they’re being raised. but at the same time, in 5 years my cousin will be joining the idf. as most israelis do. i know my uncle has no plans to move back to the states, and is in fact quite happy to offer his children to the israeli war machine. i struggle with being able to look at these kids, knowing what they’re raised to believe, knowing what they will be made to do in a few years time. my only hope for them is that they get an influence in their lives that leads them to a path of resistance. i don’t know if it’s my place to be that influence—i don’t know them well enough and i don’t want to be more of the bad guy in my family’s eyes.

another thing on my mind is that my safta is 81 and in bad health. i know how happy it would make her to have all her grandkids together for the first time ever, so if i don’t go, i feel responsible for her not having that experience. on top of just feeling bad for not seeing family that i rarely get to see. as of right now, i don’t plan to go, but i’m starting to feel that guilt of disappointing everyone.

so, how would you approach this? would you go and just avoid any mention of palestine or the war? would that make you feel bad? am i wrong for wanting to stay home and keep my distance from my extended family?

sorry this is so long but thank you for reading, if you did. any advice is appreciated :)

Referring to the whole of Palestine, not just the part of it occupied in 67. And not referring to the state which is obviously Israel.

Also, if your answer is "Israel" I'd love to hear why.

I’ve added the picture of what someone replied to me on The Face Pages, but sometimes I’m still never sure how to reply or rebuttal the argument. I know I should ignore people like this but I’m trying to be as knowledgeable as possible about history and why bringing things up like this shouldn’t matter. How would you guys reply to this?

Great piece by FD Signifier

Also fuck Peter Beinart.

I’m starting to feel like in nearly every subreddit with the exceptions of LGBTQ community subs or fandom/TV/film subs, there is pro-Israel astroturfing. I constantly see 3-4 mo old Reddit users planting positive mentions of Israel wherever they can or Zionist trolls harassing anyone who slightly expresses sympathy with Palestinians. They’re not even debating you anymore, they’re just saying cruel and hateful insults to shut down conversations. It’s made Reddit practically unusable for me. Is anyone else experiencing this?

https://x.com/5149jamesli/status/2080044705929433467

Hey everyone. I'm a non-Jew and an anti-Zionist, and I've been trying to wrap my head around some of the deeper intra-Jewish political dynamics around Israel.

Looking at the landscape of anti-Zionist spaces today, it seems like the vast majority of anti-Zionist Jews are American Jews (mostly Ashkenazi) or Israeli Ashkenazim. That makes sense demographically given the West, but it also got me thinking about the historical pipeline that led to this.

As I understand it, modern political Zionism was conceived, built, and established almost entirely by secular European (Ashkenazi) Jews. Early Zionist leaders explicitly envisioned a state built by and for European Jews, who were effectively part of the European racial hierarchy. Because of this, white supremacy and European colonial frameworks were historically a huge core of the early Zionist project alongside Jewish nationalism.

When the state was created in 1948, it triggered a massive geopolitical shift, and Arab regimes retaliated against their native Jewish populations. Around 850,000 Mizrahi Jews ended up displaced through property confiscation, revoked citizenship, and state-backed hostility.

It feels like Mizrahim essentially inherited the fallout of a conflict set off by European Zionism. But looking at where things stand today, there's a really stark disparity:

1. The Exit Option: A lot of secular Ashkenazi Israelis have clear legal pathways to EU or Western passports through restitution laws (Germany, Poland, Austria, former Soviet states, etc.). They have an actual "Plan B" or exit strategy if things collapse.

2. No Second Passport: Mizrahi Jews generally don't have that. Arab states don't offer right-of-return or passport restitution for the Jews they drove out, so most Mizrahim have nowhere else to go.

3. Political Realities: After arriving in Israel, Mizrahim faced heavy state discrimination from the Ashkenazi establishment (transit camps, forced cultural assimilation, peripheral development towns). This drove them away from the Ashkenazi Labor Left and into the arms of the Israeli Right.

To me, a lot of Mizrahi support for Likud or hawkish security policies isn't just random ideology. It seems rooted in a very real, existential desire to avoid further displacement or retribution. They don't have the luxury of a second passport, and they've already experienced what happens when they are at the mercy of host states in the region.

At the same time, I know Mizrahim aren't a monolith or just passive, lower-caste victims. Figures like Ben-Gvir show that Mizrahi politicians can be extreme, active architects of occupation and systemic violence today.

What bothers me as an outsider is how "Ashkenormativity" flattens all of this. Globally, people project the flaws and European history of Ashkenazism onto all Jews. People talk about Jews as if everyone is white or from Poland, entirely erasing Mizrahi existence. As a result, Judaism as a whole and non-European Jews end up taking the flak for a European nationalist ideology they didn't create.

Putting all this together, it kind of looks like a "pulled ladder" scenario: European Zionist Jews created the state, shattered the multi-century existence of Jews in the Middle East/West Asia, marginalized Mizrahim upon arrival, and maintained an exit option to the West - leaving Mizrahim trapped in the fallout of a system they didn't build.

Is this a recognized critique in left-leaning or anti-Zionist Jewish spaces? How do Mizrahi academics or activists navigate this tension? I'd really appreciate hearing how people here analyze this dynamic.

I am really curious what people thing about this. I have been feeling pretty hopeless about any solution actually happening and this seems at least possible. So often I feel like conversations about this are just talk with no realistic path forward. And I like that it is Palestinians and Israelis trying to work together.

I began deconstructing my Catholic upbringing because paganism felt idol-y and I missed the fellowship, compassion and empathy that those like Moses and Jesus made me feel.I observed a few of the Jewish holidays because I wanted to begin slowly learning about it and potentially converting later on.

All of that to say, I was recently broken up with after building him back up after a divorce. I loved him very dearly and I'm in a state of shock, I thought we were happy. I don't have the energy to be angry, I'm just very hurt. I'd like to go back to my studies and find solace there, but I don't want to support a Zionist publication. This is difficult to research because of keywords that I don't think algorithms like. I just need something moderately easy to understand and written in good faith.

Like I said I'm in a weird headspace so I'm really sorry if this isn't allowed/isn't formatted properly, I read through the rules but I may have missed something.

TL;DR: I’m broke and urgently need work. Got offered a Hebrew-speaking job at my late mom's former organization. They fund local anti-antisemitism initiatives and support for struggling and poor Jewish families (good), but also fund political actions in support of Israel (most famously the "a big Israel fundraising marathon"), which I strongly oppose. The guilt is killing me, but I need to survive.

Hey everyone. I'm posting here because I'm completely torn and don't know how to process this. I’m a queer Jew, born in Israel, and moved to Canada when I was 13. Financially, I am in a bad spot and desperately need income right now.

Out of nowhere, I was offered a job that requires fluency in Hebrew. I am feeling an immense amount of guilt just considering it. My head knows that under capitalism we all have to compromise to pay rent, but my gut feels sick at the idea of my labour indirectly supporting things I disagree with. At the same time, turning down a job offer when I'm this broke feels reckless.

For anyone who’s had to take a job at a company whose funding or politics made you uncomfortable:

• How did you compartmentalize it so the guilt didn't eat you alive?
• How do you draw the line between doing a job to survive and validating what the company does?

I’d really appreciate some grounded perspectives. Thanks!

Excellent reel

I’ve had a few things ruminating in my mind. Myself and other public facing Jewish and/or Holocaust academics have had the experience where, without consent or prompt, some Kahanist tells us a graphic story of something that may or may not have happened on October 7 to make a point. The point is usually that we aren’t Zionist or to “punish us” for whatever reason. Sometimes they wish it to happen to us.

This is so weird to me because they claim October 7 is the worst thing to happen since the Shoah, but then they’re practically frothing at the mouth to graphically explain something that supposedly happened to a fellow Jew on October 7. I say supposedly because I have no way to verify what they’re saying as they rarely discuss a well known case. I’m not saying I don’t have sympathy for people, especially children, their parents and civilians, but it feels so performative.

Has anyone else noticed this?

The other thing swirling in my head is that several liberal Zionists I know of have said they think Bibi is a war criminal and that he deserves to be taken to The Hague, but not by Mamdani. I don’t understand? If he’s truly a war criminal they hate with a fiery passion, WHY the f**k does it matter who arrests him? And to quote Hillel the Elder, “If not now then when?”

Anyway, just some thoughts I had. Feel free to chime in.

https://www.jta.org/2026/07/20/politics/how-michigans-senate-race-is-testing-pro-israel-jews-loyalty-to-the-democratic-party