live reaction

Furniture horror is my new favourite genre

That Jewish person who sent me the ask, questioning their identity had me thinking a lot: are anti-Zionist Jews that scarce? Is Zionism really all that entrenched in various communities, institutions and congregations? Is it such a normalized political idea that being anti-Zionist is considered a contradiction of your Jewish identity?

Oh the reply section is absolutely depressing, I am so so sorry

Antizionist Jews are routinely ostracized out of communities. We mostly find eachother through the cracks or online. Zionism has completely infected American Jewish institutions. My orthodox school years ago in CHICAGO had IDF soldiers (often alumni who moved to Israel) show up in uniform to give us speeches. Prayers for the safety of the state of Israel are common. Israeli flags are in pretty much every modern-to-traditional orthodox synagogue. That’s my experience. It’s one of two reasons I’m afraid to even go into the neighborhood I’m from. My only comfort is that Chicago contains a prominent antizionist progressive synagogue - I can’t afford the dues, but atleast it’s there and I know the rabbi and several members.

Yeah, all of this. Individual anti-zionist Jews are not uncommon, but almost all Jewish institutions and communities are Zionist to some level. There is enormous pressure to conform to Zionist beliefs and opinions, and being wholly open about being anti-zionist inside your community is pretty much impossible. Your choice basically becomes keeping your anti-zionism private, or at the very least, subdued, or being completely isolated, practicing alone and having no community. Converts have to be incredibly careful about what they say regarding Zionism, and there's a sort of unspoken view of "if you don't support Israel then you shouldn't be a Jew". Even the more radical movements within Judaism, which started out as anti-zionist, have adopted Zionist stances over the last 50 years. The tiny pockets of anti-zionist communities are shunned and ostracised. Jewdas (a little radical Jewish organisation in the UK) asked to rent our synagogue's hall for their community passover dinner a few years ago, and our council immediately said no, because it was too "controversial" to allow them to share our space. I'm in a GC with the other known anti-zionist Jews at my synagogue and we just had to have a meeting with the council about whether or not we were still welcome to be a part of the community. It's absolutely inescapable on an institutional level.

I Set This Up To Deter Trick Or Treaters And Ding Dong Ditchers But Now They Are So Scared They Are Shooting Flaming Arrows Through My Windows

@meatflavoredfactor

He looks like he’s going through a rough divorce wtf

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