I am so tired of the virulent anti-intellectualism in the Jewish community around Zionism and Israel. It’s exhausting and it’s UTTERLY DECIMATING THE MORAL SOUL OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITU.

Why are you so afraid of criticism? Why can we, raised in your communities, in your schools and synagogues and youth groups and camps, not ask questions? What’s the big threat?

Why are you so intent on shutting down every channel of questioning? How is that Jewish?

Legacy institutions ask why they can’t attract young Jews, why we’re not joining synagogues, why we’re not signing our families up for programs, and YES it’s 1) prohibitively expensive but also 2) it’s ideologically frozen and exclusive.

We don’t want to go to your Israeli-Flag-On-The-Bimah, Hatikvah-singing, rabbis-sermonising-support-for-Israel, prayer-for-the-state-of-Israel, IDF-and-paid-Israeli-government-agent-hosting synagogues. We want an American Jewish space where we can be American Jews.

Replacing Jewish education with Zionism is an incredible disservice to the Jewish community’s future. It does not teach people Ahavat Yisrael. It only teaches people to have political affiliation to a country without understanding the political implications.

Ahavat Yisrsel does not mean love for a political entity, love for a state with borders. It means love for the Jewish people. We remained a people for centuries without a political state and we remain a people outside of that state.

The longer our leadership continues to push an extreme narrative that says “you either support Israel without question or you’re an enemy,” the more Jews are going to be alienated from the Jewish community and separate themselves. This is the great threat to our future.

Not “Israel-Haters.” Not “miscegenation.” Not “self-hating Jews.”

The real ideological threat to the future of Jewish community space is community leaders and legacy institutions who insist on unquestioned support for Israel at all costs.

The fact that so many of us fight for Palestinian humanity isn’t a threat to Jews. It’s a threat to a specific political ideology that has taken root in the center of our leaderships and institutions. They are scared of us, so instead of embracing us as we are; they push us out.

It must be incredibly frustrating to realize that, for all your propagandizing, for all your teaching your school children and youth groups and summer trips to hate Palestinians, YOU’VE FAILED because our essential awareness of humanity is stronger than the propaganda.

But there’s a different path! It’s not hard! Embrace us where we are! Join us and fight for a future for Palestinians! This takes nothing away from our Jewish lives!

We lose nothing, as Jews, by fighting for Palestinian liberation, except for a hegemonic political class that has decimated our community in the quest for ideological purity around extremist Zionism.

While you, in your AJCs and your AIPACs and your other legacy Jewish institutions fight us and exclude us and push us out for wanting a world where Palestinian lives are valued, YOU ARE LOSING.

We are building new communities, around love and care for the world, without you.