r/JewsOfConscience • u/AutoModerator • Jul 17 '24
AAJ "Ask A Jew" Wednesday
It's everyone's favorite day of the week, "Ask A (Anti-Zionist) Jew" Wednesday! Ask whatever you want to know, within the sub rules, notably that this is not a debate sub and do not import drama from other subreddits. That aside, have fun! We love to dialogue with our non-Jewish siblings.
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u/Electrical-Wrap-3923 Non-Jewish Ally Jul 17 '24
What is the best way to approach a Jewish friend who doesn’t support (or even understand) support for Palestine?
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u/Klutzy-Pool-1802 Ashkenazi, atheist, postZ Jul 17 '24
It depends on what “support for Palestine” means. It will be a different approach if the support is “ceasefire because innocent Palestinian civilians are being killed” vs “I want a Palestinian state” vs “I want to dismantle Israel and have a 1SS.” Or maybe some other option.
Which one are you hoping they’ll understand?
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u/havala420 Ashkenazi Jul 17 '24
Tread very VERY lightly if you even want to go there. Jews don't like hearing goyim tell them they're wrong about Israel (or perceiving it as such). You will probably be hit with "you don't understand and never will bc you're not Jewish". I do not recommend this.
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u/Hamptonista Jewish Communist 14d ago
Jews don't like hearing it from other Jews. I'm very careful what I post on social media bc I have family that view my stories so I engage in some self censorship for sure.
A local radical org was making T shirts with political messages & because I wanted something that wouldn't piss off family (and already having shirts with FP slogans), I got "Let Gaza Live" instead of "Free Palestine".
I feel like IF I can have a civil conversation with Zionists in my life, it's on the sanctity of human life, human rights, and peace that's encapsulated in that former message
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u/Pitiful_Meringue_57 Jewish Jul 17 '24
i don’t recomend doing it rly, unless they come to u about it. I think any zionist jewish friend would be very reluctant to want to hear what their gentile friend thinks unprompted. I think maybe if u come at it from a different angle, not an antizionist one but a pro palestine compassionate one that may be more successful. Don’t try and convince them israel shouldn’t exist right off the bat, if u want to have a conversation talk abt why a ceasefire is necessary and how palestinians are mistreated and deserve better.
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u/PreparationOk1450 Jewish Anti-Zionist Jul 17 '24
Honestly, people believe what they want to believe and oftentimes it's more based on emotions than logic. So, giving them facts and logic will probably not make a difference. Sad to say it, but I think if they see what's happening and don't understand, they probably never will. It's like trying to convince an anti-vaxxer to get vaccinated. How likely is that?
I think the best you can hope for is that they understand better why you feel the way you do; not trying to convince them. I would start gently and with a simple concept of human rights.
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Jul 17 '24
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u/Silly_Venus8136 Non-Jewish Ally Jul 17 '24
Are there any distinct practices Jewish practices done in your country/country of origin not done anywhere else?
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u/Pitiful_Meringue_57 Jewish Jul 17 '24
American Jews get chinese food on sundays and christmas. Also a lot of jewish deli items are pretty unique to American Jews. Bagels and Lox, Corned Beef, pastrami, etc.
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u/Silly_Venus8136 Non-Jewish Ally Jul 17 '24
Oh wow didn't know that. Also getting Chinese food that's pretty interesting! Thank you for sharing. Do you eat some of those on Shabbat or Jewish festivals as well?
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u/Pitiful_Meringue_57 Jewish Jul 17 '24
Not usually on shabbat or other holidays except bagels and lox are very common on yom kippur. Also the story of Chinese food as a jewish cultural practice is actually very interesting, i wrote a paper on it a bit ago.
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u/Eliazar_Kaganovich Religious Anti-Zionist Communist Jul 19 '24
I have nothing meaningful to add to the conversation except the tradition of Chinese food on Christmas has been one of my favorites these last few years, and I'm thrilled plenty others of us still do it.
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u/Rigo-lution Non-Jewish Ally Jul 17 '24
I wonder if any Italian/Roman Jews could add their perspective on Carciofi alla giudia/Jewish-style artichokes? Are they cooked much at home or generally something gotten when eating out?
I missed the opportunity to try them when I was in Rome but I find highly regional foods to be pretty interesting: http://assoupaspossible.com/carciofo-alla-giudia/
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u/DurianVisual3167 Jewish Jul 18 '24
I'm Italian and Jewish (not from an Italian Jewish family) so I'm really interested in Italian Jewish food. I have made them at home, but from the history I've been told on the dish "artichoke of the Jews" became known as that because Jewish street food vendors used to sell them. In Italy artichokes even used to be called the "Jewish vegetable" although I'm not sure if it was called that before of after the dish was popularized. They are a popular passover dish because they require no chametz! And Israeli Rabbis tried to declare them treif (not kosher), seems like Italian Jews have ignored this for the most part (based).
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u/Silly_Venus8136 Non-Jewish Ally Jul 17 '24
Thank you regional foods are quite interestnig. Would definitely lik eto find out too.
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u/Jche98 Jewish Anti-Zionist Jul 17 '24
In South Africa when someone dies we give condolences by wishing the relatives long life
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u/bbbojackhorseman Non-Jewish Ally Jul 17 '24
Hello everybody.
I have been seeing on social media during these last few months that « Jews don’t believe in heaven/hell » so I guess my question is : is that true? And if it is, what do you guys believe will happen after we all die?
For context I’m muslim and if I’m not mistaken, in both Christianity and Islam we believe that people will be judged for their actions and either go to heaven or hell, so I always assumed that was the same thing in judaism. Thank you
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u/CyborgDiaspora Ashkenazi Jul 17 '24
Jews do not have a standardized view of the afterlife, but there are several conceptions of the afterlife out there. For example, one pretty distinctive idea that some Jews have is that “heaven” is a study hall where you can spend eternity studying Jewish law without interruption.
Generally speaking, Jews are focused on consequences for their actions in this world rather than in the afterlife. Good actions are understood to please God and benefit oneself, one’s descendants, and one’s community.
To tie this back around to what this sub is all about, this is related to one of the reasons some ultra-orthodox Jews are anti-Zionist. They believe that if Jews are good enough, God will send the messiah who will lead the Jews back to Israel and usher in a golden age. In a way, you could say that the idea of a messianic golden age played the role of afterlife for many Jews historically. In any event, many ultra-orthodox think that Jews are not spiritually worthy to return to Israel, and that the modern state of Israel reflects humans usurping God’s role in ushering us back to Israel. More theologically moderate Jews tend to reject that reasoning.
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u/ezkori Ashkenazi, American, raised in orthodoxy, currently cultural Jul 17 '24
Maybe specific to litvish yeshevish Judaism that I grew up with but we definitely had a concept of “olam habah” being some sort of afterlife situation. I would wager it was DEFINITELY heavily influenced by Christian heaven & hell mixed with Jewish afterlife. Interesting the different views. (Though id say we also had a very apocalyptic view of mashiach so it definitely is not the mainstream Jewish norms that I grew up with)
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u/ezkori Ashkenazi, American, raised in orthodoxy, currently cultural Jul 17 '24
But it was definitely a “you do mitzvot in this world to ensure a place in Olam HaBah”.
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u/CyborgDiaspora Ashkenazi Jul 17 '24
I think there are a lot of different interpretations of Olam Haba. I usually hear it as a term for the messianic age, or in the context of more liberal/disenchanted Judaism, a better time that is yet to come.
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u/sudo_apt-get_intrnet LGBTQ Jew Jul 17 '24
I've studied with many different rabbis, and here are just some of the different afterlife ideas I've encountered:
- Everyone goes to what could definitely be described as "heaven". Different people go to different levels of heaven depending on how good they were. Bad people go through a temporary (6 month IIRC?) "hell process" to cleanse them of their sins, and get Shabbat off.
- Jews reincarnate to be able to fulfill all the mitzvot, and once we succeed the Messiah will come.
- When Jews die they enter a sort of "holding pattern" similar to sleep and will do so until the Messiah comes, in which case the Messiah will create the equivalent of heaven on Earth.
- Death reabsorbs your spirit back into Gd, with how "good" you are in life determining how difficult/ "painful" the process will be.
- A combination of multiple of the above.
Worth noting too that these were all Orthodox rabbis, so other denominations could have even more different opinions!
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u/bbbojackhorseman Non-Jewish Ally Jul 17 '24
I see. Thank you.
I think (I may be wrong though) that muslims believe the same thing as your 1st and 4th point.
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u/PreparationOk1450 Jewish Anti-Zionist Jul 17 '24 edited Jul 18 '24
AFAIK: Muslim beliefs in heaven and hell are more similar to Christians. Although, in most ways, Muslim beliefs are more similar to Jews than Christians. An exception being that Jesus is highly revered by Muslims.
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u/Rigo-lution Non-Jewish Ally Jul 17 '24
Hi, for any secular Jews here, what are the cultural practices (religious or not) that tie you to your Jewish identity?
For context, I'm from a primarily Catholic country (Ireland) but was raised secularly. My family spends Christmas together but it's usually participating food (coddle, soda bread), music (Sean-nós singing or trad music at pubs) or sport that makes me feel "Irish".
I ask because the overlap of Jewishness as an ethnicity as well as religion is not something I can intuitively understand from my experience.
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u/PreparationOk1450 Jewish Anti-Zionist Jul 17 '24
I'm atheist but celebrate the holidays like the High Holy Days, Purim, Passover. I think there's also doing Palestine activism with others, including Jewish people. This quest for justice is an important part of Jewish values and traditions.
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u/Rigo-lution Non-Jewish Ally Jul 17 '24
I've seen justice mentioned twice now, like how education is associated with Jesuits.
I didn't know about this. Definitely a great value to have traditionally.
Obviously anyone can have it but maintaining a tradition of justice is something more.4
u/Momosufusu Jul 17 '24
I’m Ashkenazi and grew up almost 100 percent secular, though we did Passover Seders with more observant family members and attended their bar mitzvahs etc.
Jewish culture showed up as lots of yiddishisms incorporated into every day English like gazuntite when someone sneezes, and oy vey whenever anything goes wrong or elicits an eye roll. Ashkenazi Jewish foods like kugel and rugelach. A strong emphasis on intellectual curiosity and social justice (tho since the cult of Zionism has taken over that’s less and less of a Jewish cultural norm).
My mother, being a very stereotypical Jewish mother, always made sure everyone who came to our house was fed. Not having enough food for guests was considered the greatest sin — and we would gossip for ages about WASP families not feeding people enough. She was also in everyone’s business and still is. Every phone call comes with a big dose of gossip.
Much of this is carried over from working class Ashkenazi Jewish culture in Europe. And none of it is universal. But it’s how I’ve experienced my Jewish culture.
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u/Rigo-lution Non-Jewish Ally Jul 17 '24
Huh, that's interesting. I have been saying gesundheit instead of bless you when people sneeze to avoid the religious connotations.
I sometimes forget the Yiddish and German connection.I get you on this, there's a lot of Hiberno-English (usually Irish grammar directly translated into to english) that I make a point of still using instead of just 'proper English' as would be expected in study or working.
Thank you for the rest of the examples. Intellectual curiosity and social justice are great to maintain as part of a tradition, as is being a generous host.
And thanks for the specific background, I know Jews are a diverse group so I don't expect one size fits all but learning anything new is good.
I know some Iraqi Jews but not well enough to ask about this and the only Jewish friends I had growing up emigrated when I was young.
With the rise of anti-Semitism and the conflation of Israel with Judaism I wanted to be even a bit more informed on this. It's also nice to know about other cultures in general.
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u/Pitiful_Meringue_57 Jewish Jul 17 '24
It really depends the level of secular and what u consider to be secular. I’m not particularly spiritual, i don’t live my life according to my religion or truly believe in most of what religious jews do, i believe in a higher power, and i find prayer can be cathartic sometimes. That being said, idk if i would count as secular. I participate in a lot of the important holidays including going to services for rosh hashanah and yom kippur. I’m 20 now so I’m no longer enrolled in hebrew school and i don’t belong to a synagogue cuz i’m at college most of the year but i still participate in the holidays.
When i think about my future i don’t plan on being very active in a synagogue but id still like to belong to one, do activities and go to the high holy days. I plan on raising my children jewish, having them go to hebrew school and have a bat mitzvah. I’m want a jewish wedding and i want to be buried in a jewish cemetery. i dont feel the need to go to services outside of high holy days or yartzeits and again im not that spiritual. Most of this stuff i see as culturally significant and want to do for cultural reasons, not religious reasons. My whole family is kind of like this, we aren’t particularly religious, but this stuff is important to us and most cultural practices and community events revolve around religion.
I have cousins who celebrate passover and chanukah (and christmas) but not much else, don’t go to services, didn’t have bat mitzvahs, but still very much consider themselves jewish and embrace that label.
Other ways to celebrate jewish culture would be to cook jewish cuisine, go to delis and mizrahi/sephardic owned restaurants.
I also would love to try and learn yiddish one day, and i’d like to visit eastern europe and see whatever remnant of jewish life remains.
It rly is different for everyone.
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u/Rigo-lution Non-Jewish Ally Jul 17 '24
Absolutely depends on that.
That would be a lot more religious than (atheist) but I know a lot of people who would match your description of yourself. There's a lot of cultural Catholics in Ireland, they believe in something more than us but are not in lockstep with the Church but still will be at Church events like you've described.
I have cousins who celebrate passover and chanukah (and christmas) but not much else, don’t go to services, didn’t have bat mitzvahs, but still very much consider themselves jewish and embrace that label
It's people like them that prompted my question.
I can piece together a belief in God making you X religion but I know atheist/secular Jews don't just give up their Judaism and solely become whatever nationality they have outside of that.
I used to speak Irish very well but I've forgotten a lot of it. I very much get the desire to speak your own language and see your own history.
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u/DurianVisual3167 Jewish Jul 18 '24
I'd like to add that secular and atheist Jews aren't the same. Secular Jews often believe in G-d, and there are actually many religious Jews who don't believe in G-d.
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u/Rigo-lution Non-Jewish Ally Jul 18 '24
there are actually many religious Jews who don't believe in G-d.
This is something I was not aware of. How does that work? Does Judaism not require a belief in God?
My primary school up to age 12 was non-denominational and we learned about the major world religions but since then I have had very little exposure to any religion.I'd like to add that secular and atheist Jews aren't the same.
I can see how my comment wasn't clear. I didn't mean that as they are the same but that secular and atheist Jews don't give up their Jewish identity when not participating in the religion.
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u/ContentChecker Jewish Anti-Zionist Jul 17 '24
Sorry about that, trying out some AutoMod code.
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u/Rigo-lution Non-Jewish Ally Jul 17 '24
Oh thanks, I just sent a mod message as I didn't see this reply.
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u/n1k2021 Non-Jewish Ally Jul 17 '24
Are there any non-Zionist or anti-Zionist congregations in the US? If there are please can you share information about them? Thank you!
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u/TelegnosticCat Non-Jewish Ally Jul 17 '24
Kol tzedek in philly
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u/Hamptonista Jewish Communist 14d ago
Are you a member? I just moved to Philly and started attending. I'll be there for services tomorrow ☺️
Hi, I'm Ezri
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u/3Dcatbutt Non-Jewish Ally Jul 17 '24
Can anyone recommend me any good contemporary-ish books, fiction or nonfiction, about working class Jews?
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u/3Dcatbutt Non-Jewish Ally Jul 17 '24
Okay trying again this time with a sufficient amount of flair (what is this, Office Space?).
Can anyone recommend me any good contemporary-ish books, fiction or nonfiction, about working class Jews?
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u/ApplesauceFuckface Ashkenazi Jul 17 '24
Foreskin's Lament: A Memoir by Shalom Auslander might come close to what you're looking for. It came out in 2007, so it's fairly contemporary. It's more about growing up in an ultra-Orthodox family, but in addition to being ultra-Orthodox his family was also working class (iirc his dad was a carpenter).
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u/havala420 Ashkenazi Jul 17 '24
Not sure if this is quite contemporary enough but "Goodbye Columbus" by Philip Roth is a great read and shows the struggles of classism within the Jewish community in the 1960s. Also "The Assistant" by Bernard Malamud, I really enjoyed it and it's main characters are a working class Jewish family (also in the 60s I think). It deals with the concept of morality in a fascinating way.
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u/3Dcatbutt Non-Jewish Ally Jul 17 '24
Thanks. :) I did read the Roth a long time ago. I'll look into Malamud.
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u/Nearby-Complaint Ashkenazi Jul 20 '24
It's not 'about' Judaism per se but I'll always recommend Stone Butch Blues
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u/LittleLionMan82 Non-Jewish Ally Jul 17 '24
Do we ask in this post or create separate ones?
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u/ContentChecker Jewish Anti-Zionist Jul 17 '24
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u/DanJdot Non-Jewish Ally Jul 17 '24
Hello all!
In London, Stamford Hill to be precise, the Jewish folk there all dress very similarly and the guys wear top hats and have very curly side-burns. I've always wondered about the why but more importantly the amazing richness a culture I'm so ignorant to may possess - the food and music and stories like, that sort of thing. Would love a bit of insight if anyone knows. On the downside, I've observed their driving happens upon being terrible!
Anyway more of a general question, but I'm a mushroom-hating vegan, so what is the best vegan-friendly meal you'd offer someone like me?!
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u/havala420 Ashkenazi Jul 17 '24
For vegan Jewish food I would say: Borscht, water challah (more common in Sefardic communities but is what my family always makes and it's soooo good), latkes, matzo toffee made with vegan butter, tahini dip made with parsley, lemon and tahini to go with the challah. Vegetarian cholent if you like stews and crockpot things.
Also fun fact in the Torah when they call it the land of milk and honey, the honey they refer to is actually date honey/syrup which is delicious and vegan. Apples dipped in honey is traditionally eaten on Rosh Hashanah (new year) but you could easily substitute date syrup for a sweet snack or dessert. I hope this helps! There's a lot of good vegan Jewish recipes out there because of keeping kosher, if someone serves a meat meal then they need everything else to not have dairy or vice versa.
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u/DanJdot Non-Jewish Ally Jul 17 '24
I am salivating! I will be looking for healthy portioned samples of all these, thank you!
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u/havala420 Ashkenazi Jul 17 '24
If you're interested in any specific recipes or tips cooking these things, feel free to send me a dm and I can coach you through it like a good Jewish mother
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u/lilleff512 Jewish Jul 17 '24
For vegan food, I would suggest dosa or some other South Indian dish
If you're looking specifically for Jewish vegan food, then I'm not sure what I would recommend because a lot of our vegetarian foods have eggs or dairy. I guess you could have latkes, but that's more of a snack or side dish than a proper meal.
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u/DanJdot Non-Jewish Ally Jul 17 '24
Much appreciated! Forgive my ignorance but is there a lot of overlap between Jewish and South Indian cuisine?
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u/PreparationOk1450 Jewish Anti-Zionist Jul 17 '24
I don't think so. I think they suggested dosas as a good vegan food.
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u/thesistodo Palestine supporter Jul 17 '24
Hi, I've come across the following excerpt:
"Rava says: If one bound another and he died of starvation, he is exempt from execution, as it was not his action that caused the death of the victim."
and I think that starvation is being used as a mass weapon of war in Gaza precisely because of interpretations such as this one. My question is if anyone can put this quote into context and give the relevance of the ruling today. How are these rulings viewed today in mainstream Judaism?
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u/sudo_apt-get_intrnet LGBTQ Jew Jul 17 '24
Most Talmudic verses, especially ones related to capital punishment, aren't really relevant nowadays. We don't have a religiously validated Beit Din to enforce them and even then few countries in the world would let a religious minority court perform capital punishment, so the entire discussion is moot.
and I think that starvation is being used as a mass weapon of war in Gaza precisely because of interpretations such as this one.
I'd personally be careful about trying to use anything talmudic to attempt to explain the horrible things Israel does -- it ends up conflating Judaism and Zionism a bit too much. It is similar to how islamaphobes pull out random Quranic verses to explain why certain islamist groups are terroristic/racist/antisemitic. Antisemites already really like to bring up random stuff in the talmud, real or fake, to justify their beliefs.
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u/ApplesauceFuckface Ashkenazi Jul 17 '24
mainstream Judaism?
I don't know that this is really a thing. You might be able to talk about mainstream Jewish ideas, beliefs, myths or something, to describe things that are held in some way by a majority of Jewish people, but even then I'm not sure.
Having said that, aside from Orthodox Jews, very few of the Jewish people I've known have given the slightest thought to Talmud. If you picked a Jewish person at random they probably wouldn't be able to tell you the difference between Mishna and Gemara.
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u/ezkori Ashkenazi, American, raised in orthodoxy, currently cultural Jul 17 '24
The validity of Talmudic rulings in the modern day is a complex one. Firstly without looking more into the excerpt, it isn’t clear whether this ended up being the accepted ruling. 2nd temple Rabbinic lit often has multiple arguments presented before one is chosen as “law”. That being said, much of the actual things that were kept in practice that are in the Talmud are further expanded and broken down as time goes on. What this specific quote means to modern Jews is truly an unanswerable question as the sheer amount of textual references we can pull are immense. That being said I would also say that specifics written in Talmudic and Jewish law generally has very little to do with most people’s modern experiences of Judaism and for most lots of things just are parts of the culture without knowing of any textual or religious frame of reference. Not sure if I made sense lol
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u/CyborgDiaspora Ashkenazi Jul 17 '24
I agree, seeing as how saving a life is one of the most important obligations, it would be hard to see how this opinion would have been accepted unless there is mitigating context like the bound person has murderous intent.
I’d also add that while there are religious folk who will try to justify the actions of the Israeli government and military, I’m skeptical that there’s any serious consideration of ethics (Jewish or otherwise) informing strategy for those in power.
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u/Saul_al-Rakoun Conservadox & Marxist Jul 17 '24 edited Jul 17 '24
Zionism and Judaism are diametrically opposed and the so-called "National Religious" in Israel are heretics. Likud has approximately zero Jewish content to it, which makes sense because it's descended from the European fascist movement -- if you listen to what Netanyahu says, for example, he doesn't speak like a Jew, think like a Jew, or interpret like a Jew -- ideologically and religiously he's an irreligious American Protestant.
There isn't some deep meaning behind the starvation plan for Gaza any more than there was deep meaning behind the starvation plan in Generalplan Öst in the early 1940s -- it's a pragmatic solution to the problem of how to kill as many civilians in an ethnic cleansing project with the least expenditure of resources and least amount of public outcry.
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u/specialistsets Non-denominational Jul 17 '24
and the so-called "National Religious" in Israel are heretics
those who are labeled "dati leumi" in Israel don't all share the same political or religious beliefs. for some it means "settling the west bank and gaza is a religiously mandated holy mission" and for others it just means "traditionally observant but not Haredi". the only thing they all have in common is that they are Zionists. either way, I don't think we should be calling entire groups of Jews heretics. it's the same thing that many Zionists say about anti-Zionist Jews and it's not helpful.
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Jul 17 '24
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u/metaphorphase Non-Jewish Ally Jul 17 '24 edited Jul 17 '24
Hello! Not the typical question. I work in Hollywood and would love to make some anti-zionist Jewish friends in the industry (not for tokenizing hopefully 😣 just because I like having friends of many backgrounds and learning from them, and feel like it’s nice to have community in a particularly zionist industry) so if anyone does similar work, please hit me up! 🥹❤️ You are a constant source of inspiration.
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u/PaxSpeaksFacts Anti-Zionist Jul 17 '24
Hey! I’m currently considering converting to Judaism, but the only synagogue close to me is very pro-Israel. Would it be okay to still get converted through them? Can I still keep my anti-Zionist ideals while also attending their synagogue? Do I have any other options?
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u/ApplesauceFuckface Ashkenazi Jul 18 '24
Can I still keep my anti-Zionist ideals while also attending their synagogue?
Well that probably depends on what keeping your anti-Zionist ideals means to you.
Here's some of what I think you should expect.
It's unlikely that you would be compelled to identify yourself as a Zionist, or publicly renounce your anti-Zionism. You may or may not be asked about your views on "the war" or "the conflict" (they won't call it a genocide), or they may just assume that you are a Zionist. You're more likely to be asked if there's anything about you that would make people think that you have left-wing views generally. If it's a Reform or Conservative congregation then they probably wouldn't say you can't join if your anti-Zionism comes up, but they might. If you start attending services, it's basically guaranteed that you're going to hear references to Israel, though mostly that will mean the biblical land of Israel, not the State of Israel. You may very well hear prayers specifically for the State of Israel, I think those are very common in Zionist synagogues. You're probably going to hear some vicious smears against Palestinians, and a lot of bad hasbara. There will be pro-Israel events.
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u/Pitiful_Meringue_57 Jewish Jul 17 '24
it would fine to convert the with a zionist synagogue, most synagogues are zionists but many r to different degrees. As long as u don’t get in an argument with the rabbi about it u should be okay. If it’s super crazy abt it tho then maybe try and different synagogue.
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u/lilleff512 Jewish Jul 18 '24
Would it be okay to still get converted through them?
Yes
Can I still keep my anti-Zionist ideals while also attending their synagogue?
Yes
Do I have any other options?
Hard to say one way or the other without knowing where you are located. If you're in a big US city like New York, LA, or Chicago then you'll have better chances of being able to find a more progressive synagogue.
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u/Mammoth_Scallion_743 Jewish Communist Jul 17 '24
If you don't care much for traditions or halacha, convert through a JVP Rabbi. If you do care about halacha and traditions, convert through Satmar or Neturei Karta.
As Jews, we usually don't encourage conversion tho.
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u/lilleff512 Jewish Jul 18 '24
Why would someone be converting if they don't care for traditions or halacha?
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Jul 18 '24
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u/PaxSpeaksFacts Anti-Zionist Jul 18 '24
Thank you for the help! So is conversion not required to be Jewish?
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u/DurianVisual3167 Jewish Jul 18 '24
Conversion is required to be Jewish of you aren't ethnically Jewish (standards vary from having a maternal line (halacha) or being raised exclusively Jewish by atleast one Jewish parent).
Jews don't encourage conversion meaning we aren't supposed to proselytize.
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u/PaxSpeaksFacts Anti-Zionist Jul 18 '24
Alright thank you! I have Jewish ancestry with my great grandma but that’s about it :/
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u/Mammoth_Scallion_743 Jewish Communist Jul 18 '24
Conversion is required unless you have a Jewish mother
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Jul 17 '24
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Jul 17 '24
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Jul 18 '24
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u/douglasstoll Reconstructionist Jul 17 '24
My question is how can y'all be so awesome and wonderful so much. Thanks in advance!