r/JewsOfConscience • u/AutoModerator • Sep 25 '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.

Please remember to pick an appropriate user-flair in order to participate! Thanks!

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u/flensingflenser LGBTQ Jew Sep 26 '24

What motivates you to continue Jewish practice and identity?

Why I'm asking: For me, it feels like nationalism has successfully coopted mainstream Judaism to such an extent that the zionists have basically "won." I feel uncomfortable in services now. Everything hits different. I feel like I'm supporting Israel just by being there - even if it's a shul that purports to be zionism-neutral I know there are statistically probably more Zionists than antizionists in the room. I've been exploring other faith paths. I guess this is half last ditch effort to find an argument to convince me to stay, half just curiosity about how others are coping.

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u/Saul_al-Rakoun Conservadox & Marxist Sep 27 '24

Because our story, the Jewish story, is one of four thousand years (going back to Abraham, z"l) of stubborn loyalty to the One True God. When it wasn't the Zionist idolators, it was the Christians, when it wasn't the Christians it was the Zoroastrians or the Zaydis, before them it was the Romans, before them it was the Seleucid Greeks, and long before the Seleucid Greeks it was the Ba'al worshipers and those who tried to syncretize God.

I know exactly what you mean about your synagogue. I wonder the same thing too, about why I bother, sometimes. After all, we're immersed in a deeply sick culture that tells us that anything other than indulging in material hedonism is delusion -- this is broader than just dealing with the Zionist heresy.

It's important to recognize that we are just as occupied by Zionists as the Palestinians are. The weapons they wield against us are different, less obvious, and so the path to and necessity of our own intifada is murkier. I'll also say that Zionism is inextricably tied up with bourgeois society, and as bourgeois society goes through (a hopefully terminal) crisis of legitimacy and reproduction, so too Zionism is going through a crisis of legitimacy and reproduction.