r/JewsOfConscience • u/PattonSmithWood • 3d ago

Discussion - Flaired Users Only Feel completely disconnected

How do fellow, non-religious, anti Zionist Jews in this sub reconcile their anti Zionist views with their Jewish identity when 80/90% of contemporary Jews across the world are staunch Zionists.

I feel at a complete loss in terms of my identity. Extended family and relatives are 90% Zionists, they take literal pleasure in any and all harm to Palestinians. They are gleeful and boastful of the current genocide (and they proudly label it as such). They marginalise, shut down, bad mouth any relative who believes in Palestinian dignity, self determination and sovereignty. They call us self hating Jews and turncoats.

My values and some close family are completely, polar, opposite. We are more in harmony with the views of some prominent Jewish scholars and identities such as Norman Finkelstein, Gabor Mate, Miko Peled, Noam Chomsky, Avi Shlaim, Gideon Levy etc

I'm proud to be a Jew with faith in universal values of humanity. Although I am not an observant Jew, and am pretty much secular and atheist, I find myself increasingly aligning with some teachings of Torah Jews, specially their teachings about diaspora being essential to Judaism and spiritual Israel only being reinstated by the mashiach and not a group of atheists.

I know this is a bit of a rant, but I feel so out of place amidst contemporary Jews.

Would love to hear any experiences navigating this identity crisis.

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u/pomegranie Jewish Anti-Zionist 2d ago

I feel much the same way; most of my family is very Zionist, and though I still love them, I can’t respect it. When I became anti-Zionist it was hard to reconcile myself with Judaism, because it was my family who taught me to be Jewish. I think what changed things for me was learning about Judaism and Jewish history outside of Zionism—anti-Zionism, yes, but also our culture before Zionism was even invented. Even though it’s the popular thing now, it helps to remind myself that for most of our history, it was either unpopular or nonexistent. Best of luck with your family.

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u/Blochkato Jewish Anti-Zionist 2d ago

It's worth noting that not even all early movements within Zionism were necessarily right wing or colonial. Zionism itself has a rich and complex history together with a spectrum of historical and religious meanings which have essentially been erased in favor of the current strain of colonial ethnonationalism.

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