An Irony of Inclusivity

At the Jews of Color National Convening this May, anti-Semitism was conflated with anti-Zionism, according to reporting by Sigal Samuel in the Forward. One participant told Samuel about the “super triggering” reaction that ensued when she said, “Being pro-Israel and being pro-Palestine are not mutually exclusive.” Someone responded that Israel should cease to exist and that Israeli Jews should have to live elsewhere. In this atmosphere, the participant said she could “never in a million years admit that I’m a Zionist!”

Samuel termed this “a sad bit of irony…[h]ere was an ultra-progressive environment where people had gone to great lengths to make the space inclusive and accessible — no fragrances, no flash photography, no addressing people without first determining their preferred pronouns — and yet had apparently also yielded a space where some Jews felt afraid to voice their political opinions.”