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Pro-Palestinian Protesters Are Proving Why Israel Is Needed

(CNN) Mijal Bitton - The virulence of college demonstrators is only intensifying the fear Americans Jews are feeling. The more the protesters demonize Israel, the more they reawaken Jewish identity and strengthen Zionism. We have found out that too many of our allies here at home refuse to speak up when Israelis are murdered or when American Jews who care about Israel are excluded from polite society. Last week, protesters in Lower Manhattan targeted an exhibit dedicated to the memory of the hundreds of young Israelis murdered or kidnapped from the Nova music festival. They unfurled a banner proclaiming "Long Live October 7" and held signs declaring that Zionists "are not Jews and not human." Days earlier, crowds chanted "kill another Zionist now" across from the White House in Washington. But paradoxically, every day since Oct. 7, I have also seen how this rise in antisemitism and anti-Zionist rhetoric is inspiring Jewish pride and solidarity with Israel among so many young Jews. These young Jews share the life-altering experience of deep disillusionment with previous professional or social homes. Nearly every young person I know has had a (former) friend express sympathy for Hamas, been the recipient of antisemitic comments on social media or seen overt antisemitism in their neighborhood. Multiple Jewish university students are rediscovering that they belong to a rich history of Jews who experienced othering and expulsions but whose greatest strength was in each other. They are rediscovering the millennia-old Jewish rituals and community structures that nourish belonging. And they are rediscovering Zionism. This is not surprising. The Zionist dreamers of the 1800s and 1900s were motivated to build a Jewish state by the realization that their neighbors in an "enlightened" Europe were incubating a hatred so dangerous it could lead to their genocide. For most of us American Jews, Zionism is the belief that Jews have a right to self-determination in their historical homeland. At the heart of Zionism is the security in having at least one place in the world that never closes its doors to displaced and oppressed Jews. The latest Pew study on Jewish Americans shows that for 82%, caring about Israel is an important or essential part of what being Jewish means to them. The protests unleashed a relentless antisemitic wave in America, but they also have awakened Zionism in the hearts of American Jews who now understand that Israel is at least one place on Earth that can truly guarantee that Jews will always be welcome. The writer is the spiritual leader of the Downtown Minyan in New York City and a sociologist of American Jews.
2024-06-25 00:00:00
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