Published: 19 February 2026
Last updated: 20 February 2026
Imagine a Shabbat dinners in Caulfield or Dover Heights. The parent, in their 50s, is an ardent Zionist who donates regularly to the JNF, attends Zionist Federation events, and was deeply moved by the recent visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog. The child, in their 20s, a graduate of a Jewish day school, has been protesting that same visit, arguing that Israel’s president should be arrested for inciting a genocide in Gaza.
The shadow of these differences hangs over many Jewish families, across the Diaspora.
In the increasingly fractured landscape of contemporary Jewish life, few subjects trigger as visceral a reaction as the rising tide of anti-Zionism among young Jews. For many in the mainstream community, this shift is viewed with a mixture of bewilderment, betrayal, and deep-seated alarm.
Seeking to move beyond the high-decibel rhetoric of social media and op-ed pages, Robbie Gringras and Abi Dauber Sterne of the organization For the Sake of Argument embarked on an ambitious qualitative research project. Their report, The Journeys and Destinations of Young Jewish Anti-Zionists, offers a sobering yet necessary look at the internal schisms threatening communal coherence.
While specifically focused on the schism happening in the US, based on interviews with 30 self-described anti-Zionist Jews, the report contains many insights that may be relevant for Australian Jewish families struggling with this question.
Comments7
Steve Holstein26 February at 07:53 am
To renounce Zionism is, to my mind, a retreat into defeatism that ignores the unmovable reality of sixteen million souls upon the soil: 10 million Israelis, the vast majority of whom (despite minority extremist rhetoric) remain committed to a democratic Jewish state, and 6 million Palestinians, whose future—and whose official guiding policy—must be built on the establishment of a democratic Palestinian state, alongside Israel. Despite the failures of Oslo, if the only vision is to renounce the rights of either people, what future is being authored?
However, this article is about the rights of anti-Zionists (non-Zionists) to be accepted in their views, a right that should be whole heartedly respected; just as anti-Zionists should respect the vast majority of us who are Zionists.
Stevyboy23 February at 01:42 pm
We need to acknowledge that among the Jewish people there have always been traitors and fools. There is a vast difference between being a Jewish Zionist who doesn’t like one or other side of politics in Israel and being a Jewish anti-Zionist who mouths the outrageous lies and slogans of our mortal enemies. If “understanding” the warped minds of anti-Zionists could lead to some effective ways of changing their misguided, delusional and Jewish people harming ideas I’d be all for it but alas, I think they are mostly too far gone. Stockholm syndrome reigns supreme.
Ric Solidad21 February at 12:51 pm
This article is a good explanation of researchers mistakes https://fornormalpeople.substack.com/p/report-on-young-jewish-antizionists