‘Pick a side’: Progressive Jews face crisis of belonging

Diaspora Jews face multiple crises today: antisemitism, hostility, exclusion, and isolation. Alongside this a new crisis emerges – one that is quiet and passive yet no less damaging – a crisis of belonging. For many progressive Jews the politics and ideology they once trusted now ostracise them. What happens when the morality and language they embrace suddenly excludes them?

In particular, younger generation Jews are struggling with political disillusionment in ways that feel unprecedented. Conversations with my community reveal a clear crisis – not just geopolitical tensions, but a deeply personal, identity-based one.

Progressive Jews aligned with left-wing ideals now face exclusion from the very political spaces that once offered solidarity, demanding conformity on demonising Israel while ostracising nuance. They grapple with wanting to stay progressive, yet feeling politically orphaned.

In conversation with a young left-wing Jew, she described her community's isolation and societal anomie as a "very pervasive issue”. Progressive Jews face this in Australia's current political climate, feeling drawn to Greens or Labor on immigration, fiscal policy, or environmental issues, yet unable to commit due to misalignment on Jewish security. 

She feels forced to confront whether she is a "Jewish Australian or an Australian Jew," needing to compartmentalise her identity and being ultimately left factionless. This identity-tangled alienation is a burden for her and many others. No longer prioritising political affiliation because it feels “impossible”, this embodies a broader disillusionment with Australia’s partisan stances and leaves many feeling politically and socially adrift.

If intersectionality refuses to acknowledge the vulnerability of Jews  to exclusion, how can its notion of “inclusion” hold any real meaning? This “wokeism paradox” demonstrates that progressive ideologies  designed to dismantle oppression now exclude communities unless they publicly disavow their identity. In turn,  embracing such values leaves them doubly alienated – rejected by the Left on religious grounds and branded with the pejorative 'Zionist’ by activists they’d have hoped to call allies.