Reclaiming Zionism’s voice on the left

As progressive Zionists after 7 October 2023, we find ourselves caught in an unsettling limelight, often misunderstood and grappling with a world that feels increasingly disorienting. The polarised rhetoric around Israel and antisemitism demands we confront a difficult question: how do we defend our community and our values when they seem to conflict with those of the very circles that we once called allies? This is a time to find our voice and redefine our role.

Many progressive Zionists have expressed surprise at the loss of tribal camaraderie on the left since October 2023. Yet those of us who have worked in the charity sector for years have been aware that Israel has long been an uncomfortable topic to bring up among colleagues. I say this after decades working in homelessness and youth disadvantage, both in the UK and Australia. For years, I baked for my colleagues during each Jewish festival but knew not to leave the newspaper open on Israel news, lest they actually talk about it.

In hindsight, we too carefully separated “Israel” from “Jewish” and made excuses for bad behaviour. Today, I don’t believe many progressive Zionists would comfortably excuse words of racism about or toward any other group. But when it’s a micro-aggression (a word I use deliberately), or even a blatant macro-aggression toward Jews, with Israel as the socially acceptable code word, we let it slide. Today, we still look away. We find solace over an almond chai with our Jewish friends, to avoid looking our progressive peers in the eye and calling it out.

Why?

In the past, we excused the vague discomfort with Israel for so long so we could get on with the important business of making society better for the vulnerable. In doing so, we sacrificed ourselves, a cost that seemed fair at the time. After all, we knew we had a strong community to return home to, one that supported, nurtured, and challenged us. Our kids were alright—until suddenly, they’re not.

Our kids are currently at university and starting their careers in a world in which people are wilfully ignorant or accidentally blind —because of what they see on social and mainstream media. When our students go to the CBD on a Sunday only to face eight-year-old children shouting racist slogans through loudspeakers, they know something is Not Quite Right. Our kids know it’s not about them, but it’s still not okay. And if what it takes for those of us living among progressive tribes—whether in our suburbs, workplaces, or friendship groups—is worry for our children, then maybe that’s the wake-up call we need.

In the past months, I have found inspiration in Joel Lazar from the Jewish Climate Network, who has been looking outward to the social and not-for-profit sectors to help staff engage with the post October 7th Jewish experience. He has helped them understand how the weaponisation of words like “coloniser” and “genocide” is causing real harm. When he explained his “Jewish Cultural Awareness” idea, I was speechless. I have organised cultural awareness training for so many groups, but never my own. History tells me now is the time for Jewish cultural awareness.

Similarly, the feminist sector has failed spectacularly to embrace women in the Israeli and Jewish community, even in the face of the horrific torture and rape of Israeli women by Hamas terrorists on 7 October, and the ongoing torment faced by those in captivity. In response, Jewish women’s organisations, like the National Council of Jewish Women Australia (NCJWA), have reached out to mainstream feminist leaders, inviting them to hear firsthand the challenges Jewish women have faced in Australia over the last year.

In a WhatsApp group created on 8 October by progressive Zionists —no name, just a wine emoji—a friend shared a haunting thought: she’s reading different papers, watching different news channels, thinking different thoughts, and asked, “Who am I even?” This resonated deeply with me. The hard left seems to have hijacked the left and weaponised words, turning them upside down. If anyone, I felt, should be wondering “who am I even?” it is the hard left, using racist comments in a strange defence of anti-racism.

A non-Jewish Labor party activist, a friend, messaged me on October 7th. The message read, “I barely recognise the left in this country— inexplicably allowing dishonest views of history to take root.” Then I understood: the moderate left within the Jewish community often silences itself, while the moderate left outside our community fears recrimination too. It is harder to have a difficult conversation with those you generally agree with than those you do not. It is harder to push back on friends than on foes.

The moderate left needs help in democracies the world over, but let’s start in our own backyard. In Australia, the problem is currently antisemitism and pro-Hamas or pro-Hezbollah sentiment, but the moderate left quietly crept back from centre stage long ago. This enabled a vacant space for extreme voices, to the detriment of both the Jewish community and broader society. The Greens did not appear out of nowhere on October 8.

Progressive Zionists have relationships in progressive spaces: climate, women, the arts, politics. If we invest energy in supporting the progressive-Zionist members of our community, younger and older, they can rebuild confidence to face what might be one of the hardest tasks in the Diaspora today: facing their friends. Gently but firmly, explaining why some words aren’t right, why we should expect our government to avoid double-speak and lead with moral clarity. Kindly and patiently articulating why everyone stands to lose if our governments make decisions intended on placating Sunday afternoon temper tantrums in our capital cities or racist cartoons in mainstream media. We know that societies are in ill health when they go for the Jews, and that should worry others too.

The Jewish community has always flourished through adaptation. We have Hassidism, Reform, Masorti, Orthodoxy, Humanism, the list goes on. We have Hillel and we have Shammai. We must have difference and variation as this marketplace if ideas facilitates inclusive spaces for everyone, and we need every Jewish voice we can get, right now.

This means we must be able to hear things we do not agree with and stay at the table while uncomfortable. As Jews, we invented chavruta(learning Jewish texts in partner pairs)—we know how to disagree, and we know it makes us better. With this in mind, the Zionist Federation of Australia is broadening the tent of partners and observers this year at the Biennial and beyond. This is not about politics but about having more voices, including progressive voices, around the table. It is about providing an outlet and structure for progressive Zionists who are finding the post-7 October world a difficult place to comfortably share their feelings and connect.

Progressive Zionists in Australia are at a juncture in which their role as advocates for both our Jewish community and liberal values has never been more critical. The moderate left is challenged not only by the rise of antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment but also by internal rifts within the progressive movements. We must find a way to balance unwavering solidarity with Israel with an openness to constructively critique, confident that genuine support sometimes means advocating for change. We must understand that we do not need the approval of the hard left and we should stop seeking it because that is what keeps us quiet.

Israel faces an existential threat and crisis. As such, so do we in the Diaspora. We have completed a year of Avilut, grieving. The hostages remain devastatingly in captivity and the wars on many fronts in Israel continue. In the face of that, we in the Diaspora have a challenging task ahead and must also engage on multiple fronts. As a Jewish community we must reach across ideological divides and engage progressive sectors, from climate activists to feminists, with clarity of purpose and resilience. Israel should not be left alone in the world community and Jews should not be left isolated in Australia.

We must support our moderate, progressive Zionist brothers and sisters to step into their role as educators and bridge-builders amongst their communities outside of our own. The broader progressive community, the moderate left in Australia and the State of Israel stand to gain from that. And until it makes a difference, when our progressive Zionist friends come home broken-hearted, we will be standing on the doorstep with welcoming arms. We will be swallowing the “I told you so.” We won’t be saying, “how naïve,” or pushing back on their concerns, but instead, we will say: “thank you, well done. Come in and have some (vegetarian) chicken soup, and go out there again tomorrow.”