TL;DR: I’m broke and urgently need work. Got offered a Hebrew-speaking job at my late mom's former organization. They fund local anti-antisemitism initiatives and support for struggling and poor Jewish families (good), but also fund political actions in support of Israel (most famously the "walk with sisrael event"), which I strongly oppose. The guilt is killing me, but I need to survive.

Hey everyone. I'm posting here because I'm completely torn and don't know how to process this. I’m a queer Jew, born in Israel, and moved to Canada when I was 13. Financially, I am in a bad spot and desperately need income right now.

Out of nowhere, I was offered a job that requires fluency in Hebrew. I am feeling an immense amount of guilt just considering it. My head knows that under capitalism we all have to compromise to pay rent, but my gut feels sick at the idea of my labour indirectly supporting things I disagree with. At the same time, turning down a job offer when I'm this broke feels reckless.

For anyone who’s had to take a job at a company whose funding or politics made you uncomfortable:

• How did you compartmentalize it so the guilt didn't eat you alive?
• How do you draw the line between doing a job to survive and validating what the company does?

I’d really appreciate some grounded perspectives. Thanks!

tl;dr - I apologize for the rant, but I wanted to air my frustrations and hear your feedback.

I’m Israeli. I served in the IDF as an officer (in a non-combat unit). I grew up inside the usual Israeli framework: Zionism was not presented as one political ideology among others. It was history, survival, family, morality, belonging and basic common sense. You could criticize Netanyahu, oppose settlements and call yourself left-wing, but there were boundaries you were not supposed to cross. You were expected to reassure everyone that you were still patriotic, that the army was fundamentally moral, that Israel only wanted peace, and that Palestinian suffering was tragic but somehow never Israel’s responsibility.

I don’t believe those things anymore.

Over the last few years, and especially through the destruction of Gaza, my mental health has deteriorated rapidly from watching what Israeli society has become, or at least from the realization of what it has been for years. It is not only the government. It is the public discourse, the casual racism, the celebration of destruction, the inability to see Palestinians as full human beings, and the way even supposedly liberal Israelis treat Palestinian political participation as dangerous or illegitimate.

I keep waiting for some widespread moral awakening, and instead I see people becoming more extreme. I see politicians compete over who can be harsher. I see military service used as proof of moral authority rather than something that should be examined critically. I see “liberal Zionists” opposing Netanyahu while repeating blatant anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism. I see protests filled with Israeli flags and patriotic speeches that demand democracy for Jewish Israelis while refusing to confront occupation, apartheid, mass killing or Palestinian exclusion.

Even the Israeli “left” feels increasingly fraudulent to me.

I recently voted in the Democrats’ primary. I spent hours researching the candidates because I wanted to support the small number who genuinely oppose the occupation and defend Palestinian rights. I voted for Mossi Raz, Yariv Oppenheimer, Gaby Lasky and three Palestinian candidates. Raz and Oppenheimer did not make the realistic part of the list. The resulting party feels like another version of Yesh Atid: liberal Zionists who want to repair Israeli institutions, but are terrified of saying clearly that Palestinian citizens and their elected parties are equal and legitimate political partners.

To be fully transparent, I voted Hadash in the last general election. I regretted it afterward because Meretz failed to cross the threshold, and I wondered whether I had contributed to that. But Meretz in 2021 did not really earn my vote either. It joined the "change" government, accepted endless compromises, and behaved as though remaining respectable inside Zionist politics mattered more than fighting for Palestinians. Now Meretz no longer exists independently, and the more I examine my actual beliefs, the more obvious it becomes that Hadash is much closer to representing me than the Democrats ever will.

My priorities are ending the occupation, preventing further mass killing, Palestinian equality and freedom, stopping settlements and settler violence, accountability for Israeli crimes, and genuine Jewish-Palestinian reconciliation. These are not secondary issues to me. They are the issue. I do not care how progressive a party is on domestic economics or religion and state if it accepts permanent domination over millions of Palestinians.

I recently left Israel partly because I could no longer tolerate living inside this atmosphere, and I had the privilege of having the chance to leave (I realize a lot of people with my views don't have the means to do it). It was an attempt to protect my mental health and create distance from a society that made me feel increasingly ashamed and trapped. I also wanted to ensure that my future children would not grow up being told that joining the military is an unavoidable moral duty. My partner and I have agreed that our children will not serve in the IDF.

But unfortunately, leaving has not solved my identity problem, and it keeps hovering over my head.

I am now surrounded mostly by Zionist diaspora Jews. Many are decent people, including people I love. My girlfriend tries to understand me, but she is skeptical of some of where I have ended up politically. I constantly feel pressure to soften myself. Criticizing Netanyahu is acceptable, opposing settlements is usually acceptable, but saying I no longer identify as Zionist, that I may be becoming anti-Zionist, that Palestinian parties should hold real power, or that I do not want my future children sent to Zionist schools and camps feels like crossing a social line.

At the same time, I often feel alienated from non-Israeli and non-Jewish spaces that broadly share my politics. Some people hear that I am Israeli, or that I served in the IDF, and decide that I am permanently contaminated or that anything I say is an attempt to centre myself. I understand why Palestinians and their supporters are angry. I am not asking anyone to comfort me or absolve me. But it leaves me feeling that I belong nowhere.

Among Zionist Jews, I am too radical, disloyal or self-hating. Among some anti-Zionists, I am still simply Israeli and a former IDF soldier, therefore suspect.

I feel politically homeless, but also culturally trapped. I cannot erase Hebrew, my childhood, my family, my memories or the person I was. But “Israeli” increasingly feels less like a neutral description and more like an accusation I have to answer for. I did not choose to be born into this society, but I feel forced to spend the rest of my life proving that it does not speak for me.

What hurts most is that I once believed Israeli society could correct itself. I believed Jewish history would make us sensitive to dehumanization and collective punishment. Instead, I have watched historical trauma become a justification for permanent fear, exceptionalism and domination. We were taught “never again,” but too often the actual lesson seems to have been “never again to us.”

I’m writing this because I need to know whether other Israelis have experienced a similar break. Did you reach a point where liberal Zionism no longer felt morally sufficient? How do you cope with the grief and shame of watching your society become something you cannot defend? How do you build relationships with Zionist family and friends without constantly censoring yourself? And how do you participate in anti-occupation or anti-Zionist spaces without feeling that your nationality and past service permanently disqualify you?

i got back on tumblr because reddit has burned me out, have a meme

Is this going to be a very Jewish post? Not necessarily. But left leaning and anti authoritarian, yes!

So I was thinking about how all of these flock cameras have been going up and I realized it intersects with the transit and housing advocacy I do.

Being…. Generous…. Flock cameras have one main purpose, security via surveillance to lower crime.
However this should be unnecessary in any well functioning human focused city. This is due to the natural surveillance done by pedestrians, the eyes on the street effect.

However in America or well, many cities worldwide the car is put first in cities. A materialist belonging. This then means that human streets become car roads and as drivers are obviously focused on other cars the roads become too dangerous for people causing less natural community surveillance and thus something has to fill the gap.

The state, having put corporate auto profits over the basic human decency and right to walk around (or be mobile on mobility devices) in our own environment has created a perfect storm for sliding into authoritarianism and fascism.

If we don’t have dense human focused cities with quality public transit it becomes far easier to control populations through surveillance and forcing car ownership.

It also forces more religiously oriented Jews to live in more expensive, walkable, and sometimes custom built places in the United States to practice faith, putting those who are less well off in a worse position to practice faith as they choose.

In short, car dependency is a one way ticket to authoritarianism by taking away pedestrian space and making it easier for fascists to control both how people move, are identified, and where we can walk, handing human liberty over to auto corps who poison our air and water with fossil fuels and tire/break particulate matter.

Also flock cameras would not be even remotely worth it to consider for governments if we had properly pedestrian focused infrastructure.

As many of you know, troglodytes like Nick Fuentes and other far-right antisemites sometimes refer to themselves as “goyim” or use slogans such as “goyim know” as a form of supposed Gentile resistance against Jews. Their rhetoric generally rests on the belief that Jews view Gentiles as inferior, secretly despise them, or consider themselves entitled to dominate non-Jewish societies.

However, I have also encountered some leftists adopting similar language, although usually through a different ideological framework. Rather than speaking explicitly about Jewish conspiracies, they may present the term goy as evidence that Judaism is inherently ethnocentric, exclusionary, or based on a hierarchy between Jews and non-Jews. Some then begin referring to themselves as “goyim” ironically or as a form of solidarity with people whom they believe have been demeaned by Jewish religious or communal attitudes or as a form of empowerment against Israel/Zionism.

Admittedly, some of my Arab peers also use the term as a form of banter among ourselves, especially when teasing me. Because of my interest in Jewish history and religion, along with my refusal to adopt or share an absolutist position on Israel, Zionism, and Jewish peoplehood, they sometimes jokingly refer to me as a “good goy.” However, whenever I defend Palestine or the Arab world, they would call me a Siddiq (Arabic equivalent of tzaddik) and joke that I have finally returned to the light. On the other hand, I would retaliate by calling them "Muklo" (In my native language, it basically means "the Arab/Muslim attacks/fights like a Snake"). Granted, this is all typical banter, and I originally come from a place in the world where political correctness does not exist in the same way that it does in the West. Within our friend group, we understand that these terms are being used jokingly and reciprocally rather than as sincere expressions of hatred toward one another.

I have also explained that the Hebrew Bible itself sometimes uses Goy to refer to the Jewish people or ancient Israel as a nation, which further complicates the claim that the word was originally created as an insult directed exclusively at Gentiles. That does not mean that no Jew has ever used the term contemptuously, nor does it mean that Gentiles are never justified in feeling uncomfortable with the way it is directed toward them. However, I think there is a major difference between criticizing an individual Jew for using the term in a genuinely demeaning manner and interpreting the existence of the term itself as proof that Judaism teaches that all Gentiles are inferior. In addition, in the past, I have also called them out on their hypocrisy because they have also used Kuffar/Kaffir a lot, sometimes jokingly and sometimes in a genuinely dismissive way toward non-Muslims, so they cannot exactly complain about the term Goy as though their own religious and cultural traditions contain no comparable language for outsiders. Like Goy, Kuffar/Kaffir can be used descriptively, theologically, jokingly, or contemptuously depending on the speaker and context. Therefore, treating one term as uniquely dehumanizing while casually using the other strikes me as inconsistent.

That said, my personal view on this phenomenon is that, if this term continues to be used in the context that I mentioned in my second paragraph, I do think it risks becoming a form of antisemitic identity-building, even when the people using it consider themselves leftists or anti-racists. We even see these terms used by conservatives such as Nick Fuentes, who unfortunately can appear as an ally to very impressionable leftists because of his opposition to Israel, Zionism, American foreign policy, or the political establishment more broadly.

Although Fuentes and these leftists may arrive at their conclusions through different ideological paths, the language can create an uncomfortable point of convergence. A leftist may believe that they are opposing colonialism, ethnonationalism, or ethnoreligious supremacy, while Fuentes openly promotes Christian nationalism and antisemitic conspiracy theories. However, when both begin presenting “the Goyim” as a political group that must awaken and resist Jewish power, Jewish exclusivity, the "ZOG", and supposed Jewish contempt for outsiders, the distinction between the two can become increasingly blurred.

What are your thoughts?

This seems to be one of the only sane and respectful subreddits I've ever come across. I want to learn more about the different branches of leftism, as I feel my political and moral sensibilities align with much of it. Specifically, I'd love to know about branches of leftism that are related to Jewish philosophy and thought (I'm not particularly observant but I'm very philosophically and ethically aligned with the Jewish principles I was raised by (Machloket L'Shem Shamayim, Tikkun Olam, Yisrael meaning "to wrestle with God", Tzedek and Tzedakah). Does anyone have any good resources or information? Thanks.

The mod team has created this post to refresh on a weekly basis as a chill place for people to talk about whatever they want to. Think of it as like a general chat for the sub.

So r/jewishleft,

Whats on your mind?

I know that “self-hating Jew” is a highly controversial and often weaponized label, so I am curious about where people here personally draw the line. From conversations with the Jewish people in my life, I have heard very different definitions. Some describe a self-hating Jew as someone who is genuinely ashamed of being Jewish, regards Jewish culture or peoplehood as something that should disappear, minimizes antisemitism to gain acceptance from gentiles, or consistently sides with people who are hostile toward Jews while applying standards to Jews that they would never apply to another minority group. In contrast, you're already familiar with the idea that others think the label is frequently abused against Jews who criticize Israel, oppose Zionism, reject religious observance, assimilate, intermarry with the goyim, or simply disagree with the politics of the broader Jewish community.

Speaking as a Filipino, there is a term in my native language called Makapili, which was originally used to describe Filipinos who collaborated with the Japanese Empire during the Japanese occupation. However, the term has since evolved into a broader insult for Filipinos perceived as excessively loyal to foreign powers (Mostly China or America), overly eager to gain outsiders' approval, or willing to undermine fellow Filipinos to advance the interests of another country or group. Basically, our equivalent of the term race traitor.

Within Tagalog-speaking Filipino social media circles, you can see this term used in other contexts, such as Filipinos who appear to defend foreign governments at the expense of Philippine sovereignty, downplay racism or discrimination against Filipinos in order to ingratiate themselves with outsiders, or portray Filipino culture and society as uniquely backward while romanticizing foreign cultures as inherently superior. It can also overlap with accusations of colonial mentality, especially when someone seems embarrassed by Filipino identity, looks down upon other Filipinos, or seeks acceptance from Westerners or other foreigners by repeating degrading stereotypes about their own people.

In addition, there is a term we use to describe Filipinos who specifically have strong sympathies for the Spanish Empire: Hispanista. Stereotypical behaviors exercised by mga Hispanista include romanticizing Spanish colonial rule as the height of Philippine civilization, portraying our older Pagan and Muslim societies as primitive or culturally deficient, minimizing colonial violence and racial hierarchy, and insisting that Filipinos became civilized only through the Spanish Empire and the introduction of Christianity. Some also express contempt for all native languages, lament the removal of the Spanish language (It was mostly spoken by the bourgeoisie), or argue that the Philippines would be more culturally sophisticated if it had remained more thoroughly Hispanized.

Even though I am a Gentile, I have seen pretty good examples of what would be considered a self-hating Jew, just as I have seen pretty good examples of Makapili. I don't view many Anti-Zionist Jews as self-hating, as many of them are quite proud of their culture and their ancestors despite their differing opinions from their Zionist counterparts. Many criticize Israel precisely because they believe their political commitments are consistent with Jewish cultural values or because they want Jewish communal life to develop in a different direction.

The cases that seem closer to self-hatred are those in which a Jewish person expresses actual contempt for Jews as a people, treats Jewish culture as uniquely diseased, believes that Jewish distinctiveness should disappear, or repeatedly seeks approval from antisemites by affirming their prejudices. I would also include situations in which someone dismisses nearly every expression of Jewish fear as manipulation, minimizes antisemitism unless it comes from their political opponents, or seems far more disturbed by Jews defending themselves than by the hostility directed against them. The distinction I would make is similar to the distinction between a Filipino who criticizes the Philippines because he wants the country to improve and a Filipino who appears to believe that Filipinos are inherently inferior and deserve to be ruled, unironically recolonized, and, in general, replaced by a supposedly superior foreign civilization. The first is criticism rooted in concern. The second is contempt shaped by identification with outsiders.

So, from your personal perspective, where do you draw the line?

So, Israelis, in about three months you will have the opportunity to elect a new government, and I have a few questions:

1. If Bibi loses power, do you think he will actually step down peacefully, or are people genuinely concerned about some form of constitutional crisis or even an attempted coup?
2. Israeli democracy has faced a lot of criticism. There have been proposals to raise the electoral threshold, which could make it harder for Arab parties to gain representation. Do Arab parties still have a realistic chance of influencing politics?
3. What are the main criticisms of the social-democratic parties, aside from their perceived willingness to turn a blind eye to policies in the West Bank, Gaza, and related issues?
4. Are far-right figures such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich gaining more support? Has their voter base grown significantly in recent years?
5. What are the biggest political challenges facing Israel today? From the outside, Israeli politics often seems heavily focused on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, security issues, military responses, and international hasbara rather than on domestic issues such as poverty, affordable housing, social welfare, and access to affordable education. Why do these social and economic issues seem less prominent in political debate.
6. Why is the Israeli left so unpopular today? Many outsiders perceive that a growing number of Israelis are prioritizing nationalism and security concerns over liberal democratic values and the rule of law. Is that perception accurate, and if so, what factors have contributed to it?

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Oren

This is an interesting piece from Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg exploring some basic Jewish ethical angles on the use of generative AI tools. It’s framed specifically around the notion of religious exemptions in US civil rights law, but I think the principles in this conversation pretty obviously apply beyond that.

It discusses AI as an industry engaging in exploitation and as an industry with environmental impact.

The notion of these principles coming together for something concrete like a work exemption on the level of keeping kashrut or being shomer shabbos inspires some discomfort in me, but I think the conversation is interesting and valuable nonetheless.

He’s a brown Democrat, so we can safely expect the current US administration and the Israeli government to do nothing, but under past administrations this would be a massive breach of diplomatic norms and a huge international incident.

(Jewishnews.uk is center/non biased to my knowledge and research)