"We are absolutely horrified": Jewish activists demanding Gaza ceasefire face personal cost

In the month since Israel began its bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza, thousands of Jewish Americans have taken to the streets in droves to protest in support of Palestinians.

Last week, 40 rabbis with Rabbis for Ceasefire, alongside hundreds of congregants and a circle of clergy from other religions, gathered before the U.S. Capitol to pray for a ceasefire in Gaza to abate the rising Palestinian death toll, the release of the around 240 hostages seized by Hamas during the deadly Oct. 7 attack that killed 1,200 Israeli civilians, and a de-escalation of the decadeslong conflict. Over 11,000 Palestinians have been killed, including over 4,600 Palestinian children, since Israel launched its retaliatory attacks in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

At the same time, the demonstrators extended their grief in mourning to the Israeli and Palestinian families who have lost loved ones in the violence, many of whom their group members are just a few degrees removed from. Their goal was to say, "we can mourn every one of these deaths and fight to save life now," Rabbi Miriam Grossman, one of the participants, told Salon. 

"I see so many people coming and saying they're doing this, not in spite of their Judaism or Jewish heritage, but because of their Judaism and because of their heritage. That they were taught — thank God — they were taught in a Jewish education that every life is sacred," Grossman said.

Progressive Jewish activists like Grossman protesting to preserve Palestinian life — and rejecting the notion that Israel is carrying out its attacks on their behalf — form an increasingly vocal, if not growing, group in the calls for an end to the crisis in Gaza. But as their rallying cries of "ceasefire now" ring out, they incur a personal cost as they agitate a greater divide in sentiments toward the war throughout Jewish American communities.

Jewish Voice for Peace, which describes itself as the world's largest anti-Zionist organization, has conducted over 65 actions from organizing tens of thousands of calls to elected officials to occupying federal and landmark buildings — all to demand a ceasefire in the territory, according to JVP communication director Sonya Meyerson-Knox.

Hundreds of protestors with the group and IfNotNow, a progressive Jewish American organization that frequently collaborates with JVP, convened in the rotunda of the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill on Oct. 18 in black, "Not in our name" t-shirts as an estimated 10,000 rallied outside on the National Mall. The demonstration became one of the largest Jewish-led pro-Palestine protests in the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7.

The Anti-Defamation League, which was founded in 1913 to combat antisemitism and bigotry, swiftly condemned the mid-October march and sit-in online, calling into question the activists' morals and accusing them of promoting antisemitism.

"Although they claim to do so, these far-left radical organizations do not represent the overwhelming majority Jewish community," Meredith R. Weisel, the ADL D.C. Regional Director said in a statement on X/Twitter. "Rather these groups are anti-Zionists that challenge Israel's very right to exist. Let's be very clear — anti-Zionism is antisemitism."

Since then, hundreds of activists with JVP and IfNotNow have led a sit-in outside the Statue of Liberty, packed Grand Central Station in protest in New York City, occupied the Ogilvie Transportation Center in Chicago and taken over the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building in Oakland, California, among other actions, to amplify their demands for a ceasefire. Their calls, though not inherently antisemitic by virtue of being anti-Zionist, are at odds with the opinions of many Jewish communities, according to Tyler Gregory, the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Bay Area.

"For us, the word ceasefire is not a peaceful term. It says we don't care about the lives at stake on the Jewish side," Gregory told Salon. "That's what we're trying to communicate to our elected officials and to progressive communities that are worried about the humanitarian issues there, which are real."

While many Jews are "distraught" over the humanitarian concerns Israel's bombardment of Gaza raises, Gregory believes that many American Jewish communities don't and won't see a place for a ceasefire in the ongoing crisis until hostages are released and the threat of Hamas against both Israeli and Palestinian lives in the territory is eliminated.

A poll from the Jewish Electoral Institute released last week found that a sizable majority of Jewish voters, who trend liberal, rejected calls for a ceasefire with 63 percent expressing support for the decision to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a permanent end to the violence.

Seventy-four percent of respondents also approve of President Joe Biden's handling of Israel's war on Hamas as he stands staunchly behind the Israeli government. Specifically, 80 percent expressed support for his request for $14.4 billion in military aid to be sent to Israel and 68 percent supported U.S. calls for humanitarian pauses, a measure Israel's right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to earlier this month.

Ninety-three percent of Jewish voters also expressed concern about the rise of antisemitism in the U.S. in the aftermath of Hamas' attack, a tally that reflects a recent ADL report that saw a 316 percent increase in the number of documented antisemitic incidents between the one-month period between Oct. 7 and Nov. 7, 2023 and the same period in 2022. The ADL also included at least 200 of the 653 anti-Israel rallies held in the U.S. since Oct. 7, where it claimed there was explicit or strong implicit support for Hamas and violence against Israeli Jews, in its count of antisemitic harassment incidents.  

The organization has further criticized JVP for its subsequent protests, accusing the group, alongside IfNotNow and others, of perpetuating "classic antisemitic themes" in their demonstrations. Progressive Jewish activists have also garnered increasingly harsh rebukes from community leaders and members with some on the far-right even declaring that their actions in support of Palestine strip them of their Jewish identity. 

Those charges the organizations vehemently rebuke, Meyerson-Knox told Salon.

"We are absolutely horrified that at a time when all American Jews and Jews around the world should be coming together both in grief and mourning — but also to ensure that we are engaging in practices of solidarity with the other communities who are also facing threats from white nationalism ... we are being told that we are not welcomed by some of the largest American Jewish organizations," she said, adding that antisemitism has no place in their organizations' movements and protests.

When non-member protesters do spew "absolutely unacceptable" antisemitic rhetoric during demonstrations, it's often Palestinian students from Students for Justice in Palestine, a national pro-Palestine student group, and others who immediately act to remove the offender from the protest, Meyerson-Knox said. Those activists also pause the protest's schedule to have a conversation about the harm of antisemitism and reestablish their commitment to combatting it, she added, noting that the organization upholds that Israeli lives and safety are "absolutely intertwined" with that of Palestinians.

IfNotNow co-founder Simone Zimmerman told Salon that their groups' demonstrations have largely given rise to other similar actions in support of a ceasefire and have encouraged more American Jews to mobilize for Palestine.  

"It's absolutely unacceptable that people target Jewish communities when they're angry at the State of Israel," Zimmerman told Salon. "That's why I see these Jewish protests for a ceasefire as an important part of fighting antisemitism because you're now seeing thousands of us out there challenging that misconception that's out there." 

Almost every act of civil disobedience the groups have carried out has also seen hundreds of participants arrested. Just over 300 were detained after the Grand Central Terminal protest while JVP estimated 500 were detained after the Cannon House demonstration and rally. An action outside the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C. last week even turned violent as police clashed with protestors, The Washington Post reported. 

"People are dying in Gaza at this very moment and we're just horrified by every image that we're seeing coming out," Zimmerman told Salon. "It feels like the least we can do to keep disrupting business as usual until the bombs stop falling." 

Like Americans overall, the attitudes among Jewish voters toward Biden's handling of the crisis in Gaza is split generationally: Only 45 percent of respondents age 18 to 35 in the Jewish Electorate Institute's survey said they support the veto of the UN ceasefire resolution compared to the around 70 percent of those aged 36 and older who do. More Jewish voters 18 to 35 also supported the call for humanitarian pauses at 79 percent compared to 62 percent and 64 percent of respondents aged 36 to 64 and over 65 who did, respectively.

Those generational differences are most felt on college campuses, Meyerson-Knox told Salon, as anti-Zionist Jewish students alongside others who are "questioning" and "terrified" by Israel's actions have expressed they "do not feel welcome" in longstanding Jewish campus organizations like Hillel. 

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Still, many progressive Jews take the apparent bolstered interest in ending the violence among young Jewish Americans as a symbol of hope in the future of how American Jews define themselves in relation to Israel and their institutions. JVP has seen a rise in the creation of new chapters across the country since the bombardment began and the expansion of havurot — informal Jewish religious gatherings outside of a synagogue — as more people upset with Israel's response search for a way to embody their Jewish identity outside of Zionism, Meyerson-Knox said.

Seeing the breadth of demonstrations calling for a ceasefire and advocating for Palestinians seems to have also helped shift Americans' overall sentiment toward the war.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll from last week found that a majority of Americans believe Israel should call a ceasefire in Gaza with 68 percent of respondents indicating they agreed with a statement that "Israel should call a ceasefire and try to negotiate." The survey also saw a dip in support for Israel among both Democrats and Republicans with three-quarters of Democrats and half of Republican respondents supporting the idea of a ceasefire. 

The number of Americans who believe the government should support Israel when asked about what role the country should have in the crisis also dropped to 32 percent from 41 percent who shared that sentiment last month. That drop came alongside a 12 percent rise in the number of respondents who said the U.S. should be a neutral mediator in the war between the two polls.

The attitude toward the crisis has also appeared to shift among federal officials. Last week, twenty-four Democratic representatives signed a letter urging President Biden to push for a ceasefire to end the "grave violations of children's rights" in Gaza, The Guardian reported. 

While the letter, an initiative led by Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of N.Y., Mark Pocan of Wisconsin and Betty McCollum of Minnesota, included signatures from the most vocal advocates for a ceasefire in the House —  including Squad members Reps. Ilhan Omar, Minn., Ayanna Pressley, Mass. and Rashida Tlaiba, Mich. — it also garnered support from Reps. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, and Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania, who have neither previously called for a ceasefire or signed on to a recent resolution demanding one in the House.

Last Thursday, Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., also became the first Jewish member of Congress to call for a ceasefire, announcing her push in an op-ed for Vermont news site VT Digger. Two other Jewish members of Congress — Reps. Jamie Raskin, D-Md. and Sara Jacobs, D-Calif. — echoed that call in statements shared on X over the weekend. 

"For me, the thing that is most inspiring is the cacophony of it — that you see more and more people are coming out, going to these actions for the first time. People are finding community there, people are finding their voices there," Zimmerman said of the protests and their impact. "And the images of these actions are going viral around the world because it's so meaningful to people to see Jews speaking out against the violence of the Israeli state."