BINTEL BRIEFAs a Jew, I’m starting to wonder if I can even be a progressive anymore
Bintel addresses the hard question of what to do when political labels and identities clash
Illustration by Mira Fox/Canva
By Mira Fox December 3, 2024
A Bintel Brief, Yiddish for a bundle of letters, has been solving reader dilemmas since 1906. Send yours via email, social media or this form.
Dear Bintel,
I grew up in a multiracial Black and Jewish family with strong progressive convictions, yet I’m ashamed to admit that over the last year, I’ve felt increasingly detached from the left.
It would be dishonest to say that Oct. 7 was the true cause of this feeling. Over the last few years, I have become increasingly critical of how many on the left value political purity over actually advancing many of the causes we profess to champion. How the left has responded to the Israel-Hamas war has been another major disappointment.
I would describe myself as left-wing Zionist. I refuse to see Jewish safety and Palestinian rights as mutually exclusive. We should not have to choose between caring about the hostages and Palestinian civilians, yet too many people still conceive of this conflict in binary terms.
I don’t believe that criticisms of the Israeli government, especially regarding the treatment of Palestinians, or even Zionism itself, are inherently antisemitic — I probably share many of them. But I’ve been very disturbed at how many on the left have turned to antisemitic tropes to make their arguments.
I find this especially disappointing because this type of dehumanization is antithetical to progressive values and weakens our ability to actually build a movement to end the conflict at large. (It has also been very frustrating that many on the Jewish left are unwilling to interrogate their fellow leftists in any meaningful way, even faced with blatant antisemitism.)
I still hold many of the progressive values I did before and continue to support organizations that advocate for voters’ rights, unions and reproductive healthcare, among many other things. I am also proud to support shared-society movements in Israel-Palestine like Standing Together. But finding a political home where I can be my whole self seems increasingly elusive. How should I grapple with my sense of disillusionment and frustration?
Sincerely,
Lonesome Leftist
Dear Lonesome,
First of all, you’re not alone in identifying as a leftist but not agreeing with everything you’re seeing labeled as a leftist tenet. Particularly in the wake of Oct. 7, and for many months thereafter, there was a flood of articles about the fracturing of the left and the way the war highlighted the litmus tests that had become de rigueur in certain political spaces, about Jews feeling unwelcome in social movements they’d supported forever.
I’d caution you, though, against the kind of sweeping statements you’re making about “the left.” We all use this kind of shorthand — the media is certainly not immune. But “the left” is not a clearly demarcated group. There’s a vague set of agreed-upon principles about, say, the shortfalls of capitalism, sure, but the boundaries are hazy. Anything as broad as a political side — not even a party, just a direction — is constantly in flux, shaped by and changing in response to new events, new ideas, new members and new leaders.
It sounds like you’ve already done the legwork to find some organizations that speak to you, like Standing Together, which advocates for a shared Israeli-Palestinian society, and a recognition of humanity on both sides. What I’m hearing, though, is that it doesn’t feel like enough — you want the left to coalesce around your priorities because you think they are the true leftist values. I suppose we all want the broader world to reflect our points of view.
There’s never an easy answer to political disillusionment because there’s a certain amount of it that’s just, well, accurate. That’s how politics works. Our society is increasingly fractured, whether over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or abortion; it’s not just a problem on the left.
I think the only way to attempt to fix this is remaining in community with people you disagree with. Walking away from the people you wish agreed with you more is only removing your voice from the picture.
People often write to Bintel about feeling pushed out of Jewish spaces because of their politics, and we encourage them not to let others define their identity. Judaism is built on dissent and discourse, but for that to work, people can’t respond to disagreement by ditching. Our ancestors stayed and argued — and now we study those arguments in the form of the Talmud, honoring them by continuing to argue about it all.
I think that same idea applies just as well to modern politics, and there’s just as much of a tradition of it. The left has a canon of thinkers who share broad principles yet disagree on many ideas — Franz Fanon, Edward Said, Karl Marx, Noam Chomsky, Judith Butler, whoever else you’d like to add. The important thing is that they all remain in conversation. You may be a communist or a socialist or an anarchist, but all those movements unite under the leftist umbrella, just as Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, humanist, atheist, Reconstructionist and Renewal Jews are all Jews.
You say you’re grappling with your inability to find a political home where you can be your whole self. I say: Be your whole self in whatever political space you enter, rather than endlessly search for a group where everyone thinks exactly like you do.
You say you worry the left is abandoning the diversity necessary to build a movement. I say: You’ve got to build that movement with people you disagree with about some parts of the agenda — you can be that diversity.
I understand the discomfort. But as long as you believe in what you’re fighting for, you don’t need to love every person you’re fighting alongside. So if you still see yourself on the left, make your peace with being uncomfortable — and stay. Without you, who is going to make it better?
Do you have any additional thoughts for this advice-seeker? Send them to [email protected] or send in a question of your own. And don’t miss a Bintel — sign up for the Bintel Brief newsletter.
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