Kristeligt Dagblad: Jewish Grassroots in New York Want to Speak Out About Jewish Responsibility for the Horror in Gaza
An organization founded by Orthodox Jews is trying to spark a dialogue about Zionism and the Jewish community’s responsibility.
By Minna Skau, reporting from the USA
Original Article
Every Sunday, a large group marches through New York’s Central Park with a sometimes very loud message in support of the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza. Many passersby flip off the demonstrators and shout “Free Palestine.”
A mezuzah is fixed to the doorframe, and the bookshelves are filled with volumes with Hebrew letters on their spines. On the bathroom light switch, tape has been placed so no one accidentally turns off the light during Shabbat. In the living room of a private apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, 30 people are gathered — all locals, so no one had to walk far on a Saturday.
Everyone present identifies as Orthodox Jews. But the evening’s theme runs counter to what is deeply ingrained in much of the Jewish community: when Israel is at war, you rally in support.
The guest speaker, American-born and now Israel-based Rabbi Zachary Truboff, insists that it is no use to turn away from what is painful. One cannot just continue praying and doing good deeds — that would be shirking responsibility.
Because of Shabbat, the Kristeligt Dagblad reporter could not use a recorder or notepad, so no direct quotes are available.
But Rabbi Truboff draws on Jewish texts and scholars in his emotional talk, calling for what he sees as an existentially important debate about Judaism and Jewish nationalism — Zionism — in light of the Gaza war and Israel’s harsh treatment of Palestinians.
Rabbi Truboff recalls that after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, he himself initially supported the military’s forceful response in Gaza. But he assumed that Israel would never cross certain moral red lines. He did not expect friends and neighbors to become what he now calls “killing machines.”
A Shared Responsibility
Today, he speaks of shattered illusions. Even if an action can to some extent be justified, he stresses, one is not absolved of responsibility for its consequences. He describes evasion of responsibility as “the original sin of Zionism,” and says that questioning Zionism is often perceived as worse than questioning God’s existence. He does not seek to abolish Zionism or dismantle the Jewish state, but he argues that Zionism failed on October 7 in its core promise to protect Jews.
An elderly man in the audience notes that many of Rabbi Truboff’s points are rooted in the idea of Jews as different — as God’s chosen people. But, he says, today’s reality shows that Israel, the Jewish state, is no different from other nations.
The man is Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, professor emeritus and former chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Conservative rabbinical seminary in New York. He draws what he calls “a painful parallel” to World War II, when the Vatican did not protect Jews in its own backyard and Protestants became Nazis. He sees it as the mission of American Jewry to prevent Judaism from being crushed by the Jewish nation-state.
Smol Emuni’s Role
Saturday’s gathering does not aim to solve such dilemmas but is part of grassroots organization Smol Emuni’s attempt to foster an honest, informed conversation that co-founder Esther Sperber has felt missing in the Jewish community. A conversation about history, occupation, the Gaza war, Zionism, and religion.
There have been about 20 such meetings with guest speakers and 30–100 participants each. A full-day conference in March drew 400 participants, and the group’s social media sees about 50,000 monthly views.
“We feel a real need to talk about how one can both love Israel and also take a more critical look, especially at the war in Gaza. There is a sense that in religious communities especially, the language has become extremely racist and militaristic, with very little empathy for others — especially for the people in Gaza,” says Esther Sperber.
The meetings are just one corner of the broader, heated debate in New York’s Jewish community — home to about a quarter of the U.S.’s 7.5 million Jews.
Divided Views
The city has seen widely publicized protests on major campuses. A small group of ultra-Orthodox men demonstrate against Israel and for a free Palestine. Every weekend, several rallies focus on the roughly 50 Israeli hostages still in Gaza.
Each Sunday, hundreds march in Central Park with hostage photos, Israeli flags, and chants like “Bring them home” and “Never again is now.”
Among them is real estate broker Shaun Kennard, who trusts that the Israeli army is doing everything right to minimize civilian casualties and ensure aid distribution in Gaza.
“It’s Hamas that lies and steals the aid. Dead Gazans are a kind of war currency for them,” he says.
Also marching is Susan Levy, who calls what’s happening to Gazans terrible — but insists critics of Israel completely forget the nearly 1,200 people killed in Hamas’s October 7 attack.
“Left-wing media put everything into a box of powerful oppressor vs. helpless people of color. That’s a distortion of what’s going on. There’s zero sympathy for Israel in this country now,” says Levy, a Zionist who feels unwelcome in progressive spaces.
Finance professional Jeff Wiesenfeld, a former adviser to New York’s Democratic mayor Ed Koch and Republican governor George Pataki, rejects all criticism of Israel’s government and military.
“Left-wing Jews join in slandering the Jewish people, accusing us of genocide and crimes. But if you know history, you know Jews simply don’t do that,” he says.
Smol Emuni’s Perspective
Esther Sperber doesn’t know Wiesenfeld, but within Smol Emuni she avoids using absolute terms about Gaza. She believes history makes it hard to have an open debate if one starts with words like “genocide” or “ethnic cleansing,” which cause people to shut down.
“We try to approach this from a religious rather than legal perspective. But I can say without hesitation that what is happening is a sin. It is wrong and should not happen. Genocide is a legal term — for many Jews it immediately evokes Holocaust images of trains to gas chambers. I don’t think that’s what Israel is doing. But they are doing something terrible, and it must stop,” says Sperber.
Jewish commentator Ezra Klein recently wrote in The New York Times that the shared assumptions that held American Jews together for generations are crumbling: namely, that “what’s good for Israel is good for Jews; anti-Zionism is antisemitism; and a two-state solution will soon reconcile Zionism and liberalism.”
God’s Chosen
Sperber emphasizes that Smol Emuni is not anti-Zionist, anti-Israel, or inherently opposed to Netanyahu. She too felt personally attacked on October 7. But she sees the war as having crossed a line of brutality she can no longer defend.
“I look at Israel with love and concern, but unconditional support has limits. When Netanyahu talks about conquering the entire Gaza Strip, I must say that would be disastrous — not only for Palestinians, but also for Israel and Jews worldwide,” she says.
The idea of Jews as God’s chosen people can be interpreted in different ways — as a call to higher moral responsibility, or, as Sperber notes, by some as meaning Jews are worth more than others.
By joining the debate, Smol Emuni wants to show there are other voices in American Jewry. The goal is also to create a community that gives Jewish leaders courage and support to raise their voices in synagogues, community centers, and schools.
“It’s easy to find extreme voices, but there’s also a strong rabbinic tradition of compassion. I don’t believe Zionism at its core was about dominating others. So our group is not just political; it’s also about cultivating a strong, courageous, loving Jewish voice deeply rooted in our tradition,” says Esther Sperber.