Jewish educator’s ‘anti-Zionist journey’ includes getting canned by Reform temple that only ‘wrestles’ with Israel

Everyone says that last May’s assault by Israel on Gaza transformed the politics of the conflict inside the United States– leading to the shocking survey last summer showing that 38 percent of Jews under 40 see Israel as an apartheid country and 20 percent believe it has no right to exist.

Since then all liberal Jewish institutions are dealing with the fallout.

Here is an important story about this moment. A young Jewish teacher wrote a blogpost in May declaring herself an anti-Zionist in the face of Israeli genocide and soon after was (allegedly) fired from a job at a Westchester temple over her views. A rabbi had told her that the temple adopted a “wrestling with Israel” policy even though he privately agreed with her.

Now the educator, Jessie Sander, 26, is suing the temple and that rabbi and two other officials for wrongful termination, saying that her blogpost was a “lawful, recreational activity” unrelated to her duties. The suit, filed yesterday in New York state court, seeks Sander’s reinstatement and back pay, damages, and legal fees.

Backtrack to the spring. In early May, Sander, a former special education teacher in New York City, was hired by Westchester Reform Temple, starting in July to teach Hebrew and assist programs for teenagers. “Your thoughtfulness, your commitment to causes you believe in, and your dedication to Jewish learning and the Jewish people are laudable,” the temple wrote Sander in accepting her application.

Then Israel attacked Gaza, and on May 20, Sander wrote an anti-Zionist blogpost “israel Won’t Save Us: Moving Toward Liberation,” co-signed by Elana Lipkin. The two are co-creators of a “radical” group called Making Mensches and repeatedly referred to American Jewish institutions peddling propaganda for Israeli “genocide.” Israel was lower-case throughout the post.

[W]e must speak out against israel’s most recent attack on Gaza. While it is especially abhorrent that israeli settler-colonial violence escalated during the holy month of Ramadan, israel’s legalized apartheid regime has been brutalizing Palestinians for decades. We believe our role as white American Jews is to resist the American-israeli military-industrial complex and the ways in which American Jewish support for israel has enabled the genocide in Palestine to continue. Making Mensches believes in the right of Palestinian self-determination and rejects the Zionist claim to the land of Palestine.

As white American Jews who were raised to proudly support israel, we refuse to perpetuate the one-sided narratives and propaganda that many American Jewish institutions disseminate about israel. We call for American Jewish institutions to revisit their educational philosophy and curriculum about Palestine and its history…

As American Jews, we demand an end to American funding of Palestinian genocide.

The blogpost concluded by urging other Jews to go on the “anti-Zionist journey,” for the sake of themselves and the Jewish community.

Our anti-Zionist journeys, while difficult, have been nothing short of essential to strengthening our passion for Judaism. Being anti-Zionist has made us even more invested in building Jewish community and fighting for justice for all Jews. To the Zionists who call us self-hating Jews, we understand your conviction and your zeal. We too were once judgmental of Jews who criticized israel, assuming we were more deeply connected to Judaism and more highly educated. To these Zionists, we wish you an anti-Zionist journey as transformative as ours.

Then Sander started her job at the Westchester temple July 6, and a week later Rabbi David Levy said he had something “awkward” to ask her. Her lawsuit offers a detailed version of an uncomfortable exchange on July 15, in which Levy suggested anti-Zionists favor the Holocaust:

Rabbi LEVY told SANDER… that he had read a May 20, 2021 blog post on her website, and asked if she understood that WRT was a Zionist institution and how comfortable she felt working at a Zionist institution as an anti-Zionist.  

SANDER said she understood the political position of WRT and the larger Union of Reform Judaism in reference to Israel, respected it, and would not share her anti-Zionist views on the job.  

Rabbi LEVY asked what “anti-Zionist” meant to SANDER.

SANDER explained that she objected to the colonization of Palestinian land, with the accompanying displacement of the indigenous population. She also expressed opposition to the military rule that has been imposed on the occupied territories. She acknowledged the importance of Israel in the Torah, the reference to the land of Israel in ancient Jewish writing, and the connection that they and all Jews have to that land, but said that she could not justify the creation of a state for the Jewish people at the expense of another people. 

Rabbi LEVY asked her to clarify that “you are not calling for a second Holocaust” because “some people may read ‘anti-Zionist’ and think that’s what you mean.”

SANDER responded that she was not calling for a second Holocaust and was horrified that anyone might think so.

Rabbi LEVY said he agreed with “90% of what you’re saying.”

Rabbi LEVY said that “there are some people here who would demand I fire you immediately” upon seeing the blog post, but that SANDER “should never work at a place that would fire you for your beliefs and pronounced in an email to [Senior Rabbi Jonathan] BLAKE [also named in the lawsuit] and the TEMPLE president that he had complete confidence in SANDER and that she would be a good role model for WRT’s students.

Rabbi LEVY asked SANDER why she does not identify as a “non-Zionist” or “post-Zionist” rather than an “anti-Zionist,” noting that he thought Peter Beinart now identifies as a “non-Zionist” or “post-Zionist” rather than an “anti-Zionist,” and recommended that SANDER check out Beinart’s work because it sounded to him that her opinions were aligned with his.

Despite those assurances, on July 22, Levy terminated Sander in a meeting with the temple’s executive director Eli Kornreich. When Sander asked Levy why she was being fired, Kornreich responded, according to the lawsuit, “I can answer that one.  It’s just not a good fit.”

Her lawsuit– filed by my friend the civil rights attorney Robert Herbst — says that she was fired for a blogpost that was “a lawful, leisure-time recreational activity,” outside work hours. “Nothing in the job or job description required any adherence to any particular point of view about Israel or its policies toward the Palestinians.”

The lawsuit has a great characterization of the offending blogpost that all Zionists should be reading on a week that Israel is killing old Palestinian men right and left, and the New York Times is finally covering those murders.

“Pointing out that Zionism is not equivalent to, or a necessary component of, Jewish identity, they [Sander and Lipkin] warned that conflating Zionism and Judaism was dangerous and inaccurate, because it runs the risk of spreading deeply antisemitic narratives about the nature of Judaism.”

The lawsuit seeks to normalize Sander’s views, stating that “all three of WRT’s rabbis have expressed views severely critical of Israel, its politics, and its policies toward” Palestinians. For instance, in September 2021, Blake reportedly criticized Israel for having a split personality, one half of which is “the Israel of dangerous fanaticism.” 

A group of prominent Jews has called on Westchester Reform Temple to hire Sander back. They include Dorothy Zellner, Jane Hirschmann, Peter Beinart, Daniel Boyarin, James Schamus, Donna Nevel, Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark, Rebecca Vilkomerson, Howard Horowitz, Rosalind Petchesky, Brant Rosen, Aaron Hahn Tapper, and Ira Glasser among others. They write of the new Jewish moment:

You are surely aware that Ms. Sander’s views are shared by a growing segment of the Jewish community, who understand or are grappling with the role of Zionism in the dispossession of the Palestinian people from their homes and land…The Reform Jewish community – and all Jewish communities – need educators with the passion and moral compass of people such as Jessie Sander.