A revolution is underway within the Jewish community as youth abandon Zionism following the Gaza genocide. While the community scrambles to respond, the Israel lobby is being fractured in the process.

Israel bombed Tehran’s Rafi-Nia synagogue in the middle of the Jewish holiday of Passover. The attack revealed, to a shocking degree, Zionism’s willingness to treat Jewish life as disposable in the service of its ideological project. 

As Jewish anti-Zionists gain visibility, there is a danger of viewing the Gaza genocide solely as the backdrop for a Jewish reckoning. Instead, we must center Palestinian history and demands, and Jewish anti-Zionists have an important role to play.

Jewish advocacy for a one-state solution represents a form of Zionism that centers Jews in Palestine’s future. Instead, anti-Zionist Jews must aim to accelerate the dismantling of Zionism both in Palestine and worldwide.

“Thou Shalt Not Stand Idly By: Jews of Conscience on Palestine” gathers over a century of Jewish voices opposing Zionism. The moral clarity of its contributors is more needed than ever as the self-proclaimed Jewish state commits a genocide in Gaza.

This week, I faced trial for opposing genocide, Zionism, and for challenging Germany’s unconditional support for Israel. The state prosecuting me may have legal authority, but its moral authority has collapsed as it again participates in a genocide.

The first Jewish Anti-Zionist Congress, which drew 1,000 anti-Zionist Jews and their allies to Vienna, marked a significant moment in the rising tide against the settler-colonial state of Israel.

The Iran crisis has shown yet again how Israel dominates U.S. politics. It also made clear that Zionism is an ideology based on nothing but brutal violence. The urgent task before American Jews is to dissociate themselves from this rogue state.

Zionism offers a unifying identity for many American Jews. But as a Jew by Choice, born in Mexico and raised in the U.S., I’ve found that Black, Indigenous, and Chicanx thinkers’ theories of diaspora have helped me understand my own identity.

The First Jewish Anti-Zionist Congress will take place from June 13 to 15 in Vienna, Austria, with the aim of amplifying Jewish voices against Zionism and assisting the global movement for justice and liberation in Palestine.