On November 3, 2023, the Jerusalem Post released an editorial note in which the author claimed that anti-Zionist Jews had relinquished their Judaism and were no longer a part of Klal Yisrael, the Jewish community. The author referenced an infamous 2021 article that coined the term “un-Jews” to describe anti-Zionist Jews. On November 17, 2023, an op-ed arguing the same thing said “members of Jewish Voice for Peace are neither Jews nor seekers of peace, and a pig in a yarmulke is still a pig.” Horrifying though it was, I laughed it off. Even the authors themselves admitted that their position was a divergence from mainstream Jewish thought and that the general philosophy is, “Once a Jew, always a Jew.”
Unfortunately, my time on Columbia’s campus has proven to me that I was naïve to dismiss their words as fringe opinions. Though I would be considered Jewish by all the strictest standards of Jewish law, I have come to realize that in the eyes of my pro-Israel Jewish peers, I am not one of them. It does not matter that both my parents are 100 percent ethnically Jewish, that I went to an Orthodox day school for 12 years, that I attended synagogue every Shabbat growing up, that I participated in Jewish summer camp and Jewish youth group in high school, that I have worn my kippa proudly since seventh grade, or anything else. The moment I chose to stand with Palestine, in their eyes, I forfeited my Jewishness and became an un-Jew…..more
