About Us
We are Torah-centered Jews who are united in our grief and in our anger, at the assault on civil rights, the rule of law, the Constitution, and basic American values being perpetrated on the American people by this administration. This renewed white supremacy that has become ascendant in the United States comes at a time that there is a wave of ultra-nationalism worldwide. As Jews we know all too well what happens when fascism rises and systems of justice fail and we are dedicated to disrupting and resisting this wave of tyranny.
We are diverse by halachic observance and backgrounds, ranging from Charedi rebbeim to Reform rabbis, Chasidim to Misnagdim, from Frum From Birth to Baalei Teshuvah to OTD to Jews by choice, to those of us finding a new derech, but we are united in believing that the lessons we learn from Torah and the middot we learn in yeshiva should animate our personal and communal politics. We are Ashkenazi, Mizrahi and Sephardi. We are white-passing and we are Jews of Color. We live in blue states and red states, cities and suburbs. We are united in our alienation from much of the Orthodox Jewish community because of their embrace of an administration that is the opposite of Torah values.
We support the State of Israel and the Zionist vision of a Jewish homeland in Israel. Some of us believe this for political reasons, some for religious reasons, some out of love and some out of fear. When we are told that this one country out of all countries on earth does not have the right to exist we all feel unsafe. It is difficult for us not to hear this growing rallying cry through the prism of both the Jewish ancient and recent experience of repeated forced exile and genocide.
Yet we also believe that our progressive values and commitment to equal rights for all does not suddenly stop when it comes to recognizing the humanity and dignity of Palestinians and the legitimacy of their struggle for a state of their own. We do not all agree on how to solve the conflict. However, we are united in believing that peace will only happen when both Palestinians and Israelis are seen as full people in all of the complexity of their humanity and not as abstractions.
We are united in the pain and sadness we feel when we are told by our fellow travelers on the left that our struggle doesn't count, that historical and present-day anti-Semitism is somehow justified. Yet despite that disconnect, we will continue to join with other groups in ensuring justice is achieved for all. We will stand up for our values and find common denominators, learn how to both listen and to speak our own truth, be allies and collaborators in the fight for social and racial justice and join in the battle to save our democratic republic without sacrificing our authentic identities as Jews and Zionists.
It has been through organic communal organizing that we came together, at first alone and unheard. Our numbers have grown and our voices have been found, and we are committed to using them with all of our strength. Now that we are united, we have become more empowered than ever to seize this moment and use it to change the course of the nation and the direction some of our fellow Jews have sadly taken.We will be as one nation, as one person, beating with one heart.