The Journeys and Destinations of Young Jewish Anti-Zionist Jews

In the increasingly fractured landscape of contemporary Jewish life, few subjects trigger as visceral a reaction as the rising tide of anti-Zionism among young Jews.

For many in the mainstream community, this shift is viewed with a mixture of bewilderment, betrayal, and deep-seated alarm. Seeking to move beyond the high-decibel rhetoric of social media and op-ed pages, Robbie Gringras and Abi Dauber Sterne of the organisation For the Sake of Argument embarked on an ambitious qualitative research project. Their report, “The Journeys and Destinations of Young Jewish Anti-Zionists,” offers a sobering yet necessary look at the internal schisms threatening communal coherence. 

While specifically focused on the schism happening in the US, based on interviews with 30 self-described anti-Zionist Jews, the report contains many insights that may be relevant for Australian Jewish families struggling with this question.

In an interview with Robbie Gringras, an Israel educator with over two decades of experience in the field, he unpacked the complexities of the report and addressed the sharp criticisms directed at any attempt to engage with those who reject the Jewish state. 

One of the most provocative aspects of the report is its systematic dismantling of common assumptions held by the pro-Israel mainstream about anti-Zionist Jews. Gringras emphasised that these were not assumptions the researchers set out to prove, but rather findings that emerged from the lived experiences of the participants.