Two recent articles on progressivism’s Jewish problems
Fanatacism and antisemitism exist within both the far right and far left
I’ve written about this topic before. There are many legitimate views, perspectives, and positions on Israel and Palestine, a complex topic. As I’ve mentioned before, the views that should be dismissed are those that are completely one-sided and black-and-white.
Below are two recent articles addressing these issues within the progressive movement and Unitarian Universalism.
I emphasize 'within progressivism' rather than 'with progressivism' because there are certainly progressives with nuanced, broad-minded views who can see the complexity of the conflict and other issues. Most members of the UU congregation I attend are broad-minded and see nuance. If they didn’t, I wouldn’t attend.
However, there's also a domineering, self-righteous, and sometimes militant faction within progressivism and the Unitarian Universalist church that tends to see things only in black and white. Within UU, such progressive activists, many in top leadership and ministry positions, aim to transform a liberal religion, that embraced viewpoint diversity, into a partisan and exclusive political organization.
The first article, from Forward, a Jewish magazine, discusses a Jewish UU minister, Ana Levy-Lyons, who left Unitarian Universalism during the Israel-Gaza War to become a rabbi. Click on the below image to read it:
Levy-Lyons has an intriguing history. In the face of antisemitism in the United States during the 1950s, her Ashkenazi family changed their Jewish surname, never told the children they were Jewish, and raised them as Unitarian Universalists to conceal their Jewish identity. Levy-Lyons later discovered the truth and, while remaining within Unitarian Universalism and becoming a UU minister, embraced her Jewish identity and heritage. She negotiated with her UU congregation, First Unitarian of Brooklyn, to have Saturdays off for Shabbat.
After the events of October 7, 2023, she realized how much antisemitism exists within the progressive left. Indented below are quotes from the article.
“It’s ironic, given that my entire life I didn’t think antisemitism was a thing in this country anymore. I never really got it. Then Oct. 7 happened. It was the reaction from the progressive left in this country that has been startling and terrifying . . . Suddenly, I just started to only feel safe around Jews. I sense that people have some suspicion of me because I’m Jewish, and people wonder if I’m the ‘right’ kind of Jew or the ‘wrong’ kind of Jew.”
Strident progressives within her congregation pressured her to take a one-sided stance that was impossible for Levy-Lyons.
According to her, the prevailing view among progressives, including at First U, was that “if you are not calling for a ceasefire, you are complicit with genocide,” she said. “Either you are for Palestinian liberation and condemning Israel, or on the side of white supremacy, imperialism, colonialism, and genocide.”
“I don’t believe these are the only two options,” Levy-Lyons said. “But I felt my congregants viewing me that way. The progressive left is speaking with intense moral authority, and I feel the collective pressure of it. I was suddenly being seen as part of the problem.”
She ultimately left UU to become a rabbi.
One Unitarian Universalist commenter on this story noted it as "a failure of progressive thought, in UUism and elsewhere, to grapple with these issues (and others). She wasn't prevented from speaking her mind—she quit because she believed her congregation, and her denomination, was not open to addressing the issues in their full complexity . . . We tend to hold dualist notions about all sorts of issues and condemn anyone who even questions or addresses the complexities."
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The second article is a recent column by regular Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat, which discusses a controversy at a local Seattle museum. Click the image to read it:
You can also read the archived version of the article here.
The museum in question is the Wing Luke Museum. Here’s a brief description of the museum from Wikipedia:
"The Wing Luke Museum is a museum in Seattle, Washington, United States, which focuses on the culture, art, and history of Asian Pacific Americans. It is located in the city's Chinatown-International District. Established in 1967, the museum is a Smithsonian Institution affiliate and the only pan-Asian Pacific American community-based museum in the country.”
Three groups— the Black Heritage Society, the Washington State Jewish Historical Society, and Wing Luke Museum— created together an exhibit, titled Confronting Hate Together, on the history of bigotry in Seattle, including anti-black and anti-Asian racism, and antisemitism.
You can view the entire exhibit in PDF form here: Confronting Hate Together 2024.
The Jewish portion included text that stated you don’t hold responsible all Jews, including Jews thousands of miles away in Seattle, for the actions of the Israeli government. When you do, that is a type of antisemitism.
The passage is pictured below:
Zealous pro-Palestinian activist employees at the museum, unable or unwilling to understand nuance and common sense, walked out and permanently shut down the entire exhibit over the above words.
Quotes from Westneat’s column include:
It turns out they never really meant the title of the Seattle cultural exhibit, “Confronting Hate Together.”
Not the “together” part. Not really the “confronting” part either. Both got dropped when the going got a little tough.
So now a couple of local Jewish organizations find themselves off in a historically uneasy spot: confronting hate alone.
Protesters have every right to denounce the exhibit, of course, but there were plenty of options that didn’t involve scrubbing it or shutting it down. Stand outside with a bullhorn, say. But then people still could have gone to see it, and judged it for themselves.
I think about the word “liberal” a lot, because it has about a dozen different meanings outside the political context. All of them are great: open-minded, tolerant, generous, unprejudiced, to name a few. And the best one, it means committed to freedom of personal belief and expression.
Seattle still gets called a liberal city. I’m not sure we’re deserving of the word anymore.