BLOG: What does being Jewish even mean?

It is hard not to laugh when I am often told "you don't look Jewish" followed up with "Judaism is just a religion" in the same sentence.

This is a common experience of a Jew. Being Jewish means having a big nose, but remember it is also just a religion. Being Jewish means being rich, but it is just a religion. Being Jewish means eating bagels and all the rest of our stereotypes to follow.

Nobody seems to understand what being Jewish means because Jewish identity does not fit into a neat box. And, it means something different to everyone. As we commonly say: two Jews, three opinions.

In recent years, our synagogues have been shot up, our identity weaponized by U.S. President Donald Trump (and others) and our pride has prevented us from entering leftist circles.

With deadly hate from the right and policing from left, Jews have taken to the streets in recent weeks to reclaim what it means to be Jewish, what our causes are and what our words mean.

Earlier this summer, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in a live-stream that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) migrant detention centers were "concentration camps," a term often associated with Nazi labor and death camps of the Holocaust.

She was slammed with criticism from all sides of the spectrum, by Jews and non-Jews, for her choice of words. An onslaught of predictable op-eds articulating both sides followed and dominated the news for the weeks that followed.

Also within the weeks that followed, a more unpredictable element came on scene as groups of Jewish activists protested in states throughout the country chanting "Never Again is Now" pointing to the inhumane treatment and conditions of the ICE migrant detention centers. This vocal minority movement allowed for Jewish-Americans to take a firm stance stating: the ICE migrant detention centers are concentration camps.

The activists made the same parallels that Ocasio-Cortez made which none of the activists, many of whom were descendants of Holocaust survivors, were offended by, but Republican politicians and the Jewish establishment were.

For example, the tweet below is a statement from Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a U.S.-based organization which aims to call out injustices against Jewish people with hopes of ensuring Jewish security.

One of the many grassroots leftist Jewish activism groups responsible for organizing these protests, Never Again Action, was birthed in response to this scandal exactly.

On Aug. 11, over 50 Jewish-organized demonstrations took place standing against ICE. The demonstrations intentionally coincided with Tisha B'Av, one of the holiest days on the Jewish calendar marking the destruction of both of Temples' in Jerusalem.

Alyssa Rubin, 25-year-old organizer of Never Again Action, told Michelle Goldberg, opinion columnist for The New York Times, in her recent column titled: "Mazel Tov, Trump. You've Revived the Jewish Left," that the movement was created as a direct response to what they saw as an inadequate response, from both the Jewish establishment including the ADL and non-Jewish politicians on both sides of the isle claiming to speak on Jew's behalves, to the scandal surrounding Ocasio-Cortez.

“That compounded the outrage that a lot of Jews were feeling, that a mainstream Jewish institution would say something that just felt so out of touch,” she said in the column. “That in part led us to really want to not just say in words, but actually take action to show how the Jewish community actually feels about this moment.”

Other grassroots liberal or leftist Jewish organizations — including If Not Now and Zioness — have come onto the scene reclaiming what being Jewish means to them. Along with activists, leftist Jewish media outlets including Jewish Currents have restarted their publications with a similar response to the changing cultural landscape.

Jewish analysts say this new wave of vocal Jewish leftism is a sign of a growing resentment toward the Jewish establishment and its handling of white supremacy.

So, what does it mean to be Jewish? If you ask two Jews, you'll get three opinions. What I can say for a fact is that there is a prominent group of Jews strutting on the streets to make sure you know what being Jewish means to them.

Cover image provided by Melany Rochester/Unsplash