we have to win

I am just returning from the Conference for the Jewish Left, which was held at Boston University. It was an inspiring gathering of nearly 1200 people, in person and on Zoom. What started as a local academic convening three years ago has quickly become an international movement-building opportunity. I wanted to take the time to share a few highlights.

There were academics and activists, artists, organizers, philanthropists, so many rabbis and rabbinical students, writers and retirees looking for a spiritual and political home. There were college students from more than 50 universities. It was a very hopeful window into the Jewish future. 

I had the privilege of teaching a session to more than 100 participants all hungry for liberatory Torah, which was awesome. But my personal highlight was getting to meet up with Zara Auritt, now a KT college student who came with a crew of eight friends from their newly forming campus student group at Smith called Tzedek Tirdof (Justice shall you pursue). The nachas of talking political strategy and community building with a young adult whose B’nei Mitzvah I officiated was more than a conference highlight; it was a life highlight. 

Each of the keynote speakers responded to questions in ways that touched me deeply. And I want to convey an insight from each of them. 

When asked what new he would add to his book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza, Peter Beinart shared that he finished writing before Donald Trump was back in the Oval office. He sees now that “the refusal of American Jewish institutions to hold Israel accountable to equity under the law for all its citizens reveals their inability to hold our government accountable for the same.” If he were writing the book today, he would stress that point. 

Arielle Angel of Jewish Currents spoke to the need for new Jewish institutions and the true financial constraints that limit our institution-building efforts. Given unlimited money she thinks we need a new federation (I couldn’t agree more!). But when asked the opposite question, “Given our limited resources, what is the most important investment we can make? She said without skipping a beat, “Synagogues.” 

There is a deep longing for there to be communities in every city where people can observe shabbat, study Torah, celebrate baby namings, educate their children, protest injustice and mourn their losses, without having to compromise their support for Palestinian freedom. Synagogues coalition spaces that strengthen our resilience and connect us to a moral and spiritual lineage. And coalitions are how we become more powerful. I do not take for granted that we have created that together at Kol Tzedek. That we exist and what we have created together really matters and creates a model for what is possible for the next generation. 

One of the most profound moments was receiving the words of Fadi Quran, a Palestinian leader who flew in from Ramallah for the conference. He talked about the need for Jews to emancipate ourselves from fear and create a politics rooted in dignity. As someone who has lived under Israeli occupation his entire life, he is intimate with both his own fears and also the manifestation of Jewish fear. He described with great intimacy and empathy the way Jewish fear has led Israel to violently occupy, dispossess and erase his own people and culture. And he articulated with clarity the need for a politics rooted in dignity for all people, as the only path to shared safety.

But what really struck me was this moment when he quotes a leader from the African National Congress who said, “We don’t fight to win, we have to win so that we can fight.” Which is to say, we have to know what winning feels like, and then we can fight for it. 

As he said this, all I could think about was Shabbat. This is why we observe shabbat. To taste freedom, to feel it in our bones, to experience it in real time. So that we can embody it in the struggles that await us in the week to come. This is what it means that Shabbat is a taste of the world to come. It's the moment when we construct a world in which we are free. ​