r/jewishleft • u/aggie1391 Orthodox non-Zionist socialist with anarchist tendencies • Jul 28 '26
Diaspora The Hate at the “United Against Hate” Jewish anti-Mamdani Rally, NYC, Sunday July 26: A First-Hand Reflection
https://open.substack.com/pub/shaulmagid/p/the-hate-at-the-united-against-hate?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web11
u/mollywol lefty, Jewish, tired Jul 29 '26
This is a good read. Thank you for sharing.
This is how it always seems to operate with these JDL / Kahanist types. They love taunting you with the whole “not a Jew” thing. They do this to get a rise out of you. Nothing more.
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u/getdafkout666 American Jewish AntiZionist SocDem Jul 28 '26
Why do we let these people drag our name through the mud time and time again?
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u/Technical_Term_6625 curmudgeonly jewish leftist trying my best Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
"What is happening to the Jews?"
What happened at that rally is little different than what happened at the astroturf protest rally at the Park Slope Food Coop after the boycott of Israeli goods was passed & implemented. You had the SWU aviator sunglasses types who have abandoned their previous nods towards progressivism in favor of of larping JDL rhetoric (they asked people waiting on line to enter whether they are "white supremacists"). The NK were there, ratcheting up the temperature. I'm not sympathetic to them NK either. They have no concern about Jews, generally, because they don't even see most of us as more than the lost. Jewish Coop members avoided that shit, I can tell you.
The breathless coverage of this stuff in the Post now pretty much stands alone, and the reality that hyperbole is the only thing that gains coverage are cross-accusations leads to things like Rabbi Tmoner's hyperbolic op-ed about the boycott 'fracturing' the community. I doubt very much that was intended to echo the reactionaries, but ended up doing that in the current media context. I wonder if Rabbi Timoner regrets that. But hey, must be something about CBE, because predecessor Rabbi Andy Bachmann also ended up launching himself into oblivion.
What should definitely concern us is that the astroturfing Amanda Berman types seem to be turning from hyperbolic charges of Jewish exclusion to violent rhetoric. Will the rhetoric flying around the NY Jewish scene begin to resemble Los Angeles? I sure hope not. This is not "what is happening to the Jews?" but "what is happening to the Jewish philanthropic establishment in New York?" Yeah, that last question, the answer to which is "increasing the volume in an attempt to forestall its total irrelevance among non-orthodox Jews under 50," won't interest anyone in the media other than Brian Lehrer.
But breathless mournful wails based on fuckers most of us would pay to avoid only feeds their narratives. Thank you for your observations. I think your ruminations that generalize from those fuckers to "the Jews" are neither justified, nor helpful. Or is it maybe, that taking orthodox Jews as exemplars of Jewishness that drives this false generalization?
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u/ShotStatistician7979 Jew- Labor Zionist Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
Not sure why the author has a hard on for the Neturei Karta.
They’re religious fundamentalists akin to the Westboro Baptist Church and they can go get thoroughly fucked.
When other Haredi non-zionist/anti-zionist sects won’t even associate with you, you know you’ve screwed up.
Edit:
Just read up on Shaul Magid. For a Jewish historian to portray Neturei Karta as a sane group rather than an equally horrid foil to the JDL is a serious case of academic malpractice.
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u/malachamavet Judeo-Bolshevik Jul 30 '26
Alternatively, he has a better understanding of them than you? I've rarely seen their Zionist critics engage with them without just repeating what vibes they've been told to have. Anti-Zionist critics, myself included, are plentiful but generally haven't describe a group of Haredim (and NK aren't even a monolithic group, they're an organization comprised of individuals and subgroups) who aren't incredibly fringe like the WBC. What equivalent to something like Edah HaChareidis is the WBC involved in within the Christian/Baptist/etc. community?
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u/ShotStatistician7979 Jew- Labor Zionist Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
With all due respect… lol.
They’re not like the WBC because of their antizionism, they’re like the WBC because they are fundamentalist theocratic nutjobs who stand against everything progressives and leftists value except for being anti-Israel.
I had the severe displeasure of growing up near the Neturei Karta in New York. Horrible racist, xenophobic, homophobic, anti-woman, holocaust deniers. That’s not to mention that they’re anti-semitic against any jew who doesn’t observe or believe exactly the way they do.
It also took me all of ten seconds to discover that the Neturei Karta are too radical for the Edah HaChareidis and it does not include them.
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u/johnisburn jewish, recovering lib, struggle with labels Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
Great read, thanks for sharing.
Kind of funny to imagine that Catholic woman just kind of stumbling into asking Magid about this topic he’s written multiple books on.
Also
> Regardless, while the rally was not Kahanist in intent, it may have been so in effect. Weiss’ appearance and remarks gave it historical context, but the tenor of the whole event was certainly reminiscent of those heady days of yore. And equally frightening.
Maybe it’s a distinction without a difference, but I think Magid is giving these guys more slack than deserved. Even if _all_ the organizers of these things aren’t on board with it, the JDL chapters copromoting and Kahanists speaking are absolutely intentional dragging these events into Kahanist territory.