Diaspora

A rally in support of Israel, Marseille, France, July 27, 2014. (Alain Azria/CC BY 2.0)

Why are French Jews silent on the occupation?

In the world’s third largest Jewish community, a monopolistic establishment and a fraught discourse on antisemitism leaves no space for criticism of Israel.

By Deborah Leter August 3, 2022

Ahed Tamimi in the Ofer prison military court. December 20, 2017. (Oren Ziv/Activestills)

At 16, Israel promised me freedom. Why does it deny it to Ahed Tamimi?

Looking at the images of Ahed in court, I know we can never truly be free as long as we deny another people their freedom. And I wonder what freedom actually means if it takes locking up people like Ahed to secure it. By Simone Zimmerman When I was 16, I joined Facebook. I spent a…

By +972 Magazine December 21, 2017

Young Jews participating in the Taglit Birthright program at an event held at the International Conference Center in Jerusalem. (Marc Israel Sellem/Flash90)

Conflating Zionism and Judaism leaves Jewish students exposed

‘Israelism’ has replaced traditional Jewish identity, making it difficult for Jewish students to distinguish between divergent political views and attacks on their identities. By Yakov M. Rabkin It is no secret that young Jews often find it difficult to separate Zionism from the Jewish identity as it has been taught to them. Their identity is…

By +972 Magazine December 8, 2017

Latest

My father, standing in the back row, with his parents and three of his siblings in Tulkarem.

When heroes fall far from home

Perhaps I expected some measure of defiance, for him to rage, as Dylan Thomas begged of his father, ‘against the dying of the light.’ But in the end, there was no rage left in my father, even as the core injustice of his life — that he could never return home — remained. When he…

By Samer Badawi May 1, 2017

Eran Cohen, who is running for president of the U.K.'s Union of Jewish Students. (Lia Suissa)

Meet the radical Israeli looking to lead Britain’s Jewish students

A radical, left-wing British-Israeli has shaken up the race for the next president of the U.K.’s Union of Jewish students, and drawn international media attention. Eran Cohen talks BDS, diasporism, and being wounded by unfriendly IDF fire. By Matan Kaminer The election campaign for president of the U.K.’s Union of Jewish Students is not the…

By +972 Magazine December 7, 2016

Footprints in the sand in the Sinai desert. (Dudarev Mikhail / Shutterstock.com)

What we left behind in Egypt: Mizrahi thoughts on Israel

Even when they had reached the borders of the Promised Land, after 40 years in the desert, all the Children of Israel wanted was to go back to Egypt. In Erez Biton’s poem, the immigrant from Algeria and his son fail to build a home in Israel. Independence Day is also the tale of the…

By +972 Magazine May 24, 2016

Illustrative photo by Shutterstock.com

The diaspora is an integral part of Hebrew literature

There is a ceaseless movement of Israeli culture — and the diaspora experience is just waking up and testing its global limits. By Mati Shemoelof BERLIN — There is no such thing as “Hebrew literature written outside Israel” because the definition of “outside Israel” cannot address art in general or literature in particular. Literature is created…

By +972 Magazine April 22, 2016

Organizer Simone Zimmerman speaks to some 250 If Not Now, When activists at a Tisha B’Av action in New York City, where participants read the names of Israelis and Palestinians who died in this summer’s Gaza war. (Photo by Gili Getz)

New Jewish network launches worldwide initiative against occupation

Group seeks to ‘reclaim Jewish identity,’ raise a global Jewish voice to ‘challenge Israel’s destructive policies.’ A new international network of Jewish groups and individuals committed to justice in Palestine released a statement over the weekend calling for an end to the killing and an end the occupation. The network, which first met over the summer…

By Mairav Zonszein October 18, 2015

Palestinian soccer star Ashraf Nuaman. (photo: Nasya Bahfen CC BY-ND 2.0)

How one soccer match tells the entire Palestinian story

On Friday morning, the Palestine national soccer team will face off against Jordan, a team with a majority of Palestinian players, in the Asian Cup. Whether they choose to or not, the 22 players on the field will tell the story of refugees, occupation, checkpoints and the connection between home and diaspora. Oh, and they’ll…

By +972 Magazine January 15, 2015

Berlin, by Mati Shemoelof

At the exiled Iranian Parliament in Berlin

At the exiled Iranian parliament we convened at Café Kotti in Berlin, I look around at my new friends and ask myself: how can civilians destroy the walls the politicians have built with such a lack of imagination, courage, vision and basic human love? It’s not a theoretical question. We’re talking about our lives. By…

By Haokets June 21, 2014

An undated photo of Ukrainian Hasidim playing classical instruments. (photo: Wikicommons)

Hasidic music: Pushing the boundaries of the Israeli comfort zone

Why don’t most of Israelis know this music that has been passed down from generation to generation? How open are we to a culture that seems so far away from us, despite the fact that it is just across the street? By Merav Livneh-Dill He dances like Madonna, dresses like Lady Gaga and has more glasses than…

By Cafe Gibraltar June 14, 2013

Khaju Bridge in Isfahan, Iran (Photo: Hamed Saber/CC)

Yearning for Iran: An elegy for my other homeland

A homeland is not a piece of cultivated land, nor the object of a war for pride. Homeland is not nationalism. Love has no place where land is a tool for control. Homeland is an idea through which we mold our hopes and our most secret fears. It is an unconditional love. By Avraham H.…

By Cafe Gibraltar May 24, 2013

WATCH: Israelis mock gov’t ads to bring nationals back home

Much attention in the last few days has been devoted to the public relations campaign led by the Israeli Ministry of Immigration … that backfired. (Read about it here.) The plug was pulled on a series of controversial commercials that were viewed by many diaspora Jews (and in particular North American Jews) as offensive. +972…

By Roee Ruttenberg December 4, 2011