My country for a chocolate babka

Let’s start from the end: Israel’s current diplomatic and public opinion standing is not just a problem—it’s a five-alarm fire. The Pew study showing, for the first time in history, that a majority of Americans — 53 percent — have a negative view of Israel has enormous implications. The long-term consequences for Israel’s security 10 years from now are no less than existential. Just ask yourself how many years we are from a United Nations vote to unilaterally create a Palestinian state with whatever borders it decides, with no American veto on that decision. This is all before we even go on to discuss Europe and other arenas where support for Israel is far lower.

Once the United States weakens its support for Israel, it isn’t hard to imagine how much worse other countries will begin treating Israel. These difficult questions are all questions we must begin thinking about. Declining support among American Jews cannot be ignored either. While there are many causes for this current situation, there is no question that boutique Zionism and seeking to influence the few rather than the many are very much responsible for this decline.

Let’s start with the most visible example of our abandonment of grassroots support for Israel — the annual AIPAC Policy Conference. For 61 consecutive years, American supporters of Israel have come from every single congressional district in the United States to show their support for Israel at AIPAC’s annual policy convention. There were workshops, meetings on the Hill, speeches by American presidents and presidential candidates, and a strong show of solidarity with Israel. After its 2020 policy conference and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference has been cancelled and has not been seen since. My first interaction with AIPAC came when I joined hundreds of rabbis at AIPAC’s National Rabbinic Symposium in Washington, DC. I have not seen anything of that scale since.

At the same time, we have seen AIPAC significantly step up its spending on political races. AIPAC PAC was founded in 2022 and has donated more than one hundred million dollars to various political races since. While AIPAC still does very important outreach, it isn’t difficult to see that we have abandoned grassroots-level mass outreach.

Near my own home, to my great consternation, I get to see the stunningly successful grassroots movement built at Yale University by the anti-Israel movement. The rallies, the sit-ins, the cultural events, the study groups and forums are so clearly not meant to help anyone in Gaza — which they have not — but are rather part of a long-term plan to make public support for Israel impossible. They do not seek to do this with unique fellowships or special trips to Ramallah; they do so by casting a net that is as wide as possible.

One day, Yale Students for Palestine shared a post for Jewish students, asking them to come, sit outside, and enjoy chocolate babka and challah on a Friday evening. The most striking thing about that event was the brilliance of its simplicity. On an Ivy League campus, with many of America’s future leaders, all the anti-Israel movement needs is a chocolate babka, and to sit and talk with students, heart to heart, face to face. The community created, the human connection, and the newly shared bond over the Palestinian cause will remain there for decades, for the price of a chocolate babka. No need to fly anyone all the way to Israel or bring them to a three-day seminar in Washington, DC. That chocolate babka is what we, in the pro-Israel movement, have lost.

For Zionism to be viable in the long term, it needs to be something that, like in Golda Meir’s youth, can be discussed in a friend’s living room, outside on the lawn of every campus, and in every town hall in the United States. The future of Zionism cannot be bet on boutique fellowships, all-expenses-paid flights to Israel, and an assumption that somehow the status quo of support for Israel will be kept. This is not a public opinion war of popularity; Israel’s very existence depends on its success. Without widespread grassroots support, Israel’s standing in the world is in danger.

I have seen this in my own state of Connecticut with Senator Chris Murphy, who shocked many with his sudden turn, going from being a solidly pro-Israel senator to voting to block arms sales to Israel. Murphy won his recent reelection bid with an advantage of almost 20% against his opponent — not even close. He isn’t thinking about losing his seat, and he is focusing on his broader ambitions in the Democratic Party. When Murphy made a statement in support of Columbia’s antisemite Mahmoud Khalil, I had an honest conversation with his office, asking why it is that the senator would speak out on behalf of Khalil, who is not a resident of Connecticut and is, in fact, not even American. The answer was simple: they got far more phone calls from constituents asking the senator to speak out on behalf of Khalil — fair is fair.

While political donations have been playing a disturbingly increasing role in American politics, nothing can replace grassroots activism. Sadly, over the past decade, we have been witnessing pro-Israel advocacy groups focusing more and more on niche and boutique activism. Fellowships, trips, retreats, seminars, and clubs—we have forfeited the public square. While the enemies of Israel are conquering one public square after the other, we have boxed ourselves into all-too-private spaces — and it is not working.

It is time for pro-Israel groups and individuals to reclaim the public square, grassroots activism, and proud, open advocacy for Israel. If pro-Israel groups can’t roll out a chocolate babka on a park bench or a college lawn, anti-Israel groups will do that. For $10 at a time, they will win over the hearts and minds of young Jews, and the results are already seen in Washington. If our ability to flood the streets with blue and white in solidarity with Israel is limited to isolated incidents with little backing from Jewish and pro-Israel organizations, we will continue to retreat farther and farther into increasingly private spaces.

It is time for the Zionist movement to return to its roots as a movement seeking to win over the hearts and minds of all, to speak out proudly, and to do so in the very open. Theodor Herzl once wrote: “We do not sneak into our ancestral homeland like thieves at night.” It is time for the Zionist movement to reclaim the public space and do so with pride. It will not be easy, but it is the only way forward.