You Can Run From Zionism. But You Can Never Escape Your Judaism

Brad Lander has spent years of his political career trying to prove that being Jewish does not require being a supporter of Israel. Last weekend, he was shown that people don’t care.

Lander, the Democratic nominee for New York’s 10th Congressional District and a prominent figure on the progressive left, has positioned himself firmly in the Israel debate. He has called Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide, opposed American military aid to the Jewish state, and aligned himself politically with its most outspoken critics, including Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Yet to the anti-Israel movement, since he is a Jew, none of those credentials spare him.

Attending a rally opposing a far-right Hindu nationalist group outside Madison Square Garden, Lander was met with a barrage of profanity and hatred. Fellow protesters berated him with chants of “We don’t want no Zionists here,” “Only good Zionist is a dead Zionist,” and “F–– you, ballsack Zionist,” before being forced out of the crowd.

Lander had already done what many Jewish progressives have spent years trying to do. And the response he has gotten should serve as a message for every Jewish American who has convinced themselves that distancing from Israel will make them acceptable to the anti-Zionist movement.

Lander has done everything in his power to distance himself from the Jewish state. He has repeatedly made grave moral accusations against Israel and built alliances with politicians who have made opposition to Israel central to their politics. 

But because he maintains a small touch of sympathy for the Jewish right to a homeland, he remains an enemy.

The attempt by progressive Jews to cleanse themselves of Zionism in order to appease an increasingly radicalized left is a dangerous illusion. History has shown time and again that when hatred is unleashed against Jews, it does not pause to evaluate individual affiliations or views. During the Holocaust, Jews who had completely assimilated, abandoned their faith, and considered themselves loyal citizens of European nations were sent to the exact same gas chambers as the most observant Jews. To the persecutor, a Jew is a Jew.

You can run, but you can never truly hide.