We'd like to ask you back into a conversation.
After our email congratulating Michigan Senate Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed on his primary victory earlier this month, many of you wrote back to share your excitement, but we also heard from others feeling hurt and betrayed. The messages that have stuck with me the most were from people who felt like they had civic and spiritual vertigo and couldn't believe a Jewish organization said “mazel tov” about an election result that had caused them such whiplash. If that's you or someone you love, please keep reading.
What we heard from a number of you is something that is true for Jews across this country right now: many of the most prominent Democratic candidates, the ones who are expanding the electorate and talking about healthcare and democracy and dignity, are also saying we should end or condition aid to Israel and asserting that Israel cannot be both Jewish and a liberal democracy. The dissonance this creates for many American Jews is not abstract. Many of us believe, deeply and sincerely, that a Jewish state is a necessary condition for long-term Jewish safety. Caring about Jewish safety is not reactionary, and this creates a difficult political moment for those of us who feel torn by a contradiction.
Bend the Arc was created to be an advocacy organization where all American Jews could come together to fight for a United States free from antisemitism, racism, and white nationalism, where all people can thrive. That means we're domestically focused and by design do not engage in Israel/Palestine advocacy from any position, though at times we address, through analysis and values, how what’s happening in Israel/Palestine impacts our work here in the U.S. We do this so we can be a big tent where everyone, no matter your position, is able to come together to fight for the country we share as a home. But for that to work, you have to feel like you belong in the fight with us.
We know our email about El-Sayed’s victory landed in a context where lots of people already felt shamed by the zeitgeist for not wanting or being ready to cheer. It would have been a good opportunity to say that we see you, we know this is hard, and you're holding two very real things at once. But we didn't, and it's a learning we will take into the future.
If you signed up for Bend the Arc emails, you already know that Mike Rogers and his Christian nationalism could never represent you and have no place in the Senate. So we know we're beginning from a place where you're in the fight with us, and that's a great place to start.
I'm always grateful to come from a tradition that values wrestling — with the divine, with each other, and with hard questions that don't have simple answers. Thank you for centering and sharing that tradition with us.
In solidarity,
Eli Williams-Szenes
Director of Advocacy and Political Affairs, Bend the Arc
