Jewish Diaspora Movement seeks to decentralize Israel in Jewish life

A new Jewish organization has been created with the intention of decentralizing Israel in Jewish life, and it already has at least two Pittsburgh organizations as members.

The Jewish Diaspora Movement is “a constellation of communities, projects, and leaders who embrace life-affirming, vibrant, diverse expressions of Jewishness and a commitment to all peoples’ liberation,” according to its website. The organization aspires to act as a hub for Jewish cultural and religious projects while rejecting the assumption that “Jews need an insular culture or a militarized ethnostate.”

The group’s website lists 53 organizations that are part of the coalition, two of which are based in Pittsburgh: Kesher Pittsburgh, and Ratzon: Center for Healing and Resistance. Ratzon is described on its website as “a queer, Jewish, anarchist community based in Pittsburgh” that organizes “anti-zionist Kabbalat Shabbats, holiday gatherings, reading groups, public ritual as resistance, and more.”

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Other members of the Jewish Diaspora Movement are a cadre of far-left Jewish groups, including Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow and the American Council for Judaism.

Keshira HaLev Fife is Kesher Pittsburgh’s founding kohenet, or Hebrew priestess.

Fife said that since Kesher Pittsburgh was founded 12 years ago, it has been committed to building community.
“At that time, it wasn’t rooted in a conscious choice to detach ourselves from Israel per se,” Fife said in an email to the Chronicle. “Rather, it was inspired by an inquiry into what it would mean to ground ourselves in a love of Jewishness, ritual, community and Jewish culture.”

The intent, she said, was not to preserve Judaism; instead, it was done for the “sake of those who were coming together, that Judaism might be a meaningful touchstone and a source of joy and connection for all of us.”

Kesher Pittsburgh, Fife said, has been a center of connection “regardless of identities, political positions, belief/lack of belief in G-d, etc.”

“It feels exciting and aligned to be a part of a movement that shares these values and where people are actively supporting one another as we build and grow, even across lines of difference,” Fife said.

As for the topics of Israel, Zionism and anti-Zionism, Fife said she doesn’t find the terms useful because of their many definitions, and also because the terms often “end up shutting down conversation rather than inviting curiosity.”

In the end, she said, the issue is “how we continue to create a community that honors the different ways of being Jewish (including different ways of relating to Israel/Palestine), that encourages asking hard questions and wrestling with what arises, that supports deepening into spiritual practice as a way to find grace and connection in a world that is so hard on us in so many ways.”

The use of the terms “Zionism” and “anti-Zionism,” Fife said, flattens identities, “missing nuance, withholding compassion and forgetting not only our humanity but our divinity.”

She said that Kesher Pittsburgh joined the Jewish Diaspora Movement to be a part of an initiative “where we can celebrate our Jewishness just as it is, with a commitment to the liberation of all people, including Jews.”

The Jewish Diaspora Movement’s roots go back to 2022 when Rabbi Alissa Wise and Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg participated in Jewish Voice for Peace’s planning conversations as part of its Rabbinical Council.

In a piece on JDM’s website, Wise wrote that in 2023, the pair began “conducting one-to-one meetings with Jewish communal leaders who have been building Judaism outside of Zionism, diasporist Jewish communities, liberatory Judaism and Judaism beyond nationalism.”

Wise wrote that their organizing was paused when “we put down the project to focus on the urgent work of trying to stop the unfolding genocide in Gaza.”

They reconvened in 2024, realizing, she said, that the “political moment had created a sense of urgency and inevitably for this kind of movement building. The need for a liberatory Judaism to rise to upend supremacist Judaism was essential.”

The organization officially launched on Shavuot, 2024, as a “compelling counterweight to supremacist Judaism.”

Wise wrote that the new organization prioritizes “autonomy (minimal hierarchy, self-organizing), participation (democratic decision-making, shared leadership, and shared carrying out the work of our movement), and transparency (clear communication channels and processes).”

The group seeks to become “a defining cultural force in Jewish life,” according to its website, aiming to provide “liberatory Jewish perspectives to media outlets and interfaith partners” and developing “new modes of practice and relating that help us build thriving communities for ourselves and our non-Jewish neighbors.”

In the FAQ section on its website, the question “Why Jewish?” is answered with:

“Jewish legacy institutions are actively causing harm by aligning with oppressive state power, funding Israel (and therefore the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians), conflating antizionism with antisemitism, and refusing to engage in meaningful dialogue with dissenters.”

JDM continues to onboard groups for its “founding minyan.” PJC

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.