When I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area after college, I stepped right into the fire of activism. I came out as a lesbian when it wasn’t safe, marched for gay rights, worked tirelessly for AIDS research, and participated in the original Women’s Take Back the Night event.
Eighteen years later, my partner and I wanted to start a family on the East Coast. We chose Northampton. For over 30 years, I built a beautiful life here, continuing my support for civil rights. When the time came, looking for a synagogue to give our child a solid Jewish foundation and community. We found one. I made friends there I still call family. The rabbi presided at my legal wedding. In short, I lived as a progressive Jew in the “Happy Valley,” feeling welcomed and loved.
That all changed after the horrific attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Today, I can’t attend many lesbian and gay rights marches and events because as a Jewish lesbian, I must disavow my love for Israel to do so.
Suddenly, my progressive Jewish community fractured. Within our own community, some Jews quickly defended the brutal attacks of Hamas, openly supporting terrorists as oppressed “freedom fighters.” No doubt you’ve seen the slogans, the sit-ins, and the calls to end the statehood of Israel.
And here we are: Jews pitted against Jews, playing directly into the hands of antisemites who wish to see us all wiped from the earth.
Let’s be clear. Criticism of Israeli policy is not antisemitism. I criticize the United States government frequently; dissent is a democratic right. But the current hatred aimed at Israel is rooted in a specific, insidious type of antisemitism. We see it when people cast doubt on the documented gender-based violence, mutilation, and rape of women on October 7th, demanding “proof” in a way never asked of the #MeToo movement.
We see this hatred when Jewish restaurants are trashed, when protesters block access to Mt. Sinai hospital in New York, and when social media revives the age-old “blood libel” by accusing Israeli forces of harvesting organs, when children in a Jewish Day School are targets of violence. When crowds call to “Globalize the Intifada,” they aren’t targeting Israeli politicians. They are targeting Jews. Everywhere.
This brings us back to Northampton. Last September, the City Council held a meeting. Unbeknownst to local Jewish leadership, a divisive plan had been cooked up in private meetings between several city councilors and anti-Zionist organizations. Only four of us from the mainstream Jewish community got word that Resolution R-25.314 — a divestment measure targeting Israel — was on the table.
We walked into the chambers completely shocked. The room was packed with people wearing blood-libel red T-shirts and keffiyehs. The resolution passed unanimously, but the secrecy wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was watching neighbors call an Israeli-American Northampton citizen a “liar” when they spoke about their trauma. As I walked out in shock, I realized one of the testifiers sat on an antisemitism committee with me.
In response to this hostile environment and a questionable legislative process, 10 brave local individuals became plaintiffs in a lawsuit this past spring to challenge the city’s actions. Their bravery was not supported by our wider community; it was weaponized against them.
As reported in the June 12 Gazette, a counter-lawsuit was filed by residents — many deeply involved in Northampton’s Jewish community — dismissing the initial lawsuit as a “right-wing challenge.” Being brave and standing for the larger Jewish community is not right wing. Several of these plaintiffs are members of my own synagogue. These individuals are not standing with us, they are naming fellow Jews as their opposition.
There are no outside agitators needed here. Antisemitism is alive and well within our own Northampton Jewish community, manifesting as a refusal to engage in open dialogue. It is simply Jew against Jew.
We are a messy democracy, and we will always have different viewpoints. But why can’t we agree on basic common ground? Why can’t Jews who disagree about government leadership agree that Israel has a right to exist as a sovereign nation alongside it’s Arab neighbors? Why can’t we agree that targeting Jewish students in schools and vandalizing Jewish businesses is dangerous for all of us?
Pitting Jews against Jews does not make us a healthier democracy. It makes us entirely unsafe.
Veronica Darmon lives in Northampton.