Why We Organize
If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
We are IfNotNow, a movement of American Jews organizing our community for equality, justice, and a thriving future for all: our neighbors, ourselves, Palestinians, and Israelis. We are Jews of all ages, with ancestors from across the world and Jewish backgrounds as diverse as the ways we practice our Judaism.
Our tradition was formed through thousands of years of telling and re-telling stories of our persecution and liberation. Every year, we sit together at Passover to remember both the bitterness of slavery and the joy of liberation. We recall the narrow places we’ve left through stories of the lives lost and families displaced – from the shtetls of Eastern Europe to the communities from Spain, Iraq, Ethiopia, Morocco, and countless other places around the world. And still today, our community is not free — white nationalists march in American streets chanting “Jews will not replace us,” and for some, the simple act of wearing a kippah is a risk to their safety.
Nevertheless, the resilience of our people is a gift we pass from generation to generation. We carry the imprint of our ancestors who struggled for thousands of years to preserve our tradition: who lit candles in the darkness, adapted ancient rituals for their time and place, built vibrant communities with their neighbors, and refused to dwell in despair.
Our elders taught us that because of our history, we must oppose oppression everywhere — whether it preys upon us or others. It is up to us to keep their wisdom alive. Today, as we hold onto our stories of genocide and expulsion, we must understand them as connected to the historic and ongoing oppression of other peoples.
If I am only for myself, what am I?
We live in a time where it is impossible to ignore the links between the different forms of oppression across the globe. Authoritarians around the world use racism, islamophobia, and antisemitism to divert blame for the insecurity they cause, pitting communities against each other. As we face a raging pandemic alongside mass shooters who target synagogues, mosques, and Black churches, it has never been clearer that none of us can thrive until all of us can thrive — and only collective struggle can ensure a safe future for all.
Despite our tradition of justice, a roadblock stands at the core of our communal life, preventing us from joining this collective fight for the future. So long as we teach our children that our safety can only come through oppressing Palestinians, we will remain severed from our partners in justice.
It is long past time for the American Jewish community to confront our role, alongside the U.S. government, in the systemic displacement of the Palestinian people. We acknowledge with compassion the circumstances that Jewish refugees faced over the past century, leading many to settle in what is now Israel-Palestine. Nevertheless, we must face what these actions led to: apartheid, a system of inequality and displacement that oppresses Palestinians throughout the entire land.
We must detach our rich Jewish tradition from this cycle of violence and end our support for the ongoing Nakba — the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes beginning in 1948 and continuing today. And we must reject the tools maintaining this larger system of oppression: the ongoing military occupation in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, as well as the hierarchy of race, class, and ethnicity in Israeli civil society.
We must end our complicity with the alliance of U.S. military, financial, and political interests that exploits Jewish fear to protect Israel’s system of apartheid. This powerful coalition hides behind Jewish institutions like AIPAC, DMFI, the ADL, and the Conference of Presidents, who all remain convinced that maintaining power over Palestinians is necessary for Jewish safety.
Despite ever-increasing grassroots Jewish support for equality, justice, and human rights for all people, these undemocratic Jewish institutions and leaders claim to speak for us. They exploit traumatic events of our past and present to justify planting trees on top of former Palestinian villages, erasing the Nakba from Jewish classrooms, delegitimizing Palestinian nonviolent resistance, and lobbying for unconditional military aid to Israel.
As we were dehumanized by the oppression we faced, we are now dehumanized by that which we inflict.
If not now, when?
As long as the myth remains that Palestinian rights and Jewish safety are in conflict, this alliance will continue to take advantage of the very real threat of antisemitism to justify their anti-democratic agendas and silence dissent. They will profit as everyone fighting for justice remains confused and distracted, unable to achieve the progressive unity we need to confront the U.S. government’s role in upholding apartheid and win transformative change at home.
Our community faces a choice: Will we continue to teach our children that Jews can only be safe if we have power over others? Or will we recognize that Palestinian and Jewish safety are intertwined, and join together in the fight for equality, justice, and a thriving future for all?
We call on our community to imagine a future beyond “us or them” — where Israelis and Palestinians are both safe:
A future of equality, where everyone from the river to the sea has individual and collective rights to safety, the resources they need to live, freedom of movement, and political representation.
A future of justice, where Palestinians can return to the places they call home, rebuild their communities, and receive reparations for the dispossession they’ve faced — from the Israeli government, the U.S., and other nations that have aided in Palestinian oppression.
A future where Jews and their neighbors can thrive, knowing that none of us are free until all of us are free.
A rising coalition is already fighting for this future, with a generation of Palestinians rising up to demand equality and justice and a growing number of Israelis uniting with them in joint resistance. And in Congress, new voices are speaking out against unconditional aid for human rights abuses on every continent, including in Israel-Palestine.
Many in our community are already choosing, showing up proudly as Jews for a progressive agenda at home and for justice for Palestinians. For those who are still deciding, who feel confused and afraid — we invite you to join us in finding the courage to stand up both for ourselves and for others.
Now is the time for equality for all people — no exceptions. If not now, when?
How IfNotNow Began & Our Strategy
During the violence of Operation Protective Edge in 2014, young Jews angered by the overwhelmingly hawkish response of American Jewish institutions came together under the banner of IfNotNow to demonstrate their resistance through the beauty of Jewish ritual. Moved to act by moral anguish and inspired by Hillel’s three questions, they organized Mourner’s Kaddish actions in nearly a dozen cities across the country to honor the loss of both Israeli and Palestinian life. They had three demands: Stop the War on Gaza, End the Occupation, and Freedom and Dignity for All.
After the war ended, the founders joined the Momentum organizing community — the same community where Sunrise Movement, Cosecha, By the People, and many more organize for a brighter future — and spent a year developing a long-term strategy. The demand for American Jewish institutions to end their support for the occupation and the need to transform the political status quo has only grown more urgent and clear since then.
We are bringing this crisis of conscience into full public view for our communal and political leaders. Through public action and imaginative ritual, we are demanding that our community take action in the struggle for mutual liberation. Our strategy is inspired by a long legacy of social movements in this country — from the Labor Movement to the Civil Rights Movement to Occupy to Black Lives Matter — that have used nonviolent action to create urgency around moral crises and catalyze massive changes in the mainstream.
We know that those of us who believe in freedom and dignity for all Israelis and Palestinians are the membership, youth, volunteers, and workforce upon which our political and communal institutions depend. IfNotNow is the expression of our generation’s collective power and the cultural shift necessary to build a flourishing, joyous, liberated Jewish community that supports the dignity of all people.
Our logo, inspired by the burning bush, symbolizes our generation’s call to leadership in the Jewish community. Just as Moses was commanded to return to Egypt and fight for the liberation of his people, we too feel called to take responsibility for the future of our community. We know the liberation of our Jewish community is bound up in the liberation of all people, particularly those in Israel and Palestine. The bush burns bright but is not consumed – the fire is not a mechanism of destruction, but rather a force of inspiration and transformation.
