On January 22nd, the annual Creating Change conference, held in Chicago by the National LGBT Taskforce, had one of its session bombarded by anti-zionist protestors. The protestors were against an appearance by A Wider Bridge, an LGBT group that is pro-Israeli and were protesting the human rights violation of Palestinians under the Israeli government. The session was canceled before being reinstated.
Many were quick to label the protests as anti-Semitic and over 80 prominent activists and politicians signed an open letter to the same effect. Mordechai Levovitz, an Orthodox Jew and LGBT activist, disagrees. He argues that while there were mistakes on both sides, labeling the protestors as anti-Semitic is not only wrong, but detrimental to those placing the label. The swift reaction and condemnation by high ranking officials only added to the “much more nefarious anti-Semitic trope that Jews wield disproportionate power” to get what they want. Additionally, he states that the reactions create a bigger divide between the Jewish and LGBT communities and that protesting the actions of the state of Israel is not an inherently anti-Semitic act. Silencing the voices of people who want to express their opinion would not only be a first amendment violation, but harmful to the open dialogue the conference was trying to promote.
More recently, 10 students at a Brooklyn college broke into a faculty meeting in an anti-Zionist protest, made demands, and called a Jewish faculty member at the meeting a “Zionist pig.”
