U.S. Jewish Institutions Are Purging Their Staffs of Anti-Zionists
A months-long investigation found even the smallest hints of dissent are often met with unemployment.
Shane Burley October 1, 2024
Dan Fischer had been working as a Hebrew and Jewish ethics teacher for three years at Sinai Synagogue in South Bend, Ind., when a television reporter asked him for comment during an “All Out for Palestine” rally held four days after October 7.
“I am one of multiple Jews that are here today, proud to be in solidarity with the people of Gaza and Palestine,” Fischer said. “And I know that my tradition, the Jewish tradition, is a religion of tzedek, meaning justice, and shalom, meaning peace.”
He was fired the next day.
“I am one of multiple Jews that are here today, proud to be in solidarity with the people of Gaza and Palestine,” Fischer said. He was fired the next day.
The synagogue sent a letter to the congregation saying it “had no choice but to release a teacher from his employment … effective immediately” and that “after Oct. 7, with the dead being buried, the savagery of Hamas being brought into living rooms every night, the subtlety of one’s personal politics cannot be allowed to cause pain and insult to our community, who have so many family and friends in Israel.”
Fischer had previously been lauded by Sinai leadership for his work, with the education director writing, “I know 3 [years] in a row is a big ask, but I love having you as a teacher and would love to have you back,” according to an email sent months before Fischer was fired. Now, Fischer saw his job gone and his reputation muddied with the implication he supported the Hamas attack and, as Sinai’s leader Rabbi Michael Friedland put it in an email to In These Times, was “not being respectful or compassionate” to grieving Israelis or those with friends and family in Israel.
Fischer is not alone. In These Times interviewed 18 Jewish professionals with 16 different Jewish organizations across the country, all of whom describe being fired, quitting under pressure, or seeing their roles disappear since October 7 for issues surrounding criticism of Israel or support for a permanent cease-fire. These stories are just a snapshot of what appears to be a growing trend across the Jewish professional world. At the time of publication, In These Times was continuing to receive tips about similar cases.
They largely tell similar stories. They care deeply about working in Jewish communities and were devastated at having to leave their positions for caring about Palestinian rights and liberation. Among their transgressions: Going to a protest, wearing a keffiyeh to work, liking an Instagram post.
Dan Fischer, who had been working as a Hebrew and Jewish ethics teacher for three years at Sinai Synagogue in South Bend, Ind., was fired after attending an “All Out for Palestine” rally held shortly after October 7.Steel Brooks
There is the Hebrew education director in New England who says she was fired after singing about a cease-fire. The volunteer coordinator at a Baltimore County synagogue who was let go shortly after they were seen at a demonstration. The Sunday school teacher in Illinois who says they were dismissed after showing students a video of a Palestinian comedian. A veteran camp counselor who says she was harshly interrogated over a social media post — and then not invited back to a job she held for years.
Many agreed to have their names printed, while some spoke only on background or asked to use a pseudonym in fear of reprisal, believing they might never be able to work in Jewish institutions again. The information was collected over nearly a year and wherever possible, the descriptions included have been corroborated by documents, screenshots or interviews with witnesses and those with direct knowledge of the circumstances.
Rebecca Vilkomerson, co-director of Funding Freedom, a philanthropy project designed to support Palestinians, says the dynamic is a “pervasive problem” and that those interviewed and identified by In These Times are “indicators of a larger pattern.”
“What’s happening in Jewish institutions is very much like what is happening in the funding world, which is not surprising because they are intertwined,” says Vilkomerson, who is also the author of a 2022 Solidaire Action report that looked at the philanthropic barriers to organizations supporting Palestinian freedom.
“What’s happening in Jewish institutions is very much like what is happening in the funding world, which is not surprising because they are intertwined,” says Vilkomerson. “Liberal Zionist funders, which often funded progressive or left organizations across many issue areas, are now imposing litmus tests over using words like ‘genocide’ through funding cuts, threatening cuts, or quiet non-renewals.”
Since October 2023, “liberal Zionist funders, which often funded progressive or left organizations across many issue areas, are now imposing litmus tests over using words like ‘genocide’ through funding cuts, threatening cuts, or quiet non-renewals,” she says.
It’s long been common for teachers and other professionals to be reprimanded for criticizing Israel by the Jewish institutions that employ them. But interviews with these Jewish professionals and other reporting and information collected by In These Times illustrates what appears to be a radical rightward turn in mainstream Jewish organizational life over the past year.
Support for Israel and its government’s assault on Gaza appear to have become a defining feature of employability, and those Jewish professionals who are speaking out in solidarity with Palestinians are often finding themselves unemployed. This dynamic makes the future for an entire generation of young Jewish professionals — many of whom are critical of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and are protesting the current genocide in Gaza — increasingly precarious.
“That rightward shift has been really, really alarming,” says Sophie Ellman-Golan, director of communications for the progressive group Jews for Racial & Economic Justice. “We have members who cannot come to things and, if they do, we’re very careful to not put out photos to jeopardize their employment.”
“That wasn’t the case before October 7,” Ellman-Golan says.
Tamar Cytryn of Chicago Jewish Day School sent In These Times Executive Editor Ari Bloomekatz an email that she later noted was sent “in error.”
In These Times reached out for comment from all of the institutions named in this investigation where workers came forward to talk about their experiences. Some responded, some didn’t, and one person accidentally sent the In These Times executive editor the following:
“I just want to weigh in that this is a publication we should never engage with. Think of the equivalent on the radical right …” wrote Tamar Cytryn of Chicago Jewish Day School (CJDS), who later noted the message was sent “in error.”
Cytryn’s email continues: “I do think we need to prep our security team and the JCC for possible crazies who show up to protest outside our campus.”
Shaul Magid, who teaches modern Judaism at Harvard Divinity School, says the increasing trend of Jewish institutions effectively purging dissent since October 7 resembles “a state of crisis.”
“More than an exercise in pro-Israel muscle, this is a bit of an act of desperation. The liberal Zionist center is collapsing,” Magid says. “It is in a kind of panic.”
DRESSING DOWN
At least 20% of Mishkan Chicago’s staff departed, either fired or resigned — with several saying they were pushed out — in the roughly nine-month period after October 7. For at least two employees, Aviva Stein and Julie Wernick, a lot of it had to do with a keffiyeh.
Mishkan is a notable progressive Jewish community both in the Midwest and across the country, one that began with a humble number of congregants meeting in living rooms that has evolved into a well-respected institution, known for taking a liberal approach to Jewish teachings and learnings.
One afternoon, a parent who arrived for pick up at Mensch Academy — Mishkan Chicago’s children’s education program — apparently spotted Wernick, a teacher and program coordinator, wearing the traditional Palestinian garment around their neck, and wanted answers.
Keffiyehs have been very popular over the years and been publicly worn by everyone from Madonna to Nelson Mandela. Pictured here are Greta Thunberg (top left) wearing a keffiyeh on June 25, 2024, Nelson Mandela (top center) in 1990, Adrien Brody (top right) in 2010, Amanda Seales (bottom left) in June 2024, Roger Waters (bottom right) in 2018, and model Sidya Sarr (bottom center) in 2016 who, in Paris, is modeling jeans from Zara, a top from Zara, shoes from Zara and a keffiyeh.Photos by MIKKO STIG/Lehtikuva/AFP via Getty Images, ABDELHAK SENNA/AFP via Getty Images, Monica Schipper/WireImage, CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP via Getty Images, Edward Berthelot/Getty Images, Chelsea Lauren/WireImage
Wernick had worn the keffiyeh to show solidarity with Palestinians, and it had special significance for them on Valentine’s Day because “solidarity is a form of love.” Wernick believed it was their “cultural duty to stand in solidarity with oppressed people as a Jewish and Japanese American with family members who have been majorly impacted by state violence.”
Stein, who supervised Wernick, says the parent complained on site, showing her a photo of Wernick. The next day, Mishkan leaders — including Rachel Cort, Mishkan’s executive director — would reference the photo in a meeting with Stein, in which Stein was instructed to tell Wernick keffiyehs were not allowed.
Stein agreed to talk to Wernick at first, thinking it could buy her time to figure out her next steps, and later said she wouldn’t do it.
Wernick had worn the keffiyeh to show solidarity with Palestinians, and it had special significance for them on Valentine’s Day because “solidarity is a form of love.”
Only a couple of weeks later, Wernick and Stein, saying they felt targeted and pressured, put in their two weeks’ notice.
“It’s felt really liberatory to teach Jewish kids even inside of an institution that we don’t align ourselves in,” Stein says, “[but] since October 7, it became increasingly clear to both of us that [the] special gift that we had held on to for so long was being taken away.”
The concerned parent at Mensch Academy, Max Averbukh, was a familiar face to Stein and Wernick. Averbukh and his wife, Jane Charney, are donors to Mishkan. Charney’s LinkedIn profile lists her as an associate vice president at the influential nonprofit Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago (JUF), which is very closely affiliated with the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago. The Federation, according to 2023 tax filings, holds nearly $1 billion in assets and gave more than $175 million in grants in 2022, including about $85,000 to Mishkan.
Mishkan touts itself as dedicated to “radical inclusivity” and boasts support for the “creation of affirming spaces where people could bring their whole selves.” In a statement to In These Times, Ashley Donohue, senior director of communications for Mishkan, notes inclusivity revolves around “many spectrums of diversity — straight and queer, cis, trans and nonbinary, old and middle-aged and young, racially and ethnically diverse, across the political spectrum, Zionist, anti-Zionist, and non-Zionist, traditionally observant and lovingly irreverent.”
