The Advocate

( By Owen Gent) I'm a Jew who believes in the right of Jews to self-determination in our ancestral homeland . I'm also a Jew who believes in the right of Palestinians to self-determination in their ancestral homeland . I don't see either of these two stances as contradictory but rather mutually affirming.  I reject bigoted and extremist definitions of the labels, and increasingly the various movements, surrounding this conflict. I've struggled (from my relatively privileged place in the diaspora) to support peaceful, mutual coexistence, when so many on all sides are deeply invested in a status quo they paradoxically admit is unjust and untenable. I've also struggled to connect with more people who have a shared reality of the conflict and shared values around ending it. But even after a lifetime surviving virulent antisemitism while the world burns, I have hope. A hopeless hope against hope because the only alternative would be to lay down and die. Well, fuck that....

(Costanoan by Pastel @  Highway 880 Marina West Exit ) I remember the exact day that the Left in San Leandro died. It was actually a Monday evening downtown at City Hall. There was a city council meeting that night and it was packed. A group of fellow local activists, and even more from outside the community, had organized a protest against the then-recent war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. The protest erupted into civil disobedience that shut down the city council meeting, before ultimately descending into bigotry and violence. I know because I was there. This post has been a long time coming. Some have repeatedly asked me to share what happened. Just as many would like to pretend nothing happened that night. A few have even threatened me against ever writing about it. But I'd bet that there are also a lot of people who have absolutely no idea what happened. This isn't about spreading salacious stories for social media clout. It's about holding ourselves accountable as...

I'm a Jew, so I'm White enough to get into the room but not White enough for the people actually in the room. I'm a Jew, so I'm White enough that I won't get pulled over by the cops while driving for no reason, but not White enough that the cops won't watch my synagogue burn down. I'm a Jew, so I'm White enough that no one follows me around a store to see if I'm stealing, but not White enough that the store owner won't call me a cheap money-grubbing cheater when I try to pay. I'm a Jew, so I'm White enough to go to law school, but not White enough to be anything other than one of those shylock shyster lawyers. I'm a Jew, so I'm White enough to go to medical school, but not White enough to be anything except a blood-sucking organ snatcher. I'm a Jew, so I'm White enough to help corporations get away with financial fraud, but not White enough to get away with it myself. I'm a Jew, so I'm White enough to be blamed fo...

(Zdzislaw Beksinski, 1973, Untitled) There were so many times in my life that I should've died. So many times when I should've been lost. So many times when I shouldn't have made it. Maybe it's the fact that I'm nearly 40 when I never thought I would've lived to see 30. Maybe it's just the precarious state of the world and I'm feeling like I've never stopped fighting against all the terrible things destroying it. Maybe it's nothing but cobwebs in my ear and something even more ephemeral in my chest. But here I am at my desk typing away past 2 AM. Memories coursing through me like haunting ghosts and flashbacks faster than bolts of lightning surging across tormented skies. *** I was 1 year old in 1987, laying at the foot of the stairs I'd been knocked down, arm and leg broken, crying for help, but none came until my parents found me hours later almost unconscious while the babysitter was watching Saved By The Bell. I was 2 years old and my mot...

The reason people don't understand me is because my politics are dark and not visible from the outside. I'm not the person you've projected, but someone far, far different.  *** Liberal, Leftist, Progressive. Socialist, Communist, Tankie. Capitalist, Fascist, Nazi. Moderate, Centrist, Shitlib. Democrat, Independent, Republican. Alt-Left, Alt-Right, Fill-in-the-blank. As a Jew, I've always been called whatever was convenient for other people to label me. Hate capitalism? I'm the uber-capitalist. Hate communism? I'm the super communist. Hate liberals? I'm a Democrat party shitlib. Hate conservatives? I'm a moderate Republican. Hate colonizers? Jews are the ultra-colonizers. Hate rootless cosmopolitans? Jews are the biggest globalists of all time. I used to consider myself a leftist. But after October 7, 2023, leftists told me I couldn't be. Because Zionists aren't allowed, which is just another way of saying no Jews allowed. It was on December 4, 2...

Before October 7, 2023, I was a proud progressive Jew here in San Leandro. Before October 7, I was a friend of our local Social Justice Academy and our resident Democratic Socialists of America chapter. Before October 7, I never would have believed that Jews were endangered by leftist antisemitism . After October 7, I learned how very wrong I was. In the wake of the Hamas massacre, fallen friends and alleged allies turned their backs. People I've stood with for police reform, housing, healthcare, and social justice here in San Leandro now embrace antisemitism, tokenization, and conspiracy theories, promoting the very same bigotry they claim to oppose. Just as we have seen in Oakland, Richmond, Berkeley, and San Francisco , the cause of Palestinian liberation has been hijacked for divisive attacks on Jewish people rather than advocating for peace and the sanctity of human life. I write publicly now because as Rabbi Abraham Kook taught, "I don't speak because I have the pow...

Since the massacre in Israel on October 7 by Hamas , I have faced death threats, harassment, slurs, blood libels, and other acts of antisemitism here at home. My family in Ramat Gan, just outside of Tel Aviv, have endured rocket attacks and evacuations. Some of my friends and acquaintances in Southern Israel are either missing or presumed dead. Meanwhile, Palestinian civilians, including thousands of children, are being killed in airstrikes that have done nothing to stop Hamas and endanger the hostages currently still being held somewhere in Gaza. At the same time, global unrest has erupted, from attacks on synagogues and Jewish cultural centers, to the murders of Palestinian-Americans and proposals to deport Muslims and Arabs. It would be impossible for me to list all of the tragedies and bigotries that are coursing through America, and globally, against Jews, Muslims, Arabs, Israelis, and Palestinians. However, I hope you understand that what you have heard happening to myself and ot...

If you don't follow me on Jewish Twitter (Jewitter), you might be surprised that I haven't spoken much about the horrors carried out by Hamas recently, or the terrors by the Israeli government. But I was and have been. Just not here. Because this wasn't the place or the time for me to emotionally process burned and behead Jewish babies alongside the corpses of Israeli women who were raped. The Gazan children orphaned, facing starvation and dehydration while bombs and rockets dropped on their homes. Still, after the initial shock and grief over the loss of life on every side, and after frantic concern for my family in Ramat Gan as well as my wife and children and synagogue (because violence in Israel-Palestine always spills over onto our respective diaspora communities), I'm ready as I'll ever be. Let me be clear: I'm a Zionist for a Free Palestine. I support a pluralistic and democratic Israel that endures as the fulfillment of the Jewish people's right to s...