Founded | 1982 |
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Dissolved | 1983 |
Focus | Jewish feminism, Lesbian feminism, Zionism |
Location |
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Di Vilde Chayes (English: The Wild Beasts) was a New York-based secular Jewish lesbian feminist collective that examined and responded to antisemitism and Middle Eastern politics. The collective spoke out against antisemitism in the lesbian and feminist movements and critiqued anti-Zionist activists. [1] [2] [3]
The name of the organization is a Yiddish term for wild beasts. Most members were Ashkenazi. The collective held that Jewish women's liberation required the overthrow of patriarchal institutions within Jewish communities, and that it was necessary to develop Jewish feminist institutions and enterprises. [4] The collective was founded by Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz, Adrienne Rich, Irena Klepfisz, Evelyn Beck, Gloria Greenfield, Bernice Mennis, Nancy K. Bereano, and others. Di Vilde Chayes supported the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish state, but were critical of Israel's mistreatment of Palestinians and the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. [5] Di Vilde Chayes rejected the claim that "Zionism is racism" (in part by claiming that the majority of Israeli Jews are people of color), aligned themselves with the Israeli Zionist left, and believed that anti-Zionism was a smokescreen for antisemitism. [6]
Di Vilde Chayes suspended its operations in 1983. Kaye/Kantrowitz and other activists continued to work in Jewish leftist circles, advocating for Palestinian solidarity and criticizing policies of the Israeli government. [7]
A chapter on Di Vilde Chayes is included in Joyce Antler's book Jewish Radical Feminism: Voices from the Women's Liberation Movement. [8] The 1982 anthology Nice Jewish Girls included essays from nearly every member of Di Vilde Chayes. [9] Irena Klepfisz has expressed her embarrassment over her involvement in the group, deeming other Jewish feminist groups such as the Jewish Women's Committee to End the Occupation of the West Bank to be more successful despite being less known than Di Vilde Chayes. [10]
Zionism is a nationalist movement that emerged in Europe in the 19th century to enable the establishment of a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine, a region roughly corresponding to the Land of Israel in Jewish tradition. Following the establishment of the modern State of Israel, Zionism became an ideology that supports the development and protection of the State of Israel as a Jewish state.
Anti-German is the generic name applied to a variety of theoretical and political tendencies within the left mainly in Germany and Austria. The Anti-Germans form one of the main camps within the broader Antifa movement, alongside the Anti-Zionist anti-imperialists, after the two currents split between the 1990s and the early 2000s as a result of their diverging views on Israel. The anti-Germans are a fringe movement within the German left: In 2006 Deutsche Welle estimated the number of anti-Germans to be between 500 and 3,000. The basic standpoint of the anti-Germans includes opposition to German nationalism, a critique of mainstream left anti-capitalist views, which are thought to be simplistic and structurally antisemitic, and a critique of antisemitism, which is considered to be deeply rooted in German cultural history. As a result of this analysis of antisemitism, support for Israel and opposition to Anti-Zionism is a primary unifying factor of the anti-German movement. The critical theory of Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer is often cited by anti-German theorists.
The World Zionist Organization, or WZO, is a non-governmental organization that promotes Zionism. It was founded as the Zionist Organization at the initiative of Theodor Herzl at the First Zionist Congress, which took place in August 1897 in Basel, Switzerland. The goals of the Zionist movement were set out in the Basel Program.
New antisemitism is the concept that a new form of antisemitism developed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, typically manifesting itself as anti-Zionism. The concept is included in some definitions of antisemitism, such as the working definition of antisemitism and the 3D test of antisemitism. The concept dates to the early 1970s.
Aunt Lute Books is an American multicultural feminist press based in San Francisco, California. The publisher also seeks to work with and support first-time authors.
Elana Dykewomon was an American lesbian activist, author, editor, and teacher. She was a recipient of the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction.
Conditions was a lesbian feminist literary magazine that came out biannually from 1976 to 1980 and annually from 1980 until 1990, and included poetry, prose, essays, book reviews, and interviews. It was founded in Brooklyn, New York, by Elly Bulkin, Jan Clausen, Irena Klepfisz and Rima Shore.
Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz was an American essayist, poet, academic, and political activist.
Irena Klepfisz is a Jewish lesbian author, academic and activist.
Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the modern State of Israel, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the region of Palestine—a region partly coinciding with the biblical Land of Israel—was flawed or unjust in some way.
Antony Lerman is a British writer who specialises in the study of antisemitism, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, multiculturalism, and the place of religion in society. From 2006 to early 2009, he was Director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, a think tank on issues affecting Jewish communities in Europe. From December 1999 to 2006, he was Chief Executive of the Hanadiv Charitable Foundation, renamed the Rothschild Foundation Europe in 2007. He is a founding member of the Jewish Forum for Justice and Human Rights, and a former editor of Patterns of Prejudice, a quarterly academic journal focusing on the sociology of race and ethnicity.
The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) is a network of anti-Zionist Jews pledged to "Oppose Zionism and the State of Israel".
Criticism of Israel is a subject of journalistic and scholarly commentary and research within the scope of international relations theory, expressed in terms of political science. Israel has faced international criticism since its declaration of independence in 1948 relating to a variety of issues, many of which are centered around human rights violations in its occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
This timeline of anti-Zionism chronicles the history of anti-Zionism, including events in the history of anti-Zionist thought.
The Jewish left consists of Jews who identify with, or support, left-wing or left-liberal causes, consciously as Jews, either as individuals or through organizations. There is no one organization or movement which constitutes the Jewish left, however. Jews have been major forces in the history of the labor movement, the settlement house movement, the women's rights movement, anti-racist and anti-colonialist work, and anti-fascist and anti-capitalist organizations of many forms in Europe, the United States, Australia, Algeria, Iraq, Ethiopia, South Africa, and modern-day Israel. Jews have a history of involvement in anarchism, socialism, Marxism, and Western liberalism. Although the expression "on the left" covers a range of politics, many well-known figures "on the left" have been of Jews who were born into Jewish families and have various degrees of connection to Jewish communities, Jewish culture, Jewish tradition, or the Jewish religion in its many variants.
Palestinianism is a term occasionally used to denote either the national political movement or Identity of the Palestinian people.. It gained currency by its use in the works of Edward Said and to describe a certain vein of theology opposed to Christian Zionism and that challenges Zionism and the right of Israel to exist.
Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) is an American left-wing non-profit grassroots Jewish organization. JFREJ describes itself as a "movement to dismantle racism and economic exploitation" and is based in New York City. It operates both a 501(c)(3), also known as JFREJ Community and a 501(c)(4) known as JFREJ Action.
The Jewish Women's Committee to End the Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza(JWCEO) was a Jewish American women's organization dedicated to opposing the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.
Zionist antisemitism or antisemitic Zionism refers to a phenomenon in which antisemites express support for Zionism and the State of Israel. In some cases, this support may be promoted for explicitly antisemitic reasons. Historically, this type of antisemitism has been most notable among Christian Zionists, who may perpetrate religious antisemitism while being outspoken in their support for Jewish sovereignty in Israel due to their interpretation of Christian eschatology. Similarly, people who identify with the political far-right, particularly in Europe and the United States, may support the Zionist movement because they seek to expel Jews from their country and see Zionism as the least complicated method of achieving this goal and satisfying their racial antisemitism.
Progressive except Palestine is a phrase that refers to organizations or individuals who describe themselves politically as progressive, liberal, or left-wing but who do not express pro-Palestinian sentiment or do not comment on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Pro-Palestinian advocates regard PEP as a type of political hypocrisy and an example of anti-Palestinianism, while critics of the phrase regard it as anti-Israel and a smear against the pro-Israel left.