Israelism…What’s That? — Judaism Unbound Episode 393: Erin Axelman, Sam Eilertsen
Israelism is a brand-new documentary film, garnering awards at film festivals around the country, that chronicles “a movement of young American Jews battling the old guard to redefine Judaism’s relationship with Israel — revealing a deepening generational divide over modern Jewish identity.” Erin Axelman and Sam Eilertsen, Israelism’s co-directors, join Dan and Lex for a conversation about their film.
[1] Learn more about Israelism by heading to IsraelismFilm.com or by reading this recent piece in Jacobin, spotlighting the film.
[2] For upcoming screenings of Israelism, potentially in your area, click any of the links below:
September 13th, 2023 - University of Cincinnati (link to come)
September 21, 2023 - Carleton University, Ottawa (link to come)
September 21, 2023 - Harvard University (link to come)
September 23, 2023 - Global Peace Film Festival, Orlando, Florida
[3] Many years ago, in 2013, Lex co-wrote a piece with Simone Zimmerman — one of the individuals featured in Israelism and mentioned by Axelman and Eilertsen — about the importance of expanding the bounds of permissible discourse about Israel-Palestine in Hillels (centers for Jewish life on campus). You can read the article they co-wrote here.
[4] Check out a whole mini-series of Judaism Unbound episodes that consider the relationship of American Jews to Israel-Palestine via this link. Episodes that tie most directly to this Israelism episode include Episode 124: IfNotNow - Ilana Levinson, Jill Raney and Episode 126: Open Hillel - Rachel Sandalow-Ash, Eva Ackerman.
[5] Axelman and Eilertsen reference a 2021 survey by the Jewish Electorate Institute, which found that 25% of American Jews agreed with the statement “Israel is an apartheid state.” For an article about this survey, click here, and for the raw data from the survey, click here.
[6] Eilertsen argues that institutions calling Israel, a nation-state, “apolitical,” are incorrect to do so. For a past episode of Judaism Unbound that considers the ways in which Jewish institutions attempt to frame political beliefs as “apolitical,” see Episode 75: The Myth of Apolitical Judaism - Lila Corwin Berman.
[7] To learn more about the case study referenced by Eilertsen, regarding Robert F. Kennedy Junior’s antisemitism, see this piece in Ha’aretz, entitled “RFK Jr. Tells Congress Amid Antisemitism Scandal: I’m More pro-Israel Than My Jewish Democrat Critics.”
