“What could be so bad that you won’t even let me see it?” asks Simone Zimmerman, the protagonist of Israelism, an acclaimed new documentary examining changing Jewish attitudes toward Israel.
This rhetorical question is posed at Israelism’s climax. As Zimmerman shares the personal journey that led to challenging her pro-Israel upbringing and co-founding IfNotNow, she laments the refusal of Jewish leaders to engage with what was, literally, on the other side of the wall.
Israelism has made waves worldwide in recent months, with screenings across many major cities and college campuses. IfNotNow’s Toronto chapter hosted a sold-out screening in December, and, by popular demand, is co-hosting two more this month along with Independent Jewish Voices (IJV).
But some people don’t want you to see this film. Earlier this week, my phone flooded with screenshots of a Jewish Toronto Facebook group. Our event information had been posted, and angry members were calling the venue demanding our screening be cancelled. As Plan B, they conspired to buy-out tickets in order to “prevent impressionable young people” from seeing it.
This reaction was predictable; Israelism screenings have been publicly cancelled and un-cancelled at least four times since October 7th. Although efforts to suppress nuanced discussion of Israel-Palestine are not new, there is an eerie irony to this particular backlash: the film itself is a cautionary tale about the effect of one-sided Israel education on young Jews.
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At its core, Judaism has always been about questioning authority. The Talmud, one of our most sacred texts, is itself a series of debates and disagreements on theology, political life, and moral code. In this light, showing Israelism is not radical, nor is it a departure from historical Jewish teachings; it falls firmly within our tradition of critical thought. Rather than telling a sanitized story about the state of Israel that all but erases Palestinians, the film asks that we open our minds to weighing multiple truths and paths forward, just as our Talmudic sages did.
Of course, the pushback against Israelism is not rooted in biblical sanctity, but is being justified in the name of “Jewish safety”. Each screening cancellation and subsequent media frenzy has relied on this erroneous narrative, despite a widespread understanding that our safety is intertwined with that of our Palestinian cousins and with other marginalized groups.
When these agitators cite safety concerns, they are not only referring to actual antisemitism, but rather to anything that threatens the positioning of Israel as central to Jewish life. They fear that showing this film to “impressionable young people” will ignite a generational disenchantment with Israel – but this unravelling is already happening.
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In recent years, synagogues in Toronto have struggled to retain young people. Beyond rising secularism and pandemic hiatuses, dissent around Israel is a major driver of generational disaffiliation from mainstream Judaism. A group of my friends even revoked their lifelong memberships at Toronto’s oldest synagogue due to its refusal to discuss the Occupation.
Increasingly alienated from established Jewish institutions, Toronto Jews have been building flourishing community spaces rooted in ritual, drawing on our ancient teachings like teshuvah (repentance) and tzedek (justice) specifically to reject Zionism as a litmus test for Jewishness. Engagement in these progressive spaces has soared in recent months – IfNotNow Toronto’s membership has tripled since October, while IJV’s has doubled. There is an undeniable hunger for Jewish community that is not bound to cultural tribalism or Zionist fairytales, but that holds complexity, advocates pluralism, and encourages critical thought.
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So, in a way, those agitators are right: the more information people get, the more a reorganization of Jewish institutional life becomes inevitable. But evading these discussions is no longer possible whether or not IfNotNow and IJV’s Israelism screening is cancelled. Young Jews are searching for better answers. It would be a betrayal of our own tradition if we weren’t.
After all, what could be so bad that you won’t even let us see it?
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