Photo Credit: Gili Getz
Over 400 people gathered for the inaugural conference Smol Emuni (the Faithful Left) USA at the Bnai Jeshurun synagogue in New York City on Sunday, March 31. Funded in part by the New Israel Fund, the conference brought together Israelis—including Arabs and Jews—and a large number of religiously observant American Jews to discuss how our Judaism relates to the State of Israel amidst the ongoing war on Gaza and as the Israeli government continues its assault on democratic institutions.
In many ways, this gathering marked the reclaiming of a tradition of Orthodoxy that has always drawn on Jewish texts to reinforce notions of justice and equality. Speakers invoked intellectual and spiritual lineages of Yeshayahu Leibovitz, Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik, Ahad Haam, and others and their present-day relevance to contemporary faith-rooted justice-seekers.
Attendees from New York and around the country heard from American, Israeli, and Palestinian leaders and scholars. Speakers wove together traditional Jewish concepts, such as tselem elohim, the idea that every person is made in the image of God, milhemet mitzvah, a just–or obligatory–war, and chevra mofet, or the idea that the Jewish people are meant to be a ‘light unto the nations’ or an ‘ideal society’ into a critical conversation about what Judaism demands of us in the current political moment.
Perspectives and ideological backgrounds ranged beyond what one might expect: they included former head of Yeshiva University Rabbi Yosef Blau, who objected to Israeli Minister of Nationanl Security Itamar Ben Gvir and Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich as having tarnished the name of religious Zionism; NIF’s immediate past board president Professor David Myers, who argued cordially with Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller about whether liberal Zionism or non-Zionism defines today’s pro-Israel Jewish left; to religious Israeli progressives like Mikhael Manekin, author of “End of Days: Ethics, Tradition, and Power in Israel,” and co-founder of the Israeli Smol Emuni. NIF board member and Bedouin citizen of Israel, Yasmeen Abru Fraiha, also spoke, as did troubadour of the pro-democracy movement in Israel and Member of Knesset Naama Lazimi.
Smol Emuni USA was inspired, in large part, by the Smol Emuni in Israel, which NIF has supported since its founding over two years ago. NIF staff organized the first Smol Emuni conference in 2023 amidst the protests against the judicial overhaul. They, too, attracted far more attendees than anticipated, and organized a second conference this past year.
Organizers from Smol Emuni USA, who have been planning educational events featuring liberal and progressive perspectives on Israel for the past year, had initially expected about 100-150 people to register for their conference. When tickets to the conference quickly sold out, they enlisted Bnai Jeshurun, who provided the expanded space that was required.
“It was amazing to see the diversity and unity in the room,” Zak Witus, NIF’s Young Leadership & Education Manager, said. “You clearly had people coming from different parts of the community–folks dressed in black hats, many with tzitzit, long skirts, but also blue jeans and folks without kippot. Of course, not everyone agreed with everything, but references to equality, shared safety, ending the war, and establishing a Palestinian state were met with near unanimous applause.”
Witus also remarked on the intergenerational nature of the gathering, pointing out that the room spanned teenagers all the way through to folks in their 80s. “Given the devastating situation in Gaza,” he said. “No one sounded pollyannaish about the future. Nonetheless, one thing was clear: that this felt like the start of something new, something hopeful.”