Two students established a Penn chapter of the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voices for Peace earlier this month.
JVP is a national organization that aims to build a Jewish movement in support of Palestinian liberation. Its network consists of pro-Palestinian Jewish students across the country who develop Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaigns against Israel and "amplify a Jewish voice that insists on freedom for Palestinians." The Penn JVP Chapter was founded by a College sophomore and graduate student, who requested anonymity due to fear of personal harassment.
The graduate student told The Daily Pennsylvanian that they started the organization to provide a space for anti-Zionist Jewish students at Penn to come together.
“I can imagine there are young Jews out there, too, like at Penn, who are feeling alienated because everyone around them is cheerleading a genocide, or is just quiet and passive in the face of a genocide,” they said.
The graduate student added that one of the organization's biggest challenges thus far has been recruitment, citing the “systems that are in place,” as holding the JVP chapter back. When asked how many members the group currently has, they pointed to the chapter's Instagram follower count, which is currently at approximately 200.
The student said that the group eventually plans to attempt to register as an official student group, but "hasn't had time yet."
They compared their activism experience at Penn to their experience at their previous college, explaining that you “can't just go on Locust Walk and hand out flyers,” which they did "every day” at their previous institution.
The sophomore founder emphasized that the group is a space for Jewish students who do not want to be “complicit in genocide.”
“The charge of antisemitism is so often leveled against Palestinians," the sophomore said. "Jewish groups like JVP who will work as allies with Palestinians show that … this isn't an ethnic conflict. This is a simple matter of colonialism versus defenseless Indigenous people.”
The sophomore explained that they were raised in a Zionist household and have visited Israel since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel. They felt compelled to “reconsider” their Zionist views after seeing Israelis and Jewish Americans treat Palestinians as "subhuman" following the start of the war in Gaza.
"I see so many Jews acting for the genocide," the sophomore said. "I feel like I need to do something to counteract that."
Since its inception earlier this month, the group has shown support for Palestine by contributing to Palestinian advocacy events on campus, including the Palestine Solidarity Vigil on Oct. 14. The vigil was hosted in conjunction with groups including Penn Faculty for Justice in Palestine and Penn Students Against the Occupation of Palestine.
“I really think it's brave and important that people are showing up to vigils to honor the dead, the murdered, the massacred in Palestine and Lebanon,” the graduate student said.
On Tuesday, JVP will hold a Gaza Solidarity Sukkah from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Penn Women’s Center. The event is for Sukkot, a seven-day Jewish holiday that celebrates the fall harvest. During the holiday, practitioners live and eat meals in a Sukkah — an outdoor, walled structure with a roof made from plant material.
The Gaza Solidarity Sukkah, which was organized in conjunction with another progressive Jewish group, Penn Chavurah, will be erected in "firm support of the Palestinian right to return, to remain, and to resist," according to an Oct. 19 Penn JVP press release.
"We understand that our liberation is intertwined with Palestinian liberation. We cannot remember our people's exile while ignoring that of the Palestinians," the press release read.
“I think it's important that this year, unlike all other past Sukkot[s], we keep in mind that after eight days, we can fold up our sukkah, we can go back to living our normal lives and like nothing normal,” the JVP sophomore organizer said. “But for Gaza, there is no end date. There is no day after. It's simply their existence.”
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