Crowds and Cuts: Monday morning at J Street

by guestpost [➚] · Monday, October 26th, 2009

This is a guest post by Mark Sniderman.

The hotel and facilities are beautiful and ample. The conference is well-planned and executed. But the battle between attendees and meeting rooms proved to be no contest: overflow crowds for the morning sessions were the rule. Queues formed for the upcoming sessions, not just in the hope of gaining a seat, but getting into the room at all. The rooms were full beyond standing room. Standers lined the rooms. People sat on the floor anywhere they could; sometimes, even behind the speakers’ table. The most frequently overheard question: “Can you believe how packed this is?”

The session on the American Left and Israel overflowed the room and the topic. Michelle Goldberg, Ezra Klein and J.J. Goldberg responded to questions put to them by Katrina Vanden Heuvel and the attendees. No punches pulled. The questions and answers were smart and analytic. How to reconcile progressive universalism and liberal Jewish values with Zionism? How to be supportive of Israel and criticize some policies? How to deal with the all-too-common backlash from predictable quarters when you break with the party line? How best, at the end, to support peace? Exactly the right topics and questions. No easy answers. These are the questions you know and wrestle with for all the right reasons.

There was, first, something of a collective exhale. The attendees, older than I anticipated, seemed relieved: it’s well past time to have these conversations, and have them out loud. A spirit of liberation animated the discussion: we can speak honestly and openly. It becomes clear that not everyone agrees on the ultimate questions; but this is beside the point.

But then comes the most moving and exceptional part: during a discussion of Jewish backlash against those who chose to speak out, some of the older faces in the crowd respond in pronounced, although silent, ways. These people had suffered for giving voice to their commitments. They know others had too. They’ve lived this situation for all or most of their lives, and know the toll imposed by those who cannot brook dissent. This backlash discussion cut to the quick. Some bow their heads. Others shake theirs ever-so-slightly. Some meet my eyes: the pain of their past conversations is still acute. There will be more in the future. There are certainly greater injustices in this world and in this debate; but this pain is no less real.