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In Turkey, a festival revives a jewel of the Sephardic world and aims to break stereotypes
IZMIR, Turkey (JTA) — Prague has the dubious honor of being chosen by Adolf Hitler to be a record of what he hoped would be the vanquished Jews of Europe. The Nazis left many of the city’s synagogues and Jewish sites relatively intact, intending to showcase them as the remnants of an extinct culture.
That has made Prague a popular tourist destination for both Jewish travelers and others interested in Jewish history since the fall of the Iron Curtain: the city provides an uncommon look into the pre-war infrastructure of Ashkenazi Europe.
Could Izmir, Turkey’s third largest city, become a Sephardic version, in terms of history and tourism? That’s the goal for Nesim Bencoya, director of the Izmir Jewish Heritage project.
The city, once known in Greek as Smyrna, has had a Jewish presence since antiquity, with early church documents mentioning Jews as far back as the second century AD. Like elsewhere in the Ottoman Empire, though, its community grew exponentially with the influx of Sephardic Jews who came after their expulsion from Spain.
At its peak, the city was home to around 30,000 Jews and was the hometown of Jewish artists, writers and rabbis — from the esteemed Pallache and Algazii rabbinical families, to the musician Dario Marino, to the famously false messiah, Shabbetai Zevi, whose childhood home still stands in Izmir today.
Today, fewer than 1,300 remain. The establishment of the state of Israel, coupled with a century of economic and political upheaval, led to the immigration of the majority of Turkish Jewry.
“From the 17th century, Izmir was a center for Sephardic Jewry,” Bencoya told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “We can’t recreate that, but we cannot forget that either.”
Izmir is located on Turkey’s Aegean coast. (David I. Klein)
Celebrating in the former Jewish quarter
Bencoya, who is in his late 60s, was born in Izmir but spent most of his adult life in Israel, where he led the Haifa Cinematheque, but he returned to Izmir 13 years ago to helm the heritage project, which has worked to highlight the the culture and history of Izmir’s Jewish community.
Over nine days in December that included the week of Hanukkah, thousands attended the annual Sephardic culture festival that he has organized since 2018. The festival included concerts of Jewish and Ladino music, traditional food tastings, lectures on Izmir’s Jewish community, and — since it coincided with Hanukkah and also a Shabbat — both a menorah lighting ceremony and havdalah ceremony were conducted with explanations from Izmir’s leading cantor, Nesim Beruchiel.
This year’s festival marked a turning point: it was the first in which organizers were able to show off several of the centuries-old synagogues that the project — with funding from the European Union and the local municipality — has been restoring.
The synagogues, most of which are clustered around a street still called Havra Sokak (havra being the Turkish spelling of the Hebrew word chevra, or congregation) represent a unique piece of cultural heritage.
Nesim Bencoya speaks from his office next to the restored Sinyora Synagogue in Izmir. (David I. Klein)
Once upon a time, the street was the heart of the Jewish quarter or “Juderia,” but today it is right in the middle of Izmir’s Kemeralti Bazaar, a bustling market district stretching over 150 acres where almost anything can be bought and sold. On Havra Sokak, the merchants hock fresh fruits, and hopefully fresher fish. One street to the south one can find all manner of leather goods; one to the north has markets for gold, silver and other precious metals; one to the west has coffee shops. In between them all are other shops selling everything from crafts to tchotchkes to kitchenware to lingerie.
Several mosques and a handful of churches dot the area, but the synagogues revive a unique character of the district that had been all but lost.
“The synagogues here were built under the light of Spain. But in Spain today, there are only two major historic synagogues, Toledo and Cordoba, and they are big ones. You don’t have smaller ones. Here we have six on one block, built with the memory of what was there by those who left Spain,” Bencoya said.
Those synagogues have been home to major events in Jewish history — such as when Shabbetei Zvi broke into Izmir’s Portuguese Synagogue one Sabbath morning, drove out his opponents and declared himself the messiah (he cultivated a large following but was later imprisoned and forced to convert to Islam). The synagogue, known in Turkish as Portekez, was among those restored by the project.
Today, only two of Izmir’s synagogues are in regular use by its Jewish community, but the others that were restored are now available as exhibition and event spaces.
Educating non-Jews
Hosting the festival within Izmir’s unique synagogues has an additional purpose, since the overwhelming majority of the attendees were not Jewish.
“Most of the people who come to the festival have never been to a synagogue, maybe a small percentage of them have met a Jew once in their lives,” Bencoya said.
That’s particularly important in a country where antisemitic beliefs are far from uncommon. In a 2015 study by the Anti-Defamation League, 71% of respondents from Turkey believe in some antisemitic stereotypes.
The festival included concerts of Jewish and Ladino music, traditional food tastings and lectures on Izmir’s Jewish community.(David I. Klein)
“This festival is not for Jewish people to know us, but for non-Jews,” Bencoya said. Now, “Hundreds of Turkish Muslim people have come to see us, to listen to our holidays and taste what we do.”
Kayra Ergen, a native of Izmir who attended a Ladino concert and menorah lighting event at the end of the festival, told JTA that until a year ago, he had no idea how Jewish Izmir once was.
“I know that Anatolia is a multicultural land, and also Turkey is, but this religion, by which I mean Jewish people, left this place a long time ago because of many bad events. But it’s good to remember these people, and their roots in Izmir,” Ergen said. “This is so sad and lame to say out loud, but I didn’t know about this — that only 70 years ago, 60% of this area here in Konak [the district around Kemeralti] was Jewish. Today I believe only 1,300 remain. This is not good. But we must do whatever we can and this festival is a good example of showing the love between cultures.”
“I think it’s good that we’re respecting each other in here,” said Zeynep Uslu, another native of Izmir. “A lot of different cultures and a lot of different people. It’s good that we’re together here celebrating something so special.”
Izmir’s history as a home for minorities has not been all rosy. At the end of the Ottoman period, the city was around half Greek, a tenth Jewish and a tenth Armenian, while the remainder were Turkish Muslims and an assortment of foreigners. In the Greco-Turkish war of 1919-1922 — remembered in Turkey as the Turkish War of Independence — the Greek and Armenian quarters of Izmir were burned to the ground after the Turkish army retook the city from the Greek forces, killing tens of thousands. A mass exodus of the survivors followed, but the Jewish and Muslim portions of the city were largely unharmed.
Izmir is not the only city in Turkey which has seen its synagogues restored in recent years. Notable projects are being completed in Edirne, a city on the Turkish western border near Bulgaria, and Kilis, on its southeastern border near Syria. Unlike Izmir, though, no Jews remain in either of those cities today, and many have accused the project of being a tool for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government to assuage accusations of antisemitism, without actually dealing with living Jews.
Losing Ladino and a ‘quiet’ mindset
Bencoya lamented that he is among the last generation for whom Ladino — the Judeo-Spanish language traditionally spoken by Sephardic Jews, but only spoken by tens of thousands today — was at least a part of his childhood.
“When you lose language, it’s not only technical, it’s not only vocabulary, it’s a whole world and a way of thinking,” Bencoya said.
The project is challenging a local Jewish mentality as well. Minority groups in Izmir, especially Jews, “have for a long time preferred not to be seen, not to be felt,” according to Bencoya.
That mindset has been codified in the Turkish Jewish community’s collective psyche in the form of a Ladino word, “kayedes,” which means something along the lines of “shhh,” “be quiet,” or “keep your head down.”
“This is the exact opposite that I want to do with this festival — to be felt, to raise awareness of my being,” Bencoya said.
The Bikur Holim Synagogue is one of the few still functioning in Izmir. (David I. Klein)
One way of doing that, he added, was having the festival refer to the community’s identity “as Yahudi and not Musevi!” Both are Turkish words that refer to Jews: the former having the same root as the English word Jew — the Hebrew word Yehuda or Judea — while the latter means “follower of Moses.”
“Yahudi, Musevi, Ibrani [meaning Hebrew, in Turkish] — they all mean the same thing, but in Turkey, they say Musevi because it sounds nicer,” Bencoya said. “To Yahudi there are a lot of negative superlatives — dirty Yahudi, filthy Yahudi, and this and that. So I insist on saying that I am Yahudi, because people have a lot of pre-judgements about the name Yahudi. So if you have prejudgements about me, let’s open them and talk about them.”
“I am not so romantic that I can eliminate all antisemitism, but if I can eliminate some of the prejudgements, then I can live a little more at peace,” he added.
So far, he feels the festival is a successful first step.
“The non-Jewish community of Izmir is fascinated,” Bencoya said. “If you look on Facebook and Instagram, they are talking about it, they are fighting over tickets, which sell out almost immediately.”
Now, he is only wondering how next year he will be able to fit more people into the small and aged synagogues.
“For Turkey, [the festival] is very important because Turkey can be among the enlightened nations of the world, only by being aware of the differences between groups of people, such as Jews, Christians, others, and Muslims,” he said.
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A new collection of Yiddish rhymes and games for children (and Yiddish students!)
עס קומט באַלד צו גיין דער יום־טובֿ פּורים, האָב איך פֿאַר אײַך לייענער צוגעגרײט שלח־מנות: אַ גוגל־דאָקומענט מיט מאַטעריאַלן פֿאַר קינדער און תּלמידים, געשעפּטע סײַ פֿון עלטערע פֿאָלקלאָר־זאַמלונגען, סײַ פֿון שאַפֿונגען פֿון דער נײַערער צײַט. ער געפֿינט זיך דאָ. װײַטער קענט איר לײענען פֿאַר װאָס איך האָב זיך אונטערגענומען אַזאַ פּראָיעקט, און זיך דערװיסן נאָך פּרטים װעגן די מאַטעריאַלן װאָס געפֿינען זיך דערין.
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אינעם הײַפֿעלע ייִדישיסטישע משפּחות צעשאָטענע איבערן ערדקײַלעך קומט נישט זעלטן אױס צו פֿילן, אַז עפּעס פֿעלט אונדז מאַטעריאַל װאָס זענען אי אױף ייִדיש אי זײ נעמען אױס בײַ די קינדער.
אָט דער כּלומרשטער דוחק שפּירט זיך אין פֿאַרשידענע תּחומען: אין גראַמען, געזאַנג, שפּילן, מעשׂהלעך — קורץ, אַלצדינג װאָס טראָגט אַרײַן פֿרײד און כּישוף אין לעבן פֿון אַ קינד. נישט אײן מאָל בין איך געזעסן און געהאָצקעט אַ קינד אױפֿן שױס און געװאָלט פֿרײלעך מאַכן, צוזינגען עפּעס אַ לידעלע אָדער אַ גראַם, נאָר פּונקט איז מיר נישט געקומען אױפֿן געדאַנק מער װי „פּאַטשע פּאַטשע קיכעלעך“, אָדער פּשוט שמײכלען און מאַכן גרימאַסן.
איז אַװדאי גוט, אַן עופֿעלע װעט נישט זײַן קײן גרױסער איבערקלײַבער, אָבער װיפֿל איז דער שיעור איבערצוקײַען די זעלבע צװײ־דרײַ גראַמען, אַז מיר פֿאַרמאָגן אַזאַ רײַכן קינדער־פֿאָלקלאָר מיט שפּילן און גראַמען? און פֿאַר װאָס זאָלן מיר כּסדר טאַנצן אױף פֿרעמדע חתונות, אָנקומענדיק צו איבערזעצונגען פֿון ענגלישע לידעלעך, אַז ס׳איז פֿאַראַן הונדערטער קינדערלידער אױף ייִדיש, אָדער סתּם ייִדישע לידער, סײַ לעבעדיקע סײַ רויִקע, צוגעפּאַסטע צו פֿאַרשידענע טעמעס און סיטואַציעס?
איך זאָג אַ „כּלומרשטער דוחק“ װײַל אין דער אמתן איז עס אַ נעכטיקער טאָג. אָט האָט ש. לעהמאַן צונױפֿגעזאַמלט און אָפּגעדרוקט אַ שלל מיט קינדער־פֿאָלקלאָר אינעם פֿאָלקלאָריסטישן־פֿילאָלאָגישן באַנד בײַ אונז יודען אין 1923. אָפּטײלן מיט קינדערלידער און קינדער־פֿאָלקלאָר קען מען אױך טרעפֿן אין די זאַמלונגען פֿון י. ל. כּהן, באַסטאָמסקי, בערעגאָװסקי און פֿעפֿער, און נאָך אַזעלכע. הײַנט, װוּ איז רוט (רבֿקה) רובינס קלאַנגאַרכיװ בײַם ייִװאָ, װאָס האַלט אין זיך גאַנצע פֿינעף טאַשמעס מיט קינדערלידעלעך? און, און, און… איר זעט שױן מסתּמא אַלײן די צרה.
מיר זענען נישט חלילה אָרעם, נאָר פֿאַרקערט: ס׳איז פֿאַראַן צו פֿיל, און װער האָט דאָס די צײַט צו צעקײַען, דורכזיפּן, און אָפּקלײַבן פֿון די אַלע מאַטעריאַלן? בפֿרט אַז אַ סך פֿון די זאַמלונגען זענען גאַנץ שלעכט געדרוקט אָדער דער טינט איז שױן אָפּגעשפּרונגען. אַראָפּצולײענען װאָס דאָרט שטײט איז נישט קײן קלײנער קונץ. און עלטערן פֿון קלײנע קינדער, אַזױ אױך פֿאַרהאַװעטע און פֿאַרהאָרעװעטע מיט די טאָג־טעגלעכע אַחריותן, זאָלן גײן גריבלען אין װיסנשאַפֿטלעכע שריפֿטן?
דערצו נאָך, אַז מע האָט זיך שױן יאָ אַ ביסל אָריענטירט אין די זאַמלונגען, דאַרף מען ערשט דערטאַפּן די, װאָס קענען שטימען מיט אונדזערע הײַנטצײַטישע השׂגות. װי למשל בײַם באַװוּסטן קינדערגראַם: „ציגעלע מיגעלע קאָטינקע / רױטע פּאָמעראַנצן / אַז דער טאַטע שלאָגט די מאַמע / גײען קינדערלעך טאַנצן“. נו, איך װײס נישט װי בײַ אַנדערע, אָבער איך קען באַשטײן, אַז דאָס זאָל בלײַבן אַ קוריאָז פֿונעם אַמאָליקן לעבן אין דער אַלטער הײם. נישט יעדע סחורה איז פּאַסיק פֿאַר הײַנטיקע קינדער.
װען סע קומט, װידער, צו ייִדישע לידער איז דער מצבֿ שױן אַ סך פֿױגלדיקער, אָבער די מענטשלעכע טבֿע איז פֿאָרט אַזאַ, אַז מע גײט זעלטן אַרױס פֿון די אײגענע דלתּ אַמות. „די גרינע קאַטשקע“ און „פֿלי, מײַן פֿלישלאַנג“ קענען דאָך אַלע, אָבער פֿאַראַן אַ סך פֿײַנע אַלבומען, נײַערע און עלטערע, פֿון דער סעקולערער װעלט און פֿון דער פֿרומער װעלט, צעשאָטן איבער דער אינטערנעץ, נאָר גײן זוכן אױף דער הײסער מינוט װען די קינדער פֿאַרלאַנגען „מוזי־י־י־י־ק!“?
כאַפּט מען זיך צו די אײן־צװײ באַליבטע און באַקאַנטע און שױן. װאָס שײך געזאַנג, זענען די מלאָטעק־ביכער אַװדאי אַ געװאַלדיקער אוצר, אָבער יעדעס מאָל גײן אױפֿמישן אַ באַנד און האָפֿן, אַז מע װעט אָנטרעפֿן אױף עפּעס גוטס, איז אױך נישט קײן פּלאַן. אַז מאַכט זיך יאָ אַ פּאָר פֿרײַע מינוט און מע װיל זיך אױסלערנען אַ נײַ ליד, דאַרף מען ערשט װיסן װוּ צו געפֿינען די גוטע סחורה.
צום גליק האָב איך אין די לעצטע חדשים יאָ געהאַט צײַט זיך אַ טונק צו טאָן אין דעם ים פֿון קינדער־פֿאָלקלאָר און קינדער־מאַטעריאַלן, צעשאָטענע איבער זאַמלונגען און װעבזײַטלעך, אָפּקלײַבן פֿון זײ אַזוינע װאָס זאָלן זײַן צוטריטלעך פֿאַר עלטערן און צוציִיִק פֿאַר די קינדער, און מאַכן פֿון דעם אַ שטיקל װעגװײַזער. דאַכט זיך, אַז דאָס קען אױך נוציק זײַן פֿאַר לערערס און תּלמידים, װאָס זוכן פֿריש, אינטערעסאַנט לערנװאַרג. דער װעגװײַזער באַשטײט פֿון פֿינעף אָפּטײלן:
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- גראַמען און לידעלעך. אין דער קאַטעגאָריע גײען אַרײַן קינדערגראַמען, סײַ צו יעדער געלעגנהײט, סײַ פֿאַר ספּעציפֿישע פֿאַלן אָדער קאָנטעקסטן, למשל: אַז דאָס קינד גיט אַ גרעפּס, אָדער אַז דאָס קינד טוט זיך אָן דאָס העמד, אָדער אַז מע דערזעט אַ שנעקל, צי אַ משה־רבינוס קיִעלע, אָדער אַז סע רעגנט… און נאָך אַ סך אַזעלכע.
- שפּילן. נישט נאָר האַנט־ און פֿינגער־שפּילן און גלאַט פֿאַרשפּילענישן, װי, צום בײַשפּיל, „באַראַן־באַראַן־בוץ“, „שׂרהניו װאָרעניע“, „אַ זעקעלע מעל“, „אין אַ שטעטעלע פּיטשעפּױ“, נאָר אױך שפּילן פֿאַר עלטערע קינדער, װאָס מע האָט אַ מאָל געשפּילן אין חדר און אין די הױפֿן — „בלינדע קו“, „פֿײגעלע פֿליט“, „רודענע ראַנע“, און פֿאַרשידענע שפּילן אין באַלעמס, מטבעות און ניסעלעך.
- רעקאָרדירטע מוזיק. נישט נאָר אַלבומען געמאַכט פֿאַר קינדער, נאָר אױך אַן אָפּקלײַב פֿון די שענסטע אַלבומען פֿאָלקסלידער װאָס קענען אױסנעמען אױך בײַ קינדער.
- געזאַנג. אין דעם אָפּטײל װערט געבראַכט אַ רשימה לידער װאָס מע קען זינגען מיט אָדער פֿאַר די קינדער, סײַ רויִקע סײַ לעבעדיקע, סײַ קינדערלידער סײַ גלאַט פֿאָלקסלידער, װי אױך לידער מיט באַװעגונגען — אַ שטײגער, „בלעטער“, „מיכלקו“, און „פֿון אַ קלײנעם גרינעם הױז“. בײַ יעדן ליד װערט געגעבן אַ לינק צום טעקסט און צו אַ רעקאָרדירונג.
- מעשׂהלעך. פֿון די פֿאָלקס־מעשׂיות און װוּנדער־מעשׂיות, פֿון בערן און לצים און כעלעמער חכמים און באַהאַלטענע אוצרות, װאָס מע פֿלעג דערצײלן די קינדער שבת אױף דער נאַכט, אָדער אין שול צווישן מינחה און מעריבֿ, אָדער װינטער הינטערן אױװן.
צום סוף געפֿינען זיך עטלעכע הוספֿות: װײַטערדיקע רעסורסן פֿאַר די װאָס װילן אַלײן אַרײַנקוקן אין די רױע מאַטעריאַלן, איבערזעצונגען פֿון פּאָפּולערע ענגלישע לידער (אַ מאָל מוז מען דאָך נאָכגעבן!), און אַ רשימה חיה־קלאַנגען אױף ייִדיש. האָט איר געװוּסט אַז אױף ייִדיש מאַכט דער בער „בו־בו“?
אַ לעצטע באַמערקונג: כאָטש דעם גרעסטן טײל מאַטעריאַל האָב איך געשעפּט טאַקע פֿון עלטערע מקורים, האָב איך אױך אַרײַנגענומען שאַפֿונגען פֿון דער מאָדערנער צײַט, צי פֿון דער פֿרומער־חסידישער װעלט, צי פֿון די ייִדישע שולן, צי פֿון אונדז ייִדישיסטן פֿון 21סטן יאָרהונדערט. איך האָף, אַז אינעם דאָזיקן װעגװײַזער װעט יעדער טרעפֿן עפּעס װאָס װעט געפֿינען חן בײַ די אײגענע קינדער, און באַװײַזן דערמיט אײַנצופֿירן אַ גרעסערע מאָס געװאָרצלטקײט און פֿאַרשידנקײט אין דער שפּראַכיקער סבֿיבה פֿון די קינדער (אָדער תּלמידים). טאָמער געפֿעלט עפּעס נישט, אָדער מע װיל עפּעס צוגעבן, מעג מען איבערלאָזן אַ קאָמענטאַר אינעם גוגל־דאָקומענט אַלײן, אָדער קען מען אַלײן אױפֿמישן די זאַמלונגען געבראַכטע אין די הוספֿות און דערבײַ אױפֿדעקן די אוצרות, װאָס װאַלגערן זיך נאָך הײַנט אין די פֿאַרגעלטע בלעטלעך און װאַרטן אױף זײער תּיקון אין די מײַלער פֿון ייִדישע קינדערלעך.
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Mass shooter at Canadian elementary school tweeted antisemitic content 2 days before attack, ADL finds
(JTA) — The shooter who killed eight people and wounded dozens more in one of Canada’s deadliest mass shootings Tuesday allegedly tweeted antisemitic content two days before the attack.
“I need to hate jews because the zionists want me to hate jews. This benefits them, somehow,” Jesse Van Rootselaar, the alleged Tumbler Ridge school shooter, tweeted on Sunday, according to research by the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism.
Authorities in British Columbia have identified Van Rootselaar, 18, as the shooter who killed six people at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and two family members at home before also dying, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
According to the ADL, Van Rootselar had a “troubling pattern of online radicalization” that included using WatchPeopleDie, a platform that glorifies violence and has been linked to several mass violence events.
The ADL also found what it believes to be Van Rootselar’s X account, which it says “regularly shared antisemitic and racist content and material glorifying previous mass killers, including the 2022 Buffalo supermarket shooter and the 2019 Christchurch mosque shooter.”
Additionally, the ADL said, “The Tumbler Ridge shooter’s X profile photo also featured an image of the Christchurch shooter superimposed over a Sonnenrad, a neo-Nazi symbol, and a transgender pride flag.”
Other recent mass shooters have been WatchPeopleDie users. In August, alleged Minneapolis shooter Robin Westman entered a Catholic mass at an elementary school and allegedly used a gun featuring antisemitic and anti-Israel writing to kill two children and injure another 17 people before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The gun also included writing with the name of the man convicted of the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history, the 2018 mass shooting on a Pittsburgh synagogue.
The alleged shooter behind the January 2025 Antioch High School shooting, Solomon Henderson, was found to have extensive online documents that praised Adolf Hitler and included links to “groyper” content.
Authorities in British Columbia say they cannot speculate on the motive of Van Rootselaar, who they said dropped out of school in Tumbler Ridge, a town of about 2,500, about four years ago. The dead included a 39-year-old teacher; five students, ages 12 to 13; and Van Rootselar’s mother and 11-year-old stepbrother.
Tuesday’s attack was the deadliest mass shooting in Canada since a 2020 attack in Portapique, Nova Scotia, left 23 people dead, including the shooter. A gun buyback program was implemented days after that shooting, but has proven both logistically challenging and unpopular.
“To the students, the teachers, the parents, and every resident of Tumbler Ridge: all of Canada stands with you. May the memories of those lost be a blessing,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement Wednesday morning. “May this community, which has shown its resilience so many times before, once again find the strength to heal.”
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International social workers group set to vote on expelling Israeli union for ‘not acting to promote peace’
(JTA) — The Israeli Union of Social Workers could be booted from a global federation after at least three countries called for a vote on its expulsion on allegations of ethical breaches.
The countries — Ireland, Spain and Greece — charged that the Israeli union should have moved to seek exemptions from military service for its members or “issue a call for peace.” Their call for an expulsion vote escalated the International Federation of Social Workers’ January 2025 censure of the Israeli union over the alleged breaches, which the federation said violated ethics rules that say social workers “should not use weapons in their professional or personal capacities against people.”
The Israeli union has called for the vote to be abandoned while signaling that it remains committed to dialogue with Palestinian colleagues.
“Expelling or suspending a social workers’ union will not promote change — rather, it will promote polarization and radicalization, which arise in situations of isolation or perceived threat,” it said in a statement issued on Monday. “In our reality, this means that expulsion or suspension would hinder our ability to promote dialogue with our neighbors or with other countries. Those who oppose shared life between Israelis and Palestinians would welcome such an outcome. It would serve as an excuse to maintain extreme positions and continue fighting.”
In the statement, the Israeli union also said that the demand to request Israeli social workers be granted an exemption from military service was “entirely unimaginable within Israeli society.”
“Demanding that specifically during wartime (a war Israel did not initiate) social workers receive different treatment is not feasible in a society where military service is a universal civic duty,” the statement read.
The International Federation of Social Workers represents 141 national associations of social workers. It has previously sparred with the Israeli union, which it censured in 2018 for “failing to act as an independent professional voice on issues of occupation and Palestinian rights.” The 2018 censure was lifted in 2022 after the Israeli union invited the Palestinian Union of Social Workers to engage in dialogue.
The expulsion vote is set for Feb. 18 and will require a 75% majority to pass. Each member union gets one vote.
The vote comes as Israelis have faced marginalization in a range of international associations during the war in Gaza. The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, for example, suspended its Israeli affiliate in 2024 before reinstating it the following year.
The Jewish Social Work Consortium argued in a statement that the expulsion proposal at the International Federation of Social Workers “advances an ideologically driven effort to isolate Israeli social workers as a collective, based on nationality rather than actual professional conduct.”
“This is not principled critique or ethical debate. It is antizionism operating through professional institutions, denying Israelis moral complexity, collective legitimacy, and equal participation in global social work,” the statement continued. “When professional bodies adopt this framework, they normalize collective punishment under the guise of ethics.”
The consortium and several other Jewish groups have petitioned American and Canadian members of the international federation to “publicly oppose and refuse to endorse” the vote. The petition had gained over 10,000 signatures by Thursday morning.
“Ethical accountability must be based on individual conduct rather than identity or nationality,” the petition says. “This is not the time for silence as this motion carries grave consequences for our profession.”
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