The Rise of the Jewish Insta-activist
Given its visual component, Jewish individuals have turned their feeds on Instagram into collective spaces to fight antisemitism and anti-Zionism and educate on Jewish history, ethnology, Judaism, and more.
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Last summer, on the morning of August 26, a dozen students from the University of Delaware gathered up to witness in distress the smoky remnants of the blue building they considered their second home. Barely a few hours before, in the midst of the night, an unidentified subject had intentionally set a blaze that destroyed their beloved center for Jewish life, a Chabad House located just steps away from the heart of the alma mater’s main campus.
As some students were strategically coming up with fundraising ideas and initiatives to bring back their communal temple to life, 2,500 miles away, at the other side of the country, sat in shock 20-year-old Naomi Silver. After learning about the news from a Jewish organization on Instagram, she anxiously scrolled through several feeds on social media trying to find how American Jewry, citizens, and the media in general, had reacted to the horrific event. However, the young Californian came up empty-handed in her search.
Stricken by a sense of anger and trepidation at the lack of media coverage — and the unmoved reaction she saw within her online circle, Naomi decided to take matters into her own hands. She swiftly resorted to one of the few resources available in her domain: Instagram. To prevent such incidents from ever going unnoticed again, the college student of journalism and media at Northeastern University created a series of posts to bring attention to the abhorrent antisemitic episode.
Initially created to sell accessible t-shirts and masks with quirky Judaic motifs, her page Jewish Pride Always quickly gained traction, and within months it had attained several thousand followers. From there on, her digital creative venture’s purpose changed forever. Unwittingly, Naomi joined a new generation of Jewish individuals using Instagram as a tool for dissent. A transformation led mainly by Gen Zers, which demonstrates a substantial change in how young people perceive social movements and engage with the news.
The coronavirus’s outburst has rapidly unleashed the revival of centuries-old blood libels and antisemitic conspiracy theories that falsely blame Jews for the spread of the disease or profiting from it. Despite recent efforts by Silicon Valley giants to ban antisemitic rhetoric and Holocaust denial content, evidence suggests that the tide of anti-Jewish hatred has continued rising across the internet over the past year, flowing into pretty well every corner of society.
Far from being in retreat, these flourishing antisemitic sentiments have also permeated offline arenas. At the Black Lives Matter protests’ peak last year, the number of antisemitic and antizionist incidents drastically soared up. Synagogues were defaced. Kosher stores and Jewish memorials were vandalized. And, on a daily basis, mainly online, many Jews, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or political affiliation, continued to be threatened, vilified and harassed, both publicly and anonymously.
As the demonstrations began to dwindle, the acts of hate didn’t. Temples were desecrated with spray-painted swastikas and hateful language graffiti in Davenport, IA, Montreal, Canada, and Spokane, WA, just to name a few. Jewish-owned stores were targeted once again. And Jews remain being used as scapegoats for the latest plague.
People’s inability to physically express their discontent and outcry against hateful acts due to coronavirus lockdown restrictions has resulted in a surge in digital activism. From racial inequality to police reform, 2020 brought exponential demand for decentralized outlets to address social injustices collectively. The rampant political polarization in the US and Europe, along with increased social unrest, heightened a sense of urgency to mobilize and speak up against issues of concern.
Nowadays, advocacy comes in the form of online civic engagement, mostly from young people fighting in isolation for a common shared cause.
Social media has shaped the on-the-ground protest environment by democratizing the use of networked spaces to stimulate online activism. The Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street movements were early manifestations of this phenomenon, which were later followed by the #BlackLivesMatter movement in Ferguson. But, in the last year, technology-mediated activism completely changed the way it used to operate.
The transformation has been particularly dominated by a shift from collective action to individually-embodied connected efforts. Nowadays, advocacy comes in the form of online civic engagement, mostly from young people fighting in isolation for a common shared cause.
Social media has altered the construct of unified movements significantly by providing a series of “more decentralized, dispersed, temporary and individualized forms of political action that subvert the notion of the collective as singular, unified, homogeneous, coherent, and mass,” as explained by Anastasia Kavada, Senior Lecturer at the University of Westminster’s Communication and Media Research Institute.
However, whereas previously Twitter and Facebook acted as a conduit for social movements, not only to engage but also coordinate and mobilize their audiences, Facebook’s lack of transparency, combined with Twitter’s unbridled incivility, has prompted many users to shift their allegiance to friendlier and less problematic environments, such as Instagram. A platform that is notoriously infamous for being associated more with influencers and lifestyle-oriented businesses rather than social justice advocates.
As the flames of antisemitism continued to burn and erupt in far-right and liberal circles in the US and around the world, a novel legion of Jewish individuals from every walk of life has turned to the social app to strategically challenge antagonistic views, share knowledge, educate on contentious Jewish issues, and foster a sense of community. Hence the birth of the Jewish Insta-activist.
“Before the summer of 2020, there wasn’t a lot of internet activism on behalf of the Jewish people or against antisemitism. There was a Jewish voice missing that was significantly undermined and outnumbered,” said Blake Flayton, a senior at George Washington University.
In less than a year, these accounts have accumulated a sizable following in the hundreds of thousands, making Instagram become an inadvertently fertile ground for the proliferation of Jewish grassroots initiatives with a variety of multi-pronged purposes. Some accounts focus on advocacy efforts, fighting back antisemitism and debunking stereotypical assertions — while others aim to educate on Jewish history, ethnology, Zionism, or Judaic religious practices.
Insta-activists’ accounts have one goal in common: they function as a soapbox to engage in small acts of defiance in the face of bigotry, intolerance, and antisemitic tropes. Their feeds serve as a modern digital public sphere for Jews and non-Jews alike.
With a highly curated algorithm and a flexible interface that favors visual storytelling, activists rely on the platform’s features’ duplicity character and functionality to both express dissent and disseminate their works. Posts often tend to have either a formal or an informal tone depending on which part of the site they are shared. Feeds, for instance, are for carefully selected content, while stories are for more improvised experimental narratives.
“Instagram has a different culture to it. It’s more bounded. In the specific context of Jewish activism and education, the visual element is very powerful. People advocating for educational and cultural purposes, whether it is showing their cuisine or religious symbols, say much more than describing in words,” said Scott Campbell, Constance F, and Arnold C. Pohs Professor of Telecommunication at the University of Michigan.
“I understand why activists are turning to Instagram to convey a lot of meaning and what it means to be Jewish, visually.”
Activists who spoke to me said that the popular photo-sharing app provides them with a simple navigation interface that allows them to easily, safely, and creatively share content, while also forming tight networks for collective action and interaction with like-minded people — all without compromising their identities or losing their mission.
Behind the visually-driven posts, there is a diversified multitude of Jewish voices coming from each imaginable geographical spectrum and religious denomination.
“Instagram enables you to put a lot of nuanced information. It’s less formal, and the vibe is completely different from other places like Twitter. I can post selfies, share personal experiences, and do work. All at the same time. It allows people to get to know you on a different level,” said Ben M. Freeman, a 34-year-old author, and historian from Glasgow, Scotland, who actively started using the platform for educational purposes last year.
For many activists, what started as a personal endeavor of dissent, has become a full-time job. Some have gone to publish a book, others have enrolled in the speaking engagement circle, and a few have been given the support to establish their own civil organizations and foundations.
Behind the visually-driven posts, there is a diversified multitude of Jewish voices coming from each imaginable geographical spectrum and religious denomination. The plurality of discourse is also an element that is persistent in a vast number of accounts. And profiles can be classified into two categories: personality or cause-focused. The first tends to lean more on the personal narrative to convey their message and goals. Simultaneously, the latter emphasizes larger issues and topics such as progressive Judaism, Jews of color, or Jewish students on college campuses.
Take, for example, Elisheva J’s account jewishlgbt, launched initially in 2017 as a safe space for the inclusion of Jewish gender and sexual minorities. This venture of almost thirty thousand followers created by the 20-year-old South Africa native raised Orthodox has become an outlet that goes beyond its first initial intent in the past year. Nowadays, the page teaches about the Holocaust, Jewish holidays, and more, often in the form of relatable memes, in addition to tackling L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ issues.
“Over the past year, I’ve seen so many accounts popped up, especially with the current rise of antisemitism. My account alone has gained 10k in the same period. It’s turning into this whole Jewish community. There are so many accounts to follow. It’s amazing to see such a variety of people that share so many perspectives and aspects. There’s so much information one account can give,” said Elisheva J., who runs her page from the outskirts of Tel Aviv.
Besides serving as an affinity space for conjoint action, Instagram has also become a venue of coalescing forces for raising awareness of the distinctive Jewish ethnic divisions through the depiction of personal stories, historical facts, and cultural expressions. Providing an opportunity for many multiethnic Jews to openly and proudly express their identities and Jewishness.
“There’s a lot of Holocaust trauma in my family. So, for me, it has been a vehicle to reclaim and decolonize my roots. I just wanted to share that because there are so many misconceptions and ignorance out there. In doing that, I’ve helped a lot of people too, that now are able to connect with their Jewishness on their own terms,” said Debbie Lechtman, the driving force behind Rootsmetals, a page that combines Judaica-inspired jewelry with teachings on mental health and Jewish culture.
Users like Yasmine — who asked not to be identified with her surname because of security reasons — also joined the social network with the same goal in mind: to empower and connect with others through personal-lived experiences.
“I never saw a Jewish woman that looked like me. That really shaped my focus to teaching about my culture, the history, and its representation,” said the 38-year-old New Yorker who saw an imperative need to amplify the voices of Mizrahi and Black Jews.
“It helped me to combine my passion and love for Judaism and Jewish culture while trying to make it a safer and a better place for other Jews with backgrounds similar to mine. I felt it was my responsibility to tell my story.”
Even though the number of accounts of minority voices within the online Jewish community is still significantly low, other activists and educators have slowly but steadily followed in Debbie’s and Yasmine’s footsteps.
That’s the case of Ashager Araro, a 29-year-old Ethiopian Jew from Israel and former IDF Lieutenant Paratrooper, whose posts are driven by her belief that Beta Israel should not only be linked to the series of secret operations that airlifted the community to Israel between the 1980s and the 1990s, but also to the uniqueness and richness of their ancient story.
“I always felt that the stories of Ethiopian Jews were not being told. When we talk about Jewish history, it’s very Ashkenazi-centered. The stories of Ethiopian or Mizrahi Jews are always on the sideline. This is something that bothered me. I saw a lack of education and a lot of misconceptions about us, even from within my own community, so I chose to protest by education. At the end of the day, nobody is born a racist,” said Ashager, who has become a prominent guiding light for the visibility of Ethiopian and Jews of Color.
It’s impossible to talk about activism without mentioning its intertwined relationship with education. Since Instagram caters to a more intimate, culture-focused ethos, it makes a flexible medium for learning. Many users have gone down this road. By sharing content in the form of mini squared informative slideshows, activists are creating powerful narratives by visualizing information.
“I realized that few people understood Jewish identity and/or antisemitism and that Instagram was screaming out for leaders in the educational space. After my experience of swatting up on this to fight Corbynism in the UK, I was amply prepared to take the charge when it came to talking to an American audience,” wrote in an email Eve Barlow, the Scottish music journalist currently based in LA, who started fiercely advocating on Instagram in the Spring of 2020.
The text-based carousels of up to ten pictures each, launched in 2017, have found new resonance, especially among a receptive young audience, notorious for prioritizing still images over text and eager to emotionally invest themselves in learning broader facts about Jewish history and culture.
But the use of social media for didactic purposes also raises the question of whether online public spaces will become the leading force behind Jewish education in the years to come.
“Online spaces will be part of it,” said Ben M. Freeman. He suggests that the internet offers Jews in the diaspora an unprecedented opportunity and a valuable tool to connect and learn from each other.
“We need to rethink our education model to make sure that it’s nuanced, well-thought-out, and evidential.”
However, on Instagram, all that glitters is not gold, and behind the inspirational undertakings, activists must deal with a dark side that often overshadows the benefits of the platform. The biggest challenges they face come in the form of a significant amount of disruptive engagement, such as antisemitism, trolling, and hatred they regularly get. Uncivil behavior not only hampers debate, but also prevents activists from effectively conveying their message within their own spaces.
In an attempt to control the tricky dynamics of uncivil discourse, Jewish militants mute derogatory terms and profanity, restrict comments from non-followers, or close the comments section altogether. Some opt to establish self-imposed limits, coined as “boundaries.” Yet, this strategy mainly aims to protect their well-being and mental health. And then, a few prefer to stay under the guise of anonymity due to safety reasons. Ultimately, the best tactic, according to some advocates, is not to engage with trolls.
“In general, my rule is never to feed the trolls. If you ignore them and deny them air, they have nowhere to go. They’re alone in their echo chamber,” wrote Eve Barlow.
Another concerning point is the growing issue of slacktivism or the act of supporting a movement without committing to making a substantial contribution. Activists worry that the unnecessary noise brought by some individuals’ passive and reductive actions might divert attention from the real problems at stake.
“What’s been happening in this climate of social media activism is that some people are just following whatever the trend is and wanting to be told what to think and what to do. That’s harmful because educators or activists shouldn’t tell you what to think; they should make you think,” said Debbie Letchman.
These gestures or slacktivism or clicktivism, can also come across as performative and opportunistic for some Jewish advocates who believe the platform is already overly saturated. Often, these lazy efforts can make factual information non-visible since Instagram’s algorithm tends to give more traffic to emotionally-based engagement rather than to rational one.
With the acceleration of COVID-19 vaccines being rolled out and the hopes of the pandemic ending in the foreseeable future, it remains to see if these new forms of Jewish activism will continue to be as prominent as they are today. The issue of advocacy on social media lies within a much bigger spectrum: Will technology replace on-ground efforts and become its detriment?
“I don’t think it’s a matter of ‘this’ replacing ‘that.’ Digital platforms are now part of the texture and fabric of society. We still will do things face-to-face and integrate with technology. Using our phone to coordinate meet-ups, figure out a rally, or to be actively and civically engaged.”
It is yet to be seen if these online efforts happening inside the walls of Instagram will spur offline actions. For now, Jewish activism continues apace online with a throng of Jews remaining determined to push forward social change for the common good of the Jewish people, no matter the obstacles, always clamoring loudly, “Include Jews In Your Activism.”
