We’d love for you to join! Please fill out our interest form to join, and a JOOOT organizer will contact you to set up a one-on-one or conversation in order to get a sense of your group and its needs, give you more information about JOOOT, and different ways of getting involved with our work. Your group can sign onto our points of unity and become a JOOOT member!

Zionism is the cultural, political, economic and militaristic movement and/or nationalist ideology that emerged in the late 19th century in support of (originally) the establishment, and now the maintenance, of a sovereign Jewish state in Palestine, or the biblical “Eretz Yisrael” (land of Israel). Zionists can be Jews or non-Jews (ex. Christian Zionism). Read more on Zionism and anti-Zionism here.

JOOOT is anti-Zionist for three main reasons. 

The first is that we support the movements of liberation for all oppressed and colonized people everywhere, and this includes the Palestinian people. We see this as a necessary component of anti-racism, with Zionism being a settler-colonial practice and philosophy that delegitimizes and devalues the livelihood of Palestinian people as a differentiated population. We oppose this and see Zionism as a false solution to antisemitism and Jewish liberation. 

The second reason is that an anti-Zionist politic allows us to gain a deeper, more thorough, and more generative understanding of the dynamics within “American” Jewish communities. Anti-Zionist analyses allow us to articulate the establishment of the state of “Israel” as a settler-colonial dynamic, and thus one to stand against. This understanding also allows us to evaluate the US imperial (economic and military) interests that underpin Western support of Israel and Zionism, and the consequences of college and university campus investments/directives that uphold Zionism.

The third reason is that Hillel International, the largest Jewish organization on campuses across the continent, normalizes Zionism as a natural and supposedly inherent part of Jewish life and safety. We know that this is not true and that Eretz Yisrael, Am Yisrael (the people of Israel/the Jewish people), and Medinat Yisrael (the contemporary state of Israel) are different. Medinat Yisrael is not in any way tied to Jewish religious practice. We know that Judaism can and should be divorced from Zionism, and we know that to be Jewish anti-Zionists is part of being Jewish people in solidarity with all liberatory causes, and we reject violent apartheid and settler-colonial occupation practices being carried out in our name. College and University Jewish community and practice is distorted by the Zionist goals of the Jewish establishment, whose programs (such as Hillel and Birthright) perpetuate normalization and manufacture a pro-Zionist consensus within Jewish life across the continent. Jewish communal life does not need and is grossly altered by Zionism, and we want to reclaim Judaism to be on our own terms.

No. While JOOOT as an autonomous organization is publicly and actively anti-Zionist, our mission remains the establishment and long-term support of a network of independent, radically inclusive, liberation-aligned Jewish religious, social, and cultural communities on campuses. JOOOT communities do not have to declare themselves as anti-Zionist. The reason for this is not a dismissal of principled politics, but a recognition that the conditions on every campus are radically different, as are the needs of the students there. Some campuses might have various Jewish or Non-Jewish Palestine solidarity organizations. Some might not, and a JOOOT group might be the most radical place for Palestine solidarity organizing. Some campuses might have a very small number of known Jews interested in an independent organization who are in various places in their process of unlearning Zionism. Some students of varying identities might be put in an unsafe situation by publicly identifying as anti-Zionist. While we do not require groups to publicly identify or organize as anti-Zionist, we will actively support and navigate their ability to do so, will conduct political education through an anti-Zionist lens, and in signing onto our Points of Unity, groups agree not to actively support Zionism or any other form of racism, bigotry, exploitation, or oppression. Examples of this may include trips to the state of “Israel,” the promotion or normalization of Zionism and the state, and economic support. However, our focus remains on developing vibrant Jewish communities that while being divorced from Zionism, are not all activism based. We want to ensure that independent, pluralistic Jewish ritual, practice, and culture is as strong of a focus as, and not overshadowed by, political action.

Yes! Graduate students are a valuable part of campus life, and have a vital impact and need for and through liberatory communal spaces. While JOOOT is largely involved in undergraduate spaces as alternatives to Hillel International and as years of crucial intellectual, political, social, and emotional development, graduate spaces will be supported to the same extent, and intergenerational discussion is paramount. Graduate groups often face similar to sometimes greater opposition to the institutions that are in, as well as independent issues such as disorganization or burnout, and so we are ecstatic to support the development and vibrance of these spaces with graduate students.

Open Hillel is JOOOT’s former name and organizational era. Created in 2012 as the Open Hillel initiative, our mission was to remove Hillel International's Standards of Partnership rules from individual Hillel college campus organizations across the country. The Standards of Partnership forbid Hillel-affiliated organizations from hosting speakers who are pro-BDS or anti-Zionist.

We succeeded in a few cases, but Hillel International forced these newly formed "Open Hillels" to remove the Hillel name and affiliation. The power of right-wing donors working against us was strong, and at the same time, student groups were approaching us asking for support to start independent, unaffiliated Jewish clubs at their colleges.

We named this initiative Judaism On Our Own Terms (JOOOT) in 2018, and it became the center of our work so we made JOOOT our organizational name in early 2021. We started focusing on connecting independent Jewish clubs, which continue to pop up, providing them with resources, and initially creating programming about racial justice in Jewish communities. We began our restructuring period in 2023, reflecting on our current state as an organization, purpose, values, and future.