This week, social media users witnessed a beautiful onslaught of snark and defiance from the Jewish millennial corner of the Twitterverse.
Young Jews took to Twitter appalled by a swiftly deleted tweet suggesting that Israeli Knesset member Michael Oren had called their views on Israel appalling.
“The opinions of young #american #jews are appalling. They need the diversity here in #Israel,” the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations tweeted, tagging Michael Oren.
The tweet wasn’t a direct quote from Oren, Israel’s former ambassador to the United States.
It was “a paraphrased conflation of ideas related to polling data on the opinions of a younger cohort of American Jews,” Sam Schear, the Conference of Presidents’ director of strategic initiatives, wrote in an email to New Voices.
The tweet was inspired by a panel with Michael Oren and others on how the 2017 anniversaries of the Balfour Declaration, the UN Partition Plan, and the Six Day War are understood by modern Israelis and diaspora Jews.
“In these circumstances, we decided to remove the tweet,” Schear said, but not before it resulted in an epically sassy Jewish millennial hashtag: #appallingyoungjew.
Twitter users tacked this label to their 140-character articulations of young Jewish American angst over their image in the Jewish community. These tweets say, “Yes, we’re young. Yes, we’re diverse and critical of Israel. And, yes, we’re still proud, strongly identified Jews.”
Here are 7 deliciously chutzpadik tweets from #appallingyoungjews:
There are the I’m-hella-Jewish-so-fight-me tweets:
Hi it's me an #appallingyoungjew who hosts weekly shabbat dinners/ text studies and also believes in freedom and dignity for all people?????
— Aron (@AEgelko) February 21, 2017
I'm on my shul board, speak fluent Hebrew & work in Israel but bc I'm 4 freedom & dignity @Conf_of_Pres thinks I'm an #appallingyoungJew
— Arielle Angel (@ArielleLAngel) February 21, 2017
The haters-gonna-hate tweets:
.@Conf_of_Pres @DrMichaelOren This #appallingyoungjew has never felt more proud to be a Jew w her loving, liberated Jewish community. Bye. pic.twitter.com/0VdOTwAxXy
— remmagolds (@rg0lds) February 21, 2017
Proud to be an #appallingyoungjew who believes in self-determination for all. Oh, and international law. @jstreetu
— Nicholas KB (@nickofboe) February 20, 2017
I'm an #appallingyoungjew because I do not believe Islam is my enemy.
— Reina Victoria (@reinavictoria18) February 21, 2017
And, last but not least, the stop-ragging-on-millennials-already tweets:
.@Conf_of_Pres pic.twitter.com/Tj6FR2edX0
— J Street U (@jstreetu) February 20, 2017
.@Conf_of_Pres Pro tip from an #appallingyoungjew this is not the way to court a #millennial through social media https://t.co/srI2AQk211
— Rikki Baker Keusch (@Rikki_BK) February 20, 2017
Sara Weissman is the editor in chief of New Voices. Kvetch or kvell to her at editor@newvoices.org.
