Rude Awakening

It was our first day back in (remote) office after the 10/7 attacks and my manager asked what I thought about making a statement to acknowledge the atrocities that unfolded. I appreciated him asking and said we should absolutely make a statement. Later that day, our managing director for the US posted a message in slack acknowledging the attack, but instead of mentioning Israel, she stated “…the violence occurring in Gaza.” I reached out to my manager to ask whether she realizes the attack happened in Israel, not Gaza.

Things only got worse from there.

Employees started responding to the post with the Palestinian flag. I was shocked. Our head attorney, who happens to be Jewish, saw the post and shared in my outrage. The employee who posted the message made an edit to apologize for her miscommunication and the post was subsequently taken down.

From that day on, it was an uphill battle with leadership to address the actions of our fellow employees but to no avail.

The president of our organization, who is also Jewish, made a statement on our all staff call, which I fully supported. Apparently, many employees disagreed and found her message to be “one-sided”.

The next attempt at addressing this issue was to have a “compassionate conversation” to bridge the divide between staff. Many of us thought this was ridiculous (did we have a compassionate conversation after the 9/11 attacks?) but I was asked to participate and so I did, alongside our president, as voices for the Jewish/israeli community. One employee from Brazil decided to be the voice for Gaza. She sat there and spewed antisemitism and misinformation, blatantly going against the guidelines of this conversation. My manager who initiated this concept, sat back and let her spew her hate and prejudice.

Several members of our legal team, who happen to be Jewish, began speaking out and emailing our head of HR (my boss). No action was taken.

None of the employees in question were ever addressed. No steps were taken to remedy this issue. About 4 months later, two of us were included in an organization-wide layoff.

I’ve remained in touch with my fellow Jewish employees from that organization who still remain and have been told these issues are ongoing.

This was my dream job. Being a part of an animal advocacy organization. I left that role with a new harsh reality. The movement I had strived to be a part of for years, was not welcoming to Jews or those who support Israel. This has been devastating. The people I felt so aligned with, have no empathy or understanding for the Jewish community or Israel. It has been frustrating to see how hypocritical, misinformed, and prejudiced these “social justice warriors” really are.