I grew up in the Soviet Union. I never expected to see ‘Zionism is Racism’ pushed here

I always felt like I was a little out of place. I was born in Russia, but was different because my mom is Jewish. Now I am here, but sometimes still feel like a foreigner in the UK. Not quite Jewish because I wasn’t raised to keep the traditions, and not quite in the right part of London because I lived south of the river. In the last 3 years – I’ve also at time felt like I was not quite the right kind of environmentalist – the overriding sentiment in certain circles being that if you’re Jewish you should be anti-Israel, support specific causes and proudly express all that on LinkedIn in a “As a Jew…” post.

The most recent test – whether to support the “Zionism is racism” policy passed by the Green party, that officially legitimised Jew-hatred.

Well, I quite like to be out of place.

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“Zionism is racism” is something that was first coined in the Soviet Union. This exact narrative, with its slogans and campaign of hate, was engineered in the 1960s and 70s. It was state sponsored at first and picked up by people second, then subsequently exported globally. It has now been reinvigorated in the UK and many European countries, as well as the USA and Australia. It doesn’t even matter what people think they mean by Zionism when they redefine it – the playbook works in a very specific way and it is effective. We have seen this movie before and know how it ends.

This is how I know that none of what is going on now is about humanitarian issues or even just not knowing the facts: not a single person has ever asked me to feel personal accountability for what Russia is doing in Ukraine. I have not seen a single debate on the rights of Russians to travel, have a country, or need to state their political position on my social media feed or climate events I attended.

As a Soviet-born Jew, a lot of what we are experiencing now is almost normal to me – either through family stories or own memory. The coded language, that if something goes wrong and the powers don’t want to deal with it then “the Jews are behind it”, the knowledge that you cannot become too successful if you have the wrong name. I was always taught to not highlight my identity in unfamiliar settings – why draw attention to something that may put you in danger? It is a sort of a “if you know – you know” situation.

I never expected to experience this in the UK and definitely not in the climate community. Somehow the conversations and attention have shifted away from the “green” matters to a populist narrative. Nobody would dream of defining any other minority’s beliefs, interests or acceptable opinions for them. With Jews, everyone’s suddenly fluent.

Antisemitism never led to anything good for anyone, including antisemites themselves. What does it actually achieve? Regardless of their political views, when the only party that seemingly advocated for environmental protections chooses division and age-old hatred as their core platform, they are basically saying that they can’t win votes otherwise. This tells those who are yet to be convinced – the people climate action actually needs – that this is a movement run on tribal feeling, not evidence. If the Greens don’t believe that their own policies can bring people on board, what hope does anyone else have? This puts the climate movement back decades and makes it look unserious and less trustworthy.

I’d assumed that by working in sustainability I was simply part of the progressive tribe that wanted to do better for the environment and people. Turns out, in the last few years, I have had to find my tribe again – as well as cleanse my LinkedIn feed, contacts list and decide on my red lines, to not allow people to make their ignorance my problem. Like many others, I have been brought closer into the Jewish circles that I would not have found otherwise, including the Jewish Climate Professionals Network (JCPN) that focuses on constructive conversations and tikkun olam actions.

Ironically, when someone is trying to cause division, the Jewish community pulls closer together. The level of resilience I have seen is amazing – despite what many have experienced – from personal attacks, job losses and safety threats, to simply being cut off and losing friends and family – the work continues, the innovation and ideas thrive, smiles get wider, no victim Olympics.

“Pessimism is a luxury that a Jew can never afford” (as attributed to Golda Meir) – holds just as true for climate work.

To find out more about the Jewish Climate Professionals Network visit our website: ecoJudaism.org.uk/jcpn

Marina Bradford is a Founder & Director of environmental consultancy Everloop, co-founder of TerraVerde Sustainability and a member of JCPN.