Talking about Israel can be challenging and fraught under the best of circumstances. Meir Zimmerman is on a mission to make those conversations a little bit easier.

Zimmerman, who serves as Mid-Atlantic Regional Director for the Jewish Grad Organization, came to Portland Wednesday, Dec. 3 to talk about how to approach those conversations, especially conversations with those who aren’t predisposed to a positive view of the Jewish state. He started off his presentation in a packed Stampfer Chapel at Congregation Neveh Shalom by digging into what makes those conversations so challenging.

“We need to know our story better,” Zimmerman said. “The Jewish story; not what’s happening today in Israel, but the full Jewish story. [We need] to be proud of it and to be knowledgeable about it.”

Because Judaism existed before modern conceptualizations of religion, nationality and ethnicity, it can be hard to explain. Thusly, it’s often not fully explained at all, especially to non-Jewish audiences. This has given space for misconceptions to flourish.

“A misconception about Jews is we’re a religious group from Europe, right? The misunderstanding around Jews often stems from a lack of information,” Zimmerman explained. “If you ask someone in the street, someone that doesn’t know many Jews, how many Jews using exist in the world, you would be shocked by their answers - from hundreds of millions, maybe a billion.” (The real answer is 15.7 million)

There are many other misconceptions, which led into Zimmerman’s first suggestion for approaching the topic of Israel.

“I would encourage you to not argue semantics. Educate them,” he said. “Help them understand more about the Jewish people, understand more about the importance of Israel to you, to the Jewish people.”

Second was to know your audience. Zimmerman divided this into five rough groups. The first may have never even met a Jew, Zimmerman explained; “someone whose ideas about Jews and Israel come from hearsay, media, social media, and are shaped by stereotypes and misinformation.”

Folks in the second group, he continued, probably know a Jew; they “have a personal connection, but they may not understand Jewish identity, Jewish history.”

Group three, Zimmerman said, knows Jews in the plural. This is no guarantee against misconceptions, however. A 2023 survey by Boundless Israel found that just 34 percent of Americans were familiar with the term “Zionism,” and less than half of those could correctly define it advocating a Jewish state in the Jewish homeland.

The fourth group only views Jews through the lens of Israel, usually negatively. They often describe themselves, Zimmerman said, as anti-Zionist and/or as pro-Palestinian – terms they may use interchangeably, but which Zimmerman distinguishes between.

“This is a really important thing. You need to separate pro-Palestinian and antizionist. You can be pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli. They’re not sports teams,” he explained. But being pro-Palestinian is not being angry that the ceasefire happened because it was brought about by Trump. Being pro-Palestinian is caring about the safety of the people…  If you’re antizionist, you’re anti the Jewish state’s existence. To me, that’s where it crosses the line.”

Conversations with people in groups four and five (the last being reserved for abject antisemites) are often not worth the time because these individuals hold deeply embedded negative views about Jews, Israel, or both. But understanding your audience goes deeper.

“In addition to their knowledge about Jews, it’s important to understand what lived experience they bring into the room with it as well,” Zimmerman said. “Why? Because everyone brings their own lived experience.”

People from Western European countries and their former colonies, Zimmerman continued, often project their own experiences onto the Jewish state.

Knowing your audience helps tailor your message, because as Boundless Israel’s 2023 data showed, different arguments in favor of Israel – its status as a safe haven for the Jewish people, its promotions of democratic values, the stability it provides to the region, etc. – resonate more (or less) with different kinds of people. Attendees received a copy of a slide deck on Boundless Israel’s research – a copy is available at tinyurl.com/BI-Zionism-Survey.

Some broader dos and don’ts, Zimmerman explained, were to add nuance to the conversation without delving into the nitty-gritty of current affairs. He also encouraged empathy for Palestinians.

“You can identify as pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian. In fact, I encourage it,” he said. “Just believing that the Palestinians have the right to self-determination is not antisemitic.”

Instead, listen to what other people are saying, approach the conversation as an opportunity to share and not as a debate to win, and, Zimmerman emphasized, lead the conversation off the way he led off his presentation.

“I led with our story tonight” he said. “I didn’t start with a big sheet from Boundless Israel with all that data, I led with a story about our people.”

A recording of Zimmerman’s presentation is available at youtube.com/watch?v=S9fEk2ptzV4.