Lea Misan is an accomplished consultant in systemic psychotherapy and process-oriented psychology who is passionate and dedicated to helping people involved in conflict, abuse, trauma and in leadership positions. She is also a Facilitator, Trainer, Coach, Founder, and Director of the mental health charity Act for Change. 

A firm believer in continuous learning and development, Lea holds an LLB in Law from the London School of Economics. She is a Fellow in Holocaust Education with the Imperial War Museum and a Fellow with the School of Social Enterprise. Lea is the author of two books, ‘A Body's Call to Presence' and ‘The Tribe Within' (publication due in June 2023). Here, she discusses navigating jewish communities amid global politics: equality, justice and identity. 

We are once again at an inflection point in history when the enduring debate about equality, social justice and identity awakens the historic vulnerability of Jews among the nations. 

At the same time, the enduring debate about equality shapes the left-right dichotomy (see the analysis by Noe and The'rien of opinion polls and social discourses). 

Everything is Connected

Everything is connected to everything else. Polarisation, conflict, double signals, rank and power - so much so that it is becoming urgent for us to learn to read the double signals and understand the rank dynamics if we are to transform conflict rather than succumb to its often duelling nature.

The global context provides the sense through which we can understand what is happening in Jewish communities. At the same time, the fault lines currently being drawn within Jewish communities are not only of concern to Jewish people, but also to anyone interested in understanding how this inflection point affects the relationship between those of us on the global left and right.

Feeling Sandwiched

A good look at the sandwich experienced by Jewish communities provides an insight into the issues coming right around the bend for everyone else.

After a 75 year lull post the Holocaust, Jewish people are suddenly finding that their whole identity is bound up with something they hadn't thought about for a long time: The fault lines of the left-right dichotomy are drawn within the Global context. But now Jewish people are grappling with how to integrate what they think of the world and how they position themselves on the fault lines, with their Jewish identity. 

Following the events of October 7th 2023, the fault lines were immediately drawn between those who felt bound up with Israel out of fear of what that event portends and those who felt bound up with Palestinians and identified with the protest movement against Israel's response. The latter group of  people also felt scared, as they realised that those in their political camp were not on their side. I heard many say: ‘I don't want to march with people who want to kill me'. Political tribalism, already strengthening, amplified a sense of no hope, followed quickly by despondency.

Duelling Realities 

If previously, between this side and that, it was possible to talk and explore commonalities, it is now almost impossible to talk with another ‘side'. No moderation can happen when the realities that we see are different and duelling (to borrow a phrase coined by Tim Urban in his ebook ‘what's our problem' where he describes ‘Duelling Realities'). That is to say, Truth seemingly aligns with Power when on either side there is a sense of righteousness. This leads to an authoritarian attitude, it leads this side and that, to be  unaware  of their own momentary high rank.

Simultaneously, there is also another feeling: that of being hard done by, a sense of victimhood, of being discriminated against - and this breeds an acute awareness of one's own momentary low rank.  

Time to Stop Being Sandwiched

Recognising that there are both rank dynamics at play will start to help us out of the sandwich. On the one hand, to recognise that we don't identify with our power, that seeing the world from our perspective is just ‘how the world is'. And on the other hand, to recognise that we have a tendency to readily identify with our strong feelings, with the part of ourselves that feels as ‘low rank' and having no power.

Our ability to be differentiated, to be able to think and feel differently from the other, to be able to stand up for ourselves and not feel attacked by the fact that thoughts and feelings differ, even between us and ‘within' our group/our community, makes for healthy relationships.

It is becoming urgent for us to grow our ability to integrate our feelings AND our power. It is vital to do so as individuals, in our personal relationships, within our communities and in our communal relationships with the world.

Working Through Our Past

To do so requires us to work through our past, to understand the choices that we, as a people and community, made at past inflection points, when we were called to redefine our place in the world and when the world changed how it viewed itself. It requires us to look at the substance from which the Left and the Right amongst us both draw within the Jewish context: how is equality and social justice expressed throughout Jewish history?

In Europe, Jews lived in Ghettos for the most part: they were restricted in their occupations and in where they might live. In the Arab lands, Jewish communities were respected, and lived peacefully with their neighbours (as did my father's family)- but as Dhimmis, as second-class citizens. During the Enlightenment, a whole lineage of thinkers (of which my communist maternal grandfather was one) skipped over their specificity as Jews and as a community, and went on to prefer universal values, ideals and aspirations - part of the desire to be included in the family of nations.

The tension between these ideological aspirations and the reality of the Holocaust brought about another inflection point: Jews wanting to take charge of their own destiny. Within the 20th century, taking charge of their own community's destiny equated to a global tendency toward nationalism. In 1948, that meant establishing the State of Israel. 

Today, as the world changes once again, globalism and nationalism are being questioned. This is a time to re-open conversations which were shut tight for some time. I believe that we can do it. This requires courage to see both the feelings and the power that we wield. We must be willing to enter into difficult conversations about our values, our beliefs and how our identity intersects with the world.

Find out more about Lea here: https://leamisan.com/