From Jewish immigrant labor organizers in NewYork City, to revolutionaries in Europe and LatinAmerica, to the Black Panthers - many organizations have usedstudy as an integral part of building movements.  The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network(IJAN) hopes to builds on these legacies, using political education to informour anti-Zionist and Palestinesolidarity work.  It is with this visionthat we are developing our Study to Action program. 

In Fall 2007, IJAN hosted six study groups around the United States,using a syllabus developed by the IJAZ Network activists Ora Wise, HaleyPollack, and Ryvka Bar Zohar.  Participants in Los Angeles, the SanFrancisco Bay Area, Miami, New York, Detroit and Philadelphia came together toexplore the history of Zionism and the development of Palestinian resistance,as well as histories of Jewish resistance that have been erased byZionism.  

Through political education, we are working to build aframework for a shared understanding of imperialism, colonialism, and Zionism,and locate our work within different political ideologies, tendencies, andmovements, and within a history of anti-Zionist and anti-imperialist struggleand strategy.   We will use study to informour campaigns and tactics and assess our context, conditions, and strategicrole.  We hope that through this processwe will build relationships within the network, and deepen our strategy andpractice as we support our personal transformation and emotional divestmentfrom Zionism.

This is an ongoing project and is part of our plans forbroader political education and leadership development programming. Theseinclude:

Ongoing MemberDevelopment

• Organizing workshops and institutes
• Mentor/ Buddy system for support and development of members who are new to activism
• Boycott, Divestment and Sanction Institute
• Delegations to Palestine
• Develop training to develop member facilitation, discussion and presentation skills  

Public Education

• Develop and offer "Unlearning Zionism" workshops
• Make our "Emerging anti-Zionist Discourse & Movement" presentation available
• Identify other trainings and workshops needed
• Develop conference workshop and presentation modules

Educational Materialsand Media

• Identify and create potential position pieces/ educational materials
• Develop capacity to write articles for submission and posting
• Partner with cultural network on developing popular educational tools
• Partner with academic network on educational materials, writing, editorials and possible on-line journal
• Develop an interactive website that will support the self-organization and collaboration of study groups

These are some of ourideas; please share yours with us at study@ijsn.net.