Holding Space in the Middle, Fighting for Democracy and Against Antisemitism

Originally published by Cincy Jewfolk.

by Sam Fisher

In an increasingly polarizing political climate, and leaving many American Jews feeling like they are becoming more and more isolated, Jewish Council for Public Affairs CEO Amy Spitalnick is fighting for Jews in what she calls the complicated middle.

Spitalnick brought her message of making space in the middle to Cincinnati last month at Wise Temple’s Crucial Conversation series. Cincy Jewfolk had a chance to sit down and talk with her before the event.

She is fighting for the space in the complicated middle, speaking out against the historic rise in antisemitism that has rocked the Jewish community since Oct. 7 and the Israel-Hamas war in 2023; building bridges with allies; and fighting against the attacks on democratic institutions and norms since the rise of the second Trump administration.

“All of our work is rooted in the recognition that Jewish safety and democracy are inextricably linked,” she said. “It means that at a moment when democracy is under threat, when we’re seeing democratic norms, the rule of law, or institutions under attack, it’s so inherent to our safety and values as Jews to show up and mobilize. And at the same time, there’s no inclusive, pluralistic democracy without Jewish safety, without confronting antisemitism in all of its forms.”

Spitalnick rose to national attention when she helped lead the lawsuits against the white supremacists who organized the deadly Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. She became CEO of the JCPA just months before the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in 2023.

One of the issues faced by many members of the Jewish community in the years leading up to and following Oct. 7 is feeling less welcome in more progressive and liberal spaces. This has made fighting antisemitism and space for nuance more difficult.

For her, that means working to help those understand what she called the complicated middle. Helping people within and outside of the Jewish community realize that allyship to fight antisemitism and fight for democracy goes beyond slogans and zero-sum politics.

“Allyship is despite disagreements over specific policies, showing up in a way that doesn’t lose sight of the humanity of Jewish people and the Israeli people who are impacted by this,” she said.

To her, that is continuing to embrace the complicated middle ground, that rejects voices from the extremes at both ends of the political spectrum. It’s this middle that Spitalnick thinks most Jews are.

“There’s a very deliberate effort by extremists on both ends to set this up as a false choice, to say we are either protecting democracy, and that means Jewish safety doesn’t matter, or that we’re protecting Jewish safety and democracy doesn’t matter,” she said. “But we can’t have one without the other.”

In the last two years, there has been an increase in antisemitism coming from far-left spaces. In her view, the conspiracy theories that power antisemitism are the same on the extreme right and left.

“So much of it is rooted in these conspiracy theories and tropes around Jewish control and power, whether it’s Jewish control and power changing the demographics of our country or the electorate and replacing the white race, or whether it’s Jewish or Zionist control and power related to our government or academic institutions,” she said.

Spitalnick said those tropes – whether from Charlottesville marchers or progressive circles—have a common effect: isolating Jews from the very coalitions where they’ve long fought for democracy, justice, and inclusion.

The path forward, she says, is about resisting binaries –and refusing to cede moral clarity to those on the fringes.

“We can hold multiple ideas at the same time and fight unequivocally for Jewish safety at a time when it really is under threat from multiple directions, and do so in a way that is clear-eyed about the urgency of protecting democracy.”