After a traditional Jewish upbringing that tapered off after her bat mitzvah, Eliza Schloss found her way back to Judaism through activism.
“I didn’t really connect back with it until college,” the Washington, D.C., resident said. “I connected back to my Judaism through activism, and I think that was a big moment for me, to realize I could marry these two things that were important to me.”
Schloss, 25, who got involved with J Street U as an undergraduate at American University, works as a content strategist and producer at J Street, a nonprofit liberal Zionist advocacy and lobby group.
In this role, Schloss leads J Street’s social media writing, creates social media content, runs virtual programming, writes press releases and fires off national emails. She spends nearly every working hour thinking about one of the world’s most pressing current issues: the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict and working toward peace in the Middle East.
“The issue that we work on is really almost too big to understand and too big to stomach,” the young professional said.
Growing up in the Chicago suburbs, Schloss was “always” culturally and religiously involved in Judaism, between attending the local Reform temple, Hebrew school and Jewish overnight camp. She took part in Hands of Peace, a program for Israeli, Palestinian and American teens ages 14 to 17, who gathered for three intensive weeks of dialogue and summer camp-style bonding.
“We would get together at nights around a bonfire and sing songs and dance. It was incredible,” Schloss recalled.
The high school-age program was so impactful for Schloss that she views her life as “Eliza pre-Hands of Peace” and “Eliza post-Hands of Peace.”
“I think my worldview has really shifted and opened up to hardships and the realities of the world that I’m living in here in the United States, but also … living abroad, particularly in Israel/Palestine, and also put the fire underneath me to do something about it,” she said.
The group spent two hours every day engaged in dialogue, which wasn’t always easy.
“We would spend some days really going at it,” Schloss said. “There was yelling; there was crying; there was hugging; there was, ‘I’m not going to talk to you for two days, and then after that, we’ll make up and befriend each other again.’”
The program opened her eyes to the harsh realities of living conditions in the Middle East, as the group addressed the metaphorical “elephant in the room.”
“Where it hit me most was in my identity, and in my Jewish identity in particular, because I was hearing all these stories of how untenable and unjust life was in Israel/Palestine, particularly for my Palestinian friends, but also for my Israeli friends,” Schloss said. “I just couldn’t grasp the society that they were living in and the kind of conditions that were their reality, like going to bomb shelters or having air raid sirens go off.
“And then for my Palestinian friends, having incredibly limited freedom of movement, having paperwork upon paperwork to travel to the U.S., not even be able to fly out of this airport that’s an hour away from them, but rather, take a whole day’s journey over the border to Jordan to get somewhere internationally.”
Hearing those firsthand perspectives frustrated and overwhelmed Schloss, particularly because what she learned about Israel’s current actions didn’t align with the Jewish values she’d been taught growing up. “I wanted to figure out a way to channel that [anger] into actually doing something,” she said.
So, during college, Schloss joined J Street U, eventually leading the American University chapter. “It was the best thing I did in college,” she said. “[My involvement with J Street U] pushed me out of my shell, taught me organizing skills. I felt like I was doing something.”
Schloss took her advocacy to Capitol Hill, where she lobbied members of Congress and conversed with peers who were on a similar path. She also embarked on an organizing trip to Israel through the Center for Jewish Nonviolence, which brings Jewish activists from across the world to the Middle East to join Palestinian-led civil resistance efforts.
Though Schloss enjoys advocacy, she didn’t always envision the professional role she has now.
“I’ve always been inherently values-based or leaning towards advocacy,” Schloss said. “I didn’t necessarily imagine that it would be in this realm of Israel/Palestine or within the Jewish community, but it’s something that I feel deeply connected to.”
This connection makes it easier for Schloss to do her job.
“Even on a hard day, when we’re dealing with incredibly heartbreaking issues, it helps keep me going that I’m here for a reason and rooted in something that’s more than myself, but my community,” she said.
J Street doesn’t solely focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; it’s a democracy-focused organization, Schloss said.
“At the moment, we’re focused really heavily on countering the damage coming from the Trump administration, so it feels powerful,” she said, adding that she messages community members about Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its “brutal behavior” and distributes call scripts for people to call their elected officials. The call scripts outline how “state violence” goes against Jewish values.
“It feels very urgent, and I think that urgency and the pressure of the moment in Israel, in this field, I’m not sure it’s ever gone away,” Schloss said. “It’s been decades of horror, with some moments of light, but it always feels like there’s work to be done. And me and my coworkers are not people who give up easily.”
