“Diasporism takes root in the Jewish Socialist Labor Bund’s principle of doikayt — hereness — the right to be, and to fight for justice, wherever we are. Doikayt means Jews enter coalitions wherever we are, across lines that might divide, to work together for universal equality and justice. Doikayt is about wanting to be citizens, to have rights, to not worry about being shipped off at any moment where someone else thinks you do or don’t belong.

One step beyond this is valuing the margins; not wanting danger or instability but not wanting to surrender the perspective that diaspora can yield. I name this commitment Diasporism.”

“The Diasporism I have in mind recognizes the persecution and danger that have made many long for home and passport, yearn to leave the wandering behind. Inside this longing, Diasporism represents tension, resistance to both assimilation and nostalgia, to both corporate globalization that destroys peoples and cultures, and to nationalism, which promises to preserve people and cultures but so often distorts them through the prisms of masculinism, racism, and militarism."

"Diasporism embraces diaspora, offers a place where we might join with others who value this history of dispersion; others who stand in opposition to nationalism and the nation state.”