Odellya Sohnis, 30, is an Israeli-American who has lived her whole life in the United States. Her Israeli mother met her American father in New York.

Before Oct. 7, 2023, she always felt secure in how other people perceived her Israeli identity. But after the Hamas attack on Israel, her feelings changed.

“I dance Brazilian zouk socially, and I’ve watched antisemitism increasingly seep into recreational spaces that used to feel separate from politics,” she said in an email.

Sohnis, who lives in Philadelphia, responded by “intentionally bringing Jewish people looking for connection together through dance and social experiences.” Every Monday evening along the Schuylkill River Trail, Sohnis gathers five to 20 people for zouk classes.

Except they don’t have to dance zouk. If they want, they can just sit on a rock and read. It’s a place to let go and feel safe in one’s identity.

“It feels like you don’t have to leave your identity at the door,” Sohnis said.

At the same time, you also are not forced to defend your identity.

“It could be 20 people. It could be five people. But we want to grow it. It’s really like an underground scene. Zouk is not something you hear about on an everyday basis,” Sohnis said. “It’s about having this self-awareness, body awareness, social awareness.”

In January 2024, Sohnis was attending the Interfusion Wellness Festival for the second time. The annual event in Arlington, Virginia, offers workshops, spaces and gatherings incorporating yoga, meditation and dance, among other holistic wellness practices.

During the festival, Sohnis heard from a fellow Jew who had been in an ecstatic dance room that someone had yelled, “Free Palestine!”

“I don’t think he realized, hey, you’re excluding Jews and Israelis,” she recalled. “It was like, that’s accepted?”

After the incident, Sohnis started noticing similar dynamics emerging in some of her friendships. The Philadelphia resident still has extended family living in Israel. Her friends knew this; yet they never asked about them.

“I’m seeing my friends either quiet or debating with me. I just want my friends to ask me if my family’s safe and if I’m OK,” she said.

The anti-Israel politicization came for her zouk spaces, too. Sohnis was organizing her own classes in different rooms around Philadelphia, but then “a girl boycotted my venue,” she said.

“She said it’s supporting genocide. She told people not to go, and sent them Al Jazeera articles,” she added.

Sohnis began to see this everywhere, in zouk spaces, while taking part in her preferred workout of rock climbing, even while walking down the street.

“You couldn’t go to Washington Square Park [in New York] anymore without a Free Palestine keffiyeh,” she said.

A zouk dance partner told her that Oct. 7 was a bad day for Israelis but a good day for Palestinians.

“In the first two years, I was crying twice a day. It was hard not to talk about it,” Sohnis said.

Eventually, she just had to let go.

“I felt this stillness, this quiet,” Sohnis said.

Sohnis began finding new spaces. That’s what the Monday gatherings were all about.

“I do think it’s important that we don’t seclude ourselves,” she said. “I started bringing more Jews into the scene, and doing it in our own space. Non-Jews are welcome too. It’s not advocacy.”

“There is something I’ve noticed, and I guess it just happens with time. People aren’t crying about it the way we were. We don’t have to constantly cry about it. We rise above,” she added.

Advocacy, though, is also important to Sohnis. She recently participated in the Anti-Defamation League’s Glass Leadership Institute, which introduces young Jewish leaders in Philadelphia to the organization’s fight against antisemitism.

A few years ago, she worked with the Chevra to produce a four-part workshop called “Israel and Palestine: Arming Ourselves with Clarity and Advocacy through Empathy.” Sohnis continues to facilitate sessions in the series in Jewish organizations and at events, like at the BBYO International Convention in Philadelphia this past February.

“The only thing we can control is how we connect with each other and how we listen,” she said.

jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com