This is a monumental change after 130 years since the 1885 Pittsburgh Platform of the Central Conference of American Rabbis first said that American Reform Judaism is a religion only and anti-Zionist.
Over the course of the last century, Reform Judaism has increasingly become engaged in Zionist activity and Israel. In 1978 at the biannual meeting of the Reform movement in San Francisco, the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA) was founded and for the past 41 years as served as the Zionist arm of American Reform movement representing 1.5 million Reform Jews. ARZA’s chief function has been to promote Israel in the United States and to represent the Reform movement in the national institutions of the Jewish people (i.e. The Jewish Agency for Israel, The World Zionist Organization, and the Jewish National Fund).
The Union for Reform Judaism’s decision to endorse the Jerusalem Program of the World Zionist Organization transforms the American Reform movement formally into a Zionist movement.
See this article in the Jerusalem Post about this historic turning point in American Reform – https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Refusing-to-be-pushed-away-Reform-movement-affirms-its-zionist-core-561155
Also, an important conversation about the new chairman of the Jewish Agency, Israeli opposition leader Yitzhak “Bougie” Herzog, and the place of the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) in international Jewish affairs is tackled on “The Promised Podcast” on TLV1 Radio – listen here https://tlv1.fm/the-promised-podcast/2018/06/30/bougies-golem/.
