It’s virtually impossible these days to have any meaningful conversations about the meaning of Zionism.
That’s because the word itself has become toxic. Most people only see Israel through the news. This is the most toxic lens. For a combination of reasons, not least the alarming rise in antisemitism, the Jewish state has become a symbol of everything that’s wrong with the world.
Making things worse: people tend to conflate government with country. If I hate the government, I hate the country.
With all this hostility toward Israel, a sense of emergency reigns. Everything becomes about the fight: Israel and the Jews are in trouble, antisemitism and antizionism are at record levels, the lies must be corrected, the haters must be confronted.
Who’s got time during this state of crisis for quiet reflection on the meaning of Zionism?
I do.
You see, there’s a small but growing movement among some American Jews that is kicking Israel while it’s down. It’s trying to convince people that because Zionism has become so toxic, Judaism is better off without it. It’s the Weight-Watchers approach to a better Jewish life: get rid of the fat everyone hates and you’ll feel so much better about yourself.
But Zionism is not fat. Zionism is the fuel for modern Judaism. It’s the flame we kept lit for 1900 years after the destruction of the Second Temple turned us into wandering Jews at the mercy of our hosts.
Zionism is the fuel for modern Judaism. It’s the flame we kept lit for 1900 years after the destruction of the Second Temple turned us into wandering Jews at the mercy of our hosts.
“The main story line of the Hebrew Bible is of an exiled people’s search for a homeland,” Nicholas Lehman writes in The New York Times. “Zionism touched a deep collective yearning for self-determination, for self-protection, for freedom from perpetual outsider status.
“All this makes the idea that Israel and Zionism can easily be factored out of American Jewish life seem almost fantastical. It asks us to give up a portion of our souls.”
It’s easy to lose sight of that truth when all we see in the media is that Israel has become a pariah state. This is the silent cost of the hate movement against Israel— we can no longer see the big picture.
We lose sight of the very soul of Israel and its impact on the lives of Jews.
“The idea that a psychological divorce from Israel is possible seems fanciful,” Lehman writes. “Almost half of all Jews live there; many of us have Israeli friends and relatives. Most of us are regular visitors.”
Visiting Israel, as I did last month, helps one see the Israel beyond the toxic headlines. This is the Israel that rises from the people– a people that struggles as it dreams and dreams as it struggles. A people comprising a hundred different nationalities that gathered from around the world after centuries of separation and revived the Hebrew language. That ingathering reminds us that we’re more than a religion– we’re a people.
Israel, and everything it has accomplished, has given Judaism a spine. After two millennia of insecurity and persecution, Israel shows us a way of being Jewish that is the opposite of weakness.
“While a homeland may seem to Jews in the Diaspora like a security blanket that encourages flight, we must understand our homeland differently: not as a contingency plan, but as an anchor for Jewish strength and identity,” Adela Cojab writes in the collection of essays, “Young Zionist Voices.”
“Israel symbolizes that Jews are no longer perpetual guests, but rightful citizens with the same rights and responsibilities as anyone else. The mere existence of the State of Israel reinforces our ability to assert our identity wherever we are.”
I get that all the bad news that comes out of Israel—from the ugly and divisive battles in the Knesset to the constant demonstrations to a sense of exasperation with the country’s politics—can get us down. It gets me down.
But I remind myself that a snapshot of a moment cannot capture 1,900 years of a story.
Israel is more than a moment. It’s an idea. It’s a story– our story.
Now, a new Jewish movement is punishing Israel while it’s under siege. Just when Israel needs the most help, it’s abandoning ship: “Sorry, everybody hates you, we’re out.”
These self-righteous Jews who claim that severing their connection with the Israeli story will enrich their Judaism are trying to pull a fast one. Instead of rising to the occasion to help save a 1900-year-old dream, they’re using Judaism as a cover for their betrayal of that dream.
Their movement is as narrow and toxic as the news we hear about Israel.
But there is news, and there is eternal truth. Those who are sticking by Israel are going with eternal truth.
Shabbat shalom.
