(RNS) — The news hit hard: Only one-third of American Jews identify as Zionist, even as nearly 90% support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state, according to a new survey conducted by Jewish Federations of North America.
On the one hand, you might ask, why does it matter, as long as they support Israel? Zionism began as the desire to create a Jewish state. But a Jewish state is already old news — 78 years old, to be precise — Israel is a fact on the ground.
When people hesitate to embrace the word “Zionism,” we lose more than a label. We lose an idea. And, without vulgarizing the topic, we lose the “brand.”
How did that happen?
First, the anti-Zionists and the antisemites stole the Zionist narrative and prevented us from telling the story on our own terms.
They recycled Soviet antisemitic propaganda that recast Zionism as imperialism and racism. They borrowed the eliminationist rhetoric of radical Islamist movements that call openly for Israel’s destruction. They repeat academic jargon that labels Israel an “apartheid” regime and a “settler-colonialist” project, and they hurl the charge of “genocide.” They present themselves as social justice warriors while laundering hatred as ethics.
As Adam Louis-Klein has argued, anti-Zionism operates as a hate movement, borrowing heavily from classic medieval anti-Judaism, which demonized Jews as uniquely evil and spiritually corrosive, and from modern antisemitism, which portrays Jews as a hidden conspiracy poisoning society from within.
Anti-Zionism transfers those patterns onto the Jewish state. It casts Israel as the singular embodiment of evil among the nations and casts Zionists as the unique source of global harm.
So, yes: The haters stole the narrative and polluted it. But they aren’t the only ones.
The xenophobic rhetoric and policies of Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich have emboldened West Bank settler hoodlums who terrorize Palestinians. Moreover, there is the ongoing disgusting behavior of the hareidim — this time, a mob attacking women soldiers.
This is bizarro Zionism — a distortion of Jewish nationalism and, frankly, a distortion of Judaism itself.
Many Jews look at that version of Zionism and say: Count me out. Who could blame them? That recoil carries horrific implications for support of Israel and, by extension, for the moral standing of Judaism itself.
In fact, a truer version of Zionism would be to refute such malignancies of Jewish nationalism — just as the best form of American patriotism right now would be to refute MAGA.
To be a Zionist is to wrestle with Israel, which is what Yisrael means in the first place. We wrestle with Israel because we are part of its story. We want a better Israel.
What do we need to do to reboot the Zionist “brand”?
First, let’s reclaim the narrative. We say to the anti-Zionists and antisemites: We will not let you distort the meaning of Zionism.
And, we say to the radical right-wing Zionists: We will not let you distort the meaning of Zionism.
Second, let’s go back to basics. Zionism is the belief that Jews should reestablish sovereignty in their aboriginal homeland. It is not only a theory of where Jews could be; it is also a theory of how Jews can be — active rather than passive, part of history rather than consigned to its dustbins.
Third, expand the brand.
As Gil Troy has written in “The Zionist Ideas,” Zionism has always contained multiple voices. (Join this conversation with Gil, to learn more about what Zionism now needs to become).
Consider political Zionism. This is the Zionism of rescue. To quote Blanche Dubois: “I have always relied on the kindness of strangers.” Jews said: Never again will we rely on the kindness of strangers — a kindness that leaders could revoke at a moment’s notice. Jews deserve a safe refuge from the antisemitism that engulfed and engulfs them. As Theodor Herzl wrote: “We are one people — our enemies have made us one,” and “distress binds us together.” Herzl insisted Jews needed sovereignty to live as a normal nation among nations — responsible for their safety instead of pleading for permission to survive.
Where do you see that version of Zionism? In the faces of Ethiopian Jews, who had come home to Israel. In the voices of Russian Jews, who had come home to Israel. Several years ago, you heard a lot of French on the streets of Jerusalem, because French Jews feared mounting antisemitism and had come to Israel.
Consider cultural Zionism. This is the Zionism of renaissance. Ahad Ha’am saw the land as the place for a renaissance of language, literature and spirit. Eliezer Ben Yehudah understood that Hebrew could not only exist in sacred books and prayers. He resurrected Hebrew as a spoken language.
Where do you experience that version of Zionism? For me, it’s when Aya Korem translates Leonard Cohen into Hebrew, and sings it as if it had always been that way. Or, hanging out at my favorite bookstore in Jerusalem and discussing medieval Hebrew poetry with the young woman who works there.
Or, when I speak Hebrew on the street and know the Prophet Isaiah would have understood (mostly).
I remember taking biology in high school. On Monday and Tuesday, I listened to lectures in the classroom. On Wednesday and Thursday, I went into the lab to see how it really worked. The Monday and Tuesday of Jewish history was between Judea’s destruction in 70 CE and Israel’s creation in 1948. That was the classroom. We created texts and we learned them.
Israel is the Wednesday and Thursday — the lab. Can those texts function in real time and space? Can we build a society based on justice and memory? Could you create a state that spoke Hebrew and lived on Jewish time? Could Jewish sovereignty become more than a dream?
Zionism attempts to answer those questions.
That is why the reluctance to use the word matters. We cannot simply cede its meaning — in a radically, hatefully distorted form — to the haters.
But Zionists themselves must also take responsibility. Yes, Zionism and statecraft require power. But if Zionism is only about power, then it will become unrecognizable to many American Jews. They grew up with a Judaism that emphasized ethics and prophetic ideals. Zionism must defend Jewish life, but it must also ennoble Jewish life.
So, what should we do? Learn from Coca-Cola. At a time of crisis, they brought back “classic Coke.”
Time to bring back classic Zionism, and to reteach it and rebrand it.
