America at 250: Celebrating Our Zionist Connection
As Americans celebrate the 250th anniversary of our independence on Saturday, July 4, 2026, it is fitting to also celebrate an even older independence movement – thousands of years older: Zionism, the Jewish people’s independence/self-determination movement, due to its close connections to the United States pre-dating our nation’s founding.
Today in America, Zionism is frequently under attack by assorted Leftists, Islamists and right-wing extremists who are unaware of the connection or who deceitfully deny the relationship because of their profound Jew-hatred. That Zionism and the United States of America are intertwined is demonstrated in various ways and by assorted political and cultural figures throughout American history.
Among these:
Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and other Framers lobbied for the Great Seal of the United States to depict what many would consider the birth of Zionism: the exodus by the children of Israel out of Egypt and toward the Promised Land: Moses, leading the children of Israel through the parted Red Sea. https://www.fpri.org/article/2009/08/zionism-and-jewcentricity-in-american-history/
That truly early Zionist leader, Moses, is represented throughout America in statues, portraits and enshrined in American culture. Most notably among these representations, Moses appears in the United States Capitol as a portrait above the doors leading into the House of Representatives’ gallery, while in the United States Supreme Court, he is present thrice – including a frieze of Moses within the courtroom itself. While it was Joshua who led the children of Israel into the promised Land, it was only after he inherited the responsibility from Moses himself.
Then there is the Liberty Bell, the quintessential symbol of America, which has engraved on it the verse “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof” which is Vayikra (Leviticus) 25:10. Of course, “the land” referred to is Israel. Indeed, eight verses earlier the Torah asserts: “Speak to the children of Israel and you shall say to them: When you come to the land that I am giving you, the land shall rest a Sabbath to the Lord.” (Translation via Chabad.org)
The connection between America and Zionism goes beyond the obvious symbolism.
In his lifetime, there was arguably no more famous an open, overtly pro-Zionist figure in America than Louis D. Brandeis. He was president of the Federation of American Zionists (a forerunner of the Zionist Organization of America) from 1912 to 1921. Yet this did not prevent President Woodrow Wilson from nominating Brandeis to be an associate justice to the United States Supreme Court – the first Jewish American to reach the American pinnacle of jurisprudence.
Brandeis was prolific in writings and speeches about Zionism and he frequently noted the symbiotic relationship between Zionism and American patriotism. One such example, from his address to the Conference of Eastern Council of Reform Rabbis on April 25, 1915L
“Let no American imagine that Zionism is inconsistent with Patriotism. Multiple loyalties are objectionable only if they are inconsistent. A man is a better citizen of the United States for being also a loyal citizen of his state, and of his city; for being loyal to his family, and to his profession or trade; for being loyal to his college or his lodge. Every Irish American who contributed towards advancing home rule was a better man and a better American for the sacrifice he made. Every American Jew who aids in advancing the Jewish settlement in Palestine, though he feels that neither he nor his descendants will ever live there, will likewise be a better man and a better American for doing so.”
Another famous jurist of that era and also a president of ZOA, Julian Mack, noted in a speech on Sept. 30, 1918 as World War I raged on: “I know that I can, in your name, fellow-Zionists, say to President Wilson, that we dedicate ourselves, our honor, our fortunes and our lives to the cause of America, which is our cause, as it is the cause of all humanity.”
It is no wonder that Brandeis, Mack and other leaders of ZOA have been both champions of Zionism and America as embodiments of the best of both as the only organization that has both in its name.
Wilson himself was said to be a devout Zionist, and he expressed his support for the Balfour Declaration in a 1918 letter to Rabbi Stephen Wise. The Balfour Declaration was later incorporated into the League of Nations’ Mandate for Palestine, which enshrined the re-establishment of the Jewish state into international law.
Other milestones in the America-Zionism connection include:
In 1922, President Warren G. Harding signed the Lodge–Fish Joint Resolution adopted by the Senate and House which notes: “Favoring the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. That the United States of America favors the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which should prejudice the civil and religious rights of Christian and all other non-Jewish communities in Palestine, and that the holy places and religious buildings and sites in Palestine shall be adequately protected.”
President Harry S. Truman became the first world leader to recognize Israel’s independence, just 11 minutes after David Ben-Gurion declared as much on May 14, 1948.
Truman later wrote about his historic recognition, according to The Presidents of the United States and the Jews by David G. Dalin and Alfred J. Kolatch. According to the book, Truman noted:
“One of the proudest days in my life occurred at 6:12 pm on Friday May 14 (1948) when I was able to announce recognition of the new state of Israel by the government of the United States. In view of the long friendship of the American people for the Zionist ideal, it was particularly appropriate that our government should be the first to recognize the new state.”
A later president, President Ronald Reagan, stated on September 1, 1982:
“Israel exists: it has a right to exist in peace behind secure and defensible borders, and it has a right to demand of its neighbors that they recognize those facts. I have personally followed and supported Israel’s heroic struggle for survival, ever since the founding of the State of Israel 34 years ago. In the pre-1967 borders Israel was barely 10 miles wide at its narrowest point. The bulk of Israel’s population lived within artillery range of hostile Arab armies. I am not about to ask Israel to live that way again.” – Address to the Nation on United States Policy for Peace in the Middle East: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-the-nation-united-states-policy-for-peace-the-middle-east
Yet despite this history and America’s Judaic roots, in recent years, some have falsely depicted Zionism as an abomination; as “anti-American;” and even as “racist.”
Today these lies have been fed into devices that nearly everyone carries in their hand to surf the internet; they are in school books and on the shelves of public libraries; politicians pronounce them from podiums; and pundits deliver them via podcasts.
But as you now know (or have been reminded), Zionism is as American as apple pie and literally, the Liberty Bell. It does little good – to Zionism and to America – if we keep these facts and this knowledge to ourselves. Whether we express it to friends and family – or shout it from the rooftops, we must pro-actively celebrate, promote and foster Zionism like never before in our homes and in every public forum that we can – or those who are proud Zionists run the risk of becoming pariahs in the nation that, other than Israel, has done more for Zionism than any other.
