Judaism Without Israel: Will Liberal Diaspora Jews Consider the Mormon Option

In the current climate of global anti-Zionist sentiment, many liberal Diaspora Jews have begun to question the perceived burden of Israel and whether it is possible to express a Jewish identity without any meaningful connection to the modern State of Israel.

A distinction is often made between Zionism and the religious concept of the Land of Israel. The latter is rooted in the Torah, Jewish law, the Talmud and the prophetic expectation of redemption with the coming Messiah. Even Haredi Jews who reject Zionism still regard the Land of Israel as sacred and anticipate its restoration in the messianic age. The question here is therefore more specifically about liberal Diaspora Judaism and whether it could eventually detach itself not only from Zionism but from the Land of Israel itself.

The development of a rather fascinating relatively modern movement suggests how religion could take a different course from where it initially sprung up, by reinterpreting places and events according to the needs of adaptation to a changing geographical, political and social reality. The Mormon faith founded by Joseph Smith in New York State initially intended to base the locus of its operations there. However due to local opposition he led the mass of his converts to Jackson, Missouri where he intended to establish a “New Jerusalem”. They too were expelled from Missouri. An abortive attempt was then made to establish a utopian Mormon city in Nauvoo, Illinois which collapsed due to conflict with their neighbours. In the ensuing chaos Joseph Smith was killed by a mob. Rather than disbanding, a charismatic leader named Brigham Young took to the helm and led the beleaguered Mormons westward to Utah. He proclaimed Salt Lake City to be the New Jerusalem and even pointed to the area’s geography (The Great Salt Lake being synonymous to the Dead Sea) to substantiate the claim that they had reached the Promised Land. The vision took hold. Soon many poor converts sailed from Europe, and then took trains to the furthest westward terminus at the time in Iowa City before traversing westward under arduous conditions with mere hand carts. This Journey has gone down in Mormon mythology. All this is to say that Mormonism’s survival wasn’t tied to a single location of sanctity. The religion was able to adapt according to exigent circumstances and ultimately thrive.

Similar to this, there is already a partial precedent in the history of Reform Judaism. Reform Judaism from its foundation through to as late as the 1930’s was attempting to frame itself as a religion separate from connection to the Land of Israel. In the United States, many Reform Jews came to view America as the new Promised Land. They believed that the Temple sacrificial system in Jerusalem would never be re-established so they referred to their synagogues as temples. Their disdain for the significance of the Land of Israel was expressed by their rejection of Zionism. Some of the more extreme elements of the movement basically wanted to create an American Universalist ethical religion. A version of Christianity without Christ.

In this sense, Reform Judaism had already started something resembling the Mormon Option: rather than regarding Jewish life in the Diaspora as temporary, it could be understood as a complete and permanent form of Judaism.

The question is whether contemporary diasporic liberal Jews who are utterly fed up with Israel may take this process a step further, and entirely cut their connection to Israel to such an extent that it ceases to have any place in their Jewish identity at all. The Land of Israel would then shift from being a vital religious center for them, to merely an outdated distant historical memory.

If this happens, liberal Diaspora Judaism may eventually arrive at something resembling the Mormon experience: a Jewish civilization that has successfully separated itself from the geography from which it originated. The question is whether this would simply be another stage in the long history of Jewish adaptation, or whether it would amount to the creation of something fundamentally different from the Judaism that existed prior. The Jews have already demonstrated that they can live without a Jewish state. The more radical question is whether they can construct a Judaism without Zion. Haunting this aspiration is that the Hebrew prophets consistently foretold of a return to the Land and a rebuilding of its once desolate city walls, and perhaps this is ultimately what keeps the connection to Israel alive.