Reclaim or rebrand Zionism

Among the catastrophic consequences of the war in Gaza, October 7^th has sparked a high level of anxious self-reflection across the Jewish community worldwide. The id-driven surge of antisemitism and hatred toward Israel has become as commonplace as online sports betting. Among Jews today, our identity is being interrogated with a profound and urgent sense of introspection. Questions about Jewish identity, Jewish advocacy, Jewish morality and the Zionist movement are debated with a fresh openness toward reevaluation. This unique moment in Jewish history presents a plethora of positive opportunities to rethink Jewish communal strategies related to Jewish education, the relationship of Israel with the diaspora, the cultivation and maintenance of Jewish identity, the direction of hasbara and its approach toward communicating a nuanced story of Israel’s creation.

There is clearly a lot of ground to cover. From my perspective, the through-line across several of these opportunities relates to the question of reclaiming or rebranding Zionism as the team’s name across the chest of our shared jerseys. It’s no secret that Zionism has experienced a public relations crisis of such magnitude that it makes the brand rehabilitation efforts of figures like P. Diddy or Harvey Weinstein seem as easy as a Sunday morning. When many folks, especially under the age of 35, hear the term Zionism, they hear “racism”. They see a movement working to “deny the rights of Palestinians and the humanity of Palestinians” or a team of white, messianic settler colonialists taking over someone else’s land. The battle to reclaim the true and positive definition of Zionism may be too great.

Serious questions should be raised, especially amongst the public relations and design-savvy Millennial and Gen Z class of Israel advocates, on whether it makes sense to suggest a new ‘brand package’ for the state of Israel. This may include a new team name people can identify with when referring to the socio-political movement behind the return to our ancestral homeland. This wouldn’t be a concession to the detractors. It would be beating them at their own game. The same way Hamas reworked its charter in 2017, and successfully rebranded the terrorist group as an anti-colonial national liberation movement, rather than as a branch of the pan-Arab Muslim Brotherhood or the same way the BDS-backing US Campaign to End Israeli Occupation rebranded to the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights – the Jewish community should examine the cost benefit analysis of whether it makes sense to drop Zionism as Israel co.’s chief brand sponsor.

The older guard has lost control of the narrative and has failed to render the Zionist movement in a coherent manner. We have ceded the power of effective storytelling to ill-informed hooligans, irrational powerbrokers, and intolerable extremists. Unfortunately, the political leadership in Israel, together with the powerful settler movement, have made it easy to paint the country as one inhabited by blood thirsty xenophobic racists jacked up on a messianic version of Manifest Destiny.

It may be time for the youth to attempt to take control of the narrative and reshape the brand association of Israel. One step in doing so may very well be dropping the Zionist brand, and trading up for something fresh, marketable, and baggage-free. It is not an admission of defeat, but rather a potentially necessary adaptation to new facts on the ground.