Restoring Jewish Dignity and Pride: A Zionist Awakening for American Jews
“Those who demonize us under the cloak of anti-Zionism forced us into our activism and …to publicly defend our Jewish identities. We proudly believe in the Jewish People’s right to self-determination in our historic homeland as a fundamental tenet of our Jewish identity. Contrary to what many have tried to sell you – no, Judaism cannot be separated from Israel. Zionism is, simply put, the manifestation of that belief.”
-In Our Name: A Message from Jewish Students at Columbia University May, 2024
Just after Passover 5784 the Jewish students of Columbia University finally had enough. In a world where every identity group and protected minority was given a “safe space” Jews were harassed and threatened and publicly humiliated by other students and faculty on campus and in their classrooms. At the same time members of an antisemitic, terrorist organization were venerated as revolutionary heroes by over privileged students under the tutelage of intellectually and morally bankrupt faculty. In that world, the world of Columbia University, Jewish students finally had enough. They rejected humiliation, redeemed the honor of Jewish students everywhere, defended the pride and dignity of American Jewry, and most important courageously adopted “Zionism” as a badge of honor. It was the defining moment in a renewed struggle for the identity and dignity of the next generation of Jews.
Over the last few months we learned more than we wanted to know about what many of our children have had to endure and how deeply anti semitism and hatred of Israel are embedded in the “operating system” of the humanities at many “elite” coastal universities and the intellectual life of our country. This “operating system” has developed over time and is a witches brew of post modernism, post colonialism, critical race theory, intersectionality, and deeply embedded antizionism and antisemitism, all supported by a DEI bureaucracy and a closed self perpetuating faculty system, that brooks no dissent on many campuses.
In this paradigm the world is divided between the “oppressors” and the “oppressed.” Between the powerful and the powerless, victims and victimizers and between the privileged (generally defined as “white”) and “people of color.” In this twisted reality Israel has been placed in the “powerful” “victimizer” category and Jewish students among the “white”and “priveleged.” If powerlessness is the ticket of admission to “progressive” spaces October 7 reminded us again of the cost of powerlessness for Jews. We read the book, saw the play and the movie and hated the ending. It always ends with demonized, disenfranchised or dead Jews.
Moreover it is in reality anything but “progressive.” It is transparently antizionist and antisemitic as well as anti liberal, anti American and allied with Iran, the most reactionary, repressive, theocracy on earth. It is at the heart of the academic absurdity that led “useful idiots” on some University campuses, those “progressive” advocates for LGBQT+ rights, to march hand in hand with Hamas rapists and murderers whose regime in Gaza criminalizes and executes gay people. It has become a parody of itself yet it continues to dominate much of the academic conversation on “elite” coastal campuses and while many colleges have hardly been affected by antisemitism “progressive” antizionism/antisemitism retains real power in America’s cultural-intellectual discourse.
It’s now clear that we the Jewish People are involved in two struggles… an existential struggle for Israel’s right to exist in safety and security as well as an inseparable struggle against antisemitism and for the identity, honor and dignity of our own children and grandchildren.
- The Awareness of Humiliation and The Struggle for Jewish Dignity, Honor, and Pride
It’s exactly the awareness of humiliation, of the “moral obscenity” of charging Israel with genocide, of the danger facing half the worlds Jews,and of enemies actively working for our destruction, that must at long last trigger an active struggle for Jewish pride and the beginning of Jewish renewal for American Jews. It’s true that Israel’s long and difficult war has alienated a small part of the next generation. But it has also created a “surge” of engagement, strengthening the resolve of the best, brightest and strongest to return to Jewish life, support Israel, resist humiliation, fight for the honor of our people and help lead the Jewish renewal of their generation.
Our Jewish students are pressed and bullied to abandon their people, parrot the vile attacks on Israel, and accept humiliation as the price they must pay in order to participate in the “progressive” spaces, that have come to dominate so many campuses. And now when our children are told that their ancestral homeland is a racist “settler state” that must be obliterated and that their brothers and sisters are genocidal killers, they are also told that as “hyper-white” beneficiaries of “white privilege” they are denied the right defend themselves.
So that even while we fight against antisemitism and put armed guards in front of our schools and synagogues we must also be fighting for the honor and dignity of Jewish identity and the Jewish souls of our children and grandchildren.
- Rebuilding Zionism as we Reassert Jewish Dignity and Pride
Our enemies understand that the deep connection between Zionism, Judaism, the diaspora and Israel is the source of Israel’s strength and the viability of diaspora Judaism. Zionism is at the heart of our best hopes and dreams for the Jewish people. It is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people and marks our return to history as a proud, free and secure people with it’s own story and its own voice.
That’s why they have done everything possible to delegitimize the word and the movement. From chants of “Zionism is Racism,” to daily calls to boycott and destroy the “Zionist entity,” to the insanely ahistorical effort to deny any connection between Zion and the Jewish people, to the latest obscenity “Zionism is Genocide,” our enemies have declared war on Zionism as part of the delegitimization of the State of Israel and the humiliation of the Jews.
Against the delegitimization of Israel the Columbia Jewish students insisted on their unbreakable commitment to Israel’s right to exist as a fundamental tenet of their Jewish identity but also reminded us that the essence of Zionism includes the importance of criticism. “Our love for Israel does not necessitate blind political conformity. It’s quite the opposite. For many of us, it is our deep love for and commitment to Israel that pushes us to object when its government acts in ways we find problematic. Israeli political disagreement is an inherently Zionist activity.”
Especially now when many Israelis are themselves expressing their disagreement with their government, American Jews can also support Israel in its life or death struggle against Hamas while also expressing disagreement with aspects of Israeli government policy within the context of a civil and respectful debate.
October 7th created an existential crisis for Israelis and for American Jews. The certainties and “conceptions” underlying life in Israel have been deeply shaken. The complacency, sense of security, and acceptance of slow assimilation that characterized American Jewish life for 75 years has also been undermined for many. And yet it’s the existential crisis itself that will provide the basis for our mutual rebuilding.
These existential crises demand that we rebuild together. Birthright and “Onward Israel” have expanded their work in the wake of October 7 to include a new volunteer service program and thousands of volunteers are already on the ground with thousands more on the way. Working together to rebuild Israel as thousands of American volunteers did alongside Israelis after the Six Day War will be the beginning of rebuilding our common destiny, our commitment to the renewal of Zionism, and a renewal of American Jewish life. It is through the rebuilding itself that we will rediscover our meaning and purpose, our community and common destiny.
- Mifgash and Birthright: the Bonds of Love that Must Define our Relationship With Each Other
Our ability to generate the leadership and understanding to continue the fight in the difficult years ahead will depend on greatly increasing contact at every level between American Jewish communities and Israelis. Most Important for our students and the next generation will be greatly increasing Birthright visits and volunteer experiences. The encounter with Israeli soldiers has always been at the heart of the Birthright experience, providing insight into the lived experience of Israelis and helping us understand, identify and empathize with their lives and the political decisions they make.
Now more than ever the encounter (mifgash) with Israeli soldiers is critical to understanding Israel and her actions in the aftermath of the massacres. The young soldiers at the front and the reservists who united and saved the country after the most divisive year in Israeli history have been called “a generation of heroes.” Their heroism and skill in the face of death in the tunnels or on the surface can provide a “courage transfusion” for young American Jews who are facing very real but far less deadly threats on campus. There is simply no way for American Jews to understand Israel’s struggle or to answer our critics without hearing why they are fighting directly from those who are fighting for Israel’s survival inside the tunnels at the risk of their lives.
All this will also require a shift for American Jewish organizations who are beginning to understand the transformational nature of this moment in Jewish history. While remaining true to Rabbi Hillel’s dictum balancing particular and universal commitments there is a recognition in most Jewish organizations that we need to rebalance, placing greater emphasis on our particular needs at this time of existential danger to Israel and to Jewish identity in America.
The events of October 7 must also rebalance the programs that train our communal professional, rabbinic and lay leaders, reinforcing our commitment to Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state, and to education that includes a commitment to Zionism, Jewish peoplehood, love of the Jewish people and Israel.
International Hillel and each campus Hillel are a critically important part of the Jewish community’s infrastructure on campus and crucial to our fight against growing anti Zionism. To succeed they will also need to be clear that they are in fact Zionist organizations committed to supporting Jewish students in strengthening their connection to Israel and Zionism in addition to Jewish social, educational, and religious experiences.
The “In Our Name” statement issued by the “Jewish Students at Columbia University” could ideally be a model for a national movement aimed at rallying students on every campus for Israel and Zionism just as The Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry rallied students in the last half of the 20th century. Every Hillel on every campus should be an important organizing hub for this kind of transformational movement. They can encourage Jewish students to speak “In Our Name” and on behalf of the foundational values of the Jewish People,including the State of Israel. Funders might well judge their support for Hillels by measuring their success in organizing support for Israel and encouraging volunteer work and Birthright participation.
- Strengthening and Expanding Zionist Youth Movements
Zionism in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century was built in part on the development of Zionist youth movements and Jewish youth groups in the US were once an essential component of an informal Jewish educational network that produced generations of committed Jews and Jewish leaders. The events of October 7 triggered the activation of the American Zionist Youth Council, a consortium of youth organizations which played a key role in bringing 30,000 students to the historic November 14 March on Washington. The power and the future of a renewed American Zionist youth movement was described by Adina Frydman in “Building a Coalition for Good” (https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/building-a-coalition-for-good-how-we-mobilized-30000-students-for-the-historic-march-on-washington/). There is great potential here for serving Jewish teens, an underserved Jewish population who are especially vulnerable to negative portrayals of Israel in social media. Making the most of this opportunity would require vastly increased Federation and Foundation support and planning as well collaboration among existing youth movements.
- We Can’t Live and Flourish Without Each Other
“If we were destroyed, and the world with us, due to sinat chinam (baseless hatred) then we shall rebuild ourselves, and the world with us, with ahavat chinam (unconditional love)”
Rav Abraham Isaac Kook
We are a small vulnerable people. Fifteen million in a world population of nearly eight billion. Six million of our people were murdered only 80 years ago in a genocidal war with all doors closed to our people and nowhere to run. The horrors of the past and the terrible dangers we’re facing after October 7th reinforce our sense of vulnerability.
We need each other. We don’t have to agree on everything, but our vulnerability multiplies if our sense of mutual responsibility, the bonds of love that tie us together are allowed to disintegrate. Ignoring the American Jewish community as a key strategic asset for Israel today and more so in the future borders on insanity. Imagining that our identity, our sense of Jewish community, our Judaism can flourish in the absence of the bonds of love that have always been the essence of Judaism ignores the reality of our historical experience. Imagining that strengthening our connection to our people will be possible without a strong connection to our brothers and sisters in Israel is self-deception.
We need each other and while the signs of disintegration are present the opportunities for action are also before our eyes. They are not in heaven or across the seas…they are in our hands. The resources and organizational capacity are already available. And of course, the unimaginable dream becomes reality if capable powerful and persistent people decide that it will happen.
In Exodus, at the burning bush, Moses asks God his name and God responds, “I will be what I will be.” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, interpreting the words of God, explains God’s point for Moses and the Jewish people: “I will be what I will be, but you will determine the outcome.”
We are facing a terrifying reality and the world will be what it will be but working together we must find a way to “determine the outcome” for the good of our people.
In fifty years our grandchildren and great grandchildren may ask us
what we did when Israel faced destruction in 2023, when the world turned its back on us, and when our own children were being humiliated and their identity as Jews attacked and delegitimized.
If we can’t, God forbid, answer these questions future generations will curse us for our failure. If we can answer these questions with pride history will bless us and our children and grandchildren will be able to live dignified lives of Jewish purpose and meaning.