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Alan Silverstein

Dec 2, 2024, 10:52 PM

Recent expressions of Zionist support by leaders of Conservative Judaism

Expressions of Zionism have continued to proliferate throughout the Conservative movement in recent decades. In my synagogue — where I served as senior rabbi from 1979 to 2021, the Israeli flag stood on the bimah side-by-side with the American...

Alan Silverstein

Oct 31, 2024, 7:17 PM

Conservative Judaism’s Zionism, 1948-1973

With Israeli statehood a reality, Conservative Judaism became a full-fledged Zionist movement. For JTS chancellor Louis Finkelstein, the commitment to Israel was personal as well; his daughter had settled and established a family in Jerusalem, with her father making...

Alan Silverstein

Oct 10, 2024, 6:19 AM

Conservative Judaism’s Zionism from World War II Until Israeli Statehood

Soon after the outbreak of World War II, Jewish Theological Seminary chancellor Dr. Cyrus Adler passed away, and leadership of the JTS and of Judaism’s Conservative Movement was placed into the hands of Rabbi Louis Finkelstein, a JTS graduate...

Sep 11, 2024, 6:39 AM

Why a law for Israelis Abroad to vote is urgent?

You are either Israeli or you are not. All Israelis must be equal before the Law: Religious and secular, living in Israel or outside, a tsabar or an oleh. The only reason an Israeli should be excluded is that...

Aug 4, 2024, 5:06 PM

“A people is contending here for its existence,” Herzl in 1899 and us now.

Postcard depicting the Casino and Music Hall in Basel Switzerland, which hosted the Third Zionist Congress.
From the Herzl and Zionism Collection of David Matlow, Toronto (www.herzlcollection.com). Photo by Kevin Viner, Elevator Digital, Toronto.

I own the world's largest private Herzl and Zionism collection. I have committed to share relevant artifacts from my collection on the 125th anniversary of each Zionist Congress (at least until 2071! which will be the 125th anniversary of...

Moises Salinas Fleitman

Jun 26, 2024, 11:22 PM

Reclaiming Zionism: Herzl´s Original Vision

Zionism is under attack both externally and internally. These threats have grown exponentially, particularly after the October 7th Hamas terrorist attacks and the war in Gaza. Externally, it is evidently challenged by groups that fail to understand its genesis...

Jun 2, 2024, 1:19 PM

Should I stay or should I go? The ‘Old Man’ and his aliyah to Israel

A postcard David Gruen, 19, (later to become David Ben-Gurion) sent from Jaffa to his father celebrating his arrival to the Land of Israel in September 1906 (Visitors' Center of the Ben-Gurion Heritage Archives)

Even founding father David Ben-Gurion, who championed the ingathering of Jews to Israel, waffled on the matter of timing

David Rosenthal

Mar 19, 2024, 12:52 AM

I defend the State of Israel

Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges holds a press conference while in Madrid, Spain. | Location: Madrid, Spain.

"You shall be an Israeli, you shall be a soldier. You shall build the homeland with marshes: you shall raise it up with deserts. Your brother, whose face you have never seen, shall work with you. We promise you...

Nov 17, 2023, 7:51 PM

How I became a friend of Israel

As an Irish teenage Christian convert in the mid 70's, the go-to book on Israel was The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsay, published in America. I cannot now vouch for its theological veracity - but it steeled...

Micah Ben David Naziri

Nov 1, 2023, 5:13 AM

Indigenous Judean Roots: Smashing Antisemitic “Settler-Colonialist” Narratives

When European colonists settled on Turtle Island, which is today referred to as the Americas, they did not find centuries-old copies of Shakespeare, nor the King James Christian Bible. Neither did these settler-colonialists find Greek and Roman artifacts. They...

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