Guest Essay What Zionism Has Always Meant
All credit goes to Rabbi ari D. berman and the New York TIMES
In parts of America and Europe, the word “Zionism” has become little more than a slogan shouted by opposing sides at protests. It can be a term of pride or a biting shorthand for anger toward and condemnation of Israel and its supporters. This has led to a profound misunderstanding of what Zionism is and what it is not. The misuse of the word has flattened its dimensionality. It has, effectively, lost its meaning in the larger public.
Zionism is the belief that the Jewish people possess the right to live freely in their ancestral homeland, to shape their future, defend their dignity, preserve their civilization and contribute their values and wisdom to humanity. A Jewish homeland is understood as the primary vehicle for Jews to build a flourishing society, with all its residents, non-Jews and Jews alike, that manifests and broadcasts the core Torah values of human dignity, justice and compassion. The term predates the modern state of Israel by decades. And the origin story of Zionism began centuries before that.
In the Book of Genesis, we are told how God blessed Abraham and his descendants with a land from which they would be a blessing to “all the families of the earth.” That promise was held in the hearts of the Israelites during 400 years of bondage in Egypt. It inspired their return to the birthplace of their ancestors, as well as the founding of the first Jewish commonwealth, which grew, under King Solomon, to become a center of commerce, wisdom and morality.
Expulsions of the Jews from Israel, first in the Babylonian era and then in the Roman era, gave rise to a collective mourning that is expressed again and again in Jewish liturgy. To this day, Jews prevail upon God three times daily for the blessing of the land on which they can build a society. And in the blessings after meals, they thank God for giving us a “precious, good and spacious” land as a heritage.
The longing for the land translated into continued Jewish presence throughout its long history of foreign rulers, including a significant increase in Jewish communities in the 19th century. At this point, the modern Zionist vision began to take root.
In his 1896 seminal text on the idea of Jewish self-determination, “Der Judenstaat,” Theodor Herzl envisioned a Jewish state that would benefit humanity, writing, “Whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind.”
In the wake of pogroms in Russia and the Dreyfus affair in France, Herzl, the founder of the modern Zionist movement, believed that Zionism would unshackle the Jews from the constraints of physical fear as well as professional, social and generational discrimination. It would enable them to create a society that would serve as the fullest expression of themselves and to contribute most robustly to the world.
Early Zionist thinkers envisioned Jews and non-Jews living peacefully alongside each other in an inclusive country that adhered to the highest of moral callings. The mission of Zionism, as expressed by the early-20th-century journalist Ahad Ha’am (a nom de plume), was to create “a Jewish state and not merely a state of Jews.”
Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, espoused a similar idea, saying that Israel’s ultimate successes would be determined “not by its riches or military power nor by its technical skills but by its moral worth and human values.”
From its inception, the Jewish homeland committed itself to both Jewish self-determination and the full dignity and equal citizenship of people of all faiths and backgrounds. This commitment is enshrined in Israel’s 1948 Declaration of Independence, after the country’s establishment by the United Nations. Like many national ideals, it has been tested by war, fear, extremism, political failure and competing national aspirations. The reality today does not always reflect the fullness of the vision of early Zionist thinkers. And yet the challenges and setbacks of any given moment do not invalidate the underlying promise of the idea itself.
Just as America’s founding democratic ideals continue to unfold imperfectly, the promise of Zionism is not one that is finished in its creation but an ideal that is refined and built upon each generation. Israel has advanced on that promise by creating a society built on freedom, opportunity and the rule of law, as well as by generating breakthroughs in science and medicine that improve and save lives around the world. A belief in the potential of Zionism is a belief in the obligation to continue to create the ideals for which it strives.
None of this means one cannot criticize the policies and practices of an Israeli administration. Anti-Zionism, however, goes much further and rejects the idea of Jewish self-determination entirely. Those who would deny the Jews the right to a Jewish state, in a world that comfortably accepts Muslim and Christian states, are discriminating against Jews. It is here that anti-Zionism crosses over to antisemitism.
Reducing Zionism to flags, slogans or epithets provides cover for those who seek Israel’s destruction and ignores all the good the Zionist project has wrought. An Israeli research hospital that is home to both Jewish and non-Jewish scientists, doctors and nurses, all working toward the same goal, is a Zionist enterprise. So, too, is Israel’s court system, composed of Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Druze judges.
When a pro-Israel Jewish university, like mine in New York, educates psychologists who restore dignity, attorneys who protect the vulnerable, social workers who strengthen families, dentists who provide care to underserved communities or scientists who pursue groundbreaking discoveries — empowering students from every background to bring healing, dignity and opportunity into the world — that is also inspired by the Zionist mission.
While the modern state of Israel was founded on the ashes of the Holocaust and served as a safe haven for refugees, Zionism always aspired to be more than simply an answer to or refuge from antisemitism. It was a means of allowing Jews to live to their greatest potential, unfettered by the restrictive, often brutal, experiences of living in foreign lands. Zionism is thus an answer to a 3,800-year-old yearning, not only a response to a modern crisis.
Seen through the lens of its history and ultimate purpose, Zionism becomes a framework for constructive dialogue and renewed inspiration. From its biblical beginnings until today, Zionism has carried one of humanity’s most enduring ideas: that a people, rooted in its values and returned to its homeland, can build a society that honors faith, dignity, responsibility and hope.
Ari D. Berman is the president of Yeshiva University. His next book is on the philosophy of blessings.
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The New York Times Opinion section
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