As long as Zionism has existed, people have debated what it is, what it means, and how central – or not – it is to Judaism and Jewish people.
The Jewish connection to the land of Israel is ancient. According to the Torah, the Jewish story begins 4,000 years ago when God promised land to Abraham. And then nearly 3,500 years ago, the Twelve Tribes of Israel established themselves in that land. Over time this loose confederation of tribes became a united Kingdom and then two kingdoms divided, northern Israel and southern Judah (from which we get the words Judaism and Jews). Those two kingdoms were eventually defeated by neighboring empires, the Assyrians in the north and the Babylonians in the south. When the Babylonians conquered Judah, almost 2,600 years ago, they exiled many Jews from Judah to Babylonia. Parts of the Hebrew Bible were written there, including Psalm 137 which includes these words –
By the rivers of Babylon, where we sat down, sat and wept, as we remembered Zion.
There on the poplars we hung up our lyres, for our captors asked us there for songs, our tormentors, for amusement: “Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”
How can we sing a song of the Adonai on foreign soil? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither; let my tongue stick to my palate if I cease to think of you, if I do not keep Jerusalem in memory even at my happiest hour.
Though the Babylonian exile ended and the returning exiles rebuilt Jerusalem, other invaders eventually came, including the Greek Seleucids (the story of Chanukkah) and then the Romans. After losing two wars against the Romans, many Jews were expelled and ended up scattered. While there were ups and downs in Jewish history from this point on-Jews were almost never welcomed as complete equals in the lands they ended up in nor did Jews stop hoping and praying for a return to Israel. The Psalm that was first written in Babylonia continued to have meaning, and many more prayers and poems were written to give voice to the longing for a home.
This longing turned into Zionism, a political movement for a modern-day nation state in the 19th century. In the 19th century, Jews were trying to figure out how (and where) to live in the modern world. As one can imagine, there was no widespread consensus – but the most popular responses to modernity were the beginnings of Reform Judaism, Orthodox Judaism, Zionism and a few others. Those three were usually seen as mutually exclusive. Reform Judaism came first, believing that one could be a Jew and a citizen of a modern country-whether that’s Germany, France, or the United States. Since equality was now possible in the modern world, many Jews didn’t see a need to pray for a return to Israel. In the United States, the Reform movement’s 1885 Pittsburgh Platform says, “We consider ourselves no longer a nation, but a religious community, and therefore [do not] expect a return to Palestine.” Orthodox Judaism at the time, which arose as an oppositional movement to Reform, likewise was largely not Zionist, believing that Jews should wait for the Messiah, rather than attempt to force the hand of history. In its early stages, Zionism was largely a secular movement. Many of the early European Zionists disagreed with Reform, stating that being an equal citizen of a modern country simply wasn’t possible – that Jews would always be in danger of persecution. As Nazis rose to power in Germany, Zionism won over the vast majority of both Orthodox and Reform Jews. In1937, the American Reform movement changed its earlier position, writing in its Columbus Platform, “In the rehabilitation of Palestine, the land hallowed by memories and hopes, we behold the promise of renewed life for many of our brethren. We affirm the obligation of all Jewry to aid in its upbuilding as a Jewish homeland by endeavoring to make it not only a haven of refuge for the oppressed but also a center of Jewish culture and spiritual life.” More and more Jews came to see Zionism as central to their understanding of being Jewish. Zionism was simply the modern form of the ancient dream to return home, except now, that dream seemed both more and more possible as well as more and more urgent.
Even as Zionism became more and more popular amongst Jews, debates shifted from to be or not to be (a Zionist) to what should a Jewish homeland in Israel look like? Those debates have not yet been settled. For me, however, the best statement of Zionism is to be found in Israel’s Declaration of Independence, which states, “THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”
The Declaration envisions many things, namely that Israel will be a home for Jews while also being a modern, free country. And while the Declaration itself doesn’t use the word “democracy,” that is what Israel becomes, if an imperfect one. That vision for Israel – one that is both a homeland for Jews as well as a modern, free, democratic country – is the vision that I support. For me, being Jewish means connecting with my people’s millennia-long collective hopes, seeing myself as part of a very long story-something bigger than myself. May those hopes soon come to be fulfilled – not in part, but in whole: That the world will be made a better place, that all peoples – ours and others – will have a home, and that each person will be able to live in peace and dignity.
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