Jewish Religious Groups Are Urged To Remove Critics
Of Zionism
Allan C. Brownfeld, Editor
Special Interest Report
December 2022
There is a growing effort to stifle free speech within the American Jewish
community. Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) calls
for a battle inside Jewish religious denominations against Jews who oppose
Zionism, a group which is growing dramatically in number.
He spoke to the World Zionist Congress in August in Basel, Switzerland and
declared that “anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism.”
He lamented that “even some Jews traffic in it” and that this “threat” must be
confronted. He declared: “In the political context today there is no doubt that
anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. And we must reckon with the fact that there are
anti-Zionists within the Jewish community. We must be honest and acknowledge
that reality. But the reality is just because you are Jewish doesn’t exempt you
from trafficking in anti-Zionism…We have got to deal with this openly…This will
be a fight.”
David Wolfe, a Conservative rabbi in Los Angeles endorsed the idea of a battle
against anti-Zionists in religious orders at the same August conference. He
said that, “Sinai Temple takes the largest delegation to the AIPAC conference
every year of any synagogue in the country We have an absolutely unapologetic
Zionist commitment…It’s true in America, as you know, Zionism is a word that
often draws tremendous ire, but it’s a battle that is important for Jews to
fight.”
After author Gil Troy, a columnist for the Jerusalem Post, decried the fact that
Conservative rabbinical students can get a degree at the Jewish Theological
Seminary and not commit to Zionism, Rabbi Wolpe endorsed the battle inside the
Conservative movement: “Of course, you fight the battle in your own house.”
Mondoweiss (Oct. 12, 2022) notes that, “Wolpe and Greenblatt are trying to stop
the tide: young Jews who are giving up on Zionism, with sizable numbers saying
they believe Israel is an apartheid state.”
Zachary Lockman, professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies and History at
New York University, in an interview with MERIP, the Middle East Research and
Information Project, provided this assessment: “The Jewish community—-the
organized, very Israeli-connected Zionist mainstream organizations—-think they
don’t have as much power as they did because the community has changed. Younger
American Jews don’t care about those big organizations. They may or may not
belong to a local synagogue, but the synagogues themselves have changed.”
In Lockman’s view, “Younger American Jews are shifting. I think there’s been a
sea change. Segments of the American Jewish community were actively hostile to
Zionism. Into the 1930s and 1940s, Reform Judaism was formally opposed to
Zionism. Polls show that a good chunk of the younger generation don’t feel much
connection to Israel, or are critical of it, have no great desire to visit. The
assaults on Gaza horrify a lot of people. The asymmetry of power and violence
and death is hard to miss.” **
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