Panel discussion: Rabbi Outcast, Elmer Berger and American Jewish Anti-Zionism by Jack Ross

This essay argues that American Jews face a defining choice between a Judaism bound to nationalism and one rooted in ethical universalism and democratic freedom. Tracing its lineage to the early Reform movement, the American Council for Judaism reaffirms that Jewish life does not depend on a state but on Torah’s core teaching that every person is created b’tzelem Elohim—in the image of God. Rabbi Andrue Kahn denounces the recent “Rabbinic Call” attacking Zohran Mamdani as an authoritarian attempt to equate Jewish identity with loyalty to Israel and to silence dissent within Jewish and Democratic politics. Most Jews, he contends, reject such conflation and oppose Israel’s assault on Gaza, seeing Jewish safety in solidarity and justice at home, not in nationalism abroad. Reclaiming Judaism’s tradition of debate and conscience, Kahn calls for building diverse, democratic Jewish futures grounded in human dignity and collective liberation.