December 29, 2001

"Old and Post Zionism Are Dead -
New Zionism Needed"

The old Zionism is dead, but it needs to be reborn as a new Zionism. The  founding fathers of political Zionism dreamed of and planned for a Jewish  state as a homeland for our dispersed people who desperately needed it. Most Jews were being persecuted and oppressed. As a journalist covering the Dreyfus case, Theodor Herzl, an assimilated Jew, realized that Dreyfus was falsely charged and a victim of anti-Semitism. He came to believe that  there was no hope for Jews in a world riddled with Jew hatred. He saw Jewish statehood and national independence as the only solution and thus created a political movement called Zionism.

Herzl convened a Zionist Congress and for some time afterward, the choice of either Palestine or Uganda as a Jewish state was hotly debated. Rav Kook, the most passionate lover of Eretz Israel, was nevertheless inclined to favor a Jewish state in Uganda, as he and many others who attended the Congress feared the very problems Israel now faces. In hindsight, we can safely say that a white Jewish people in Uganda today would face worse. The land of Israel, known as Palestine then, prevailed as the Zionist's choice for the Jewish state. A yishuv had been well established in every part of the land, and our roots in and claims to this land were strong, bound by religious and nationalist ties. 

The Zionist then began an intense effort to bring Jews from Europe, Asia and Africa to the land. Once statehood was established, David Ben Gurion, Israel's first Prime Minister, wrote the obituary for Zionism. The feisty leader of Israel now declared Zionism obsolete. We had the state and the land now, which in his mind and words brought to fruition the Zionist agenda. Ben Gurion was wrong. Zionism needed a new agenda, not a death blow. Instead, a post-Zionism emerged the day the Oslo Accords were signed. The post-Zionists argued against the Jewish state as a homeland for displaced and persecuted Jews. In their opinion, a Jewish state was no longer needed. Anti-Semitism, they argued, is dead, and now Israel can become an open democracy without a specific cultural or national identity. The advocates of post Zionism perpetrated both a lie and injustice against Israel and the Jewish people.

A Jewish state is the only justification for Israel's existence and the right of Jews to own and inhabit this land. The new Zionist agenda needs to emerge as an historic, cultural and religious bond for both Israeli and  diaspora Jews.

Israelis today suffer stress and pain as the result of ongoing terrorism. To endure the suicide bombings, the wars and incessant Arab hate requires a passionate commitment and a far-reaching vision. The Israeli new Zionism should be a source of inspiration and motivation for our historic past and the fulfillment of the great Jewish dream of a peaceful world as our prophets foretold. 

After September 11, every Jew should have learned that we must not permit our post-Holocaust euphoria to continue. Jews need their own country and its powerful high-tech military to protect our lives, stand up to our enemies and speak on our behalf. The new Zionism should nurture our yearnings for freedom, independence and our biblical role as the "light unto the nations."

Israel has helped deter and reverse the vanishing of World Jewry. If not for Israel, most American Jews would have "Jewishly" disappeared. The daily reminder of Israel in whatever context stirs their Jewish awareness. A new  Zionism with newer dreams, goals and objectives would stir the imagination and hope of today's young Jews and keep them within the Jewish perimeter.

Nachum Goldman, the one-time great Zionist leader, foresaw the death of  his movement and thought now that the dream for Jewish statehood had been realized, a bonding with the Jewish past would be achieved at a museum. Thus, the Diaspora Museum at Tel Aviv University became the new citadel of Jewish experience. But the opposite was accomplished. It fossilizes Judaism and Jews, making both relics. New Zionism needs renewed Judaism and vision towards the Jewish future. It will be the mortar binding all Jews to Torah, the land of Israel and living yiddishkeit.

Shabbat Shalom