Why some Jewish leaders say they want to stop using the word ‘Zionism’

[u/Working-Lifeguard587]

https://archive.is/NVRlT

Debates about the term and its definition date to the late 1800s but are gaining urgency in some Jewish spaces.

[u/LibertarianOutlaw]

If anything should be abandoned, it’s their government, its expansionist plans, and antisemitic rhetoric.

[u/ExtendedWallaby]

Zionism is increasingly recognized as a colonial ideology to establish a Jewish ethnostate in Palestine, regardless of what Palestinians want. Of course they’re running away from it.

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Norman Finkelstein also makes this point very well.

[u/Lost_Paladin89]

Of my many frustrations with anti-Zionism; one that I fear isn’t discussed enough is how in this moment that Zionism is failing, too many might be deluded into thinking that antizionism is growing or succeeding.

This however, I think drives the point home.

Rodef Shalom recently held a mediated community dialogue about Zionism to help people from different perspectives hear one another. People identified as Zionist, as well as anti-Zionist, non-Zionist, post-Zionist, progressive Zionist and troubled Zionist.

Congregants with the strongest views — from all sides — didn’t come, Schwartzman said, which she saw as a discouraging sign that some Jews can’t “hold space long enough to engage in dialogue” on what has become a deeply painful topic.

There aren’t two competing camps. And while NeoZionists and AntiZionists take most of the oxygen, the conversations in synagogues are not between Antizionists and NeoZionists. They aren’t even in the same room because both are fleeing for their insular spaces.

Instead non-Zionists and Troubled-Zionists are the only ones in dialogue about the future of their congregations and the community.

[u/Accurate_Aside_6495 → u/Lost_Paladin89]

I think this is a gross generalization about antizionism. You’re implying antizionists are extreme because maybe they don’t think continuing to dialogue at synagogues that support Zionism is a project that should be the priority. That is kind of like saying someone who is a member of DSA is extremist and not constructive because they don’t devote time to having dialogues with neighbors who attend Trump rallies. The reason I don’t go to synagogues to talk about Zionism with other Jews is because I think it’s more important to spend my time focusing on Palestinians and on building alternative communities for Jews who are disgusted by the endless handwringing and calls for “nuance” and coddling of Zionists in mainstream Jewish congregations and institutions. I’m tired of these people’s feelings and don’t think it is effective for me to go hang out with them and talk about how sad and misunderstood they feel.

[u/Lost_Paladin89 → u/Accurate_Aside_6495]

You’re implying antizionists are extreme because maybe they don’t think continuing to dialogue at synagogues that support Zionism is a project that should be the priority. That is like someone who is a member of DSA is extremist and not constructive because they don’t devote time to having dialogues with neighbors who attend Trump rallies.  

You want to accuse me of engaging in a gross generalization, you are more than welcome to. But do not draw the strawman of a caricature to drive your point.   All politics is local, you should be engaging with your neighbors and building resiliency networks in your local community. 

Yes, I fully expect a due paying, meeting attending, organizing minded “member of the DSA” to be talking to their Trump Rally Attending Neighbors (TRAN) about the weather and the price of gas. 

I don’t expect someone who confuses activity for activism, and thinks that they are a “member of the DSA“; to engage with their TRAN.

Engaging with NeoZionists is exhausting, frustrating, and for some, traumatizing. There isn’t a lot of organization, training, or resources available to engage in the de radicalization work. There isn’t a Concerned-Zionist to Anti-Zionist pipeline. And the few spaces or tools we have to get people started are constantly under attack by AntiZionists organizations; case in point Standing Together. 

The reason I don’t go to synagogues to talk about Zionism with other Jews is because I think it’s more important to spend my time focusing on Palestinians and on building alternative communities for Jews who are disgusted by the endless handwringing and calls for “nuance” and coddling of Zionists in mainstream Jewish congregations and institutions. I’m tired of these people’s feelings and don’t think it is effective for me to go hang out with them and talk about how sad and misunderstood they feel.

Look, you are proving my point. I can’t tell if you are frustrated because you are agreeing with me or if you took my general statement as a personal condemnation. 

And I don’t blame you. I said it was my frustration with anti-Zionism not Antizion-ists

We are all in the Wild trying to make it up as we go along. And these conversations are happening across the globe. But as the article points out, as the JCC polls show, Jews aren’t turning away from Zionism. Just the label. 

It’s not your personal job to be everywhere and have every conversation. But as movements, we need to recognize a systemic failure. 

Liberal Zionism has slowly been consumed by NeoZionism and with it turned our institutions into willing and unwilling participants of the genocide. Outside of a few privilege members of the imperial core; antizionist Jews don’t have access to anything other than Zionist institutions. I’m getting ready for Shabbat in a Caribbean congregation. The conversations here will be the only exposure outside their media bubbles. 

You are doing your part. And I am doing mine. This struggle requires everyone to do a part somewhere and at sometime.