Over the past six months, Zionism has become a charged term in the sphere of public discourse. For some, it represents patriotism and self-determination; for others, it brings to mind ultranationalism and specific policies enacted by the Netanyahu cabinet.
In the midst of all this discussion, The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore’s Insight Israel Forum held its fifth annual leadership summit on Wednesday, April 17, at the DoubleTree Hilton in Pikesville. The event focused primarily on “The Future of Zionism” — what being a Zionist means in today’s society, how the term has evolved over time and how it may change in the future. Three panelists — journalists from popular Jewish news sites and college professors specializing in Jewish education — answered questions and discussed how they view Zionism as a philosophy and how it has changed.
The Insight Israel Forum was founded by The Associated in 2019, with the aim of educating the local community about Israeli culture, history and politics while encouraging nuanced and respectful dialogues about the country’s often-complicated reputation.
Since Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, and Israel’s ensuing military efforts in Gaza, the discourse surrounding the country and whether Zionism is a positive or negative idea has grown more fraught. This change has affected the work the forum does.
“The Insight Israel Forum, for so many times this year, we’ve wished that we could be doing simpler programming about Israel. Nobody could have predicted what we have to navigate through,” said Tammy Heyman, the forum’s co-chair. “But The Associated was ready to respond immediately to the crisis, with humanitarian aid on the ground, community support and working to create spaces for dialogue.”
The panel was moderated by Rabbi Mike Uram, chief Jewish learning officer at the Jewish Federations of North America. Uram is the first to hold this position, and is also notable for his written works on Jewish culture and his former 16-year career as Penn Hillel’s executive director. The panelists were Jodi Rudoren, editor-in-chief of the Jewish newspaper Forward; Kerem E. Fraiman, dean and chief academic officer of the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership in Chicago; and Armin Rosen, senior writer for the Jewish magazine Tablet.
The panelists discussed their own perspectives on Zionism and how the public approach to it has changed since Oct. 7, from both left-leaning anti-Zionists and more right-leaning nationalists. Fraiman noted that the Israel-Hamas war has created a sense of anxiety around the term. Some Jews may feel pressured to embrace Zionism without fully understanding it at the risk of being viewed as a traitor to their religion if they do not, or to denounce it because it may imply they support the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
“I think that many Jews who, before, would have said that Israel was a key part of their Jewish identity, might not have self-identified as Zionists and may have felt that they did not need to be labeled,” she explained. “Suddenly, the outside world seems to be placing these quite reductive labels on them that suggest they’re pro- or anti-something. But as we know, the Jewish dream is far more diverse than that.”
But is it inherently antisemitic to be anti-Zionist? The panelists agreed that casting this kind of judgment is more complicated than it may seem, especially when speaking with anti-Zionist Jews. Rudoren noted that she’s seen hardline Zionists proclaim that any Jewish person who is not fully Zionist is not truly Jewish, something she cannot abide by. The idea of anti-Zionism has also broadened into a wider critique of the Netanyahu cabinet and how the administration treats Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank.
“There are anti-Zionist Jews, and they don’t stop being Jewish because they’re anti-Zionist. I’m not into anyone deciding whose Judaism is legitimate,” Rudoren said. “People say that no one is challenging other countries’ rights to exist. I feel like that’s curious, and we should talk about it, but if there are countries with similar histories, they don’t include major sites for three major world religions and don’t have world superpowers giving them millions of dollars a year. There are many ways in which the United States and the West are more engaged in this piece of land than any other piece of land in the world.”
Still, the panelists all noted that the increase of antisemitic harassment in the past six months is something to consider.
“The reality is that opposition to the existence of a Jewish state in the land of Israel is itself a deeply poisonous idea that has gotten Jews killed in every single time,” Rosen said.
