Are There Any Zionists Out There Anymore?

Every once in a while, someone writes an article about what it means to be a Zionist today, and whether there is even such a thing in the 21st century.  The latest article on this subject appears in Haaretz in honor of the United Jewish Communities General Assembly in Jerusalem.  The focus of the article is on aliyah.  Orthodox Jews are making aliyah in much greater numbers than secular Jews, although they make up a much smaller percentage of the population in the United States.  And Americans who make aliyah are called crazy by the native Israelis they meet when they get to Israel.  It is no longer considered shameful to emigrate from Israel, and Israelis don’t use the term “Zionism” because it has been appropriated by anti-Semites and Jewish right-wingers.

Particularly interesting:

“I absolutely think ‘Zionism’ is a dirty word to Israelis,” says Anita Shapira, a history professor at Tel Aviv University’s Chaim Weizmann Institute for the Study of Zionism and Israel. “‘Zionism’ has been appropriated by the right and vilified by anti-Semites on the left. The time has passed for this term.”

Shapira, who prefers the term “Israeli patriotism” to “Zionism,” says the majority of Israelis are secular Zionists who want a Jewish and democratic state in Israel. They just don’t want to refer to themselves by using the Z-word, she says, in part because of its association with what she calls the “religious extremism” of the right.

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