To the Editor,
New York Times.
The
column by Bret Stephens (New York Times, Nov. 8, 2023) declaring that
“anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism” is ahistoric and ignores the long
history of Jewish opposition to Zionism.
For
Reform Jews, the idea of Zionism contradicted almost completely their
belief in a universal, prophetic Judaism. The first Reform prayerbook
eliminated references to Jews being in exile and to a Messiah who would
miraculously restore Jews throughout the world to the historic land of
Israel. The prayerbook eliminated all prayers for a return to Zion.
The distinguished rabbi Abraham Geiger argued that Judaism developed
through an evolutionary process that had begun with God’s revelation to
the Hebrew prophets. The essence of Judaism was ethical monotheism.
The Jewish people were a religious community destined to carry on the
mission to “serve as a light to the nations.” The dispersion of Jews
was not a punishment for their sins but part of God’s plan .
In
1897, the Central Conference of American Rabbis adopted a resolution
disapproving of any attempt to establish a Jewish state. The resolution
declared, “Zion was a precious possession of the past…but it is not our
hope of the future. America is our Zion.”
Zionism
holds that Israel is the “homeland” of all Jews and that those living
elsewhere are in exile. Most Jewish Americans believe that religion and
nationality are separate and distinct. They are American by
nationality and Jews by religion, just as other Americans are
Protestant, Catholic or Muslim.
In
1841, in the dedication of America’s first Reform synagogue in
Charleston, South Carolina, Rabbi Gustav Poznanski told the
congregation: “This country is our Palestine, this city our Jerusalem,
this house of God our temple.”
In
1929, Orthodox rabbi Aaron Samuel Tamarat wrote that the very notion of
a sovereign Jewish state was “a contradiction to Judaism’s ultimate
purpose…Judaism at root is not some religious concentration which may be
localized or situated in a single territory. Neither is Judaism a
‘nationality’…fit to be woven into the three-foldedness of ‘homeland,
army and heroic songs.’ No, Judaism is Torah, ethics and exaltation of
spirit..It cannot be reduced to the confines of any particular
territory. For as scripture said of Torah, ‘Its measure is greater than
the earth.’”
Zionism, Mr.
Stephens seems to ignore, has always been a minority view among Jews.
It was only after World War 11, in response to the horrors of Nazism,
that it gained support. It is now in the process of once again becoming
a minority view.
It is hardly “anti-Semitic” to recognize this reality.
Sincerely,
Allan C. Brownfeld,
Editor of ISSUES, the quarterly journal of