Entanglement between Liberalism and Zionism in the context of American Reform Judaism

• In Event: Diaspora-Israel Dialectics

Abstract

American Reform Judaism has adopted varying attitudes toward Zionism throughout history. For example, the public statement of the American Reform Judaism platform, the 1937 Columbus Platform, demonstrated the official combination of Political Zionism and Cultural Zionism adopted by this form of Judaism despite their anti-Zionist position, which stemmed from the 1885 Pittsburgh Platform. Moreover, the majority of Reform Jews during the 1930s were non-Zionists.
The early 1940s witnessed a divisive crisis in Reform Judaism. On June 24, 1943, the Convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis discussed their attitudes toward Zionism as non-, pro-, and anti-Zionism.
The interpretation of Zionism among Reform Zionists was based on hybrid ideas, such as the mission of Israel, Americanism, and cultural Zionism, as argued by Jonathan D. Sarna in “the Converts to Zionism in the American Reform Movement” in 1998.
To further understand the relationship between these hybrid ideas and Zionism, I will focus on the keyword liberal and how and why Reform Jews became Zionists from the 1920s to the 1940s.
Based on previous studies, such as Shirley Idelson’s book, We Shall Build Anew (2022) and some documents from the American Jewish Archives, I will explore how the idea of liberalism enhances the foundation of Zionism in American Reform Judaism. Was this combination unique to the United States? For comparison, I will illustrate an example of the hybrid case of Zionism and Liberal Judaism in London in 1911.
Moreover, today, the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA) is the most aggressive group in American Zionism. Why are they so active? What is Zionism according to them? How does this group relate to Reform and Zionism? To seek answers to these questions, I will focus on Reform Zionists’ interpretation of Zionism from a historical perspective.

Author

• Anri Ishiguro, Doshisha University