Jewish anti-Zionists can’t be part of our ‘big tent’ community

Historical memory lies at the heart of most Jewish holiday commemorations. During Sukkot, for example, Jews daily welcome ushpizin—“guests” or ancestors, including the patriarchs of Judaism—into their sukkahs, which themselves are a remembrance of the post-Exodus wanderings of the Jewish people in the desert. It is just one example of how identification with the past is very much part of the present. It also emphasizes the collective fate of a people on their way to their homeland, where shelter would hopefully no longer be a function of impermanent huts open to the stars. On Sukkot, we not only invite guests into our homes; it is a way we connect ourselves with that journey to Israel.

But for a small though noisy minority of contemporary American Jews, the fate of other Jews and Israel is no longer a matter with which they concern themselves. As a consequence, it is now more imperative than ever for Jews to stop pretending that one can join those chanting “from the river to the sea” and “globalize the intifada”—slogans that justify and encourage the genocide of the Jews of Israel—and still be considered part of the Jewish community.

Anti-Zionists may be considered Jewish according to religious law as well as mainstream by The New York Times. But in the post-Oct. 7 world, it should no longer be possible to pretend to speak for Jewish values or tradition, or to be part of the Jewish world, while opposing the right of the one Jewish state on the planet to exist and defend itself. That is true whether those who take that position explicitly—as do Jews who join the pro-Hamas demonstrators in America’s streets and on college campuses—or who merely rationalize their efforts from the sidelines or on the platforms provided to them by the liberal mainstream media.

The debate is over

The debate about Zionism in the Jewish world was once a vigorous one. In the first half of the 20th century before the Holocaust and the establishment of the modern-day State of Israel in 1948, Jews were divided about its merits. Some in the Diaspora, particularly among the wealthy and most secure in places like the United States and Britain, feared their rights would be compromised by a Jewish state existing somewhere else. Socialists, primarily in the Bund movement, preferred to work for the establishment of their idea of a utopian future in which Jewish rights and autonomy would be respected, particularly in Eastern European lands where Jews were numerous. Many religious Jews also feared that anticipating the Messianic Age—in which the ancient kingdom of Israel would be restored along with the Holy Temple in Jerusalem—was sinful…