WHAT ZIONISM MEANS TO ME

To me, Zionism is passion about the Jewish homeland, a symbol of the enduring Jewish spirit, and a fortress for Jewish cultural integrity.

Inseparable from the Zionist idea is the geographic location of the land of Israel. Zion specifically referred to a particular mountain just outside Jerusalem. King David himself conquered the fortress that stood on this hill! 3000 years after David’s victory, modern Zionism cannot be separated from the Promised Land. When Theodore Hertzl began his life’s work of securing a homeland for the Jewish people, he discovered that only the Holy Land could renew the hopes and dreams of Jews dispersed across the globe to once again live as a nation. Spirited rejection met every suggestion of obtaining land in the Americas and elsewhere for the purpose of a Jewish homeland.

As Zionists, we must continue the tradition of boldly proclaiming the Jewish people hold legitimate title to the “Holy Land.” The land that our patriarch Abraham claimed after leaving his societal bonds in Ur is the same land that his descendants settled following their miraculous escape from Egypt. And this land is the same land to which Jews from all across the globe are gathering and thriving after millennia of dispersion.

Our eternal capital must always be an undivided Jerusalem, our settlements must grow and thrive, and defenses against intruders must continue, whether sanctioned by the international community or not. And Israel must be recognized as a "Jewish" state.

Zionism is also a symbol of fortitude of the Jewish spirit. Consider the events our people witnesses in ages past. The Romans completely extinguished our political autonomy, Christianity and Islam co-opted our religious traditions, and the ruling powers forcibly dispersed our communities to remote regions of the globe. Over the next 1500 years, a myriad of forces conspired to restrict economic opportunities, persecute our intellectual leaders, and deny us our religious heritage. Then, finally we suffered the atrocities in Europe last century to annihilate not only our identity but our very physical presence from the face of the earth. Yet, the Jewish people have survived! Our traditions endure and in 1948 the state of Israel emerged after over 2000 years of banishment. This narrative is a testament to our God-given spirit!

Lastly, Zionism represents a fortress. Surviving myriads of evil and at last inhabiting our Promised Land, is not the complete essence of Zionism. There is a grander climax! We are now free to live as more than just an oppressed minority or as an emancipated ethnic group. The Zionist ideal allows Jewish people within a Jewish society within the entire nation of Israel. Zionism is the fortress within which to thrive uninhibited. Freed from the corrosive assimilating forces within and secure from the explosive campaigns of violence without, self-determination at last is possible for the Jewish people!

This is what Zionism means to me.