I am a Zionist. I believe in the value and righteousness of the Jewish People having a place of their own in their ancestral homeland. I am not ashamed to write those words, nor do I hide that belief in any setting.
Our Zionism did not begin in the 19th century, with the successive waves of Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel known as the five עליות (Aliyot). There is something deeply meaningful about the fact that the Hebrew word עליה is also the term we use when someone is called to the תורה (Torah) for an honor. In both instances, we are speaking of an ascent, a movement toward something sacred. But those five עליות were not the beginning of Zionism. Nor was Zionism born in 1897, when Theodor Herzl convened the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland.
To suggest that Zionism began in either of these periods is to overlook thousands of years of Jewish history. Zionism was not a European creation, nor was it a modern invention. The modern political Zionist movement may have taken shape in the 19th century, but the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel stretches back millennia. That connection is documented in both literary and archaeological records and is woven into the fabric of Jewish history, faith, and identity.
The origins of our connection to the land are found in this week’s פרשה (parshah), when God commands אברם (Avram): לך-לך (Lech-Lecha), “Go forth” from the place where you are living to the land that God will show you. Spoiler alert: that destination is ארץ ישראל (Eretz Yisrael), the Land of Israel.
From that moment onward, our people’s story has been inseparable from the land. Our relationship with ארץ ישראל is so profound and so deeply rooted that it cannot simply be stripped away from our collective identity or our beliefs. It is not merely a political position or a modern ideological commitment. It is part of who we are as a people.
Last week, a story from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency appeared in my social media feed (click here), and it left me feeling both troubled and saddened. The story described a group of Jews in the Boston area working to establish a Jewish day school grounded in an explicitly anti-Zionist philosophy.
When I shared the article on Facebook, some of my friends sarcastically raised questions about what such a school would do with the סידור (siddur), our Jewish prayerbook, and in which direction its students would pray. These questions touch on something fundamental: Jewish prayer is filled with references to, and expressions of longing for, ארץ ישראל. Our tradition repeatedly directs our hearts and minds toward Jerusalem and the Land of Israel.
This raises a profound question: What does it mean to create a Jewish educational institution that defines itself in opposition to the Jewish People’s historic connection to our ancestral homeland? Such an approach overlooks an essential dimension of Jewish identity. Our connection to ארץ ישראל is not an incidental feature of Jewish life that can be removed without changing the character of the tradition itself. It is embedded in our prayers, our sacred texts, our holidays, our history, and our collective memory. To attempt to separate Jewish identity entirely from that connection is to disregard a central thread running through the Jewish story.
This does not mean that being a Zionist requires us to agree with everything that happens in the State of Israel. It does not mean that we must support every Israeli government, endorse every policy, or approve of every action taken by every person who lives there. Loving a country, believing in a people’s right to self-determination, and maintaining a historic connection to a homeland do not require unquestioning agreement with its leaders or its decisions.
We can disagree with government policies. We can criticize particular actions. We can debate the direction in which the country is headed. We can do all of these things while holding our heads high and affirming that we are Zionists.
Why? Because, at its heart, Zionism affirms the Jewish People’s right to self-determination in our ancestral homeland. That conviction does not require unanimity on every political question, nor does it demand blind allegiance to any government. It rests on the belief that the Jewish People have a legitimate and enduring connection to the Land of Israel and the right to determine our own future there.
There is a great deal of noise surrounding this subject today. There are voices that challenge, question, and seek to diminish the legitimacy of our connection to the land that Abraham was commanded to relocate to in this week’s פרשה. In the midst of that noise, we must remember who we are and where our story began.
We are a people whose history is marked by struggle, resilience, displacement, renewal, and an enduring relationship with ארץ ישראל. Our connection to the land has survived centuries of exile, persecution, and upheaval. It has endured because it is sustained by our texts, our traditions, our prayers, and the collective memory of generations of Jews who continued to turn their hearts toward Jerusalem – ארץ ישראל.
When someone challenges the legitimacy of that connection, we do not need to be ashamed of it or apologize for it. We can stand firmly in the knowledge that our relationship with the Land of Israel reaches back thousands of years, to the foundational story of אברהם who is a central figure in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. His story is part of the shared religious heritage of billions of people around the world. For the Jewish People, his journey to the land God promised to show him marks the beginning of a relationship that has shaped our history and identity ever since.
That relationship is ancient. It is enduring. And it remains an essential part of who we are.
I am a Zionist. I am proud of that identity, and I will not apologize for it. Our connection to ארץ ישראל is not something that began with a political congress in the 19th century, nor is it something that can be erased by the political debates of our own time. It is a bond rooted in our people’s earliest stories and carried forward by every generation that has remembered, prayed for, and remained connected to our ancestral homeland.
No disagreement over politics, no criticism of a particular government, and no attempt to redefine our history can change that fundamental truth: the Land of Israel is woven into the story of the Jewish People, and that connection will endure.
