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‘I am a Zionist because I am a Jew’, says Chief Rabbi
In a new article Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis delves into the roots of Zionism – and Judaism – to clarify the innate relationship between the two
October 2, 2024 11:54
In a new article Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis delves into the roots of Zionism – and Judaism – to clarify the innate relationship between the two
October 2, 2024 11:54In a new article for The New Statesman, Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis says that Zionism is foundational in Jewishness, and he sets about correcting contemporary misconceptions about the ideology.
“What is Zionism? Why the state of Israel is central to Jewish identity”, published by progressive political magazine The New Statesman on Wednesday, sets out to express “as clearly as possible how we who proudly profess our Zionism define it and why, in fact, it is inseparable from our Judaism”.
He begins by underscoring the crossover between kinship with Israel and Jewishness: according to the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, 73 per cent of British Jews say they feel an emotional attachment to Israel, and 80 per cent of American Jews surveyed by the Pew Research Centre say that caring about Israel is an important part of their Judaism.
With “Zionism” frequently being used as a term of abuse against Jews and wrongly associated with colonialism and apartheid, the Chief Rabbi urges readers to understand that the ideology “does not entail an endorsement of the policies of a particular Israeli government, nor is it mutually exclusive with advocating for the welfare or rights of Palestinians.”
In the article, published just after Iran launched a series of missiles at various locations across Israel, the Chief Rabbi outlines the history of the Jewish people in the territory formerly known as Canaan and later, the Kingdom of Judah or Judea, arguing that to understand Zionism, one must first understand Judaism.
“It is essential to understand that Zionism does not entail an endorsement of the policies of a particular Israeli government, nor is it mutually exclusive with advocating for the welfare or rights of Palestinians.”
— The New Statesman (@NewStatesman) October 2, 2024
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He explains that Judaism – “literally the ways of the people of the Kingdom of Judah” – was the term given to “the new ‘portable’ version” of Jewish identity following our exile from the land by the Romans.
“It was this adaptation from a national identity to an “ism” which could be practised anywhere in the world, which helped to ensure that Jewish life continued to live on,” he writes. “The colonising Romans changed the name of Judea to Syria-Palaestina, in an effort to expunge all connection of the Jewish People to it. Thus began a campaign of delegitimisation and erasure which survives to this day.”
While Jews laid down roots in their newly found homes, “the Land of Israel, and Jerusalem in particular, always remained at the heart of their everyday worship,” Chief Rabbi Mirvis writes, adding that their eventual return to the homeland remained a central tenet in the Jewish psyche.
The case for self-determination became a matter of survival following the Second World War, when the Holocaust made explicit the need for a Jewish state “which would never close its borders to Jews when they had nowhere else to turn”.
Chief Rabbi Mirvis contends that Zionism has also been at the heart of the cultural renaissance in Jewish life, providing a “focal point for Jewish national expression” via the revival of the Hebrew language, arts and academia. Jewish connection to the land is therefore not contingent on a person’s religious observance, he argues, nor is Zionism a political ideology: “It is quite simply a manifestation of the unbroken attachment of the Jewish People to and presence in the Land of Israel.”
The article is Chief Rabbi Mirvis’ second piece published in The New Statesman. In 2016 he authored a piece titled “I grew up in South Africa, so believe when I say: Israel is not an apartheid state.”