Yes, my Jerusalem Post colleague Zvika Klein noted correctly that last week’s World Zionist Congress often seemed like the world Zionist circus. Yes, the sick scrabbling for pork sullied the Zionist movement’s glittering values and glorious history, culminating with the attempt to give the divisive, inexperienced, outrageously unqualified son of the prime minister a cushy but important job.
Still, I was lucky. As an educator, I encountered the thoughtful, idealistic activists, young and old, who flocked to Jerusalem to make Zionism, Israel, the Jewish people, and the world better, not to pad their pockets.
Describing two of the sessions I ran might balance out the awful impression the kosher pigs feeding at the billion-dollar-a-year trough generated. Last Wednesday, I addressed the Fifth Conference on Informal Education and Leadership, sponsored by the World Zionist Organization’s Department of Pioneering Youth and Future Generations, running in parallel with the congress. Over 500 participants, mostly on gap years, represented dozens of countries from North America, South America, and Europe, and nine youth movements from Right to Left, religious to secular.
The future generations of Zionism
Radiating goodness, sincerity, and great energy, they asked great questions about what Zionism means to them and how to communicate our vision to their peers. Defining them by the gimme-gimme, Volvo-seeking, back-scratching, elbow-rubbing, bureaucratic Zionist politicos is like confusing our reservist and soldier heroes with many Knesset hacks.
So, good news: If these youngsters indeed typify our “future generations,” we’ll be all right.
On Thursday morning, at 9 a.m., I returned to the Jerusalem International Convention Center, facing an empty “Teddy” Hall. For this session, the Department for Organization and Connection with Israelis Abroad gathered an all-star team of moderators to run a rarity in the Jewish organizational world – an interactive Zionist beit midrash (study hall). Far too many Jewish conferences are top-heavy, featuring parades of speakers and overstuffed panels speaking “at” the audience. This session encouraged participant engagement, brainstorming, creativity, and passion.
Primed to explain that Jews learn from the minyan (prayer quorum) to count those inside the room, not everyone outside, I was pleasantly surprised. By 9:10, the hall was full – with hundreds sitting at tables for Hebrew, English, French, and Spanish speakers.
"Why I am a Zionist"
My introduction celebrated Zionism as a peoplehood platform, emphasizing that on October 7, the government failed, the army failed, but Zionism was vindicated. Israelis saved Israel that day, repelling the invaders. Zionism raised Israelis with the necessary motivation, ideology, and ability to defend themselves when necessary but dream always. And, instantly, the rest of the Zionist world, Jewish and non-Jewish, supported us.
We played a five-minute video illustrating my “ani ma’amin” (I believe) statement, “Why I am a Zionist,” produced beautifully by Unpacked and available on their website. I offered my 15 building blocks, not to dictate what to think but to spur conversation. I asked: What did I miss, and how else would they describe this extraordinary movement that saved and revived the Jewish people while contributing so much to the world?
Most important, I said, let’s emphasize what we are and who we are, not what we are not or oppose. Jean-Paul Sartre claimed “the antisemite makes the Jew”; we know the Jew makes the Jew, the Zionist makes the Zionist, and Zionists are far more than anti-anti-Zionists or anti-antisemites.
Then, applying a similar exercise I developed with imaginative staffers of the ZFA, Zionist Federation of Australia, we had four rounds of guided discussion pivoting around a particular question:
- WHY: Why are you here? Why are you a Zionist? Which thinkers or – in the spirit of a beit midrash – particular texts shaped your Zionist ideology? This round was the longest so delegates could introduce themselves and share more deeply what resonates and why.
- VALUES: Which single value must define Zionism in 2025? (With more time, we might have added, “and in 2048, when Israel hits 100.”)
- LANGUAGE: One proud, persuasive sentence defining Zionism today.
- PRACTICE: One tangible action your organization will take in the next six months to update this vision and broaden the circle of Zionist involvement and engagement.
Even before hearing the thoughtful, thought-provoking answers, I was thrilled by the buzz. It was a verbal symphony of devoted relatives-yet-strangers, defining and redefining this movement, which was, is, and will be a cornerstone of their identities.
Defining Zionism
Time didn’t permit a full discussion after, but even the few sharings were illuminating. One delegate defined Zionism as “belonging” – to which I added “believing” and “becoming” – because we need ideology and action too. Another countered my “Three Bs” with “Three Ps,” saying, “Zionism is about the Jewish people’s past, present, and… wait for it… phuture.” Other one-liners included “Zionism inspires Jews worldwide and unites the Jewish people in their aspiration to return to their historical democratic homeland” and “I am a Zionist because I’m a Jew!”
One Hebrew table defined Zionism as “aspiring to equality and social justice”; another said, “I am a Zionist because I have work to do.” These different emphases illustrate the Diaspora focus on foundational identity and the Israeli search for a transformational national agenda.
The values round generated a prose poem celebrating the richness of the Zionist conversation.
Some words were foundational, highlighting our spiritual-national core: peoplehood, homeland, Jewish home, return, love of land. Some were mission-driven: agency over your own destiny, freedom, safety, exemplary society, light unto the nations, next generation, connection, commitment. Some celebrated the richness of Jewish civilization: one language, historical movement, Jewish culture. Some were political or agenda-driven: democracy, liberal, progressive, innovation, power.
Others were spiritual: faith, God, messianic message, soul. Finally, some offered emotional and symbolic glue: country, unity, bringing people together, aspirational, and, drumroll please, it is no dream.
I left the conversation soaring – confident that within this broad yet focused movement filled with so many caring, committed, capable people, we agree far more than we disagree; we share a common language. And I am convinced that by having such conversations – tapping our ideals and generating visions – we can help make more and more people see Zionism as the blessing it’s always been, rather than too many people’s favorite curse.
Still, I left wondering why this congress didn’t launch some kind of year-long conversation about Zionism along these lines or around Zionist salons or reading groups. Fortunately, there’s still time. The ugly political maneuverings caused the congress not to adjourn for another two weeks. That’s enough time to at least draw up a resolution committing this vast, deep-pocketed Zionist bureaucracy to push at least one such creative, potentially transformative, educational, and ideological initiative, too.
The writer, an American presidential historian and Zionist activist, is author of To Resist the Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream and The Essential Guide to October 7th and Its Aftermath. His e-book, The Essential Guide to Zionism, Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism, and Jew-Hatred, can be accessed on the Jewish People Policy Institute website.