In his 1934 essay “The Sources Did Not Disappoint,” published in the Davar newspaper, Berl Katzenelson wrote: “A renewing and productive generation does not throw away the wave of refuse of the inheritance of the generations. It examines and checks, distances and brings closer” (translated by the Shitim Institute).
Today, more than ever, we need that same “renewing generation” – one that examines and tests, but above all, draws near and restores Jewish and Zionist pride to our sisters and brothers overseas, many of whom struggle to keep it in today’s complex reality. That generation must grow from here, from the State of Israel – the most powerful spiritual center of the Jewish people throughout history – and to build together with Diaspora Jewry a new values-based bridge of national and liberal partnership.
Following the October 7 massacre and the war that erupted in its wake, a growing sense of “Jewish fatigue” has spread across Diaspora communities. Many individuals and communities feel discomfort with Jewish identity and, even more so, with Zionist identification. At times it manifests as withdrawal, distancing from community life and from the Jewish-Zionist identity on which many were raised.
Across the Jewish world, people are searching for answers. They are tired, feeling ever distant and alienated – yet at the same time, they yearn for shared meaning. This reality could become a fault line separating large segments of world Jewry from Israel and Zionism.
But it could also present a genuine opportunity: to shape a renewed Jewish and Zionist culture that is honest, direct, resilient, and rooted in shared values. That builds a new common denominator based on culture, values, and a renewed sense of belonging.
Renewing the connection with Diaspora Jewry
Recognizing the need to change the conversation with Diaspora Jewry, the World Zionist Organization, at its recent Zionist Congress, formally recognized an additional Jewish stream: Humanistic Cultural Judaism. This stream joins the four previously recognized movements – Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, and Haredi (known as ultra-Orthodox). It is grounded in Jewish history, customs, collective memory, traditions, and values. It views them not as binding rules imposed by religious or political establishments, but as an “open source” – adaptable by Jewish individuals and communities to their own contexts.
This recognition marked the culmination of a long process that began over a decade ago, when we initiated a move to advance the definition of Judaism as a culture, based on the understanding that broad segments of world Jewry need a Jewish-liberal framework with which they can identify and in which they can fully participate.
This need has grown stronger in recent times, as many Jews worldwid, experience a deep tension between an inherited deeply rooted Zionist commitment and growing alienation from Israel; between the desire to preserve Jewish identity and discomfort with the term “Zionism,” which in parts of international discourse has become almost toxic; and between belonging jointly to the Jewish community and to the broader liberal public – a connection that once felt natural but has become suddenly complex.
The shift is, first and foremost, generational. As anti-Israel sentiment flourishes on campuses across the Western world, it seeps into younger Jewish generations. Many feel confused and even angry in light of the education they received at home and in their communities. Yet they often lack spaces where they can express this complexity without being forced to “choose sides.” The two dominant options they encounter are either anti-Israel environments bordering on antisemitism, or “hasbara” (public diplomacy) frameworks that demand support for policies from which they feel alienated.
At the Zionist Enterprises Department, we seek to take the recognition of this new stream one step further by establishing a global movement of “Judaism as Culture”. This movement aims to untangle these complexities and to serve as a global home and voice for liberal Jewish communities, which constitute the majority of Diaspora Jewry. We seek to build a shared cultural and value-based foundation. Not one dictated by institutions, but one shaped by its members, making Judaism – and Zionism along with it – accessible even to those who have grown distant.
We aspire to become the “renewing generation” described by Katzenelson: To generate optimism and hope, and to help young Jews encounter Israelis and Israeli society in all their diversity. Not through top-down “instruction manuals,” but by co-writing the narrative together with worldwide liberal Jewish communities.
It should be a shared foundation not built on loyalty pledges, but rather on values, belonging, and partnership. Not on blind support, but on attentive listening and engagement with the social and political complexities that, when ignored, have driven many young people away from Zionism and Judaism. A shared foundation rooted in belonging and participation by choice.
The relationship between world Jewry and the State of Israel is not merely a covenant of fate: it is a covenant of destiny – a partnership by choice. Part of the Zionist vision envisioned the State of Israel as a “Model society,” a source of pride not only for its citizens but for the entire Jewish people.
As we struggle to uphold that vision at home, we must make it accessible to Jews everywhere. We must not surrender to “Jewish fatigue,” but move forward together to renew and build a shared, liberal, value-driven Jewish movement.
The writer is head of the World Zionist Organization’s Zionist Enterprises Department.