Fewer American Jews Are Identifying As Zionists: Here’s The Real Reason Why
- Ofek Kehila
- 2d
- 3 min read
The majority of American Jews believe Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish, democratic state. However, only one-third identify as Zionists. This apparent contradiction seems to reflect a growing rupture between the State of Israel and the Jewish population outside it.
Poll: American Jews reluctant to identify as Zionists
According to a survey of Jewish life since October 7, which was conducted by Jewish Federations of North America, American Jews feel emotionally attached to Israel (71%) and say that, in general, Israel makes them proud to be Jewish (60%).
Whereas the vast majority of American Jews believe Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish, democratic state (88%), only one-third identify as Zionists (37%).
This is an apparent contradiction, since Zionism is traditionally defined as “a national movement espousing repatriation of Jews to their homeland—the Land of Israel—and the resumption of sovereign Jewish life there.”
According to the definition, most American Jews, who believe Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish, democratic state, should easily identify as Zionists, meaning supporters of sovereign Jewish life in Israel, yet they are reluctant to do so. Why?
Believing in Zionism but shying away from the label
American Jews believe in Zionism but shy away from the label for different reasons. According to the survey’s findings, one salient reason is a disagreement on what Zionism actually means.
Thus, American Jews who do not identify as Zionists believe the concept includes components beyond its classic definition: Israel’s right to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, supporting whatever actions Israel takes, believing Jews are superior to Palestinians, and more.
A look at the Zionist political parties in Israel, such as the Democrats (left-wing Zionism), Yesh Atid (centrist Zionism), or even Yisrael Beiteinu (right-wing Zionism), shows that none of them support the annexation of the Gaza Strip, blindly supporting the Israeli government’s actions, or believing that Jews are superior to others. However, this is how non-Zionist or anti-Zionist American Jews view Zionism.
Read More: What Is Zionism?
Why is Zionism misunderstood?
Zionism essentially stands for the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in their historic homeland, the land of Israel. The fact that American Jews not only refuse to identify as Zionists but also perceive it as what it is not begs the following question: why is Zionism so misunderstood?
One main reason is that anti-Zionist movements have been striving to portray Zionism as a fundamentally colonialist, racist ideology. According to Movement Against Antizionism, antizionist activism depicts Zionism as everything it is not via several libels: the colonizer libel, the apartheid libel, and the genocide libel.
The colonizer libel constructs Israel as a colonial power and Israelis as alien interlopers in the land of Israel; the apartheid libel portrays Israel as a state consumed by Jewish supremacy and racial domination; and according to the genocide libel, Israel’s efforts at self-defense are presented as evidence of mass atrocity. Even though these libels constitute a distortion of reality in Israel and the Middle East, they have managed to turn many American Jews against Zionism.
Wrap up
Israel’s Declaration of Independence stresses the right of the Jewish people to be masters of their fate in their own sovereign state. It declares Israel as a state that ensures complete equality to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race, or sex.
And yet, anti-Zionist libels have managed to distort the perception of Zionism, causing Jews in the US to shy away from the concept even though the vast majority fully support Israel’s right to exist.
Coupled with a growing rupture between American Jews and Israel, the destabilization of the concept of Zionism is a problem that demands attention by Jewish institutions and Israeli policymakers alike. These are times in which the strong connection between Israel and the world’s biggest Jewish community outside it is put to the test.
Ofek Kehila (Israel, 1987) is a scholar of Spanish Golden Age literature and Latin American literature of the 20th and 21st centuries. His research bridges the gap between those traditions, highlighting their aesthetic, cultural, and historical dialogue. He holds a PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2022) and was a postdoctoral fellow at Freie Universität Berlin (2023-2025).