"Re-Thinking American Jewish Zionist Identity" with Shaul Magid

“Between Race and Religion: Contemporary American Jewish Life” series with the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity.

Shaul Magid, Professor of Jewish Studies and Religious Studies and The Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Chair in Jewish Studies at Indiana University Bloomington

From its very beginnings, Zionism has played a significant role in American Judaism although until the 1940s most America Jews probably did not consider themselves Zionists. Since 1967, Zionism has played an increasingly formidable role in the Jewish community. Today it is arguably the very standard of defining legitimate “Jewishness.” In Israel, post-Zionism has emerged among individuals who no longer support the Zionist narrative of Israel’s beginnings yet remain wed to their lives in Israel. In America, there is no equivalent to post-Zionism. American Jews for whom Zionism, or support of Israel, is not a central part of their Jewish identity have no easily operative framework to articulate there Jewish identity. In this talk, Shaul Magid will explore the hazards of Zionism’s hegemony among American Jews and suggest possible alternatives. In short, can there be an American Jewish alternative to Zionism that is not anti-Zionist?