While Zionism might be counted amongst the most successful revolutionary movements in human history, it seems to have suffered stagnation in recent decades. This lack of momentum, coupled with successful efforts to delegitimize Israel on North American campuses, has left Zionism unappealing to many of the brightest and most talented Diaspora Jewish students.
The unfortunate truth is that the Jewish establishment and most professional Israel advocacy organizations have been losing the battle for our Diaspora youth. Israel’s detractors have successfully dominated the political discourse in recent years largely because they present a story and a cause more compelling than what currently passes for the Zionist narrative. Thousands of our most idealistic young adults have either shied away from affiliating with Zionism in any way or have actively joined the ranks of those committed to Israel’s destruction. And most bewildering of all is the mainstream Zionist reaction to this trend. Fearful of alienating even more young Jews, pro-Israel advocacy has actually become blander and more ahistorical than ever before.
But there’s hope…
Established by DOREINU and LAVI, an educational movement inspiring young adults to find their roles in Jewish history, the Alliance for New Zionist Vision is a grassroots coalition returning Jewish liberation to relevancy and empowering students to effectively communicate Israel’s story.
An authentic Zionist narrative, based on deep ideological foundations and historic vision, successfully expresses our people’s incredible story in a manner compelling enough to compete with the rhetoric of Israel’s enemies. But the Jewish establishment, Israel advocacy organizations and official Zionist institutions seem unwilling to advance such a message. So it has fallen to us to become the voice of our people’s aspirations and to provide a vision capable of inspiring our generation.
In 2015, we entered the World Zionist Congress and fought a successful battle to force the official Zionist movement to declare the Jewish people indigenous to the Land of Israel (by a slim 51% majority). While this might be a given to anyone with a semi-decent understanding of Jewish identity and history, no official body representing the Jewish people has made any effort to declare what so many of us take for granted.
This was an important step for two reasons:
1. The core anti-Zionist accusation today is that Jews are foreigners to the Middle East with no legitimate connection to our homeland
2. Jewish identity has become confusing to an entire generation of Diaspora Jews
But official statements of Jewish indigeneity by the official Zionist movement are not enough. We need to take the next steps to clarify Jewish identity and inspire our most talented young people to champion Jewish rights in a way that actually advances our people’s story to the next stage.
Get involved to help us succeed!
Because the best and brightest Jewish Millennials will not be satisfied with shallow pro-Israel talking points or the outdated paradigms of previous generations, we must empower them with the richness and depth of their own identities and encourage them to examine Zionism’s ideological foundations, Jewish national aspirations, past achievements and current challenges in order to create a NEW ZIONIST VISION relevant to our current chapter of Jewish history.