“I’m a Zionist. That shouldn’t prevent me from speaking at a rally against Nazis.”

I often avoid the "Zionist" label in speech and print not because I don't think it applies to me but because it becomes a rorschach test on the Israel-Palestine conflict. It means something different to everyone, even within the Jewish community − let alone in the wider world.

Here's how I’d define it: The philosophy that the Jewish people have a right to self-determination in some portion of their ancestral homeland. That’s it.

It doesn’t mean I support Israel’s current government. (I don’t.) It doesn’t mean I’m happy about the war. (I’m not.) It doesn’t mean I support the building of settlements in Gaza or the West Bank. (I don’t.) Beyond that, my Zionism does not come at the exclusion of Palestinians, who I believe should also possess comparable rights.

You can’t just use an absurdly idealist definition of Zionism and then scratch your head wondering why antifascist activists would prefer to exclude you.

Dov Waxman put it well:

This illustrates an important difference in how many Jews and many Palestinians understand Zionism and anti-Zionism. Jews (for understandable reasons) tend to think of Zionism as a principle—namely, that Jews have a right to national self-determination in their ancestral homeland. Palestinians (for understandable reasons) tend to think of Zionism as a practice—how it has actually been implemented and what it has entailed for Palestinians.

Many Jews, therefore, view anti-Zionism as a rejection of a Jewish right to self-determination, which they regard as discriminatory. Many Palestinians (& their allies), by contrast, view anti-Zionism as opposition to the historical and current practices of Zionism. They oppose Zionism not because it is a Jewish national movement, but because it has resulted in Palestinian dispossession and the denial of Palestinian rights. These different understandings shape the current debate over whether anti-Zionism is or is not antisemitic.

(Emphasis added.)

The idealist definition also has its own problems: why Palestine? Why not, say, Iberia, Central Europe, or Iraq? Many Jews have ancestral origins there, too. Why not Africa, which is Jewry’s origin according to the Lemba people? Better yet, why can’t Earth per se be Jewry’s ancestral homeland? Then there is the question of ‘Jewish self-determination’, something that Zionism actually hampers.

Under ideal conditions, I would have no issue whatsoever with foreign Jews immigrating to Palestine, provided that they followed their Palestinian siblings’ rules (which numerous Jewish immigrants were already doing long before the nineteenth century). Ari Jun may think that this makes me a ‘Zionist’, but I have good reasons to avoid identifying myself as such.

Depending on which poll you choose,

Uh-huh.

somewhere between 80% and 90% of American Jews share a sentiment regarding Zionism along the lines of what I just described. That means that saying "Zionists need not apply" means in effect, even if not in intent, that Jews aren't welcome.

Then re-examine what Zionism is. Also, why do intent and effect matter here? Why do they stop mattering when it comes to your idealism and the Zionist reality in Palestine? Hello?

There is profuse irony in this situation beyond the fact that I, a rabbi who descends from Holocaust survivors, was told my voice wasn't welcome at a rally against Nazis.

Well, we could agree that there is irony, but not the kind that Ari Jun has in mind.

Coincidentally, many white nationalists are fine with the idealist definition of Zionism. They may be annoyed seeing some of their taxdollars go to a foreign project, but encouraging Jews to ‘go home’ is not something that bothers them.

Most Jews are Zionists

Most Jews don’t know about Theodor Herzl’s white supremacy or the sordid history of Zionism in general either. Hardly anybody does.

A community can only be told it is not wanted so many times before it stops saying that its exclusion is a fluke or an aberration and instead begins to believe that it is a systemic reality. Please partner with us. The ship has not yet sailed, but its sails have been raised.

Ahhh, the classic Herzlian mindset of ‘fuck you, I got mine’ summarized in a more passive-aggressive manner. The same mindset that had Herzlians reacting with shock and awe when Black Lives Matter activists ‘betrayed’ them by refusing to show any support for the occupation of Palestine.

Well, it was nice knowing you, everyone, but since so many Jewish adults are still tolerating the occupation of Palestine, after all that I’ve done for them, I can no longer continue sharing any of the research that I’ve been doing for years. So I’m stopping now… …wait a minute, no I’m not! If I were a drama-addicted high schooler or a Herzlian who gives up easily because he fails at everything that he does, then I might, but guess what? I am neither. Thank Adonai for that!