Liberal Living and Zionist Dreaming in a World Gone Mad

The assault on Jews, Judaism, Israel, and Zionism can feel relentless. Jews are blamed for spreading COVID-19 and profiteering off its vaccine, for encouraging Putin׳s invasion of Ukraine and financing Ukraine׳s resistance, for having White privilege by those who disdain ״Whiteness״ and for not being White by White nationalists, for intermarrying too much and too little, for lobbying too aggressively and too secretively.

It often feels like the once-tamed dogs of Jew-hatred have been unleashed. In the summer of 2025 alone, vandals tried burning down the East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation in Melbourne, Australia, defaced a Roman synagogue with ״Juden Raus״ and other Nazi slogans, and painted ״Free Palestine״ in orange on cars belonging to Orthodox Jewish tourists at the Châtel resort in the French Alps. Even worse, hooligans attacked Jewish fathers walking with their children in Milan, Italy and Montreal, Canada, as Israeli tourists were denied service throughout Europe and beaten at a Rhodes nightclub, and a Dutch holiday park, among other assaults.

It׳s easy to despair. Eighty-three percent of U.S. college students have experienced Jew-hatred since October 7. Some analysts chart a 400% surge in European antisemitic incidents. Still, Jews today remain far safer from Jew-hatred than their parents or grandparents were. Most Jews now live freely in liberal democracies rather than suffering in the ghettos of Eastern Europe or under Arab or Muslim dictators.

Two sister ideologies – liberalism and Zionism – marginalized much Jew-hatred – and counter whatever lingers. In liberal democracies outside Israel, presidents and prime ministers, clerics and civic leaders, celebrities and citizens, often defend Jews rather than stoking the hatred. And, thanks to Zionism, Israel offers a refuge to Jews feeling oppressed while resisting Jew-hatred and Jewish victimhood. Antisemitism is less welcome in liberal democracies – although not unwelcome enough!

Traditionally, politicians competed to show who excelled more at Jew-bashing, while riling the masses with antisemitic demagoguery. In America, leaders of both major parties compete to show who is more opposed to antisemitism and more pro-Israel. Similarly, France׳s populist firebrand, Marine Le Pen, distanced her party from its Jew-baiting founders, including her father, and marched against Jew-hatred after October 7.

Even when strained, liberalism works. Liberalism teaches that everyone is born equal with inherent rights and freedoms protected by a constitutional order guaranteeing the consent of the governed, especially through voting. Liberal democracies seek enough power to protect citizens but not too much power to oppress them.

Theoretically, liberal democracies should be free of bigots. In reality, while prejudices persist, every democracy fights group hatred, including Jew-hatred, with legal protections, political incentives, and cultural taboos. As France׳s President Emmanuel Macron declared in July 2017: ״We will cede no ground to messages of hate and we will cede no ground to anti-Zionism, for it is a mere reinvention of antisemitism. And we will cede no ground to all those who, on all continents, seek to make us give up freedom….״

Similarly, America, home to 40% of world Jewry, has many mechanisms resisting Jew-hatred. Historically, American antisemitism was never as bad as many think, although not as good as the liberal-democratic vision promised. American Jew-hatred remains relatively mild and marginal – yet more prevalent than it should be.

Usually, people tell the history of antisemitism in each democracy by cataloguing incidents of discrimination. The Wikipedia entry charting American antisemitism offers an inexorable, depressing story – with 309 footnotes. The lengthy entry ranges from Peter Stuyvesant׳s mid-17th-century tirades in New Amsterdam against those ״deceitful … repugnant … hateful enemies and blasphemers of the name of Christ,״ to today׳s harassment of Jews, especially on campus. The most infamous assaults include General Ulysses S. Grant׳s General Order No. 11 expelling Jews ״as a class״ from western Tennessee in 1862; the 1915 lynching of Leo Frank in Georgia; the automaker Henry Ford׳s rantings in the 1920s; the Holocaust-era spike in American antisemitism; and the shootings in a Pittsburgh synagogue in October 2018, the Poway Chabad in April 2019, the Jersey City kosher grocery store in December 2019. They culminated with the torching of Governor Josh Shapiro׳s residence, the Washington DC murders of a young couple leaving a Jewish museum, and the burning of 15 pro-Israel protestors in Boulder, one fatally, all in spring 2025.

This litany is misleading. American Jew-hatred is not like the ״pure and simple Jew-hatred״ of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. American Jew-baiting has rarely been lethal or respectable.

Almost Every Major American Act of Jew-Hatred … Had a Happy Ending

Cataloguing the damage done by the small minority of American Jew-haters buries the lede: almost every major American antisemitic incident had a happy ending – with most politicians and many people condemning the bigots. Moreover, as in every liberal democracy, Jews benefited as all their fellow citizens׳ rights and freedoms kept expanding.

The American Revolution established a Jeffersonian liberal-democratic regime that aspired to be welcoming. Frankly, Blacks and Catholics absorbed much of the prejudice in America that Jews often absorbed in Europe.

George Washington׳s 1790 Letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport defined the ״Government of the United States״ as one that ״gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.״ In 1791, the Constitution׳s First Amendment proclaimed: ״Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.״ Welcomed grandly, protected legally, Jews flourished.

That spirit inspired Abraham Lincoln to cancel Grant׳s expulsion order. Lincoln explained that ״to condemn a class is, to say the least, to wrong the good with the bad.״ And it׳s why Georgia׳s Governor John Slaton commuted Leo Frank׳s sentence and Aaron Sapiro sued Henry Ford for spreading antisemetic libels. Embarrassed, eventually forced to apologize, Ford shuttered his hate-spewing Dearborn Independent in 1927. Also overlooked is how Ford׳s grandson ״Hank the Deuce,״ donated generously to Israel, and established a Ford assembly plant there.

Jew-hatred peaked in America in the 1930s, while turning genocidal in Europe. A decade-and-a-half later, the Holocaust delegitimized Western antisemitism. Most could see how Jew-hatred wormed its way into the center of Nazi ideology. The shock marginalized antisemitism as authoritarian, illiberal, anti-democratic, and right-wing.

In 1950, the German-born social psychologist Theodor Adorno insisted in The Authoritarian Personality that ״neither ethnocentrism nor antisemitism ever showed a tendency to go with leftist liberal views.״ The research validated most American Jews׳ fear of the right and the typical liberal American confidence that ״it״– the Holocaust – could never happen ״here.״

The Noxious Nexus: Far Left, Far Right, and Islamist Antisemitism Overlap

Such liberal self-satisfaction overlooked left-wing authoritarianism. Even then, Soviet Communism was obsessed with crushing Judaism and Zionism. As Israel allied with America, the Soviets built a left-wing anti-Zionism on the deep anti-Judaism programmed into Western culture, Marxism׳s disdain for ״the Jews,״ and the anti-Israel animus central to the Palestinian nationalist movement.

As we׳ve seen, the rise of identity politics, power dynamics, and, by the 1970s, the romanticization of the Palestinians as the ultimate victims, broadened this old-new, left-wing antisemitism. Then, social media brought many Jew-haters out of the woodwork, giving once-disdained neo-Nazis, White supremacists and Islamist fundamentalists public platforms and networks.

The result is that today, cynics might credit Jews for performing a remarkable political service. Far-right anti-immigrant White nationalist racists, far-left anti-racists, and immigrant Islamists unite in shared Jew-hatred.

The bigots, each with a corps of aggressive, obsessive activists, exploited the Western media׳s harsh coverage of Israel׳s Gaza war that Hamas started in October 2023. The many dilemmas facing Israel in fighting the war helped many claim: ״We׳re not antisemitic, just anti-Zionist.״ Steamrolling past a silenced majority and too many weak leaders, bigots on all fronts diminished most Jews׳ sense of safety, even as most Jews remained safe.

Still, in the summer of 2024, a badly divided America showed one rare point of agreement. At the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, families representing the Israeli hostages held by Hamas received sustained, tear-stained, standing ovations. Those moving moments, amid all the disjuncture in America and Europe, demonstrated liberal democracy׳s ongoing potential to defeat bigotry.

Then, Donald Trump launched his second term by targeting campus antisemitism. Conservatives cheered. Liberals – including many Jews – doubted his motives and methods. The most aggressive presidential initiative against Jew-hatred in American history became yet another flashpoint dividing Republicans and Democrats. The divides, however, are about politics and tactics. Ideologically, morally, the strong liberal-democratic consensus denouncing Jew-hatred and all bigotry has held, in America and throughout most of Europe and Australia too.

Zionism Transcends Antisemitism

Modern Jews know that, if they feel threatened, Israel will welcome them. Zionism offers an ideology and methodology for resistance, along with a home. Zionism׳s greatest success, beyond the State of Israel, was the transformed Jew. These proud New Jews no longer allowed history׳s haters to define them. Modern Jews wrote new chapters in Jewish history – and the annals of human achievement – independent of Jew-hatred.

Like many liberal-democratic movements, Zionism was born in disappointment but succeeded by producing hope instead. The Enlightenment and Emancipation of the 1700s and 1800s weaponized Jew-hatred, even giving it the pseudo-scientific name ״anti-Semitism.״ Antisemites hated Jews as modernizers and traditionalists, rich and poor, capitalists and communists, for fitting in and for sticking out.

True, Theodor Herzl hoped that when the Zionist movement he founded in 1897 gave Jews their own state, Jew-hatred would disappear. That׳s because it would become irrelevant – with Jews returning home – or assimilating away. Herzl recognized ״the emptiness and futility of efforts to ‘combat antisemitism.׳ Declamations made in writing or in closed circles do no good whatever….״ He planned instead to turn the word ״Jew,״ from ״a term of opprobrium… into something honorable.״

Herzl׳s political Zionism was pragmatic – and romantic. He concluded his 1896 manifesto, The Jewish State by dreaming that, when Jews ״live at last as free people on our own soil,״ the ״world will be liberated by our freedom, enriched by our wealth, magnified by our greatness.״ Similarly, Herzl׳s friend Max Nordau noted that while antisemitism ״taught many educated Jews the way back to their people,״ throughout Europe, the ״principle of nationality has awakened a sense of their own identity in all the peoples.״

The Zionist Jew-Jitsu: A New Jew in an Old-New Land

Zionism, then, always envisioned a Jew-Jitsu, turning Jewish negatives into Zionist, now Israeli, positives. The New Jews in Herzl׳s Old-New Land would both defend themselves and fulfill themselves. The chalutzim, Zionism׳s broad-shouldered, bronzed pioneers, resurrected their authentic selves through communal farming: the kibbutz.

These heroic homegrown Sabras negating the Galut, the exile, proudly taking history in their own hands, generated a new Jewish stereotype. This new generation tapped what the author Haim Hazzaz in 1942 called ״Zionism׳s inner essence, its hidden power.״ Zionism was radical, pro-active, cleansing. This vision made Zionism a movement of national cultural and spiritual revival as well as political redemption.

American Zionists celebrated the transformation. Their Zionism united Jews as partners in building the Jewish state while restoring the Jewish soul. Henrietta Szold, who founded Hadassah, the Women׳s Zionist Organization of America in 1912, recognized ״the need״ of ״a sanctuary for miserable Jews,״ and ״of a center from which Jewish culture and inspiration will flow״ for all, even as American Jews remained in their ״happy, prosperous country.״

Similarly, Israel׳s founding prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, agreed that ״Israel cannot just be a refuge.״ ״If it is to survive as a valid nation it has to be much, much more,״ a light unto the nations, not just a lighthouse with a beacon.

In 1967, Israelis׳ decisive defeat of Soviet-backed Arab forces vindicated Zionism. Three young Israeli soldiers, transmitting innocence, idealism, and a straight-backed, unapologetic power, stood against the newly-liberated Western Wall. Their photograph epitomized the promise that Israel׳s super-heroes could do anything, even achieve peace and end Jew-hatred.

With its sweeping six-day victory, Israel shed its ״David״ status, winning big, just as the world fell in love with losers. Progressives cast Israel as ״Goliath״ – and an ״occupier״ blamed for everything bad that happened to the Palestinians. Israel׳s new power encouraged the new antisemitism, an anti-Zionism masking traditional Jew-hatred behind human rights talk, uniting the left with its ideological opposite – Islamism – against the oldest enemy – the Jew.

Still, Israel׳s Prime Minister Golda Meir, trusted the Israeli miracle. ״Above all, this country is our own,״ she explained. ״Nobody has to get up in the morning and worry what his neighbors think of him.״ The ״Jewish question״ was finally answered: ״Being a Jew is no problem here.״

Zionists wanted Jews to stop being so other-directed. It ״doesn׳t matter what the goyim say,״ Ben-Gurion taught. ״It matters what the Jews do.״ Today, it matters less what the anti-Zionists say and more that Zionism continues.

While inflaming Jew-hatred, Zionism made most Jews less vulnerable by bringing them home. Ben-Gurion׳s protégé, Shimon Peres, would convey that sensibility into the 21st century, calling antisemitism, ״no longer a problem for the Jews. It is a problem for the goyim.״

Well-aware of what never-ending hostility does to people׳s souls and their politics, Rabbi David Hartman in 1982 warned against the ״moral narcissism״ of victims confusing their suffering with moral virtue. Years before competitive victimhood became an intramural sport on campus, rejecting a defensive, Holocaust-scarred worldview, Hartman proclaimed: ״We will mourn forever because of the memory of Auschwitz. We will build a healthy new society because of the memory of Sinai.״

Identity Zionism as the Way Forward Today

The rise of Israel׳s Right amid the twin misfires of the Oslo Peace Process in the 1990s and the Gaza Disengagement in 2005, left Israelis feeling bombarded and betrayed. By 2003, the former prisoner-of-Zion Natan Sharansky, noting the ״murderous anti-Jewish hatred״ festering in ״ostensible bastions of enlightenment and tolerance״ throughout Europe, and on campus, realized that antisemitism would not wither away along with Soviet totalitarianism. This was his ״shattered illusion״ as Jew-hatred proved its plasticity, morphing from antisemitism to anti-Zionism and back again. Now, Jews׳ homelessness did not cause Jew-hatred; Jews coming home fed it.

This inversion challenged Zionism ideologically. If rather than eliminating antisemitism, Zionism inflamed it, some wondered if eliminating Zionism might eliminate antisemitism. Such ״logic״ blamed the victim, missing the antisemite׳s ever-adapting obsessiveness. The bigotry tells more about the bigot׳s agenda than the bigot׳s target. Haters will always find a reason to hate. This approach also misread Zionism as ״garrison Zionism,״ only defensive, rather than the redemptive rebuilding project for the Jewish people Zionism has been.

Sharansky refused to despair, devoting nine years in the Jewish Agency to moving Zionism from reactive to proactive and from ״an Aliyah of necessity״ to an ״Aliyah of choice.״ His 2020 manifesto and memoir (which he and I co-authored) was not called ״Never Again״ but Never Alone – going from fleeing trauma to seeking redemption. Those belonging to this extraordinary network called the Jewish people are rooted, interconnected, bonded – never abandoned.

These constructive threads weave together the patchwork quilt of Identity Zionism. While established, the state is not yet perfected. Challenges of delegitimization, terrorism, internal divisions, and the quest for peace loom. But Identity Zionism embraces Israel and Jewish peoplehood as collective, rooted, identity-building platforms in an increasingly alienated, individuated world.

Today, amid the post-October 7th surge, there׳s a lot of talk about ״October 8th Zionists״ or ״Jews.״ Better to be a ״1948 Zionist,״ or a 3,500-year-old Jew tapping into the identity and ideological possibilities rather than fleeing the ugliest realities.

Israel incorporates contradictions. History imposed some; Zionism fostered others. As this small, cranky, expensive, unpopular, stressed-out country surrounded by enemies stays in the top ten of the World Happiness Index, articles proliferate wondering: ״Why are the Israelis so Damned Happy?״ A 2016 JPPI study suggested why: more than two-thirds of Israel׳s Jewish citizens build their identities around Jewish nationality, culture, tradition – with those values shared by networks of close friends and strong families. In short, amid terrorism and fear, economic strains, and regional instability, Zionism delivered a home, a sense of mission, and frameworks for finding meaning in life.

Zionism did not solve the problem of antisemitism. And it did not cure the lingering ailments of a people suffering from collective PTSD. But it transformed the historical equation with its 6 Eyes: Idealism, Identity, Industriousness, Independence, Indifference, and being Incorruptible. Today, Zionism empowers the Jews not the antisemites to make the Jew, the Jewish people, and Judaism.

The writer Hillel Halkin summed up Israel׳s post-1948 response to the world׳s hatred. This American immigrant to Israel, celebrates his life there, and his people׳s ״great adventure,״ from exile to home, from powerlessness to power, from misery to joy, proclaiming ״I wouldn׳t have missed it for the world.״

Sadly, Jew-hatred is not disappearing, as Zionophobia resurrects and frequently relegitimizes Judeophobia. But while hating the haters, Jews also hate what the hatred does to the hated. So beyond defending against antisemitism, Zionism taught Jews to defend against defensiveness while pursuing the hope-filled goal ״to live as a free nation in our land, our land of Zion״ – building a Jerusalem that fulfills Jewish dreams while still trying to inspire the world.