Since October 7, haters snort: \u201cZionists not allowed here\u201d \u2026 \u201cZionists don\u2019t deserve to live\u201d \u2026 Zionists are genocidal \u201cbaby-killers.\u201d They sling around Zionism, Zionists, and the prefix \u201cZio\u201d as slurs. Enough fighting back and counterattacking. Let\u2019s push past \u2013 and counter-program.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy when haters assault Jews directly \u2013 they show who they are. There are still enough decent people around to resist, defending their favorite Jews. More worrying is what one rabbi friend, who has identified many different intifadas, would call \u201cThe Silent Intifadas\u201d \u2013 the shunning, ghosting, unspoken boycotting. There\u2019s \u201cThe Social Intifada,\u201d ostracizing Jews, especially students, because one bully decided to excommunicate them socially.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s \u201cThe Conference-and-Journal Intifada,\u201d as academics stop inviting Israeli colleagues, collaborating with them, or accepting Israeli submissions \u2013 without explaining why. Sometimes, anti-Israel zealots duck controversy. But most academics aren\u2019t anti-Israel \u2013 they\u2019re just careerists who fear that adding an Israeli name to their project will generate unnecessary, unspoken static.<\/p>\n
And there\u2019s \u201cThe Bookstore Intifada.\u201d One Jewish Federation executive purchased and distributed 400 copies of my book, The Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream. She explained: \u201cWe have to bypass the bookstores and get it to our students our way. Local booksellers won\u2019t admit it, but they don\u2019t carry books like yours with \u2018Zionist\u2019 featuring positively in the title.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many bookstores, especially independent ones in progressive cities, feature pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel books in windows and front tables. It’s easy to despair, and become self-pitying. Instead, let\u2019s learn from Zionism and American Jewish history, reframing and transcending.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the Harmonie-Hillcrest strategy. When New York Jews were banned by the Knickerbocker Club, they established the nicer, grander Harmonie Club in 1852. When LA Jews were excluded from every country club, they formed the Hillcrest Country Club in 1920 \u2013 even striking oil on the grounds! And when Jew-haters worldwide oppressed Jews, Zionists founded the thriving, proud, world-transforming, Jewish happy place \u2013 Israel.<\/p>\n
Similarly, Jewish students should grow spines, engage their friends, especially when Jew-haters menace. It exposes who your friends are, and who aren\u2019t. Better to have clarity and fewer relationships with real friends than posturing with fakers.<\/p>\n
Israeli academics \u2013 along with Jewish, pro-Israel, and fair-minded, research-oriented, data-driven colleagues \u2013 must improvise. They must continue strengthening Israeli-based journals, conferences, and universities.<\/p>\n
Having been deeply entrenched in academia \u2013 until I wasn\u2019t; escaping the groupthink and false currency of this journal, that conference, and the supreme muckety-mucks of the profession, can be liberating and generate better scholarship with clearer thoughts. The easiest solutions are in publishing. It\u2019s about money and vision, not values and establishments. Publishers such as Gefen, JPS\/The Jewish Publication Society, Koren, and Wicked Son bring the books to life.<\/p>\n
Foundations, Jewish Federations, schools, synagogues, Jewish publications, and Zionist-positive websites should embrace the remaining challenges of cultivating Zionist authors, helping them produce, publicizing their works, and buying in bulk.<\/p>\n
We need Zionist think tanks connecting older scholars who will mentor younger ones, to help bring book ideas to market. We need Zionist book-of-the-month clubs selling books; Zionist book awards encouraging groundbreaking books; mass book buys of Zionist and Israeli books; book clubs reading Israeli, Jewish, and Zionist authors, with authors providing discussion guides.<\/p>\n
Although I\u2019ve seen initiatives promoting one book or author, I haven\u2019t seen the systematic thinking that could start balancing out the information war \u2013 first among pro-Israel types, then beyond.<\/p>\n
If the Harold Grinspoon Foundation\u2019s visionaries could figure out how to spread engaging Jewish books among young Jews and Israelis, then another foundation should be bold and create a PJ Library-equivalent for students, parents, and other pro-Israel and Zionist adults. In a digital age, let\u2019s reconceptualize our approach to books. Consider each book an opening serve. Then translate the author\u2019s words and ideas into charts, images, fact boxes \u2013 followed by TikTok-type videos.<\/p>\n
Authors must realize that our jobs don\u2019t end with publication; that\u2019s when they really begin. Book talks, book clubs, interviews, and reviews are wonderful. But those of us writing about Zionism and Israel are obliged to translate our information, stories, and insights into short, punchy material that the younger generation can digest on social media.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s too easy, and too lazy, to stand on ceremony or defend some theoretical vision of purity. In wartime, we \u2013 bolstered by generous philanthropists, creative content-generators, and younger people \u2013 must mobilize together to tell the truth. As we begin Elul, the last month in the Jewish calendar, you can feel the growing buildup to the new year, even in a war-clouded Jerusalem. The conversations range from the prosaic to the profound, from \u201cWhere are we going on the first night of Rosh Hashanah?\u201d to \u201cWhere are we headed existentially, spiritually, personally?\u201d<\/p>\n
At this moment of Zionist anguish, when many Israelis feel abandoned by Jewish critics abroad \u2013 and many Diaspora Jews feel disappointed by \u201cIsrael,\u201d not just its government \u2013 the challenges are too great. We dare not wallow or point fingers. This is our moment. Let\u2019s master the various media, realizing that truth is on our side. Those of us lucky enough not to be far away from the bloody front lines, or deprived of that sacred opportunity, are morally obligated to do whatever we can to tell our story.<\/p>\n
We must save Zionism from the anti-Zionists committed to slurring this successful movement of national liberation.<\/p>\n