Welcome to the New Zionist Journal

By Sadie Hilf

Zionism is an ideology thousands of years old, maintained by Jews longing to return from diaspora, adapting and evolving as history necessitated. 

We often think of Zionism in its modern form being formed by Theodor Herzl in the 1890’s in the aftermath of the Dreyfus affair. However, many people attempted before Herzl to create excitement around the promise of returning home. But Herzl possessed something that all his predecessors lacked- the ability to tell a story. 

And I don’t mean story in the “once upon a time” way, but rather in the “we have struggled and prevailed for thousands of years and we will do so again” way. As Dr. Einat Wilf asserts in her book Telling Our Story, Herzl’s strength arose from being able to tell and re-tell the Zionist narrative over and over again, being able to incorporate new parts while maintaining the accuracy of the past. 

Since Herzl, we have seen many re-tellings of the Zionist story, through the eyes of leaders such as Moshe Dayan, Shimon Peres and Naftali Bennett, through organizations such as BBYO, the Jewish National Fund, and the Jewish Agency, and through everyday people who believe in the Jewish right to self determination in their ancestral homeland like you and I. 

If you’re reading this, then you have likely realized that we have once again entered a new phase of the re-telling of the Zionist story- one where Jews are secure about Israel on a level never before seen, and one where Jews have begun to debate the very need for Israel because of the safety it has provided us. You are here because you care about Israel’s future and realize its future depends on incorporating this new era into its ever evolving story.

So join us in doing what our elders have done before and rise up to take our turn in the path of the ancient Maccabees and meet the darkness with abundant light.

This substack is a place for the New Zionist theory to begin to form, shaped by all. If you have an essay you would be interested in publishing, please email them to newzionists@gmail.com as a Word Document attachment with the subject line “<your first and last name> Journal Submission”.

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Theodor-Herzl

Telling Our Story by Dr. Einat Wilf