The Chicago’s Jewish community’s ‘anti-zionist’ congregation

Rabbi Brant Rosen, the spiritual leader of Tzedek Chicago, taking part in an anti-poverty march. Image via Rabbi Rosen

JVL Introduction

Tzedek Chicago has changed its core values to include being an anti-Zionist community.

It is a provocative act and deliberately so: “We wanted to spark these conversations and broaden the boundaries in the Jewish community of what is considered acceptable discourse on the subject of Zionism … and to move that discourse away from labeling anti-Zionists as antisemites.”

Other Jewish communities in Chicago are silent about it, not wanting to draw additional attention to this development.

Rabbi Rosen affirms: “We love being Jewish – all we want is a Jewish community that’s a place to be our whole Jewish selves.”

This article was originally published by Ha'aretz on Wed 6 Apr 2022. Read the original here.

‘Anti-Zionist’ Congregation Stirs Emotion in Chicago’s Jewish Community

Rabbi Brant Rosen expected a heated debate after his synagogue voted to designate itself as ‘anti-Zionist,’ but others in Chicago see the act as either alarming or a publicity stunt

The spiritual leader of Tzedek Chicago had harbored “no illusions” that reaction would be fierce when his congregation announced last week that being “anti-Zionist” was officially one of the community’s “core values.”

“But that was part of the point,” said Rabbi Brant Rosen in a telephone interview with Haaretz. “We wanted to spark these conversations and broaden the boundaries in the Jewish community of what is considered acceptable discourse on the subject of Zionism … and to move that discourse away from labeling anti-Zionists as antisemites.”

The congregation, founded in 2015, drew national attention and ignited Twitter debate after 73 percent of its 200 families approved a board decision adding new language to the synagogue’s “core values” statement, altering their self-description from “non-Zionist” to “anti-Zionist.”

“While we appreciate the important role of the land of Israel in Jewish tradition, liturgy and identity, we do not celebrate the fusing of Judaism with political nationalism,” the new statement reads. “We are anti-Zionist, openly acknowledging that the creation of an ethnic Jewish nation-state in historic Palestine resulted in an injustice against the Palestinian people – an injustice that continues to this day.”

Rosen, 59, is a former liberal Zionist Reconstructionist rabbi whose politics subsequently shifted sharply leftward. He became a pro-Palestinian activist affiliated with the left-wing organization Jewish Voice for Peace, co-founding their rabbinical council, which supports the BDS movement, and resigned his previous synagogue post of 17 years over tensions surrounding the 2014 war in Gaza. A year later, he founded Tzedek Chicago.

Asked to define clearly the terms that had changed in his synagogue’s statement, Rosen said that “a non-Zionist is someone for whom Israel and Zionism is a topic they are neutral on … it’s not an identity, it’s a descriptive statement.”

By contrast, he said, an anti-Zionist takes a more proactive stance and clearly “opposes the very concept of an exclusively Jewish nation-state in historic Palestine.”

Therefore, he added, the term “anti-Zionist” was a more accurate description of the values of his congregation. That opposition is both “ideological” and “institutional”: opposing both Jewish nationalist ideology and institutions carrying its banner “that have as their goal creating a Jewish demographic majority in the land,” he said.

Rosen explained that the decision grew out of a conversation at a board meeting in late 2021, in which he and congregational leaders spoke of their desire to be more “explicit” about their position on Israel. Because they did not want to dictate to the congregation, they decided to bring it to a community vote after a series of membership meetings “where we really wanted people to share their personal thoughts about their feelings about being part of a community, and what this would mean as a core value.

“It was an amazing process,” he says. “We were glad we opened up our conversations. It was unlike most conversations on the topic, which are very polarizing and very toxic. People shared how they were raised with Israel as part of their identity and how they came to break with it.”

‘Heartbreaking distinction’

The response of the wider Chicago community was muted, with most Jewish leaders and advocacy groups declining to publicly denounce the decision in order to avoid drawing additional attention to it.

“Rabbi Rosen has had his own non-Zionist congregation for several years, and I have not noticed that it has had a significant impact on the Chicago Jewish community. The change in policy from being ‘non-Zionist’ to ‘anti-Zionist’ is getting a lot of attention on Twitter and from people I know outside of Chicago. I do not know if this change will have as much impact on the ground in Chicago,” said Rabbi David Wolkenfeld, rabbi of Anshe Sholom B’nai Israel Congregation, the city’s oldest synagogue.

Wolkenfeld said he understood the “trenchant criticism” that non-Zionists levy against the mainstream American Jewish community – “that we have replaced Torah and mitzvot as the central animating focus for Jewish life with a political platform of Zionism and support for the State of Israel.”

However, he said, “it strikes me that Rabbi Rosen’s congregation has replicated this dynamic in the opposite direction. The non-Zionist Jews with whom I interact – whether members of our congregation or active members of the broader Jewish community – are all men and women who have serious commitments to Torah and mitzvot. I doubt they would find Rabbi Rosen’s congregation appealing. They might find its politics more aligned to their own, but I think what they seek most of all is Jewish communal life that is centered on mitzvot and not centered on the politics of modern Israel at all.”

Rabbi Shoshanah Conover, senior rabbi at the city’s large Reform congregation Temple Sholom, said she believes the change in Tzedek Chicago’s core values is a significant one.

“There’s a difference in degree when you go from something that is passive to something that is actively ‘anti-’. We’ll see how that changes what they do,” she said. “For me, there’s a distinction between saying we’re not connected to Israel and saying we actively want it not to exist. For me personally, it’s a heartbreaking distinction.”

While the change may appear “subtle,” she said, “for Israelis, it should be alarming to see the largest Diaspora community increasingly showing less of a connection and now more hostility to the Jewish state.”

Sarah van Loon, Chicago regional director for the American Jewish Committee, said that when Tzedek Chicago announced the change and “made a splash” on social media, she began receiving phone calls from the community with concerns and questions, asking her how meaningful the development was in terms of defining their community.

“People are asking, ‘Is this really a thing?’ I share with them from my vantage point that this is not as big a thing as the internet reflects. … Social media is always looking for more opportunities to cast Israel in a bad light. It doesn’t surprise me that it picked up so much traction,” van Loon said.

Perspective is important, she added, noting that the congregation is a “few hundred people” and a “minority of a minority” in a “massive” Chicago Jewish population: recent surveys found that over 300,000 in the area define themselves as Jewish, while 400,000 say they live in Jewish households.

“The vast majority of Jews are pro-Zionist, and similarly the vast majority of our Jewish organizations are Zionist,” she said. “It’s been interesting to see the fuss around this, but it is very unrepresentative of the broader community here.” Van Loon also noted that more than a quarter of Tzedek Chicago’s own members voted against the “anti-Zionist” statement.

Dr. Sara Yael Hirschhorn, visiting assistant professor in Israel studies at Chicago’s Northwestern University, agreed that the vote “separates the Tzedek Chicago community from the core values of 85 to 90 percent of American Jews. It also positions their congregation, ideologically, closer to Haredi [or ultra-Orthodox] American Jews than their fellow liberal American Jews.”

At this point, she said, it is unclear “how many other communities would have the political or financial support to take this decision and whether this will inspire a trend, especially as an increasing number of millennials who may hold non/anti-Zionist positions are not deeply engaged with American Jewish institutions at all.”

Van Loon said that from an Israel advocacy standpoint, she toggled “between not wanting to give them more oxygen,” and the need to express “sadness that that is where they came to, that they think this is the best way to protest the occupation.” For AJC, she said, “I think it shows we have to be clearer in how we are promoting peace between Palestinians and Israelis, showing that peace is possible. We don’t feel like we need to sacrifice the living State of Israel in order to achieve peace.”

Rosen said the reaction of the wider community means little to his congregation, since “we were never part of the organized mainstream Jewish community in Chicago to begin with.

“We’ve carved out a different place in the Jewish community for ourselves. There are many Jews in our community that would not affiliate communally if not for a congregation like ours,” he said. The goal of the vote “was not to poke at sensitive places and cause controversy. We love being Jewish – all we want is a Jewish community that’s a place to be our whole Jewish selves.”


See also our January 2022 report on this development

Is being “Non Zionist” enough for this progressive Chicago Jewish community?

Comments (2)

  • Doug says:

    Now as an accountant by nature and a non Jewish person, I’m very suspicious of how some of those quoted make sweeping statements on levels of support
    Can you add to the debate by putting out any actual figures you have that broadly reflect the feelings of the Jewish Community in this country

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  • Doug says:

    The other obvious point is the Chicago congregation would be expelled from the Labour party as they equate Anti Zionism = Anti Semitism

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