On December 10, 2020, Brandeis Center President, Alyza D. Lewin, joined several prominent advocates and leaders of the Jewish community for a special episode of the Edwin Black Show webinar series, “Zionism – Central to Judaism Under Attack,” to discuss the centrality of Zionism to Judaism and Jewish identity. As Black explained in his introductory monologue, “Zionism is much more than just a 19th century political movement designed to return Jews to their ancient land. Zionism is a central tenet of Judaism and an inextricable part of Jewish identity.” Black led an engaging discussion with Lewin, Rabbi Yotav Eliach, Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt and Brooke Goldstein about how Jewish theology, history and culture are inextricably intertwined with the Land of Israel and current efforts by anti-Semites to disassociate Judaism from Zionism. Rabbi Yotav Eliach, the distinguished Jewish educator and author of Judaism, Zionism and the Land of Israel (Dialogue Press, 2018), provided a historical overview of Jewish sovereignty in the ancient Land of Israel, explaining that Zionism cannot be separated from Judaism because Judaism cannot be separated from the Land of Israel. Rabbi Eliach described Theodore Herzl as one link, albeit an important one, in a long chain of Jews that reaches back thousands of years to Abraham; over the centuries, these Jews all held on to the seeds of Zionism that were transferred from generation to generation of Jews and were eventually planted in the modern State of Israel. Building upon Rabbi Eliach’s remarks, Lewin explained that Judaism is not just a religion, it is also an ethnicity. Jews share not only a common faith, but also a sense of Jewish peoplehood that includes a deep historic and theological connection to the Land of Israel; and Zionism is an expression of the Jewish people’s shared ancestry and ethnicity. But today, Jews are under pressure to abandon their sense of Jewish peoplehood, their Jewish ethnic pride and their connection to the land of Israel. Jews are being told by anti-Semites that the price of admission into progressive circles today is to shed the Zionist part of their Jewish identity. Unlike other groups in society, Jews are not allowed to define their own identities; they are being told that Jewish identity does not and cannot include a connection to Zionism and the Land of Israel. Lewin explained that often people who make such demands of Jews do not understand that Zionism is not merely a political ideology, but rather an integral part of Jewish identity; therefore when Jews celebrate the existence of a modern Jewish country in the ancient Land of Israel – where Hebrew is the spoken language and the Jewish calendar is the national calendar, where modern Jewish culture flourishes while Jews walk on the same ancient stones that Jews walked on thousands of years ago – Jews are expressing ethnic pride in their shared Jewish ancestral heritage. Lewin further warned that at the Brandeis Center, she has witnessed a dangerous trend taking hold on university campuses across the country, where Jewish students are being ostracized and excluded from student organizations and campus social life merely for celebrating their ethnic Jewish pride and identity; and that such exclusion is but a new manifestation of the age-old hatred of anti-Semitism. Brooke Goldstein, head of the Lawfare Project, discussed the need for Jewish Zionist activists to advocate for themselves today just as other minority groups have done when they advocated for gay rights, women’s rights and Black Lives Matter. Seizing on the historic opportunity to be included in modern-day minority rights movements, Goldstein launched a Jewish civil rights movement called “EndJewHatred” that aims to end Jew-hatred in our lifetime by “ensuring that it is no longer socially acceptable to engage in… Jew hatred.” One of the important points that Goldstein emphasized during her remarks was that the exclusion of Jewish students on college campuses based on their Zionist identity is a form of discrimination and therefore those students are protected by our civil rights laws. Finally, Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt, President of the Rabbinic cabinet of the Jewish Federations of North America and senior Rabbi of Congregation B’nei Tzedek in Maryland, discussed his creation of the Zionist Rabbinic Coalition, a group of over 100 Rabbis who believe in Zionism. Rabbi Weinblatt explained that Rabbis in the diaspora are uniquely positioned to influence the hearts and minds of diasporic Jewish communities and their relationship and engagement with Zionism and Israel. He recounted a sermon he delivered during the High Holidays in which he discussed the controversial question of whether or not Rabbis should speak about political issues; Rabbi Weinblatt concluded that he would indeed stay away from politics and instead he would discuss Jewish support for Israel because “as Rabbis we should be advocates for Jewish peoplehood…[and] Eretz Yisrael,” which is not a political issue. Rabbi Weinblatt’s coalition of Zionist Rabbis aims to take responsibility for shaping a constructive relationship between the American Jewish community and the Jewish community in Israel. Lewin closed out the show by reminding viewers about the lessons of the Hannukah holiday, which coincided with the airing of this show. Just as the Macabbees harnessed the power of their Jewish faith and pride to fight and ultimate defeat those who demanded that they abandon their Jewish identity, so, too, today must Jews assert their religious and ethnic pride to push back against anti-Semites who insist that Jews shed the Zionist part of their Jewish identity. Clearly these remarkable speakers and Jewish activists are already leading the way. Watch the video here.