Time to take back Z word?

RYAN YUFFE ISRAEL CAMPUS BEAT

For years, many students shied away from Zionism because they feared the term engendered negative connotations. In the past, as Israel advocates put in effort to educate campuses about Israel, Zionism has rarely been part of the discussion. Recently, however, student activists are focusing on Zionist discussion and programming with positive results.

Last summer, Adam Wachs, a University of Pennsylvania sophomore and a World Zionist Organization (WZO) intern, attended a WZO training session in San Francisco where interns participated in several Zionist discussions, called Beit Ha’am. Participants studied biblical, Zionist and contemporary texts. Wachs credits Beit Ha’am with engaging students from all spectrums of political thought. “The Beit Ha’am is important because the word Zionism has a lot of negative connotations on campuses today,” Wachs said. “Being a Zionist doesn’t mean you are far right or a supporter of settlements. It is important to show people that you can be a Zionist and look at Israel critically, whether you are on the right side of the spectrum or the left.”

WZO seeks to encourage campus-wide events along with group study and discussion. The new Beit Ha’am (a Hebrew phrase that means house of the nation) initiative brings students together to study Zionist texts, contemporary Israeli authors and biblical texts. Some discussions are led by WZO staff, but students are encouraged to study the texts among themselves.

“The reason for the name is that students are coming together to talk about the home of the nation [of the Jewish people],” explained Zoe Jick, WZO’s northeast regional coordinator. “Additionally, Beit Ha’am is the name for a communal building on a kibbutz. There is this idea of students gathering together for the sake of studying and learning about Zionism.”

Lior Ben-Hur, the WZO’s West Coast regional coordinator, explained that his organization’s approach to campus differs slightly from the way other groups operate. At WZO, Zionism is actively promoted among students due to its potential in drawing in many differing perspectives. “Pro-Israel events generally deal with current Israeli policy, and the speaker usually has an agenda that he or she is looking to convey to students,” Ben-Hur said, adding that Zionist programming does not begin with a concrete agenda. “We bring a topic to the table to discuss – we seek to promote everyone’s opinion and encourage different viewpoints.”

During last year’s social protests in Israel, WZO helped execute a program on campuses that focused on the many visions for Israel embraced by early Zionist thinkers, juxtaposed with the reality in Israel today. “This event was a great success because it coincided with the Occupy protests in the U.S.,” Ben-Hur said. “The program had relevance for anyone who was interested in Zionism, social justice, and even American politics.”

In recent years, most Israel advocates have focused their energies on contemporary issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. Some people see no difference between these activities and Zionist-themed programming.

“There is no difference in pro-Israel and Zionist programming besides the use of the word Zionist,” said Lihi Benisty, New England campus coordinator for StandWithUs. The only distinction is that “many student Israel activists choose not to openly identify as a Zionist, therefore bringing the alternative word, pro-Israel,” she said.

Although activists today are generally pinned as “pro-Israel,” this doesn’t take anything away from their Zionist foundations, according to Aaron Marcus, the northeast campus coordinator for the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA).

“If you have programming that agrees that Jews do in fact have a right to self-determination in Israel, then there is little difference between Zionist and pro-Israel programming,” he said.

However, he added that many students on campuses today fail to understand what Zionism meant in the past, and what it means in today’s world. The lack of education has a negative impact on activists and their ability to educate others about Israel.

“Hasbara is important and, while many hasbara techniques might not outright label themselves Zionist, much of what they discuss is Zionist philosophy,” Marcus said. “I believe it is more important to teach the general public the truth about Zionism in addition to typical hasbara techniques.”

At Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., Hillel president Maggie Weinreb agreed that not enough has been done to create a discussion around Zionism. For Weinreb, learning about Zionism gets to the core of what Israel activism is about. “I think colleges need to focus more on Zionism instead of blindly advocating for Israel,” she said. “It is time to show why we love Israel, not just that we love Israel.”

But, for some, Zionist programming remains separate from Israel advocacy. Even the target audience is distinct, according to Alex Zeldin, a sophomore at Rutgers University, because campus Zionist programming is aimed primarily towards Jewish students.

Zeldin agreed that not enough has been done to revive Zionism as a central tool to help Jews advocate for Israel. He maintained that Zionist education and programming has great potential for involving students who previously were apathetic and uninvolved in the Israel discussion.

To varying degrees, all of the students interviewed for this story agreed that Zionism should figure more prominently in campus Israel programming.

Ryan Yuffe is a reporter-intern for Israel Campus Beat and a student at Brandeis University.

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