Judaism versus Zionism with Professor Carolyn L. Karcher
Channel: FellowshipUSA
Date: 2023-05-17

A conversation about the history and current movement of Jews who choose loyalty to the ethical imperatives at the heart of Judaism—love the stranger, pursue justice, and repair the world—rather than embrace unconditional support for the state of Israel; a choice between Judaism as a religion and the nationalist ideology of Zionism, which is usurping that religion.

Carolyn L. Karcher is a professor emerita of English, American studies, and women’s studies at Temple University, where she taught for twenty-one years and received the Great Teacher Award and the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2002. She is an author/editor of numerous books, including Shadow over the Promised Land: Slavery, Race, and Violence in Melville’s America (1980); A Refugee from His Race: Albion W. Tourgée and His Fight against White Supremacy (2016) and Reclaiming Judaism from Zionism: Stories of Personal Transformation (available for purchase in FOR-USA’s bookstore), a fascinating collection of autobiographical essays describing how devout American Jews, including FOR-USA Executive Director, Ariel Gold, disentangled themselves from the distortions of Zionism. Carolyn and her husband Martin Karcher live in Washington, D.C., where they are active members of Jewish Voice for Peace.