With a continuity crisis looming over everything we do here, an increasing number of influential American Jews rightly see no need to continue funneling Jewish funds to the Zionist infrastructure in Israel when diaspora needs such as Jewish education are starving for funds. Indeed, an increasingly assimilated and intermarried American Jewish population is not likely to identify with Israel under any circumstances. Thus, the new era of post-Zionism looks to be one in which most Jews outside of Israel won't care much about the Jewish state, and Jews living inside Israel have lost touch with the political and religious heritage of their country. The irony here is that we are burying Zionism just at the time when we need it most. It may be that the old slogans have lost their appeal.
Nobody sings Zionist songs around campfires anymore.
Zionism is not a substitute for Judaism, as many have treated it in the last 50 years, but is integral to it. It is in the synthesis of Zionist values, such as love for the Land of Israel, the centrality of it in Jewish life, and the protection of Jewish rights everywhere. We simply can't afford to reject Israel no matter what complications the politics of the day bring. An American Jewry that insulates itself from Israel and that abandons Zionist ideals will be incapable of sustaining itself. It is a real place that has the power to transform Jewish lives.