As of June 2025, I no longer identify as a Zionist. My beliefs have not changed since the days when I identified as Zionist, and I still agree with several points of the Jerusalem Program that at least used to be the accepted definition of Zionism.
However, it became clear to me that (1) most Zionists now believe things I find repugnant and horrible, such as support for Israel’s evil and unjustifiable destruction of Gaza, and (2) the word “Zionism,” however much I’d like it to be different, now to most people connotes support for the Gaza destruction and for the general subjugation or even intentional genocide of Palestinians (lest I be accused of hyperbole, a recent poll of Israelis found that the vast majority support expelling all Palestinians from Gaza, and a large minority support killing them all). These views are repugnant and unacceptable, and, like it or not (and I don’t) they are what the word “Zionism” has come to mean to enough people–Israelis and Palestinians alike–that I can no longer use it to identify myself.
I believe in ahavat Tzion, the same as I did yesterday, and the same as I will tomorrow. (At the same time, I feel a duty to be openminded to arguments that the problem is rooted in the concept of Zion itself–as one who recognizes that I am lost in a Judaism that has to my surprise gone utterly off the rails into hate, I don’t pretend to have any of the answers right now. Diasporism doesn’t particularly appeal to me, but I’m going to need to listen to it because I have to be openminded to the possibility that diasporists might have some of the answers.) My core beliefs in ahavat Tzion have not changed since I identified as a Zionist. I didn’t leave Zionism; Zionism left me.
Reflective Judaism 