r/JewsOfConscience • u/NAHTHEHNRFS850 Sahist • Nov 17 '24
Discussion Forming a Anti-Zionist Denomination of Judaism
Seeing the stickied post regarding people seeking out progressive (particularly anti-Zionist) Jewish services, I wanted to talk about the formation of a progressive anti-Zionist Jewish denomination.
While there are progressive denominations of Judaism (e.g. Humanistic), these denominations don’t explicitly render themselves as anti-Zionist in the fact that they don’t declare “that there should not be a Jewish state”.
A new denomination such as this would need to remove practices phrases, statements and literature making overtures to the Holy Land and focus on community and belief in God. I see this as parallel to how some branches of Humanistic Judaism avoid using theonyms (names associated with God e.g. Joshua).
Thoughts?
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u/BolesCW Mizrahi Nov 17 '24
Considering that there is a formative trauma of national destruction and expulsion/exile in Judaism, excising references to a rebuilt Jerusalem, the coming of mashiah, and an end to diaspora would whittle down the siddur quite a lot. Frankly, that reeks of censorship for ideological reasons.
It's far more honest and courageous to grapple with how to heal the trauma of community destruction and expulsion through a rejection of geopolitical and ethnosupremacist sovereignty.
As we move into winter, we have the opportunity to examine the story ahd legacy of the Hasmoneans. Why did the rabbis choose to focus on the miracle of the oil? Because the creation of an institutional religious fundamentalism coupled to the desire of the victorious cohanim to consolidate political power into a hereditary monarchy went against Biblical and rabbinic Judaism. The inherent conflicts of dynastic succession practically mandated one side of the family inviting the hated Roman imperialists into the land. The full history of the Hanukkah story is not the anti-imperialist lesson of kicking out the Seleucids...