November 12, 2026
It’s time to stop trying to appease the Jews turning against the Jewish community.
“Avoid ‘Zionism.’”
That was the advice on a slide at a retreat for the Jewish Federations of North America’s National Young Leadership Cabinet. The advice is not hard to understand. JFNA’s own polling found that 88 percent of American Jews said Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish, democratic state, while only 37 percent identified as Zionists. When support for that proposition is so much broader than identification with the word that names it, it is easy to see why an institution would want to avoid the term in order to keep people in the conversation.
But when an image of the slide was shared online, it caused an uproar, and JFNA quickly ended its relationship with the consultant involved, saying the slide did not represent its approach to Zionism. I believe them. Reluctance to use the word Zionist is not the same thing as wanting Jewish institutions to retreat from Zionism. In the same poll, only 7 percent called themselves anti-Zionist, suggesting a substantial gap between what people are willing to call themselves and what they actually believe. But interpreting the data is not the same as knowing where Jewish life is headed.
November 12, 2026
It’s time to stop trying to appease the Jews turning against the Jewish community.
“Avoid ‘Zionism.’”
That was the advice on a slide at a retreat for the Jewish Federations of North America’s National Young Leadership Cabinet. The advice is not hard to understand. JFNA’s own polling found that 88 percent of American Jews said Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish, democratic state, while only 37 percent identified as Zionists. When support for that proposition is so much broader than identification with the word that names it, it is easy to see why an institution would want to avoid the term in order to keep people in the conversation.
But when an image of the slide was shared online, it caused an uproar, and JFNA quickly ended its relationship with the consultant involved, saying the slide did not represent its approach to Zionism. I believe them. Reluctance to use the word Zionist is not the same thing as wanting Jewish institutions to retreat from Zionism. In the same poll, only 7 percent called themselves anti-Zionist, suggesting a substantial gap between what people are willing to call themselves and what they actually believe. But interpreting the data is not the same as knowing where Jewish life is headed.
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Subscribe Now“Avoid ‘Zionism.’”
That was the advice on a slide at a retreat for the Jewish Federations of North America’s National Young Leadership Cabinet. The advice is not hard to understand. JFNA’s own polling found that 88 percent of American Jews said Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish, democratic state, while only 37 percent identified as Zionists. When support for that proposition is so much broader than identification with the word that names it, it is easy to see why an institution would want to avoid the term in order to keep people in the conversation.
But when an image of the slide was shared online, it caused an uproar, and JFNA quickly ended its relationship with the consultant involved, saying the slide did not represent its approach to Zionism. I believe them. Reluctance to use the word Zionist is not the same thing as wanting Jewish institutions to retreat from Zionism. In the same poll, only 7 percent called themselves anti-Zionist, suggesting a substantial gap between what people are willing to call themselves and what they actually believe. But interpreting the data is not the same as knowing where Jewish life is headed.
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