We’re American Jewish Historians. This Is Why We’ve Left Zionism Behind

[Little Tich]

23. How Did Zionism Become a Dirty Word on Campus?

Source: The Forward, by J.J. Goldberg, August 3, 2016

Sooner or later we’re going to have to face the facts: Zionism has become a dirty word in certain precincts — important and growing precincts — of the Western society that we call home.

It’s unfair. It’s short-sighted. Given the way things are headed, the end could be tragic. But it is a reality. Zionism has become a dirty word in far too many places, and the stain is spreading. And yes, this matters. Israel still faces physical threats, and will continue to face threats even if it makes peace with its neighbors. It needs friends. Right now its friendships are endangered.

The latest bit of evidence is the essay in Haaretz the other day by a pair of noted historians of American Jewry, Hasia Diner and Majorie Feld, explaining, as the headline put it, “Why We Left Zionism Behind.” How they came to abhor Israel.

Diner, a professor at New York University and one of the leading scholars of American Jewish history, writes of how her love for Israel, instilled as a child in the Habonim youth movement, turned into “repulsion” as she learned more about “colonialism and racism.” How she stopped buying Israeli products and began to “avoid many Jewish settings where I know Israel will loom large as an icon of identity.”

Feld, a professor at Babson College, writes of how she “reeducated” herself after being browbeaten by a devotee of Noam Chomsky and came to understand how “Israel fit neatly into my broader understanding of Western colonialism.”

Read more: http://forward.com/opinion/346802/how-did-zionism-become-a-dirty-word-on-campus/

Note: J.J. Goldberg and Jeffrey Goldberg are different persons.