Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch calls anti-Zionist Jews an “uncomfortable reality.” Image by screengrab/YouTube

By Louis Keene October 14, 2024

Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch has made advancing the Zionist cause a focal point of his work for more than 30 years at the forefront of Reform Judaism. A former IDF tank commander, Hirsch helped lead the push for the Reform movement’s official support of Israel in 1997. At Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, where he has served as senior rabbi since 2004, support for Israel is in the mission statement.

But lately, Rabbi Hirsch has been wondering where it all went wrong with young American Jews. Since the Oct. 7 attack, he has used his pulpit to reflect on the trend of Jewish anti-Zionism, and the “uncomfortable reality” that many anti-Zionists are products of Reform institutions. He returned to that territory with a Yom Kippur sermon that charged anti-Zionist Jews with “turning your backs on our people.”

“We wanted you to be Zionists,” he said in a clip from the sermon he posted on X this weekend. “We did not intend that our emphasis on tikkun olam — social repair — would lead some Jews to join anti-Israel demonstrations. We did not intend for Jews to lead Passover Seders in so-called ‘liberated zones.’”.

The three-and-a-half-minute clip had appeared more than 3 million times across X by Monday evening, and had 1,000 replies, many of them seething. (“I grew up Reform in Israel. Wore the IDF uniform. You make me ashamed,” said one.) You can  watch the full sermon or read Hirsch’s summary of it. I reached out to him Monday afternoon to hear the backstory; our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Your sermon is largely addressed to a younger generation of leftist Jews that reject Zionism. But it seems unlikely that many of your congregants fit that category. Why address your message to people who weren’t there? And what message were you hoping to send to the people who were in the pews?

I simply don’t have the resources of time, or the financial resources, to go out into university campuses and try and convince somebody who doesn’t know me to change their views on Israel. I don’t think the prospects of my succeeding are high. But it is definitely not too late for the younger generations, and my remarks are more primarily focused on them and their parents.

I don’t want to convey the impression that I’m closing my door to anybody — I’m not. I would love for them to come into my office and yell and scream at me politely, and all the reasons they think I’m wrong, and by implication, be open to being persuaded. But I’m not optimistic that that will bear significant fruit. 

I think we should be putting our efforts on the ones that we can influence and make a difference, so that when they get to university and when they get into their 20s, that they will understand the distinction between liberal values and anti-Zionist values. We want them to be liberals. We don’t want them to be anti-Zionist. And I’ll say it positively: We want them to be liberals. And liberalism implies for American Jews support of Israel and Zionists. 

Most people who see the clip online will not see that in the same speech you gave lots of space for Jews to criticize Israel and its military, call for a ceasefire, etc. You even say, “To mourn the loss of life, dislocation and misery of Palestinian civilians is a virtue.” Isn’t this just what Jewish protesters wearing shirts that say “Not In Our Name” are doing?

I don’t want to relate to any specific group. I have my own opinions about the conduct of the war and civilian casualties, and the quality of this government. I have the opinions everyone else has. But I draw the line on anti-Zionism. I won’t give a platform in our community to somebody who defines themselves as an anti-Zionist.

Do you think you have to be Zionist to be a good Jew?

I don’t use that term — good Jew. That’s not how I measure membership in the Jewish community. All of us sin, all of us need repentance. All of us do things that we’re sorry that we’ve done, and all of us acknowledge mistakes.

You say that “all of us sin.” Do you think that anti-Zionism is a sin?

Again, I don’t use that terminology — good Jew, bad Jew, sinful Jew, non-sinful Jew. We just went through Yom Kippur, where we spent 24 hours asking God to forgive us for all the sins we committed. 

I think all of us are human, all of us do things that we wish we didn’t do. All of us should be seeking atonement, forgiveness — that’s the kind of humility that Micah talked about: “What does God want? Of you, only this — justice, have mercy and walk humbly with your God.”

Do you think anti-Zionism requires atoning for, then?

Atonement is a religious term laden with very deep ramifications. But I do think we should reflect in the American Jewish community on what we did right and what we did wrong. 

You said in your sermon, “We did not intend that our emphasis on Tikkun Olam would lead people to join anti-Israel demonstrations.” Why do you think it led in that direction?

Tikkun Olam is at the very origins of Judaism, and it was always a merging of universalistic impulses and particularistic impulses. On Yom Kippur, we read the book of Jonah — Jonah’s mission was to preach to the non-Israelite cities. Abraham’s mission was to be a blessing to all the world. Even Isaiah talked about being a light to the nations. So the genius of Judaism and one of the distinctive contributions that Jews can make to the world is this balancing of universal values and particularistic values.

But absent grounding in concern and care for our own people, it’s not Jewish universalism — it’s just universalism. It’s Kantian. So what we did well is we conveyed all of those values that we consider central to us — justice, righteousness, mercy, compassion, peace, freedom — but we did not convey well enough the essential bonds that Jews have to other Jews.

Many anti-Zionists see their beliefs and actions as consistent with the Jewish values they were brought up with. Why do you think you see things so differently?

I don’t know. As I’ve said before, there’s not enough sympathy and empathy for other Jews. The world is complicated, and statecraft and statehood is complicated. But to the extent that Zionism is the insistence on the existence of a Jewish state — that one of the lessons of the history of the Jewish people is that powerlessness is catastrophic for Jews — I think that there might be an underappreciation of that reality.

You talked about emphasizing the equal dignity of all human beings in your speech. These anti-Zionists might say, “Yes — and look at how many more human beings on one side have been killed on one side of this war than on the other.” Where do you break with that logic?

We don’t measure morality or proportionality by how many people died on this side or that side. Israel is fighting a war of self-defense, an existential war of self-defense started by those who do not wish to tolerate a Jewish person in the Middle East. If the other side had the power, they would massacre not only 1,200 Israelis, but 120,000 or a million — they say that. 

So with all of my lamentations for all of the suffering on the other side, to say that it’s Israel’s fault, rather than those whose government wants this war of annihilation, is unbalanced.

If this is a just war, a war of self-defense, it is still one that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. How as Jews do we reckon with the bloodshed? 

I think we have to weep over the death of any innocent life, even in a war of self-defense. I do. When the day of peace comes, both of these peoples will need to reconcile what we’ve done to one another. But Israel has no choice. It must defeat those who cultivate a radical ideology that seeks to exterminate Jews in the land of Israel.

What about reckoning with it religiously? Is the destruction something that we also have to atone for?

I think we weep, and we fight, and prevail. And once we prevail, to extend our arm in peace and reach a peaceful coexistence.

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