The Battle Over the Word Zionism
4/7/202652 min
When a word carries history, burden, and identity all at once, can the Jewish people afford to let it go?
In this episode, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi dissect the internal Jewish debate over the term Zionism, examining its classical promises of empowerment, the push to abandon it in the face of progressive critique, and why the term means something different in Israel and the Diaspora. Ultimately, they ask what it would take for Zionism to become not only defensible but inspiring again for world Jewry.
Read Nadine Epstein's article cited in the show, “The Word Zionism Is De...
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First 90 secondsDaniel Goodman0:00
[gentle music] You are listening to an Ark Media podcast.
Yossi Klein Halevi· Host0:06
The idea of abandoning Zionism to those who hate it, it feels to me like a violation of Jewish dignity. Something not dignified about letting our enemies determine what language we use to define ourselves. This was our term. No one gave us this term. This was ours, and now to abandon it because it's fallen into disrepute with our enemies.
Donniel Hartman· Host0:36
So we never retreat in Israel. Instead, we do in Hebrew, "Shipur emdot le'achor." [laughs] We are improving our position backwards. Maybe we're just improving our positions. We're fighting a battle that we could maybe win. Maybe at some point, dignity is overrated, Yossi. [gentle music] Hi, friends. This is Daniell Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi from the Shalom Hartman Institute, and this is our podcast, For Heaven's Sake, in collaboration with Ark Media. Today is Monday, April 6th, and our theme for today is entitled "The Battle Over the Word Zionism." There's a lot of battles going on.