Chicago synagogue officially designates itself 'anti-Zionist'

Tzedek Chicago was founded seven years ago, in part, to create a Jewish community free from a strong attachment to Israel. The congregation went beyond its original "non-Zionism" this week to become what is likely the first synagogue in the country to be affirmatively "anti-Zionist."

"I'm so proud of the thoughtful way we engaged with each other in this process," Scout Bratt, the shul's president, said in a statement Wednesday announcing the decision. "While we knew individual members would have their own personal opinions, we ultimately treated this as a communal decision, not an ideological litmus test."
 

The decision to add a statement decrying the creation of Israel as an "injustice against the Palestinian people – an injustice that continues to this day" was taken by a vote of the congregation's 200 member families after the board unanimously endorsed it in December. Seventy-three percent of households voted in favor of the motion.

Even most progressive Jewish congregations are careful to avoid staking an explicit anti-Zionist position.

"There are increasing numbers of Jews out there, particularly young Jews, who don't identify as Zionist and resent the implication that somehow to be Jewish today one must be Zionist," Rabbi Brant Rosen, who founded Tzedek Chicago, said in 2015.
 

"We know there are increasing numbers of Jews who seek a Jewish spiritual home that does not require attachment to a political Jewish state," said Bratt, the president of Tzedek Chicago. "We hope our decision will inspire the Jewish community to begin to imagine a future beyond Zionism."