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it doesn't really matter because it's basically a matter of doctrinal faith that a rounding error of jews hold to at this point, but the non-zionist reading of "next year in jerusalem" takes into account the political environment surrounding the development of reform judaism

björk 182

@readsettle.rs

namely the events leading up to the springtime of the peoples amidst the rise of european nationalism. reform judaism, as it eventually crystallized in the united states, rejected a nationalist path for judaism in favor of a religious one.

2/10/26, 8:31 pm0 reposts4 likes

björk 182

@readsettle.rs

This Judaism was not anti-zionist, it allowed for "sure, Israel was European colonialism but it got the international law seal of approval from the UN in 1948 so two states or whatever." And this "non-zionism" was because they wanted, as white Americans, to vacation in Jerusalem

björk 182

@readsettle.rs

just like other American ethnicities get to vacation in the old country without worrying about pesky Arab nationalism putting a hamper in their travel plans. They wanted to see Israel, not necessarily Israelis: the latter were only instrumental in ensuring the former.

björk 182

@readsettle.rs

so "next year in Jerusalem" was expressing a naive liberal hope for peace so they could go see all the tourist sites without getting caught up in the nationalist violence which started in earnest in the 1920s that is itself an echo of the revolutions of 1848, which, spoiler alert

björk 182

@readsettle.rs

anyway that non-zionism couldn't survive the obvious counterpoint of "who cares what the UN did in 1948, look at what Israel is doing today" and so now you only have anti-zionists and liberal zionists