Judaism 3.0 : Judaism’s Transformation To Zionism

by Gol Kalev

Cloud-Zionism is a non-committal connection – it is abstract. It is exactly this non-committal aspect that makes this connection a solid and sustainable connection. It is by choice.

Under Judaism 3.0, the American Jew is not required to “change” in order to be affiliated. He is drawn to the Jewish affiliation while staying exactly who he is.

Renewed focus on Anti-Semitism forces Jews to their Jewish identity

The Reform movement can add to its flagship theme of Tikun Olam, another flagship theme – Zionism.

Tikun Olam? No, because Reform Jews who are engaging in Tikun Olam are mostly doing so outside the structure of the Reform movement

is safe to say that the number of Jews engaging with Israel through the Reform movement is significantly higher than the number of Jews engaging with Tikun Olam through the Reform movement.

Reform movement, having Israel as a point of orientation could be an enabler of its own survivability.

If the Reform movement fails to recognize the will of its congregants and instead insists on continuing to push down messages of limited relevance, including about the Wailing Wall and confrontation with Israel, then there is a solution: Hostile takeover!

For many young liberal and progressive Jews, Zionism has become the primary arena in which they engage with their Judaism.

a Jew cannot escape from his Israel affiliation.

“suspect” status, as opposed to “Jewish tradition” that serves as the Jewish commonality.

Criticism of Israel from liberal Jewish leadership

They are not trying to change Rabbinic Judaism as a manifestation of their Judaism (such as Halachic laws and rituals). They choose Judaism 3.0 as their Jewish arena, not Judaism 2.0.

Second, most of those people are amongst the minority of Jews who are NOT on a trajectory of evaporation. They are part of the 10-20% of American Jews for whom Judaism is high on the hierarchy of identities.

the criticism of Israel from this group does not represent a risk of exiting Judaism – it actually represents a stronger connection to their Judaism through Zionism (Judaism 3.0).

There is a national Jewish trauma that stems from the Holocaust. For some American Jews, the notion that their relatives or parents’ relatives paid with their lives due to an association with Judaism is deeply rooted. Many of the Jews who perished in the Holocaust did not choose to be associated with Judaism.

Judaism was a cause of their death back then, therefore per this trauma, Judaism is perceived to be a threat to their life today. Catering to this fear, some Jews feel that their interest and safety is served by a weak Jewish state, and maybe even its elimination.

Now, as time passes and as the Holocaust generation passes away, two parallel processes are occurring – on the one hand, as discussed, the fading of the memory of the Holocaust could lead to American Jewry losing a substitute glue that was vital to their connection to Judaism. Yet, on the other hand, it also mitigates the Jewish national trauma and removes a hurdle to the transformation to Judaism 3.0 – it opens the door to embracing one’s Jewish affiliation with no fear.

Intermarriage is higher than any other commonality that characterizes American Jews. It is the flagship attribute of American Jewry.

Judaism 2.0 is not suitable to address the “intermarriage epidemic.” Its primary tool has been conversion.

Reform movement

“forced conversions.”

“patrilineal ...

The “ask” is too big.

The ask of the non-Jewish spouse to have a “siddur in your library” is simply unrealistic, especially since the secular Jewish spouse does not have this Jewish prayer book either. This leads to antagonism and rejection.

with Judaism 3.0, the intermarriage spouse has a home. That is because the affiliation ask is no longer a “siddur in your library,” but it is an “Israeli flag in your heart.”

the transformation has no effect on religious practice, the halacha (Jewish law), Jewish traditions and rituals.

Judaism 3.0 is not about making a halachic determination if the child of an intermarried couple is Jewish or not. It is about recognizing the inevitable inclusion of this child in the Jewish nation

The question of “who is a Jew” has different answers, depending on who is asking and in what context: – Halachic point of view. – Legal point of view. – Individual point of view.

intermarriage does not necessarily lead to assimilation.

is intermarriage really the primary contributor to assimilation?

it is evident through the Biblical narrative that intermarriage was common, and yet the Jews stayed as Jews.

are such unaffiliated Jewish couples really likely to keep the distinct Jewish characteristics into the next generation or are they part of a group assimilation,

intra-marriage assimilation could be the more potent threat than intermarriage assimilation.

group-wide assimilations are likely the more common ways nations disappeared, historically. They simply assimilated out as a group.

And yet today under Judaism 2.0, an unaffiliated Jew marrying another unaffiliated Jew is not considered being part of the intermarriage crisis (it is considered a “good marriage”). However, absent a transformation of Judaism, such marriages are indeed a strong component of the assimilation crisis. On the other hand, intermarried couples (a Jewish reality), with a recognition of the tra...

the connection to Judaism through Zionism in smaller Jewish communities, from Europe to Latin America to Russia (the remaining 15%), provides support for the transformation of American Jewry.

Zionism gives American Judaism meaning, vibrancy and relevancy that is in line with current American realities – generational and behavioral.

how many of American Jews today are having passionate conversations about Halachic issues around the dinner table or in the bars?

Moreover, once recognizing the transformation to Judaism 3.0, American Jewry would be more in line with trends in the broader American society.

developments in America

are very much supportive of the Jewish transformation.

Arguably, the predominant American ethos is more compatible with Judaism 3.0 than with Judaism 2.0. Indeed, while Americanism is closely associated with Zionism, it is not closely associated with secularism.

US AND ISRAEL ARE RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES; AMERICAN JUDAISM IS NOT

there continues to be a fundamental disconnect between American Jews under Judaism 2.0 – increasingly secular and even rejective of religion, and the American public at large – increasingly religious.

Zionism is a more relatable point of Jewish reference for Americans than the legacy state of American Jewry (secular Rabbinic Judaism).

It is not only the secular nature of American Jews that generates a disconnect with the predominantly American religious ethos; it is also the Jews’ perceived interest as a religious minority for America to be secular.

Had the Jews stayed a nation-religion, as they were throughout history, and as they have been perceived by the general American public, then the religious nature of America would be less of a concern to them. But as a religious minority, some Jews began to draw discomfort from religious symbols such as churches, crosses, Biblical references and nativity scenes.

Jews self-defined themselves as a religious minority, therefore they perceived it to be in their interest to promote gravitation

the purely secular state. But that was outright inconsistent with the American narrative.