I just made Aliyah since I could not afford modern orthodox or conservative day school. I found the conservative day schools to have strong Zionist program and Hebrew program called Tal am with fantastic books/ learning materials. The Zionist approach speaks to every Jew heart and is glue to maintaining Judaism. However, the cost of Jewish school in LA is 20,000 dollars student. This is reason why assimilation happens and no future for Jewish kids. We need subsidized day school and only Israel offers Jewish day school subsidized by state . The orthodox families in LA that I know never get ahead financially because of day school and are one paycheck from poverty.

Is it any surprise that the established Halachic Chief Rabbinate of Israel does not want to grant rabbinical powers to Reform rabbis? A generation back Commentary did a survey of the American rabbinate and found that 40% of Reform rabbis did not believe in a 'personal G-d'. Regarding 'Reform Zionism' some of us are old enough to remember that classical Reform rejected the Hebrew language, the Return to Israel, the concept of 'chosenness' and belief in the rebuilding of the Temple and the Messianic Era. No surprise it hasn't been a big success in Israel!

They are a lost cause .

With their rate of assimilation, they'll soon be an extinct species like the reform.

what awaits the non-orthodox Jew today in Israel: that the Israeli state tells him that he/she is not a Jew as long as his mother was not counted as an orthodox Jew? that he/she is told by too many Israelis that only Orthodox Judaism is Judaism? that he/she faces discrimination? The same goes with hundreds of thousands or maybe 1-2 millions secular patrilineal Jews. And I write "Jews" on a purpose, because many feel they are indeed Jews, but in Israel they would be told by the state and by 60% of Israelis that they are not - and would be "expected to convert". Only 40% would accept their own identification as Jews, according to the recent poll. So this story has two sides. If we (and this includes the Israelis too) will not be honest to ourselves, we may bring a lot of pain to those young men, as it was the case of 300 000 Russian non-halakhic immigrants. It needs a lot of work to prepare people for an extended tent. Much more work in today's Israel than in the US...

had been indoctrinated with Zionism he wouldn't have created Facebook. He would have come here instead, did a 1.5 year stint in Kfir or something, and then bummed around Tel Aviv or Jerusalem working in an online for casino until getting sick of it, and going back to America in his late twenties to earn some real money...... :)

The article makes a good point that would work on some Jews, but let's not forget that the state you are attempting to build is illegitimate in the eyes of Reform Jewry. That is, unless this state make itself so vulnerable that it would cease to exist. In America, Zionism is nearly as dead as the Reform movement. The problem, is identity. Identity as in people being composed of good identities and bad identities. Identity is under attack because identity is equated with nationalism and nationalism creates war. Therefore all bad identities must be eliminated. By extension, since Jewish identity creates a nationalism, it to must be abandoned otherwise you will be subject to being the stigma of a bad identity. The stigma will be attached to you by the powers that be of modern civilization. By this American Jews will begin to stop saying "I'm a Jew but not an observant Jew" as they did when I was a lad and begin to say. "I was a Jew, but I don't identify with them." These people will become lost to Jewry as the 80% was lost in the plague of darkness. The hope is that Reform Jewry will begin to work with the Jewish Agency and make mandatory reading of "Defending Identity" by Sharansky.

Any ideology, be it Zionism, Tikkun Olam, Secular Humanistic Judaism, or the varieties of Reform, Conservative, and yes even some forms of Orthodox Judiasm that does not answer the individual's existential questions (life, death, hereafter, God) will not survive very long. Woody Allen movies are not a substitute for God.

Reform Judaism is a pathway out of Judaism. Do not confuse the lack of Jewish identity amongst American Jews with Zionism. There are no Zionists in America. All Zionists live in Israel. In America today, only the religious will remain Jewish. All incidental Jews will assimilate and disappear.

.......Zionism is the Jewish version of European 18 century nationalism, a notion that led the continent to compleat desaster and will do the same to Judaism.

Judaism worships God Zionism worships Israel

ZIONISM IS WHERE HASHEM TOLD MOSES TO LEAD THE PEOPLE TO. Where Moses begged to see, What King David fought Where King Solomon built the HOLY TEMPLE What rome tried to erase What the church of england tried to destroy What hitler tried to decimate What reform/conservative are embarrased or dont know, of all the above. What you deny and make excuses and apologize for. In the Jews daily prayers 'take me back to zion'. ZION IS A PLACE IN OUR HEART AND A PHYSICAL PLACE

A huge nonsense.

How can reform relate to Israel failing to minimally connect to true Jewish values in the US having successfully convinced the world that their perverted values are part of Judaism ? Bringing them to Israel would only compound assimilation over there, not resolve it. We don't need them or their kind in our midst here or there to disrupt Judaism further. Stop fantasizing about their practices: They are Jews practising another religion and don't deserve any of our consideration or help.

I believe even a zionist can come to Israel and go back to USA to start their life and then make Aliyah. This may be the best way, since then the person is more stable and ready to stay in Israel. Why wouldn't Zuckerburg have invented FB as a Zionist? I disagree with you, COMPLETELY

Secular US Jews: 60% outmarriage 20% No marriage Result - in another 30 years they will be mostly gone

Amazing that with all the support Israel receives from American Jews you can unequivocally state that “there are no Zionists in America”. The arabs wish it were true. Thankfully they, and you, are wrong.

Many of the American Jews whom I know that have become Orthodox and have made aliyah tell how they (or their children) are the last Jews in their family. Their siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins have all married out, and only those in Israel are still Jewish. The Jewish future is here in Israel.

This is great understanding of the two ways someone can be connected to the people of Israel. From the time of Ruth - "your people will be my people and your God will be my God." So, Zionism or Judaism or better both will do the job. The question I have though is: how the Zionism of American Jew can be strong if in the final analysis it is not based on Torah (on Judaism)? How this Zionism will avoid agreeing on Uganda option? Judaism is needed as a base. Observance may come after connecting to the people through strong Zionism, if it is based on the Torah foundation.

Brooklyn man. It is a matter of definition. Jews sitting in Brooklyn can be friends, supporters of Zionism. But Zionists are only those jews who settle on and live in the land of Israel. My advice to you become a zionist.

The mitzvah of. living in the Land of Israel has nothing to do with the creation of a nation-state.

Are the Obama's court Jews, the Soros and T. Friedman and other Israel bashing Jewish elite Zionist? That's what you say? What kind of support are you talking about? The 65% + who are still rooting for Obama? Care to elucidate us with facts.

American Jews who didn't have the past Eurasian experiences don't have the slightest understanding about Jewish national aspiration which is the essence of Zionism. We were (Eurasian Jews) a despised and persecuted minority whereas American Jewry is a protected, well off powerful minority. Their true home is in Brooklyn, close to the N.Y. Times and banks. The Eurasians drained the swamps and died in the wars for independence... They cannot internalize that Israel is not the continuation of the USA on the Asian continent.

his private life is none of your business. Let the guy and his wife be happy. Gossip people. BTW - I'm Reform, so what?

it was the Zealots and the Sicarrim who were the proximate cause of the destruction of Beit Shani. Only after the fall of a Hebrew-speaking civil sovereign, did clerics gain control of the "storyline". The King was alway the boss man in Am Yisrael; the High Priest was always just a guy in clown-costume (like Shlomo Amar today) running a three-ring circus that made it easier to pacify the peasants when they had to pay taxes to Jerusalem.

>> Woody Allen movies are not a substitute for God Lets see what YOUR revenue-receipts from selling tickets to God-celebrations are, dude.

B"H Replacing the love of G-d with the love of the Land without G-d is not only meaningless, it's outright blasphemous, maybe idol worshipping.