Haters try to resurrect the fringe anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism. Here's a brief history of the ACJ and the US Reform Judaism movement. ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Friday, February 07, 2025

Haters try to resurrect the fringe anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism. Here's a brief history of the ACJ and the US Reform Judaism movement.

From Peter Beinart's socialist-Left Jewish Currents magazine:

Judaism Beyond Nationalism: The Revival of the American Council for Judaism

In the years immediately preceding and following the founding of the State of Israel, the American Council for Judaism (ACJ) was the most prominent American Jewish anti-Zionist organization, shaped by a long tradition of anti-nationalism in the American Reform movement. The Reform Movement’s now decades-long embrace of Zionism can make its anti-nationalist roots feel quite alien. Most Americans, too, are unaware of the ACJ and its goals of maintaining the early Reform norm. But the ACJ has recently embarked on a revival process, with the goal of supporting American anti-Zionist Jewish communities in the anti-Zionist Reform tradition.

Join us for a conversation with Jewish Currents associate editor Mari Cohen and Rabbi Andrue Kahn, the ACJ’s executive director, as they explore the history of Jewish Reform and its intersection with Zionism. They will discuss how Jewish Reform has shaped contemporary Judaism, the movement’s complicated relationships with assimilation and whiteness, and the original Reform vision of Judaism beyond nationalism. What might this history teach us in the current moment, and what role might a newly re-energized ACJ play in today’s American Jewish landscape?

OK, here's a brief history of the Reform Jewish movement and its relationship with Zionism.

The early Reform movement in the United States was strongly anti-Zionist. Reform leaders rejected the ideas of Jews as a nation, saying it was merely a religious group. Their 1885 Pittsburgh Platform explicitly rejected Jewish nationalism and the idea of a return to Palestine, emphasizing that Jews were fully integrated citizens of their respective countries. The goal was to be seen as Americans of Jewish faith, rather than as a separate nation. (Of course, their definition of "faith" was quite fluid. In 1883 their banquet celebrating their first graduating class of rabbis was quite deliberately non-kosher, with shrimp, crab, and meat and dairy served together. )

This anti-Zionist position changed in the 20th century as Reform leaders saw the persecution of Jews in Eastern Europe and Russia. Their 1937 Columbus Platform marked a major shift, acknowledging the Jewish people’s historical connection to the Land of Israel and expressing sympathy for the Zionist movement.

After the Holocaust, the vast majority of Reform Jewish leaders realized their mistake and embraced Zionism. Their Union of American Hebrew Congregations recognized Israel in 1948.

A tiny fringe minority remained opposed to Zionism, ignoring the lessons of the Holocaust and clinging to the 1885 Pittsburgh Platform. They started the American Council for Judaism, which was the Jewish Voice for Peace of its day, to combat Zionism.

We've discussed this marginal group before. Led by Rabbi Elmer Berger, they wrote articles that received lots of coverage. Like JVP, they put the word "Judaism" in their name to make them sound like they represent more than a tiny minority of Jews. Albert Einstein strongly criticized the group, comparing it to the infamous group Staatsbürger Jüdischen Glaubens that attempted to minimize their Jewishness in favor of being good Germans.

In 1950, the Reform Central Conference of American Rabbis formally condemned the ACJ, stating that it did not represent Reform Judaism. In 1997, the Reform movement's Miami Platform affirmed the centrality of Israel to Jewish life.

Meanwhile, the ACJ and its leaders continued their jihad against Israel. I recently discussed the International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD) which was founded by Libya's Moammar Qaddafi to support the "Zionism is Racism" UN resolution. Elmer Berger, who had left ACJ because they weren't anti-Zionist enough for him, was an official at EAFORD.

The ACJ pretty much only existed on paper for years, doing little beyond a newsletter written largely by one person.

Now, Andrue Kahn is trying to resurrect it. We've also looked at Kahn previously, showing how his own essays prove his own racism as well as anti-Judaism. He believes that Jews should actively oppose any Jewish traditions and embrace assimilation into American society - while at the same time he also decries Jews who did exactly that in the 1950s and 60s as being supportive, somehow, of "white supremacy."

He's as nutty as Elmer Berger.

The true irony is that the entire point of Reform Judaism is to change with the times. It reacted to world events appropriately and did "teshuva" for its early mistakes and anti-Zionism. It reformed. But Andy Kahn, who is so against traditional Judaism as it has been practiced for 2,000 years, is one of the very few Jews alive who is slavishly committed to the Reform movement of 1885.