So what is Progressive Zionism. Part 2

To follow on from last month’s article; the Progressive movement begins to align itself with the sentiment of Jews needing a homeland, and furthermore, that homeland being Israel.
This became the acknowledged sentiment of both the Jewish and secular world at the time. Reform Jews had been testing the waters and establishing the boundaries of their Judaism during this time and went form an extreme form of humanistic assimilation at first to a more moderated form that consolidated itself with earlier major traditions and customs it had previously ignored.
Soon after Reform Jews had ‘reeled themselves in ‘so to speak from their extreme ideals, they began to embraced this concept but within the context of their definition of Jewish identity. As Judaism is a lifestyle based not a faith based religion, the manner in which we conduct our daily lives needs to be in accordance with our Jewish ethos, thus for a Reform Jew, this meant that to be a Zionist, we can love and support the land of Israel but at the same time value our citizenship of our own country. That is why ‘South Africa’is a pillar of Netzer’s ideology. To a Reform Jew, the Diaspora is equally as important to the livelihood of the Jewish people and essential to the existence of the state of Israel.
Furthermore, Progressive Zionism reformulates the concept of Aliyah to become the concep0t of Aliyah nimshechet which means ‘continuous aliyah ‘. This implies that it is not enough to claim one is Zionist by just picking up and moving to Israel, one has to continue living out the values of one’s Progressive Judaism there as well as contribute to the land. To be a progressive Jew as is to be a Progressive Zionist one need to constantly develop the land of Israel to synthesise its age old traditions with our modern world.

wellbutrin antidepressant

payday loans in ann arbor