As Americans celebrate the 250th anniversary of our independence, it is also fitting to celebrate Zionism, an independence movement thousands of years older that has been closely connected to the United States since the pre-founding era.
In America today, Zionism is under attack by assorted leftists, Islamists and right-wing extremists who are unaware of this connection or deny it because of their profound Jew-hatred. But Zionism and the American idea are intertwined, as proved in innumerable ways.
For example, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers lobbied for depicting Moses leading the children of Israel through the parted Red Sea on the Great Seal of the United States. The Exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land was, in many ways, the birth of Zionism.
Moses, the ancient Zionist leader, is enshrined in American culture via innumerable statues, portraits, films and other media. Most notably, he appears in the U.S. Capitol as a portrait above the doors leading into the House of Representatives’ gallery. He also appears in three places in the Supreme Court building, including a frieze within the courtroom itself.
The Liberty Bell, the quintessential symbol of America, is engraved with the verse: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof” (Leviticus 25:10). “The land” referred to is Israel. Indeed, eight verses earlier, the Torah asserts: “Speak to the children of Israel and you shall say to them: When you come to the land that I am giving you, the land shall rest a Sabbath to the Lord.”
The connection between America and Zionism goes beyond symbolism.
During his lifetime, there was arguably no more famous American Zionist than Louis D. Brandeis. He was president of the Federation of American Zionists (a forerunner of the Zionist Organization of America) from 1912 to 1921. This did not prevent President Woodrow Wilson from nominating Brandeis to be an associate justice on the Supreme Court, making Brandeis the first Jewish American to reach the pinnacle of American jurisprudence.
Brandeis was a prolific writer and speaker on Zionism, often highlighting the symbiotic relationship between Zionism and American patriotism. One such example, from his address to the Conference of the Eastern Council of Reform Rabbis on April 25, 1915, states: “Let no American imagine that Zionism is inconsistent with patriotism. Multiple loyalties are objectionable only if they are inconsistent.”
“A man is a better citizen of the United States for being also a loyal citizen of his state, and of his city; for being loyal to his family, and to his profession or trade; for being loyal to his college or his lodge,” Brandeis asserted. “Every Irish American who contributed towards advancing home rule was a better man and a better American for the sacrifice he made. Every American Jew who aids in advancing the Jewish settlement in Palestine, though he feels that neither he nor his descendants will ever live there, will likewise be a better man and a better American for doing so.”
Julian Mack, another famous jurist of that era and a president of ZOA, noted in a speech on Sept. 30, 1918, as World War I raged on, “I know that I can, in your name, fellow Zionists, say to President Wilson, that we dedicate ourselves, our honor, our fortunes and our lives to the cause of America, which is our cause, as it is the cause of all humanity.”
Wilson himself was said to be a devout Zionist, and he expressed his support for the Balfour Declaration in a 1918 letter to Rabbi Stephen Wise. After Wilson’s brainchild, the League of Nations, came into being, it incorporated the Balfour Declaration into its Mandate for Palestine, which enshrined the reestablishment of the Jewish state in international law.
In 1922, President Warren G. Harding signed the Lodge-Fish Joint Resolution adopted by the Senate and House, which states: “Favoring the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled.”
President Harry S. Truman became the first world leader to recognize Israel’s independence, just 11 minutes after David Ben-Gurion declared it on May 14, 1948. According to The Presidents of the United States and the Jews by David G. Dalin and Alfred J. Kolatch, Truman later stated: “One of the proudest days in my life occurred at 6:12 p.m. on Friday, May 14, when I was able to announce recognition of the new State of Israel by the government of the United States. In view of the long friendship of the American people for the Zionist ideal, it was particularly appropriate that our government should be the first to recognize the new state.”
A later president, Ronald Reagan, stated on Sept. 1, 1982, “Israel exists: it has a right to exist in peace behind secure and defensible borders, and it has a right to demand of its neighbors that they recognize those facts. I have personally followed and supported Israel’s heroic struggle for survival ever since the founding of the State of Israel 34 years ago. In the pre-1967 borders, Israel was barely 10 miles wide at its narrowest point. The bulk of Israel’s population lived within artillery range of hostile Arab armies. I am not about to ask Israel to live that way again.”
Like apple pie and the Liberty Bell
Yet despite this history and America’s Judaic roots, some have falsely depicted Zionism as “anti-American,” along with numerous other slanders.
These falsehoods have been disseminated through devices that almost everyone carries in their hands to browse the internet. They are found in school textbooks and on the shelves of public libraries. Politicians utter them from podiums and pundits deliver them on their podcasts.
But as shown above, Zionism is as American as apple pie and, literally, the Liberty Bell. It does little good for Zionism or America for us to keep this knowledge to ourselves.
Whether we express it to friends and family or shout it from the rooftops, we must proactively celebrate, promote and foster Zionism like never before in our homes and in every public forum we can. If we do not, proud Zionists run the risk of becoming pariahs in the nation that, other than Israel, has done more for Zionism than any other.
