It will be no surprise that editing a book on the relationship between Progressive Judaism, Zionism and the State of Israel – especially as the first publication from our new Movement for Progressive Judaism – has been hard work. It has also turned out to be incredibly rewarding.
The question we have regularly been asked is why this book, and why now?
The answer is that the events of recent years have destabilised much that was once taken for granted: a sense of moral clarity, the language used to speak about Israel, and even confidence in the frameworks through which Progressive Jews understand the relationship with Zionism and the State of Israel, the Diaspora and Jewish Peoplehood.
It is clear that many Jews feel intellectually and theologically underprepared for the scale of the questions they are facing.
After the trauma of 7 October 2023 and the war in Gaza, these issues have returned with even greater urgency.
It has been some years since our Movements, now brought together as The Movement for Progressive Judaism, engaged seriously, together and at scale, with the meaning of Progressive Zionism and with the nature of our relationship with the Land and State of Israel.
In the meantime, the world has changed; Israel has changed; the Diaspora has changed.
The global conversation about nationalism, justice and identity has also shifted in profound ways.
It is therefore not surprising that many have struggled to find a common language, or even to speak across the differences that have emerged within our diverse Jewish communities.
As we travelled the country in 2024 and 2025, in the two years leading up to the coming together of Liberal Judaism and The Movement for Reform Judaism, we were asked a profound question: what would have been different after 7 October 2023 if there had already been a single Progressive Movement?
In synagogues, community meetings and private conversations, members of our communities returned to this again and again.
What difference would it make to speak, learn and lead as one Movement for Progressive Judaism? How might a unified Movement have helped prepare Progressive Jews, spiritually and intellectually, for what followed?
Rabbi Charley Baginsky, Dr Ed Kessler and Rabbi Josh Levy
The reshaping of the landscape in which Jews around the world live has become more visible: a devastating war in Gaza unfolding alongside a surge in global protest, an increasingly polarised public discourse and a sharp rise in antisemitism.
Language has hardened. Political divisions have deepened. Across many societies, extremism, both left-wing and right-wing, has grown as nationalist politics have re-emerged. Individually and in combination, these forces have made Jewish life feel newly uncertain.
That is why we are so proud that our Movement’s first book – Progressive Judaism, Zionism and the State of Israel – represents something essential to Progressive Jewish life: the willingness to engage openly, intellectually and spiritually, with some of the most complex questions facing Jews today.
The 40 voices that appear in its pages – rabbis and cantors, scholars and educators, activists and campaigners – are all committed and leading members of Progressive communities.
There are those who are young and those with a hoary head, as well as those somewhere in between; many have experience of living in Israel, but not all; politically, some are on the right and others on the left; they represent communities large and small, in London and throughout the British Isles.
Their perspectives do not always align. Indeed, some challenge one another directly. Diversity is not a weakness of Progressive Judaism. It is one of its defining strengths.
The authority of Progressive Judaism does not rest in a single voice or in a fixed doctrine. It is a movement shaped by conscience, by study, and by argument pursued for the ‘sake of Heaven’.
No one voice can define Zionism for Progressive Jews, and no single framework can capture the full complexity of our relationship with Israel. Instead, this book offers something more faithful to the spirit of our tradition: a dialogue.
Our hopes for this volume are threefold.
First, that those outside the Jewish community will encounter the richness and diversity of Jewish thought.
Too often the public conversation assumes that Jews speak with a single voice about Israel. The reality, as these pages demonstrate, is far more complex and far more human.
Second, that those who identify as Zionists will find within these pages a deeper religious and moral language through which to articulate that commitment. The language of religious Zionism does not belong only to others. It is part of their inheritance too, if they choose to claim it.
Third, that those in our congregations who do not identify as Zionists may come to better understand those who do, and why Israel, both land and state, remains central to many Jews’ sense of peoplehood, history and destiny.
Above all, it is our hope that this book helps create the conditions for deeper conversation within and beyond Progressive Jewish communities: conversations that are thoughtful rather than reactive, rooted in Jewish learning and dialogue as well as lived experience, and guided by the values that define Progressive Judaism – intellectual honesty, moral courage and a commitment to human dignity.
The creation of The Movement for Progressive Judaism marks a new chapter in the life of Progressive Jewish communities in the UK and Ireland.
This volume is one of the first steps in shaping the intellectual and theological voice of that new Movement.
Our gratitude extends to the 40 contributors who entrusted us with their thinking and their courage at a moment when these issues are especially urgent.
We also thank a wonderful Progressive Jewish family, the Chinns, for their support and are delighted that the book is dedicated to Lady Susan Chinn z”l.
Finally, we are grateful to the MPJ staff team and Launch Board, the communities that sustain the life of Progressive Judaism, and to the colleagues, editors and supporters who helped bring the book into being.
• This article is an edited version of the introduction to Progressive Judaism, Zionism and the State of Israel, available to buy now from Amazon.