The Zionist movement began about 130 years ago, launching efforts to build a Jewish state in the Holy Land. The vast majority of rabbis fought against the new movement and discouraged Jews from joining it. Their opposition was rooted in two convictions:
1. Advocating a political and military end to the Jewish exile denies the very essence of our Diaspora existence. We are in exile by Divine decree and may emerge from exile solely via Divine redemption. All human efforts to alter a metaphysical reality are doomed to end in failure and bloodshed. History has clearly borne out this teaching.
2. Zionism not only denied our fundamental belief in Heavenly redemption; it also created a pseudo-Judaism which views the essence of our identity to be a secular nationalism. Accordingly, Zionism and the State of Israel have consistently endeavored, via persuasion and coercion, to replace a Divine and Torah-centered understanding of our peoplehood with an armed materialism.
The Zionist movement went on to found the State of Israel in 1948, and Orthodox Jewish opposition to the State of Israel continues to this day. The organization Torah Jews is dedicated to informing the world, and in particular the American public and politicians, that not all Jews support the ideology of the State of Israel. In fact, a great number of Orthodox Jews view the ideology of that state as diametrically opposed to the teachings of traditional Judaism.
While the rabbis opposed the movement to found a state, they did not oppose Jews living in the Holy Land, and in fact many important rabbis and their communities were transplanted to the Holy Land after the Holocaust. Our paramount concern is the peace and safety of all people throughout the world, including those living in the Holy Land. We support and pray for peace for the people of the State of Israel, but we believe they should ideally be living there under a non-Jewish state, not a Jewish one.
We are concerned that the widespread misconception that all Jews support the State of Israel and its actions endangers Jews worldwide.
We seek to disassociate Jews and traditional Judaism from the Zionist ideology by:
1. Proving that founding an independent Jewish state is totally contrary to the teachings of traditional Judaism, drawing on quotations from Holy Scriptures, the Talmudic Sages and Rabbis in all generations.
2. Providing historical documentation on the ideology and creation of Zionism, the supporters of Zionism and the negative impact of their actions on the Jewish people over the past hundred years, including their activities during the Holocaust and up to the present day.
3. Publicizing the efforts of traditional Jews to demonstrate their opposition to the State of Israel, efforts which are often ignored by the mainstream media.
We also aim to reach out to our Jewish brethren who have never studied the subject of Zionism from a Torah perspective, and have only been taught the Zionist side of the story. It is our hope that all of our fellow Jews will soon open their eyes, return to Torah and reject this ideology that replaces the Jew’s age-old hope for G-d’s redemption with a false redemption and a human-initiated state.