Reply To: Voting for the World Zionist Congress

Sam2:

First of all, I think you may be somewhat whitewashing Herzl’s record; my impression was always that he sought to create a “new Jew”, focused entirely on self-determination and preservation, not on old-fashioned religion. (Although I do admit that these ideas are open to different interpretations.)

But even that wasn’t my main point; I was simply pointing out that Herzl was not just a “Jew who grew up not-Frum and stayed that way”; he was the founder of a movement that has considerably affected large segments of Jewry. How one relates to Herzl will be affected by, if not dependent on, one’s perception of the ideology he founded and its effects on world Jewry.