The recent survey conducted by the Jewish Federations of North America on American Jews’ attitudes toward Israel and Zionism has sparked more than its share of debate. Headlines highlighted the declining number of self-identified Zionists and the ambivalence among younger Jews toward Israel, as well as the persistence among a large majority of Jews who consider their attachment to Israel integral to their Jewish identities. 

I also wrote a piece on an intriguing finding: Only about a third of those surveyed over the age of 75 identified as “Zionists.” 

As always, numbers can tell only part of the story.

Curious about the narrative side of the issue, I turned to readers of JTA’s weekly Ideas newsletter and asked two questions from the JFNA survey: Do you believe Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish, democratic state? and Do you identify as a Zionist? And I added a third: If one but not the other, why not both? That was my way of asking, why would a supporter of Israel resist using the term “Zionist”?

The responses, over 60 in all, arrived quickly. Nearly all came from older American Jewish readers (60 and up) but even within this group there was disagreement about what Zionism means, and ambivalence about the political direction Israel has taken in recent years. 

Across the spectrum, a pattern emerged, reflected in the JFNA study: Many older Jews affirm their support for Israel as a Jewish state and homeland but hesitate to embrace the label “Zionist.” They offered a variety of reasons, from believing it suggests an intention to move to Israel that they don’t share, to the conviction that it has come to mean too many things — to Zionists and anti-Zionists alike — and as a result is no longer useful. (“I  think the state of Israel certainly has as much right to exist as any other state [and] I’d prefer to see it be a democracy,” as a reader from Philadelphia put it. However, “I don’t identify myself in any way with the term ‘Zionist’ because it’s become such a flame word, and people seldom bother to clarify what someone means.”)

Others embrace the term “Zionist” as a badge of honor, continuity and even defiance. Their various answers suggested “Zionism” can mean many things, from a religious conviction to an expression of peoplehood to a political program that hasn’t lost its relevance.

“Of course I am a Zionist!” wrote Jeanne Korsh, who didn’t share her age. “After much probing and questioning,........

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