About Zioness

Zioness is a coalition of Jewish activists and allies who are unabashedly progressive and unapologetically Zionist. We are a grassroots organization with more than 30 chapters across the country, fighting for the advancement of social, racial, economic, gender and environmental justice in America. We are also committed to fighting for Zionism and the inclusion of Zionists in social justice spaces, because Zionism is itself a progressive value: the movement for liberation and national self-determination of the Jewish people in our indigenous homeland.

Zioness is rooted in Jewish values, stands for justice and equality, and fights against all forms of oppression.

Equip and inspire Jews and allies to fight for social justice in the US as proud Zionists.

We envision a progressive movement that is inclusive, principled, and powerful; one in which Zionist Jews and our allies are fully embraced without compromising any piece of our identities.

In this movement, Zionism is understood as a natural expression of Jewish identity and a vital liberation model for the progressive movement. Our vision is a movement where all people, including Zionists, fight for justice as their whole selves, and where Zionism is seen for what it truly is: a commitment to liberation, dignity, and self-determination for persecuted minority peoples.

When we show up in progressive spaces as proud Zionists, we change the conversation and the movement.

We are a progressive, domestic, grassroots social justice movement. We don’t exist simply to respond to antisemitism or anti-Zionism––we exist to build something better: a progressive movement that fully includes Jews and Zionists, that understands Zionism not as an obstacle to justice, but as a lens and a model through which justice work is achieved. We seek to cultivate deep, trusted relationships in progressive spaces, not by hiding who we are, but by leading with it with confidence and pride.

Zionism is not a topic we debate––it is our identity, our framework, our foundation. By organizing openly as Zionists, we disrupt the false binary between Zionism and progressivism. We challenge the litmus tests, just by existing and refusing to hide. We refuse to choose between our communities and our values. And in doing so, we shift perceptions, change minds, empower allies, win trust, and build solidarity.

The work is relational. It’s slow. Sometimes it’s invisible. But over time, it’s transformative. By embodying the reality that Zionists are progressive and that progressivism is stronger when it includes Zionists, we undo the conditioning that made our presence seem incompatible. We reclaim space, shift norms, and model a movement that truly lives its values of justice, equity, and inclusion.

We are Zionists who believe in social justice for all people. We come in all genders, colors, sizes, and creeds.

We understand that Zionism is the movement for Jewish self-determination; the expression of the Jewish peoples’ dreams of liberation and empowerment after millennia of Jewish struggles for civil rights and equality in the face of persecution, exile, and genocide. We unapologetically support Israel’s sovereignty as a Jewish and democratic state.

Our Zionism drives our engagement in social action. As one of the world’s most enduring persecuted minority communities, the Jewish people have the experience—and the obligation—to seize our own history and apply it to advance the rights of others. We cannot, and will not, be deterred by those who try to kick us out or leave us behind in movements that strive for equality, justice and collective liberation.

As Zionists, we proudly fight for justice and against discrimination for women, people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, and any other human being whose rights are denied or threatened because of their innate characteristics.

Zioness is an inclusive movement. We invite all who identify as both progressive and Zionist to participate.

We will not define your progressivism or your Zionism.

We will not apply political litmus tests to those who wish to fight for civil rights, social justice, and human dignity for all.  

If you believe in these ideals, and that the Jewish people have a right to a safe and secure Jewish state, we welcome you with open arms.

​Join us as we work to advance our goals.

• Ending discrimination and injustice: We will work to end racism, misogyny, and LBGTQ+ phobia. We aim to dismantle institutionalized racism in our government and our society; to implement national policies that ensure equal treatment for people of all ethnicities, genders and sexual orientations in public and private institutions; and to amplify the voices of our community members who face this type of discrimination.
• Providing a home and platform of support for Jews and Zionists in progressive circles: We work to stop the spread of antisemitism and the demonization of Jews, Zionism, and Zionists on both the right and the left. We encourage and embolden the Jews and Zionists who have always cared deeply about social justice movements to reactivate our community, promote understanding of Judaism and Zionism within progressive circles, and confront antisemitism wherever and whenever it appears. 

• For the vast majority of Jews, Zionism is a core component of Jewish identity. 
• Zionism is a progressive value: the liberation and national self-determination movement of the Jewish people in our ancestral homeland (Israel).
• In keeping with core progressive values to protect marginalized communities, we urge progressive allies to protect Jews, including those who identify as Zionists, and including our right to define our own liberation as national self-determination via sovereignty in our ancestral homeland (Zionism).
• The Jewish people are a long-enduring persecuted minority community, making up one-fifth of one percent of the population of the world. Despite perceptions of Jewish power, which are based in age-old anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, the Jewish people have persistently experienced oppression and persecution, and were nearly exterminated in a genocide in living memory. 
• Zionism is the national self-determination movement of the Jewish people in our ancestral homeland. Zioness refuses to allow anyone, Jewish or not, to pervert the  meaning of the word Zionism, or weaponize it against our community. 
• The existence of Jews who identify as “anti-Zionist” does not erode the undeniable and inextricable connection between Zion and Jewish identity, religion, history, peoplehood and culture. Tokenizing fringe and unrepresentative members of a community is inconsistent with progressive commitments to allow marginalized communities to speak for themselves.
• Anti-Zionism is a movement that, no matter the intentions of individual adherents, results in the persistent marginalization of the overwhelming majority of Jews on Earth: those who support Jewish self-determination. 
• Anti-Zionism divides Jews into categories of “good Jews” versus “bad Jews,” identifying “good Jews” as those who stand opposed to Jewish collective liberation, and identifying those Jews who believe in our own liberation as “bad Jews.” Therefore, anti-Zionism is, in effect, anti-Jewish, antisemitic, anti-inclusive and contrary to the core values of any genuinely progressive movement.
• It is not “anti-Zionist” to critique the Israeli government, nor to believe in Palestinian self-determination alongside Jewish self-determination. It is anti-Zionist to believe that the Jewish people should be denied our inalienable right to national self-determination in our ancestral homeland; that the movement to secure Jewish sovereignty was inherently racist or illegitimate; or that the Jewish state should be destroyed and supplanted by a Palestinian or Arab state.
• Zionism is not a reflection of the politics or policies of the Israeli government. It is a commitment to the inalienable right of the Jewish nation to collective liberation and sovereignty in the State of Israel. Just as we can criticize American (or any country’s) politicians or policies, we can do the same for Israeli politicians or policies––without questioning that country’s sovereignty or legitimacy.
• Criticism of actual Israeli government policy is not inherently antisemitic. We object when we see disproportionate energy and focus on demonizing or delegitimizing Israel, especially when not based on knowledge, facts or history. We question the double standard under which the criticism levied at the world’s only Jewish state is not applied with the same intensity or consistency to any other nation on Earth whose government engages in comparable or worse behavior. 
• As an organization committed to collective liberation, Zioness––like the vast majority of people who identify as Zionists––strongly supports a future two-state solution which ensures the dignity, security, and self-determination of both the Jewish and the Palestinian people. No matter how remote this outcome seems, we must work toward it, not against it..
• Our commitment as Jews to “Tikkun Olam” (repairing the world) drives our engagement and  activism. We strive to be an actively anti-oppression movement, consistently showing up as affected members, activists and allies in the fight for social, racial, economic, gender and environmental justice in America.  
• The existence of antisemitism within progressive spaces will not deter our commitment to values, causes and policies that are necessary to advance our civil and human rights, our country and our world. We will not cede the left to anti-Jewish bias or bigotry, but will engage confidently and respectfully with those who are (intentionally or unintentionally) perpetuating anti-Jewish ideas that endanger individual Jews or the Jewish community.
• In order to be truly progressive, our allies must commit to learning about and understanding the threat of antisemitism––to the Jewish community, to all marginalized communities, and to democracy. In order to be truly progressive, our allies must consider thousands of years of global antisemitism, and must work to actively dismantle and condemn it in our organizing and our coalitions.

A Zioness is progressive, Zionist and Proud. Rooted in Jewish Values, we stand for justice and against all forms of oppression.

Zioness was born out of the marginalization of American Jews and the burning desire for a more inclusive and just progressive movement. As Jews, we have intimate knowledge of oppression. Our history and lived experience drives our communal mandate to fight for equity, justice and liberation for all people. As a national community, Zioness commits to actively opposing all forms of oppression, including racism, classism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, colonialism, white saviorism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and xenophobia.  We commit to addressing these systemic realities in our activism and our everyday actions.

 At Zioness, we never respond to any form of bigotry or bias we face, including antisemitism, by engaging in the same or similar behavior. Doing so would only amplify the problem. Instead, when faced with bigotry, we will draw upon our Jewish value of Teshuva (restoration) to provide opportunities for accountability, education, and growth, and continue our shared fight for liberation for all.