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What Happened to Religious Zionism? Tomer Persico on Fundamentalism, Power, and Jewish Extremism

As Yom Kippur approaches, Orly Erez-Likhovski and Rabbi Josh Weinberg speak with Dr. Tomer Persico about the challenge facing liberal Jews caught between two very different forms of extremism: Jewish fundamentalism in Israel and progressive spaces that excuse terrorism, minimize antisemitism, or reject Zionism outright.

Together, they examine how fundamentalist currents emerged from Religious Zionism, the horrible phenomenon of Jewish terrorism in the West Bank, and how liberal Jews can criticize Israel honestly without abandoning Zionism or moral consistency.

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Earlier this week, I wrote about our responsibility to confront anti-Arab racism when it is voiced and legitimized in the name of Judaism. For this week’s podcast, we wanted to step back and ask a broader question: how did extremist ideas gain such influence in Israeli society — and how should we be responding to them?

Over the past few years, we have watched racism and religious extremism become increasingly normalized in Israeli public life. Ideas once considered beyond the bounds of acceptable discourse have gained political power and legitimacy. Most troubling to me is the way violence, racism, and Jewish supremacy are sometimes justified in the language of Judaism itself.

At the same time, many liberal Jews outside Israel are confronting a very different challenge. We want to speak honestly about the failures of the Israeli government, the suffering in Gaza, and Jewish violence against Palestinians. But we also encounter progressive spaces where terrorism is excused, antisemitism is minimized, and criticism of Israeli policy can slide into rejection of Israel’s very right to exist.

How do we hold both of these realities at once?

That is the question at the heart of this week’s episode of The Pluralist Podcast. Rabbi Josh Weinberg and I are joined by Dr. Tomer Persico, Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute and Senior Research Scholar at UC Berkeley’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies to help us understand how we arrived at this moment and what is the way forward.

He traces the transformation of Religious Zionism from the theology of Rav Kook and the redemptive meaning attached to the State of Israel, through the Six-Day War and settlement movement, to the deep rupture created by the disengagement from Gaza in 2005.

As we approach Yom Kippur, the challenge is not only to identify the extremism around us, but to ask what our responsibility is as liberal Jews — what we need to confront, what we need to protect, and what kind of Jewish alternative we are able to build.

We should be able to condemn Jewish racism, fundamentalism, and terrorism without surrendering Judaism to extremists — and to confront antisemitism, the justification of terrorism, and the delegitimization of Israel without becoming blind to Israel’s own failures. That tension is challenging, but this is precisely where our Jewish values should help us navigate complexity with honesty and nuance.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• What should Israeli society be reckoning with as Yom Kippur approaches?

• How did parts of Religious Zionism become more fundamentalist — and gain so much influence?

• Why have parts of the progressive left come to excuse terrorism?

• Can these trends actually be reversed?

• And can liberal Jews reclaim Judaism as a source of responsibility, honesty, and nuance rather than extremism?

🎧 Watch or listen to the new episode of The Pluralist Podcast:
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As we approach Yom Kippur, I want to thank everyone who has already helped make our work possible. Your support allows us to keep fighting for a more pluralistic, democratic Israel — and to keep creating conversations like this one.

At a moment when we are being asked to reflect honestly on where we have fallen short and what we need to change, our work feels especially urgent.

If you are able, please consider making a gift to IRAC. 

Knowing that you are with us — that we are not doing this work alone — gives us the strength to keep going.

Gmar Chatima Tova. May this Yom Kippur bring healing, repair, and a renewed commitment to the Israel we are working to build.

Sincerely,

Orly Erez-Likhovski