Over the last decade — and particularly in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel — Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, the senior rabbi of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan, has emerged as perhaps the Reform movement’s most prominent pro-Israel voices. In interviews, speeches and sermons, he has accused his co-denominationalists of putting a universal form of tikkun olam (repairing the world) over ahavat Yisrael (loving fellow Jews) and has criticized the movement’s leadership for insufficiently taking strong Zionist stances on contemporary issues and tolerating what he calls an “aggressive wing” of the Reform Jewry that is openly anti-Zionist.

His emergence as one of the most visible Zionist Reform rabbis has brought with it support for his initiatives, as well as pushback from other members of the movement, who see Hirsch as publicity-savvy, but not necessarily more important, and as ignoring the need for Reform Jewry to embrace a big-tent approach to Israel and Zionism (a claim he rejects).

The son of Rabbi Richard Hirsch, who founded the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center, the younger Hirsch spent his high school years in Israel, served in the Israel Defense Forces and was executive director of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA) from 1992 until 2004, when he joined the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, which is named after its founding rabbi, who was a prominent progressive Zionist Reform rabbi at the turn of the 20th century. (The “free” refers to his demand that his sermons not be approved in advance by the synagogue’s board, as was common at the time.)

In recent years, Hirsch has used his perch on the pulpit of the Manhattan synagogue — one of the most prominent Reform congregations in the United States — to launch Zionist initiatives for the movement. Hirsch told eJewishPhilanthropy that when he began these programs, he remembered thinking that “this would be my contribution to the movement and to American Jewry.” 

Two years ago, Hirsch launched the annual Re-CHARGING Reform Judaism Conference, the Amplify Israel Rabbinic Fellowship for early career reform rabbis, and — earlier this year — the Reform Movement Alumni for Israel leadership program, which recently received a $250,000 grant from the Jewish National Fund-USA’s Boruchin Center. 

“Knowing the history of the Reform movement, we are always susceptible, for understandable reasons, to slipping back into a non-Zionist or anti-Zionist perspective,” Hirsch said. 

He was referring to the Reform movement’s 1885 Pittsburgh Platform, which established it as non-Zionist, if not anti-Zionist, by rejecting the notion that the Jewish people were a “nation,” that they were instead a “religious community,” and thus did “[not] expect… a return to Palestine.” The Pittsburgh Platform’s stance against Zionism and Jewish peoplehood were subsequently reversed by a number of platforms that full-throatedly recognize the Jewish people as a nation and embrace Zionism. The Reform movement’s rabbinical school, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, also requires students to spend a year in Israel as part of the ordination program. Union for Reform Judaism President Rabbi Rick Jacobs often refers to his movement — the largest denomination in the United States — as the country’s “largest Zionist organization.” And yet there remains in the Reform movement historical precedence for anti-Zionism.

The Reform movement has also always maintained a universalist attitude, seeing the importance in the Jewish community considering itself as part of and responsible for society in general, and not exclusively or primarily for itself. “We are [the] most on the seam between universal and particular values in the Jewish community,” Hirsch said.

It’s all about balance, he said: You need to help others, but also need to care for yourself and your community.

Rabbi Josh Weinberg, executive director of ARZA, stressed the need for the Reform movement to embrace a wide variety of opinions on Israel. “We are not a monolithic movement,” he told eJP. “We have diversity on everything: God, Torah, religious life and Israel too.”

While Hirsh is “a very, very important voice,” Weinberg said, “we have a whole movement of important voices as well.”

But many of those important voices are not as well recognized outside of their communities, Weinberg said. “Some rabbis have more of a PR campaign, and some rabbis are more local,” he said. “I don’t think there was a single rabbi who did not speak about Israel from the pulpit [after Oct. 7].” They “set the tone” for congregants’ relationships with Israel. When local governments vote on resolutions that affect Israel, “our rabbis represent the Jewish people to their local municipality.”

Steven Windmueller, emeritus professor of Jewish communal studies at HUC-JIR, Los Angeles, believes that Hirsch is not only carving out a space for avowedly pro-Israel voices in the Reform community but is working to ensure that Reform Jews continue to have their voices heard in Zionist circles, both in the Diaspora and — perhaps more importantly — in Israel, where Orthodox Judaism receives a far greater amount of funding, support and recognition from the government.

“There’s a huge battle [about] what role do liberal religious organizations and groups play in Israel,” said Windmueller, who spoke at the first two Re-CHARGING Reform Judaism Conferences. Hirsch is “playing for the long-term game… You need to stay in the battle in order to hopefully win a place at the table,” he said.

The Jewish National Fund is one of many donors investing in Hirsch’s initiatives. He’s also received funding from the Lisa and Michael Leffell Foundation, Maimonides Fund, The Paul E. Singer Foundation, among others. “The funders may not necessarily be historically Reform Jewish monies or donors, but they are funders who see the importance or value of the movement, and in this case, [Hirsch],” Windmueller told eJP.

While Hirsch has voiced criticism of Reform Jewry regarding Israel, he said he believes that the majority of the movement — both its leaders and members —  generally agree on its centrality. “Broadly speaking,” he said, “the leadership of the movement, the institutions of the movement, and the vast majority of our of our congregations, our rabbis and Jewish professionals, want to [not only] maintain a close connection with Israel, but consider Israel to be an important component of their own Jewish identity.”

According to Rabbi Rick Jacobs, it’s important to have Reform rabbis who hold different views on Israel, because many progressive members of the Reform movement and the wider Jewish community do not connect with the actions of Israel’s leaders. They can also feel alienated from parts of the Zionist movement, and other Jews and Zionists can “demonize” them for their progressive beliefs, both in matters of religion and politics. “We need to really celebrate our pluralism,” Jacobs told eJP.

While the URJ leader said Hirsch is “a very, very strong advocate for Israel altogether and our Reform movement,” Jacobs stressed that Reform Jewry includes many other “eloquent voices and wise leaders within our synagogues, within our Reform movement, and more is better.”

Hirsch, too, sees the value in having a vast range of views on Israel. 

“We need to create the broadest possible tent of people who voice opinions on this or that policy of the Israeli government, especially in the light of Oct. 7,” he said. “Criticism of the Israeli government, even strong criticism, even unfair criticism, does not say a thing about whether somebody is a Zionist or an anti-Zionist. To the contrary. If you care about the society, then you become critical. You want to make it better.”