Zionism

Rad Ref Librarian Dena M suggests:

Here is a list of books from a bibliography that can be found on the website of Jews Against the Occupation: www.jatonyc.org. I would draw your attention to the following title on the list: While Messiah Tarried: Jewish Socialist Movements, 1871-1917. There are other good ones here too.

Jews and Judaism on the Left
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Daniel Boyarin, A Radical Jew: Paul and the Politics of Identity (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994).

Mark H. Ellis, Israel and Palestine−Out of the Ashes: The Search for Jewish Identity in the Twenty-First Century (London and Sterling, VA: Pluto Press, 2002).

Seth Farber, ed., Rabbis, Prophets, and Peacemakers: Conversations with Jewish Critics of Israel (Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 2005).

Nancy L. Green, ed., Jewish Workers in the Modern Diaspora (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998).

Abraham Joshua Heschel, Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays, ed. Susannah Heschel (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1996).

Joel Kovel, Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Single Democratice State in Israel/Palestine (London: Pluto, 2007).

Michael Lerner, Jewish Renewal: A Path to Healing and Transformation (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons/HarperPerennial, 1994).

Nora Levin, While Messiah Tarried: Jewish Socialist Movements, 1871-1917 (New York Schocken Books, 1977).

Steven Lubet et. al., eds., Chutzpah: A Jewish Liberation Anthology (San Francisco: New Glide Publications, 1977).

Albert Memmi, The Liberation of the Jew, trans. Judy Hyun (New York: Orion Press, 1966).

Ezra Mendelsohn, ed., Class Struggle in the Pale: The Formative Years of the Jewish Workers' Movement in Tsarist Russia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970).

There are definitely forms of Zionism that claim relationships with Marxism, anarchism, and other Left traditions. These movements have always had challenges from other Left movements among Jews (not to mention Palestinians, Arab communities, and the anti-imperialist Left in general).

An academic example looking at Zionism and its relationship to racism: The company Gale (that makes a variety of online and print reference sources) recently included an entry on Zionism in their Encyclopedia on Race and Racism. Pressure/input from Zionist groups have led them to make alterations to the entry.
The entry can be viewed here.
[This is a PDF file and may take some time to load on your computer]

Within U.S. Jewish communities, there is a history of rejecting Zionism as a liberation movement. One book to read on this topic is:
Prophets outcast : a century of dissident Jewish writing about Zionism and Israel / edited by Adam Shatz. New York : Nation Books, c2004.

A current Jewish group (that I work with, to be transparent) called the International Jewish anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) has the view that any form of Zionism must be rejected as an ideology and practice if one believes in social justice (from an anti-imperialist and anti-racist framework) for all people. The group’s charter is here.

Currently within Israel there is the Anarchists Against the Wall formation, and the Shministim, both which are critical of Israeli policy but don't make a clear stance against Zionism.