Zionists

Zionists are followers of the movement to segregate the Jewish people as a nation and to give it a national home either in Palestine or elsewhere. Orthodox Judaism holds to a Zionism pure and simple, the return of the Jews to Palestine, the coming of the Messias, the overthrow of hostile powers by Him, the restoration of the Temple and its worship, the Messianic reign. The Reformed Jews reject this idea of a return to Zion. The conference of rabbis, at Frankfort-on-the-Main, 15-28 July, 1845, deleted from the ritual all prayers for a return to Zion and a restoration of a Jewish state. The Philadelphia conference, 1869, followed the lead of the German rabbis and decreed that the Messianic hope of Israel is "the union of all the children of God in the confession of the unity of God". The Pittsburg conference, 1885, reiterated this Messianic idea of reformed Judaism.