Reclaiming Zionism as a rights-based social justice movement

Social work’s commitment to human rights and social justice rests historically on Enlightenment principles of universality, rational inquiry, and the inherent dignity and worth of all persons. In recent decades, postmodern philosophy and critical theoretical frameworks have gained prominence within the profession, reshaping how social justice and human rights are conceptualized. This article argues that tensions between Enlightenment humanism and postmodern power analytics have produced a form of professional anomie within social work, particularly evident in its engagements with Zionism. We contend that Zionism – understood not as Israeli state policies but as a philosophical movement advocating Jewish collective self-determination – emerged from the same Enlightenment moral universe that undergirds human rights discourse. By tracing Zionism’s foundations, we demonstrate that many prevailing critiques within social work bypass its philosophical premises and instead rely on postmodern frameworks that reduce legitimacy to power differentials. We distinguish between Enlightenment-based critiques of Zionism, and postmodern critiques that are animated by delegitimization and, at times, reproduce archetypal antisemitic libel structures. We argue that how social work engages with Zionism functions as a diagnostic case, revealing whether the profession remains anchored in universal rights discourse or has shifted toward an epistemology untethered from its ontological foundation.