ABSTRACT
Reform Judaism initially provided the fewest recruits to Zionism. This was not only because Reform Jews had made the most adjustments to American life, but also because they were powerfully influenced by the idea that, as a religious community rather than a nation, it was their calling to labour amongst the nations to establish a world of justice and righteousness. Kaufmann Kohler (1843-1926) as a New York rabbi and, from 1903, president of Hebrew Union College, was one of the most polemically vigorous Reform spokesmen. His opposition to Zionism came from seeing America as a great new field for "realization of these Messianic expectations".
