Where is the center of the Jewish people?

Helen Michaelson, 58, from Michigan, is the imaginary creation of a young American Jewish writer named Aaron Hamburger. In his novel, "Faith for Beginners," Michaelson packs up her things, her sick husband and her rebellious son Jeremy and takes a trip to Jerusalem in 2000 in the hope that there, in the chaos of the eve of the intifada, she will find redemption for her and her family.

In this, Michaelson joins a minority of American Jews, about 35 percent (according to the 2001 National Jewish Population Survey), who have visited Israel. This is not a homogenous group: While a large majority of the Orthodox community has visited Israel, only a negligible minority of Jews married to non-Jews has bothered to come. Age differences are also evident. Among American Jews 65 or older, nearly half have been for a visit.

Hamburger himself evinced enough interest in Israel to stay in the country a few weeks and then write a book set there. But this is not a book about Israel. Hamburger has said in the past that he is interested only in Americans. This week he explained to Haaretz that "Israel is a fine place, but we as North American Jews should recognize that unless we intend to immigrate there, it is not our place."

A working paper entitled "Identity, Identification and Demography" prepared by professors Sergio Della Pergola and Chaim I. Waxman for the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute conference being in Jerusalem this week places less stress, and with reason, on the support of American Jews for Israel (82 percent) and more on the fact that only 28 percent of the Jews in the United States define themselves as "Zionists." Last week Steve Hoffman, who in the past headed the United Jewish Communities, put this somewhat differently: "I don't know that I'm prepared to say that Israel is the center of the Jewish people."

The participants in the conference - which has pulled together an impressive lineup of leaders and thinkers (as well as donors), among them Hoffman - are for the most part Americans and Israelis, the two communities that account for the majority of the Jewish people. Discussants will have to try to avoid a problem at the basis of the joint planning: The Jews of Israel and America are not just brothers; they are also rivals. For centrality, status, resources and on the bigger question of where the future of the Jewish people lies.

According to an analysis performed by the American Jewish Committee, only 15 percent of the American Jews of Hamburger's generation and that of his character Jeremy Michaelson (single, without children) feel "very close" to Israel, compared with 44 percent who feel "distant" from it (the rest feel "somewhat close"). They do not see their future as necessarily intertwined with that of Israel. Their "Jewish" activity boils down to attending a cultural event or surfing a "Jewish" Internet site. Their Judaism is very American, and therefore it needs no kashrut certificate from outside. Israel is not the center of the arena, and they are not fans who cheer it on from the bleachers but rather the best players of a parallel team. Not necessarily in the same sport.

Thus, there is a degree of difficulty in planning a joint future for Israel and American Jews without first working out the reciprocal relationship. Zionist Israel will find it difficult to relinquish the claim of its centrality and Jewish America will find it difficult to accept the status of a B team. However, the policy that has been adopted on this issue - a kind of repression - has not produced a desirable result, and the figures cited above prove this. In any case, the requirement is to shape a partnership of a new sort. This is a worthy, complex challenge for those planning the future of the Jewish people. Otherwise, as in the old joke about the Jew and his two synagogues, the reality will draw the future: One place will be for living and the other for not setting foot.

More on this issue on Rosner's Domain:

My dialogue with author Aaron Hamburger is here

The book Faith for Beginners is here

My report on the JPPPI convention (Can 120 Jews reach a consensus on policy recommendations?) is here

Article: Jewish people? What Jewish people?

Article: The fifth Jew - answering the readers