"Only Israel," "Enough with Israel." Letters from two angry readers

My article on the Center of the Jewish People came at the right time I guess. According to AP The Conference on the Future of the Jewish People (article here) mainly focused on the same topic. "Jewish leaders have long warned that the Diaspora's identity is eroding as more Jews marry non-Jews and blend into the mainstream, a phenomenon known as "assimilation." In contrast, Israel has established its own intense Jewish character. Participants said the main priority was to quickly bridge that gap, which threatens to divide the Jewish people, creating an Israeli nation out of touch with its heritage and a diminishing Diaspora detached from its biblical land".

This was also the main issue of the dialogue I conducted with author Aaron Hamburger, a dialogue in which he was frank enough to make some bold comments: "Israel is not a pillar of our religious belief, though Israel as well as the Holocaust has served as ways to bind young Jews to the Jewish faith, now that we live in a post-religious age when people are less likely to be bound to the principles of the faith itself. Studying Torah and keeping Shabbat may be a drag, for example, but sunning yourself on a Tel Aviv beach or going on a Teen Trip to Israel is not only fun but also only lasts a few weeks, whereas the nettlesome burdens of religion and faith last a lifetime".

My words, and Aaron's, triggered numerous responses and emails, many of them highly critical. Here are two of them:

Marla

Marla Patinkin of Evanston, Il, is 40 years old, a mother of three boys, an artist and former High School art teacher. She has lived in Israel in the past, and hopes to live there again some day. Her letter was quite, well, you'll see:

"I didn't realize how angry a Jew I can be, until, when reading Haaretz, I clicked on an article titled "Can 120 Jews reach a consensus on policy recommendations?". This posting discussed the Conference on the Future of the Jewish People. What stunned, and stung, me was a statement by Steve Hoffman (former president and
CEO of the United Jewish Communities) who was paraphrased as saying, regarding Israel/Diaspora relations, that he "is still not prepared to view Israel as the center of the Jewish people. There are two centers, Israel and the U.S."

Unbelievable. Still not prepared. Really? What would it take to convince the former head of an outdated, fat American Jewish dinosaur of philanthropy to deem the State of Israel the official center of the Jewish people?

Here in America, we Jews enjoy all the privileges and rights this great
democracy affords us as one of its smallest ethnic minorities. We have become educated, relatively wealthy and politically influential. But in this country, our most successful assimilation story yet, we have also become culturally and religiously lazy, disinterested, bored, extremely segmented, self loathing, apathetic, and yes Steve, full of pride. Although there are joyful, inspiring, dynamic examples of Jewish light here, we self consciously construct this effort as citizens of the largest Protestant country on Earth. As American Jews we are nothing more than a very important outpost, a relatively large population of Jews in Diaspora, period.

What amazes me most perhaps, is that since the creation of the State of Israel, this brand of American Jewish leadership, in all its patriarchal, self-important glory, has failed to make the essential paradigm shift from that of a homeless, wandering shtetl culture to that of a nation. They've never embraced that which is truly the most incredible, powerful dimension we possess - our peoplehood, our place among the nations, as legitimate as the Greeks and Italians... and Jordan for that matter. We don't embrace the vibrant, ever
evolving, Israeli culture as part of us; or more critically, something to
essentially be a part of, that is our new core, shaping and influencing our Diaspora culture in a deep, meaningful way. After almost sixty years of statehood, very few of us actually speak fluent Hebrew. The riches of contemporary Israeli culture still wait to breathe life into our stale, stagnant, synagogue style American Judaism.

In addition, in calling the legitimacy of Israel's status as our center into question, he carelessly and irresponsibly gives credence to anti-Israel post-Zionist ideology. To those who view Israel and Zionism as an imperialistic overlay imposed on the Middle East when Europe and America are the more appropriate places for Jews to live.

Ultimately, the lack of hubris in his statement suggests the classic tragic ending - our imminent downfall. In this situation that would amount to irrelevance, a substantially diminished ability to effectively advocate for our true center, Israel. The optimist in me says this is a dying mentality. I hope so.

It's a messy, hard-luck, intense place, but the only one we have, and it's warm. Sorry Steve Hoffman and the ilk, it will never, ever be "Next year in Short Hills, New Jersey... and maybe Jerusalem."

Jacob

Jacob is 27 years old and lives in New Jersey, but unlike Marla, didn't want his full name or place of residence to be revealed. He has visited Israel twice, and enjoyed each trip, but would prefer to go to Italy next time. He has a girlfriend ("yes, she's Jewish") but is not married yet and has no children. Judaism, he wrote to me, is very important to him. That's a point he didn't want anyone to misinterpret. His letter, therefore, might cause some confusion:

"Here's why American Jews don't have to support, identify, celebrate, and contribute to Israel. Its not because of the reason most people will try to use (as excuses): Israel isn't bad, it isn't particularly oppressive (its neighbors are much worst), it is occupying the West Bank blah blah, but we all know that Israelis are ready to leave as soon as there's a partner that isn't someone vying to eliminate Israel. In short, this is not about politics. It is about two other, much more important things - culture and survival.

Let me start with survival, because that's the easier part to explain. American Jews love their country and their lives. They want them to continue. But what if they recognize Israel as the center of their universe? If Israel, god forbid, disappears (and we all know, deep down, that this is not some distant unimaginable possibility) suddenly American Jews will find themselves wandering in empty space. On the other hand, if the center is here, we have nothing to worry about. America is strong and so are we. Any connection to Israel only weakens us, and causes trouble. Just read all the commentary on Rosner's web site, like the guy saying that 'Any American with an identity crisis should be thrown out from our country, the U.S.A. It applies to Muslims too (I am a Muslim). We are all Americans and we should stick together as brothers.'

Or read the other one playing basically the same card and writing that 'I resist the idea of Jews as a nation because it is the premise for the accusation that Jews are always a Fifth Column, never to be trusted as loyal citizens of their home country.'

I hate to say this, but those two are right. Supporting Israel weakens our position in America and opens the door to accusations regarding loyalty etc. So both from our own selfish psychological point of view AND from the point of view of the society around us, it's much better for us to be on our own, without any special connection to Israel.

But I also wanted to write something about culture. Having visited Israel twice I know something about it (not a lot), and one thing I learned for certain: Israelis aren't at all interested in any connection with us except for getting our money and political support.

They don't appreciate our needs (the Reform movement is still banned from marrying people, can you imagine?), they don't see our American culture as significant. Maybe for the orthodox this is all fine, but for most of us its not. And by the way, people in Israel are mostly secular and barely have any connection to their Judaism rather than living in a Jewish country. Get a bunch of them here and you'll see that they don't care one bit about intermarriage and such, and will be as inclined to disconnect themselves from anything Jewish as the last unaffiliated Jew in America.

The bottom line is that its better for us without them and maybe it's also better for them. And I say this as someone who cares deeply about his own Judaism, but is loyal to the old Jewish saying that the poor of your city come before those of other cities. True, in Israel they will miss our money but are doing quite well on their own, and political support they get from the Evangelicals anyway. Culturally, we do not belong together, and the money and effort we spent there can be put to a much better use here in America.

Imagine: all the money and hours wasted on Israel by Jewish Americans is suddenly available for Jewish schools, Jewish community centers, Jewish outreach, Jewish renewal, and all the other great project that will make us ? not just Jews but rather Jewish Americans ? stronger and more vital. What a wonderful dream."


I will be spending the next couple of days in Israel, and will write occasionally, but not every day.