A.B. Yehoshua shocks, puts Israel above his Jewishness

WASHINGTON - Author A.B. Yehoshua set a cat among the pigeons at this week's first session of the American Jewish Committee's centennial symposium when he declared that only Israel, and not Judaism, could ensure the survival of the Jewish people.

The session, moderated by Ted Koppel, was held under the promising title "The Future of the Past: What will become of the Jewish People?" The participants were Cynthia Ozick, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, Leon Wieseltier and A.B. Yehoshua.

The symposium, which culminated last night with a dinner with President George Bush, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, consisted, among other things, of four somewhat philosophical debates on the situation and future of the Jewish people.

Yehoshua told the audience here in Washington on Tuesday that religion is of no importance to him - it is the land and the language that forge his Israelli identity. He stressed that his Israeli identity was more important than his Judaism, arousing annoyance and unease in the audience.

"For me there is no alternative...I cannot keep my identity outside Israel. Israeli is my skin, not my jacket. You are changing jackets...you are changing countries like changing jackets," he said.

Unless they lived in Israel and took part in the daily decisions, he told the delegates, they did not have a Jewish identity of any significance. If China were to become a stronger superpower than the U.S., you would all move to China, he said.

Many at the conference called Yehoshua's speech "impertinent," "foolish," "tasteless" and "impolite." A delegate from Los Angeles said, "I don't care so much about Yehoshua, but tell me, is that what Israelis think?"

David Harris, American Jewish Committee executive director, also expressed amazement at Yehoshua's message, which was apparently received as callous and patronizing. Harris said that Yehoshua expressed a "classic Zionist position" - a polite way of saying that Yehoshua's position was somewhat outdated and out of touch with the reality of American Jews.

Koppel asked if anyone else felt uncomfortable with the direction in which the session was going, and the audience responded with roars of laughter. People even started growling every time Yehoshua started speaking.

Leon Wieseltier, the literary editor of The New Republic, sounded less troubled than others. He said he believed Yehoshua was wrong, of course. Denigrating Diaspora Jews was necessary at the beginning of Zionism but now is simply wrong, he said. He also said he was shocked by the extent to which Yehoshua's identity was threatened by the American Jews' identity, as though if they were O.K., he would be less important.

Professor Anita Shapira expressed concern over the growing distance between American Jewry and Israel. She suggested increasing the efforts of the Jewish community in America to study Hebrew. But some of her listeners wondered why this would be worthwhile.

One audience member said Yehoshua had made it clear that American Jews are second rate if Jews at all. A New York delegate who recently finished a year's study in Israel, chimed in: "Write that unlike what they may think in Israel, we are not angry because he dared tell us the truth to our face, but because he spoke nonsense that demonstrates complete severance from our existence and experience here."

Former Mossad head Ephraim Halevy calmed things down to a certain extent when he disagreed with Yehoshua, a day and a half later. Halevy said Israel took great pains to save Jews all over the world. One could not argue that the Jews of the world or that world Jewry were not important to Israel, he said.

Wieseltier tried to explain that this is not a zero-sum game - either Israel or nothing.