Everything Emanuel March-April 2013 - The Emanuel Synagogue

From the President, continued from page 2
No Jewish People Without Israel — Why the future of American Judaism,
as we know it, depends on the survival of the Jewish state.
by Daniel Gordis
Why do Jews lie at the Passover
Seder? Across the world every
year, we Jews recite the famous line:
“Next year in Jerusalem.” But how
many American Jews actually mean it?
The vast majority of them clearly do
not plan to live in Israel, which is the
liturgy’s obvious meaning. Why, then,
proceed with the charade? On this
pivotal night, why celebrate freedom
by uttering a lie?
Truths come in different forms.
“Next year in Jerusalem” is not about
a plan, but about a dream. And uttering
this phrase has long been the Jewish
people’s way of keeping in mind
both an ethereal ideal and a common
national yearning. Jerusalem served
as a compass during prayer, but, more
importantly, it made for flights of
national fancy. For two millennia, as
Jews imagined their people’s future,
one place occupied center-stage. That
place was Zion.
As is increasingly apparent, however,
the times are changing. Ours is the
first generation in which the centrality
of Zion in Jewish dreams is beginning
to fade. It is fading rapidly, and we
know why. Part of it has to do with
the fact that Israel’s supporters have
framed the conversation about the
Jewish State in terms of the conflict
with the Palestinians. Even among
knowledgeable and committed Jews,
an oral Rorschach test in response to
the word “Israel” evokes responses
such as “checkpoints,” “occupation,”
or “settlements” — as though the conflict
were all that Israel is about.
In response to that, a younger
generation for whom war is anathema
and occupation is morally unbearable
has begun to drift away. Part of that is
understandable, but only to an extent.
For even when faced with the tragic
and interminable conflict with the
Palestinians, is it too much to hope
that Jews would still find much worth
celebrating when they think of Israel?
When the revival of Jewish sovereignty
in their ancestral land evokes only
images of war, and the ingathering
of exiles after 2,000 years evokes no
awe, when the rebirth of the Jewish
language elicits little sense of wonder,
Jews have lost sight of the real significance
of Israel’s re-creation.
But this is precisely where we find
ourselves. Young Jews today, discouraged
by Israeli policies that they cannot
abide, either explicitly or tacitly
join those who condemn the Jewish
State. But they do not recognize that
the de-legitimization of Israel will
affect them, too, that they, too, have
a personal stake in Israel, no matter
how discomfited they may be by some
of its policies. What happens to Israel
will affect not only Jews in Beersheva
or Tel Aviv, but Jews in New York,
Boston, London, and Buenos Aires.
Why that is the case has to become
part of the Zionist conversation,
which can no longer be only about
Palestinians and occupation, borders
and war.
Evidence that a new conversation
about the Jewish state is long overdue is
everywhere. The distance between Diaspora
Jews (mostly, but not exclusively,
American Jews) and the Jewish state is
painfully apparent. A recent study asked
American Jews if the destruction of Israel
would be a personal tragedy for them.
The study asked about the destruction
of Israel, not its gradual disappearance
or slow withering away. Eighty percent
of Jewish Americans 65 years of age
and older said that Israel’s destruction
would, indeed, be a personal tragedy
for them. But amazingly, 50 percent
of those 35 years old and younger said
that Israel’s destruction would not be
a personal tragedy. Similarly, a 2011
study of American Jews showed that
the younger the cohort, the lower their
support for Israel.
The same phenomenon began to
surface even among young rabbinical
students; outside the Orthodox community,
increasing numbers of mainstream
Zionist rabbinical students
reported that expressing support for
Israel on their campuses had become
a lonely proposition.
In an era in which American Jews
can proudly espouse any political
position they wish, why are so many
young American Jews turning away
from Israel? Why has Zion shifted
away from the core of their national
sensibilities and dreams? The most
obvious reason, as stated, is the ongoing
conflict with the Palestinians.
These young people have no memory
of Israel’s past fragility, or of a time
before the international community’s
endorsement of Palestinian national
aspirations. Israel’s re-creation and
even the 1967 and 1973 wars, when
the Arab nations pledged to “push the
Jews into the sea,” are ancient history.
Today, what these young Jews see
is a power imbalance. One side is an
internationally recognized democracy
with nuclear weapons, a worldclass
army, and a robust economy.
The other side has none of these.
In what is a radical departure from
the mindset of their parents, these
young Americans’ earliest memories
of Israel are of the Intifada, of heavily
armed Israeli soldiers arrayed against
young Palestinian boys “only” throwing
rocks. Sensitive to the underdog
everywhere, and with a deep-seated
belief in fairness, they insisted and
continue to insist upon balancing the
scales. The Palestinians, they decided,
needed a state.
Palestinian statehood, however,
has been slow in coming. To be sure,
some of these young American Jews
understand the impasse stems from
the Palestinian refusal to recognize
Israel and continuing insistence that
any political settlement with the
Israelis allow for the return of the
now-millions of people classified as
“refugees” by UNRWA (the United
Nations Relief and Works Agency).
Israel, in turn, understands that with
the immigration of those original refugees
and their descendants the state
(continued on page 9)
8