Do American Jews Need Israel? – Part I
Friday May 20, 2022 – י״ט אִיָיר תשפ״ב
I used to ask groups of Israeli soldiers joining Birthright Israel groups the following question:
“Why do American Jews live in America?
“Ah,” they would answer. “Obviously, they live there for a bigger house, nicer car, better salary, fewer terror attacks, etc…”
“No,” I would respond with a great deal of sarcasm. “That’s why Israelis live in America…American Jews live in America because they are American!”
I explained to curious groups of 18–22-year-old Israelis that the vast majority of American Jews have never even been to Israel – thus, the impetus for this free trip they are joining. And I explained that most American Jews are not sitting on the fence struggling with the decision of whether they should come on Aliyah.-They are at home in America. Nonetheless, there is little question that Israel has played and continues to play a significant role in American Jewish life.
On April 20, 2006, President George W. Bush proclaimed that the month of May would be Jewish American Heritage Month. As we celebrate the achievements, accolades, and overall success of Jews in America who have integrated, thrived, and feel deeply connected and at home here, let us use this opportunity to ask about the place of American Zionism today and what role Israel plays in the milieu of American Jewish society.
Let me be clear. I believe Judaism without Israel would not be Judaism, and American Judaism without Israel would not be what it is today.
Once upon a time what defined American Judaism and American Jewish identity was an ethnic notion of Jewishness. It was based on a common notion of shared ethnic origins, purpose, and destiny. It was an essentially secular model of Jewishness and Judaism – ethnicity being the common glue that held the Jews together as a people, regardless of what they thought about God and the mitzvot that they observed or did not observe. It was commonly understood by just about everyone—liberal Jews, Orthodox Jews, atheist Jews, left-wing Jews, and right-wing Jews—that Judaism and Jewish culture were steeped in the group life of a people and its particularities.
When we think of American Zionism, we may drift to the historical highlights of the 20th century. We recall the famous story of Eddie Jacobson, a close friend, and business partner of Harry Truman, who urged the President to recognize the fledgling State of Israel. We laud the many Zionist activists who secured funding for the Exodus and other ships and successfully raised millions of dollars to support Israel.
But, as we reflect upon the American Jewish experience, I’m much more interested in the question of how having a Jewish State impacted and altered the course of American Jewry and American Jewish heritage. What impact did/does Israel have on American Judaism, and how has that changed over the past 74 years?
Justice Louis Brandeis believed that Zionism and Americanism were compatible. “The highest Jewish ideals are essentially American in a very important particular,” he proclaimed. “It is democracy that Zionism represents. It is Social Justice which Zionism represents, and every bit of that is the American ideal of the twentieth century.” Brandeis often repeated, “Zionism is the Pilgrim inspiration and impulse all over again.” He told his audiences, “To be good Americans, we must be better Jews, and to be better Jews, we must become Zionists.”
Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1881-1983) understood the Diaspora and Israel to be deeply and mutually interdependent. He expected the cultural revival in Israel to spread through the Diaspora, and he believed that the moral voice of the Diaspora would save Israel from becoming merely another Levantine state, a state characterized by an authoritarian government, a lack of full civil liberties, and a tribal, premodern orientation.[1] He wrote that the establishment of a Jewish State would be “indispensable to the life of Judaism in the diaspora.”[2]
Is Israel indispensable to American Judaism?
I suggest that American Judaism has been immensely impacted and shaped by the Zionist enterprise and the existence of a Jewish State. A primary element of identity in the organized American Jewish community is the sense of connection to Israel. This connection is both deeply emotional and starkly political. It motivates American Jews to support Israel as if it were their second country. It is one Jewish commitment shared by the majority of American Jews, whether religious or secular. Some even claim that in today’s world Zionism or “Israel-ism” — together with liberalism, Jewish philanthropy, and Holocaust memorialization—may constitute the “civil religion” of American Jewry.
In the first half of the 20th century, many American Jews participated actively in the campaign to establish a Jewish state. After its creation in 1948, the Zionist sentiment was more subtle but then was dramatically invigorated with the triumph of the Six-Day War of 1967. Since then, the American Jewish community’s connection to Israel is expressed in various ways: celebration of Israel’s Independence Day with large communal parades and festivities; trips to Israel as a ‘rite of passage’ for teens’ organized Jewish involvement; and philanthropic dollars raised for Israeli causes supporting Jewish organizations, Movements, initiatives, and partnerships across the religious and ideological spectrum. In short, the data suggests there has never been more engagement with Israel than there is today.
However, we also see a trend in which America and Israel form competing or alternative spheres of Jewish life and vision. Numerous American Jews have gone on Aliyah to Israel and significant numbers of others maintain a strong sense of rootedness, making frequent visits and sending their children to study in Israel. Yet, the majority of American Jews are primarily oriented toward America and the culture of its own Jewish religious life. What’s more, the tension of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has caused the debate in American Jewish circles to become more strident leading both to a crumbling of the old unanimity of support for Israel and, for some, the desire to disengage.
As Israel has become more secure—militarily and economically— many American Jews feel less of a need to focus their efforts on its support. We must also acknowledge a generational divide over American Jews’ support for Israel (as well as institutional Jewish life). The older generation remains more inclined to support the State of Israel, while many of the younger generation seem to feel less connected.
Even though Israel has become more westernized, many American Jews and Israelis feel more culturally and religiously different from each other than ever before. For their part, American Jews are less inclined to define themselves in terms of their shared peoplehood. Instead, Jewish religiosity in America has dampened enthusiasm for a primarily ethnic and national form of Jewish identity. For American Jews, the health of the American Jewish community depends not solely on the well-being of Israel, but largely on the well-being of a spirited religious life in American synagogues and homes, and on the translation of Jewish values to focus on universal values of social justice and tikkun olam.
Inspired by David Hollinger’s 1995 book Postethnic America: Beyond Multiculturalism, Professor Shaul Magid argued, in his 2013 book American Post-Judaism: Identity and Renewal in a Postethnic Society, that Zionism and the Holocaust, two anchors of contemporary American Jewish identity, will no longer be centers of identity formation for future generations. While most institutional Judaism in America has not really acquiesced to that notion, many of us try to infuse our institutions with notions of ethnicity and peoplehood through a connection to Israel as a Jewish society. Magid contrasts this American development implicitly with the ethnonationalism of modern Israel.
It is clear to me that the State of Israel (and the Zionist Movement prior to the State) has left an unparallel impact on the American Jewish scene, shaping it in ways we may not realize. Think about our liturgy, nusach (melodies in prayer), Jewish education, academic studies, philanthropy, organizational affiliation, institutional programming, Hebrew, and more.
Was Mordecai Kaplan’s prognostication, correct? Did Israel’s Jewish cultural revival spread through the Diaspora, and does the moral voice of the Diaspora successfully save Israel from becoming merely another Levantine state or worse? Is the voice of the Diaspora even more moral than Israel’s?
In the post-ethnic world, the question is: Is a connection to or relationship with Israel necessary to have a vibrant Jewish identity in North America?
Israel has been a rally cry and a focal point for American Jews. Israel has reminded us of our fragility and our strength. Throughout Israel’s history, American Jews have been given the message that Israelis are the New Jews. They are muscular and tan. They are the new King David – warrior-farmer-poets who revived an ancient language and neither sleep nor slumber as they are the guardians of Israel. Like our ancient mythological King David, they are perpetually facing a Goliath which can easily overpower them and drive them into the sea, so they need the feeble bookish Jews of the Diaspora to wield their power through politics and finance to come to their aid. In its early years, Israel rejected the Diaspora, looking down its nose at the assimilation and embrace of religiosity as it struggled to seek out a Judaism-through-translation. Diaspora Jews embraced Israel as the superhero they wanted to be – the Diaspora Clark Kent becoming the Israeli Superman.
And now, it seems the tables are turning. More and more Diaspora Jews are rejecting the policies of the Jewish State. The notion of an ethnic nation-state makes many American Jews uncomfortable. The younger generation, I contend, is the post-assimilationist generation. For them, the question of feeling at home in America is not a question. For them, it is incomprehensible not to feel at home in America despite racism, violence, hatred, poverty, lack of health care, environmental destruction, etc. Despite these challenges, the vast majority of Jews in America do not abandon the American democratic project of social justice. So, what makes them feel distant from Israel? How do Kaplan’s words resonate with young American Jews today?
Let me say it again – I believe Judaism without Israel is not Judaism, and American Judaism without Israel would not be what it is today, nor does it have a future without a connection to peoplehood, a collective narrative, language, and culture.
What do other American Reform Jews think about what the relationship ought to be going forward, and what role should/will Israel play in our lives?
Stay tuned for next week…
Shabbat Shalom.
[1] A History of Reconstructionist Zionism, By Rabbi David Teutsch, 2016
[2] Mordecai M. Kaplan in the first issue of his journal “The Reconstructionist,” 1935