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Julia Rymer Brucker's avatar

Rabbi Gordis,

I started following your Substack a couple of years ago, as I wanted to learn more about “Israel from the inside.” I wanted to understand what it is like for Israelis right now, in this moment, and understand the culture and history more deeply. Your writing has been incredibly educational in this regard.

But these diatribes about the failure of American Jewry to support Israel are hurtful to me as an American Jew. Because yes, Israel needs our support, but we need Israel’s support.

Please help me understand how I can both support Israel and this sinking ship of American Jewry. Because I am failing. And I feel very alone.

The civilizational acid eating away at liberal Judaism—Reform and Conservative—is eating away at the U.S. as a whole. The headwinds we are facing are monumental. Israelis have no idea. Progressive thought and social justice theories like intersectionality and critical theory have taken hold in every institution, school, and corporation. We are bombarded every day with the message that to live a traditional life of any kind—Jewish, Christian, whatever—is to be backwards and bigoted. And that doesn’t even scratch the surface of the antisemitism that exists on both the right and the left in this country, rearing its ugly head after lying dormant for a couple of decades.

I finally visited Israel in February 2023, saving up for years to join a women’s trip with the Jewish National Fund. I was able to take one week off from my family to go, and it was eye-opening, and in many ways wonderful, and in many ways troubling. I met many real Israelis and saw Israel’s struggles, triumphs and challenges and beauty. But I was not inspired to live there. It seems difficult, expensive, violent and hot. I live in Colorado, a really nice part of the United States. My entire family is here. Making Aliyah would uproot my life and my family’s life entirely, as well as be an abandonment of my aging parents.

Instead, I have chosen to engage myself more in traditional Jewish practice, to build a Jewish home, to raise my kids as educated Jews here in Colorado. But it is not easy, as I am a religious minority in a part of the state without a significant Jewish community or infrastructure. I spend copious amounts of time and money trying to augment this reality, and I see little to no support from Israel for my endeavors.

I have been married long enough to know that any relationship that is built on love, and sustains itself for many years, needs to be also one of trust, empathy and compassion. Does that exist between Israeli and American Jews? I would argue not, the reason being that there are few opportunities for interaction or education. The expectation is that American Jews will do it all, but if the center of the Jewish world is the Jewish state, and Israel wants Jewishly engaged and literate Jews, why aren’t they doing anything to promote that result? Why aren’t there more Jewish Agency ambassadors in more areas of Colorado? Why is there not a free Modern Hebrew language program anywhere? Why is the issue of funding for Jewish day school, religious school and rabbinic school tuition, synagogue dues, summer camp, and b’nei mitzvah tutoring not being addressed? Why is there no one in the Israeli government working on confronting growing antisemitism and security concerns in Jewish communities? Why are we just left on our own, adrift, and mocked, ridiculed and ignored?

Why can’t Israel throw us liberal Jews a bone? Enact the Kotel compromise, deal with the issues of conversion and agunot and religious fundamentalism. See what happens when we are valued and our concerns addressed.

Enough with the berating. What does sufficient “support of Israel” look like from us, exactly? If supporting the protestors against judicial reform is not enough, what is? Donating more money? Visiting more often? Making Aliyah?

I say this with deep love and appreciation of Israel, an ardent, lifelong Zionist: I would really like to know.

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BKGVR's avatar

1) Most American Jews are politically and religiously moderate (atheist/reform/conservative; Democrat/Leftist) Ashkenazim. Israel was founded and mostly populated by the same people. Part of the divide now is that Israel has shifted demographically, with a much larger number of Mizrahi and Orthodox/Haredim. American Jews don't have much of a framework for understanding those peoples viewpoints and values.

2) Most American Jews (at least in my experience), were taught to love and support Israel. But, it is hard to separate a country from its people. My experience with many Israelis (not all!) has been a fairly consistent arrogance and failure to appreciate American Jewry. From the secular types we hear "you don't understand israel, so don't criticize or even question". From the the religious we hear "you aren't really practicing Judaism, and we're not even sure you're Jewish". But from all, we hear "support us, give money, talk to your representatives, and, if you don't, you're a self hating Jew."

3) Jews are a family, but, like with many families, people grow apart, the love becomes attenuated. Individual families have broken apart over politics; so too can the Jewish family.

4) Many American Jews are alienated from their own communities over politics as well; synagogues have become places of open partisanship, with little room for difference of opinion, let alone room for the practice of Judaism for community and transcendence, rather than a vague sense of universalism. This further alienates many of us from connection to Israel.

5) For 2000 years we loved Israel as a concept; as with any consummated love, the reality is far from the dream.

Nuf' said

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