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.
I read your words and am impressed with your passion and would like to respond. I am not Daniel Gordis, nor am I a "public intellectual", but, simply, an American born Jew, who made aliyah over 40 years ago (from California). My wife (Moroccan-born) and my children and grandchildren live here in Israel.We have always lived in or near a town in northern Israel (they call it the "periphery" here, because it is not part of any great metrropolitan area, and the overwhelming majority of the Jewish population here has its origins in the lands of Islam). I worked for over 30 years as a social worker in the Social Services department of the nearby town, and before that was a special education teacher. My wife worked as a pre-kindergarten teacher in regular and special education. So, for better or worse, I know Israeli society and its intricacies and contradictions! I mention all this, so that you will understand "where I'm coming from" (as we used to say back then in California!).
Although my family in America was secular, and we were not raised with the knowledge of the precepts of Judaism (in spite of having a Bar Mitzvah and going several years to "Hebrew School"), we were taught to embrace morality and to be "good people", and my parents loved Israel, and were also in love with an America that encouraged them to prosper and thrive.
In Israel, I was exposed to what Judaism was really "all about" and very gradually became religiously observant ( in English, I guess you might say "modern Orthodox")
I believe Israel is a truly vibrant and exciting place to live, yet I don't think that you should feel badly or get criticsm because aliyah may not be a viable option for you. I applaud your efforts
in building a Jewish home for your family, and, believe me, only this will further Jewish continuity, because the very damaging "woke" and "progressive" ideologies you mention will only dilute or destroy the cohesion of the American Jewish community!
Although I may disagree with some of your comments regarding your expectations of the Israeli government to support and/or fund various programs for the Jewish community in America, I basically agree with you. Julia, most average Israelis (even those like me who were born and raised in America) do not overly concern themselves (if at all) with the exigencies of American Jewry (or for that matter, other diasporqa communities), and I believe that few American Jews concern themselves day in and day out with our lives here in Israel, and, perhaps that is not the best of situations! However, I don't understand why you consider all that some sort of mockery or ridicule or ignoring. Here in Israel (as in the USA), I've learned to not always take the utterances of politicians or bureaucrats involved in US-Israeli relations seriously.
I do not think that Israel needs to"throw a bone" to anyone- not "liberal" Jews or any other kind of Jews. Israel needs to understand what is in the best interests of its actual citizens, and, hopefully, that may also include attitudes and policies that may be relevant to diaspora communities.
And finally, speaking as an ordinary Israeli, I don't "expect" anything from you as an American Jew (do you"expect" something from me or my wife as Israeli Jews?!).
If you continue raising your family and building a truly Jewish home, knowledgeable about Jewish precepts and practice, filled with love and joy-yes, that is what would make this one Israeli Jew and his wife very happy for you!
Thank you for responding. Honestly, I posted this note and figured it would go out into the ether, so hearing anyone's thoughts, especially an Israeli-American's, means a lot. I appreciate your kind words about the importance of building a Jewish home and educating my kids in the beauty and joy of Judaism. That is something I dedicate much of my life to, so if that is something that supports Israel, I can, as my dad would say, "Keep on keeping on." As for whether Israeli Jews and Americans think very much of one another, or "owe" each other anything... If the response is, to paraphrase your response, "well, we don't actually think much of you, and we really should be concentrating on our own interests, and you guys don't really think about us either," then how exactly is this the relationship of love that Rabbi Gordis so passionately describes? Maybe Israeli Jews do not think about the diaspora, but I *do* think about Israel, I care very much about Israelis, (otherwise I would not read this Substack!) ... but as I mentioned before, I just don't know what to do to support Israel beyond what I am already doing. (And how I wish I could solve the issues within American Jewry! Ugh.) Anyway. Again, I appreciate your response. All the best to you and your wife and kids and grandkids (oh my!) in Israel!
I did not intend to mean that Israelis don't think much of American Jews (i.e. dislike), but that simply, this is not an issue of great concern to them. As I mentioned, I believe you are doing the best possible thing to "support" Israel by, in fact, raising your kids in a Jewish home, and also being aware of the damage that the embrace of the psychopathologies of the "progressive" left is doing to Jewish identity and support of Jewish sovereignty in our homeland (Zionism).
As for Mr. Gordis, I find his analysis of the present situation in Israel to be incredibly naive, and, yes, ingenuous. After going on and on about " love", and dismissing and denigrating a call by Rabbi Eric Yoffie to reinvigorate Zionism among American Jews by actively opposing our present government, it turns out that Mr. Gordis himself actually believes this is a good idea, as he signed a statement during the Jewish Federations meeting in Tel Aviv in February, encouraging American Jews to do just that. How arrogant! Just because he happens to live in Israel, his call is somehow more "pure" and filled with "love"?! Rubbish!
My wife and I do not feel any "love" from the mass of protesters and their leadership. Their only goal is to impede Netanyahu and depose the government. Period. The issue of "judicial reform" is simply a smokescreen for their goal. They also have little "love" for the majority of the country (and, yes, the 60% of the Jewish electorate) who voted for the parties forming the present coalition. By the way, I doubt most American Jews would support as "democratic" the excessive and unregulated powers that Israel's Judicial establishment has given itself!
A very good article cogently describes the protest movement-that of Gadi Taub of June 8 2023 in the online Tablet magazine ("Israel's Civil Rights Movement")
As you seem to be very interested in what happens in Israel, I would hope you will be able to search out other views and ideas that Mr. Gordis does not expound upon (perhaps because it seems to be that his major concern now is hoping that the Netanyahu government is toppled, despite all his talk of "love" and "nuance").
Anyway, I wish you all the best and may your family be healthy and happy!
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.
1.It is always astounding for me to hear that because of the fact that the majority of Israeli Jews are now (and for sometime have been) religiously observant and/or "Mizrahi", that, somehow (by implication) this represents some kind of "threat" to "democratic values"! I am an American born (Ashkenazi) Jew living in Israel for over 40 years, and my wife is Moroccan born. We are both observant in our religious practices. What are the "democratic values" my wife and I trample on every day?!
2. In reality, the vast majority of Israelis do not concern themselves on a daily basis with the intricacies and values of diaspora Jewish communities, and neither"appreciate" nor denigrate American Jewry. In fact, and, unfortunately, most Israelis have very little knowledge about the present day Jewish diaspora (yes, even those who were not born here!) I'm not so sure that diaspora Jews themselves have extensive knowledge about the intricacies of Israeli society.
3.Most non-observant American Jews seem to have accepted much of the psychopathologies (yes, that's what I call them) of the "woke" progressive" left, which include the denial of legitimacy of Jewish statehood (in any borders or under any particular government).
4. Israel, of course, is no longer a "concept" or a "dream", but a living, breathing state. Yes, like America, "the reality is far from the dream"-but, please remember, BKGVR, my dreams and your dreams may not be the same!
I think Daniel Gordis is correct that you don't grow to love something by opposing it. But my guess is that what Eric Yoffe is thinking is closer to the following: "We love about Israel all the things Daniel Gordis has mentioned: accomplishment, safety, refuge, improvement of the world, and so on. But even though we admire and love from a distance, we should still permit ourselves to challenge a direction that we think will fundamentally undermine our admiration for and identification with the state."
Please remember the important song and lyrics, by Bob Dylan, The Neighborhood Bully, about how Israel is mistakenly perceived by the world as the neighborhood bully.
First of all, my greatest admiration to Daniel Gordis for writing so respectfully and graciously about Rabbi Eric Yoffie, after the latter trashed his book in the NYT. I am also an author, and I couldn't summon the graciousness to do what Daniel did.
But Daniel's perception of the protesters in Tel Aviv as being so motivated by love is just the projection of his own love-tainted glasses. Most of the protesters, while they love Israel-as-a-liberal-democracy-made-in-my-image, hate right-wing Israelis, Hareidim, and those they brand, "settlers." Their hatred for Netanyahu is what created this government. Moderate right-wing politicians refused to form a government with Bibi, so we on the right were forced to break the impasse (after 3 aborted elections) by voting for Likud. I have lived in Jerusalem for 38 years, and I feel the hatred. Daniel, how can you deny it?
A personal anecdote to give an idea of the depth of this hatred. One of the kindest people I know is a religious Jewish woman who lives in Austin, Texas. She is Israeli, from a traditional Mizrachi family. In the army, she met an Ashkanazi fellow whose lily-white family headed Tel Avi University. They fell in love and married. His family refused to come to the wedding, and ostracized the young couple. They fled to Austin. He, influenced by his traditional Mizrachi wife, also became religious. Because they are such decent, loving people, he tried to keep a connection to his Tel Aviv family. One night he called his parents. The housekeeper answered and said they weren't home because they were at their daughter's wedding. They had not even invited him to his sister's wedding! I'm sure that they are out on the streets of Tel Aviv joining the protests against this religious/right-wing/Mizrachi "coup-d'etat."
American Jews are just like other Americans, they understand and process the rest of the world as if it was identical in culture and thought to America. They cannot understand how different and just plain weird America is from a global perspective.
When they understand Israel is not a little United States with its commitments to ethnic and religious equality and separation of church and state, that it is a Jewish State, they just can't accept it. I think I am agreeing with Rabbi Gordis here.
Their attitude towards the judicial reform proposals is also a perspective issue. The NYTimes crowd has decided to treat Netanyahu under the formula Netanyahu = Trump. Part of this is the NY liberal inability to see any differences among anybody who is to the right of Chuck Schumer. Further, Netanyahu committed an unpardonable act of lessee-majiste when he spoke against the Iran Deal that Obama sponsored. (For all the good it did Israel, he should have stayed home.)
At any rate, under the formula, anything that Netanyahu wants must be wrong and evil because everything that Trump wants is wrong and evil.
The irony here is that if Americans understood Israel's judicial system they wouldn't like it. In the US, the Federal judiciary is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, but, in a majority of States, Judges are elected by popular vote or can be removed by popular vote. The same is true of high legal officers of the executive branch. Even local prosecuting attorneys are elected.
American Jewish attitudes on Israel are all over the map. There are very knowledgeable American Jews for whom Israel is somewhat important but not really a high priority, and others who are passionate about Israel but are quite ignorant and every variation. Some American Jews have given up on Israel--usually previously passionate Zionists in my experience. Others who reflexively support Israel are lukewarm. Overgeneralizations are misleading. In my experience in the congregational rabbinate the subject of Israel is quite explosive with the left and right quite passionate often overwhelming those in the middle, who are the least likely to express their opinion. We have ZOA, AIPAC, NIF and JStreet among our members. I suspect that many mainstream synagogues are similar. We are semi-Conservative and semi-Reconstructionist and intentionally unaffiliated. FYI, Daniel, my father (1915-1996) knew your father from seminary.
I find your comments rather disingenuous, seeing that you yourself (as expressed in your "Open Letter") encourage the "love" of Israel to be conditional on loathing the present Israeli government that is "undermining our society's cohesion and democratic values" and accepting specious claims about the trajectory of the proposed changes to the unchecked authority and (yes!) undemocratic
impulses of the very judicial system you purport to support without hesitation (or else we'll turn into Hungary or Turkey!)
Why are you worried about Zionism without "love", when, in fact (not in theory), you absolutely and unequivocally demand that American Jews have the "responsibility" to speak out against the current government!
Apparently, this "love" does not apply to the majority of the Israel voters (yes, the majority-and, by the way, nearly 60% of the Jewish electorate!)) who voted for parties forming the present government !
I am almost as old as Israel, and have loved it just as long. But I cannot love a government that wants my support but denies my Judaism because I am a Reform Jew. I can not love a government that supports violence against minorities, burning villages, cutting down olive groves and filling houses with concrete. And I am ashamed that the values I hold as a Reform Jew and an American citizen are violated again and again. I was always taught that the founders wanted to create a place where all Jews would be represented and supported, not solely ultra-religious misogynist Jews.
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.
Dear Julia
I read your words and am impressed with your passion and would like to respond. I am not Daniel Gordis, nor am I a "public intellectual", but, simply, an American born Jew, who made aliyah over 40 years ago (from California). My wife (Moroccan-born) and my children and grandchildren live here in Israel.We have always lived in or near a town in northern Israel (they call it the "periphery" here, because it is not part of any great metrropolitan area, and the overwhelming majority of the Jewish population here has its origins in the lands of Islam). I worked for over 30 years as a social worker in the Social Services department of the nearby town, and before that was a special education teacher. My wife worked as a pre-kindergarten teacher in regular and special education. So, for better or worse, I know Israeli society and its intricacies and contradictions! I mention all this, so that you will understand "where I'm coming from" (as we used to say back then in California!).
Although my family in America was secular, and we were not raised with the knowledge of the precepts of Judaism (in spite of having a Bar Mitzvah and going several years to "Hebrew School"), we were taught to embrace morality and to be "good people", and my parents loved Israel, and were also in love with an America that encouraged them to prosper and thrive.
In Israel, I was exposed to what Judaism was really "all about" and very gradually became religiously observant ( in English, I guess you might say "modern Orthodox")
I believe Israel is a truly vibrant and exciting place to live, yet I don't think that you should feel badly or get criticsm because aliyah may not be a viable option for you. I applaud your efforts
in building a Jewish home for your family, and, believe me, only this will further Jewish continuity, because the very damaging "woke" and "progressive" ideologies you mention will only dilute or destroy the cohesion of the American Jewish community!
Although I may disagree with some of your comments regarding your expectations of the Israeli government to support and/or fund various programs for the Jewish community in America, I basically agree with you. Julia, most average Israelis (even those like me who were born and raised in America) do not overly concern themselves (if at all) with the exigencies of American Jewry (or for that matter, other diasporqa communities), and I believe that few American Jews concern themselves day in and day out with our lives here in Israel, and, perhaps that is not the best of situations! However, I don't understand why you consider all that some sort of mockery or ridicule or ignoring. Here in Israel (as in the USA), I've learned to not always take the utterances of politicians or bureaucrats involved in US-Israeli relations seriously.
I do not think that Israel needs to"throw a bone" to anyone- not "liberal" Jews or any other kind of Jews. Israel needs to understand what is in the best interests of its actual citizens, and, hopefully, that may also include attitudes and policies that may be relevant to diaspora communities.
And finally, speaking as an ordinary Israeli, I don't "expect" anything from you as an American Jew (do you"expect" something from me or my wife as Israeli Jews?!).
If you continue raising your family and building a truly Jewish home, knowledgeable about Jewish precepts and practice, filled with love and joy-yes, that is what would make this one Israeli Jew and his wife very happy for you!
Thank you for responding. Honestly, I posted this note and figured it would go out into the ether, so hearing anyone's thoughts, especially an Israeli-American's, means a lot. I appreciate your kind words about the importance of building a Jewish home and educating my kids in the beauty and joy of Judaism. That is something I dedicate much of my life to, so if that is something that supports Israel, I can, as my dad would say, "Keep on keeping on." As for whether Israeli Jews and Americans think very much of one another, or "owe" each other anything... If the response is, to paraphrase your response, "well, we don't actually think much of you, and we really should be concentrating on our own interests, and you guys don't really think about us either," then how exactly is this the relationship of love that Rabbi Gordis so passionately describes? Maybe Israeli Jews do not think about the diaspora, but I *do* think about Israel, I care very much about Israelis, (otherwise I would not read this Substack!) ... but as I mentioned before, I just don't know what to do to support Israel beyond what I am already doing. (And how I wish I could solve the issues within American Jewry! Ugh.) Anyway. Again, I appreciate your response. All the best to you and your wife and kids and grandkids (oh my!) in Israel!
Dear Julia
Thank you for your reply.
I did not intend to mean that Israelis don't think much of American Jews (i.e. dislike), but that simply, this is not an issue of great concern to them. As I mentioned, I believe you are doing the best possible thing to "support" Israel by, in fact, raising your kids in a Jewish home, and also being aware of the damage that the embrace of the psychopathologies of the "progressive" left is doing to Jewish identity and support of Jewish sovereignty in our homeland (Zionism).
As for Mr. Gordis, I find his analysis of the present situation in Israel to be incredibly naive, and, yes, ingenuous. After going on and on about " love", and dismissing and denigrating a call by Rabbi Eric Yoffie to reinvigorate Zionism among American Jews by actively opposing our present government, it turns out that Mr. Gordis himself actually believes this is a good idea, as he signed a statement during the Jewish Federations meeting in Tel Aviv in February, encouraging American Jews to do just that. How arrogant! Just because he happens to live in Israel, his call is somehow more "pure" and filled with "love"?! Rubbish!
My wife and I do not feel any "love" from the mass of protesters and their leadership. Their only goal is to impede Netanyahu and depose the government. Period. The issue of "judicial reform" is simply a smokescreen for their goal. They also have little "love" for the majority of the country (and, yes, the 60% of the Jewish electorate) who voted for the parties forming the present coalition. By the way, I doubt most American Jews would support as "democratic" the excessive and unregulated powers that Israel's Judicial establishment has given itself!
A very good article cogently describes the protest movement-that of Gadi Taub of June 8 2023 in the online Tablet magazine ("Israel's Civil Rights Movement")
As you seem to be very interested in what happens in Israel, I would hope you will be able to search out other views and ideas that Mr. Gordis does not expound upon (perhaps because it seems to be that his major concern now is hoping that the Netanyahu government is toppled, despite all his talk of "love" and "nuance").
Anyway, I wish you all the best and may your family be healthy and happy!
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
Dear BKGVR
A few comments for you:
1.It is always astounding for me to hear that because of the fact that the majority of Israeli Jews are now (and for sometime have been) religiously observant and/or "Mizrahi", that, somehow (by implication) this represents some kind of "threat" to "democratic values"! I am an American born (Ashkenazi) Jew living in Israel for over 40 years, and my wife is Moroccan born. We are both observant in our religious practices. What are the "democratic values" my wife and I trample on every day?!
2. In reality, the vast majority of Israelis do not concern themselves on a daily basis with the intricacies and values of diaspora Jewish communities, and neither"appreciate" nor denigrate American Jewry. In fact, and, unfortunately, most Israelis have very little knowledge about the present day Jewish diaspora (yes, even those who were not born here!) I'm not so sure that diaspora Jews themselves have extensive knowledge about the intricacies of Israeli society.
3.Most non-observant American Jews seem to have accepted much of the psychopathologies (yes, that's what I call them) of the "woke" progressive" left, which include the denial of legitimacy of Jewish statehood (in any borders or under any particular government).
4. Israel, of course, is no longer a "concept" or a "dream", but a living, breathing state. Yes, like America, "the reality is far from the dream"-but, please remember, BKGVR, my dreams and your dreams may not be the same!
Kol Hacavod Daniel
I think Daniel Gordis is correct that you don't grow to love something by opposing it. But my guess is that what Eric Yoffe is thinking is closer to the following: "We love about Israel all the things Daniel Gordis has mentioned: accomplishment, safety, refuge, improvement of the world, and so on. But even though we admire and love from a distance, we should still permit ourselves to challenge a direction that we think will fundamentally undermine our admiration for and identification with the state."
Please remember the important song and lyrics, by Bob Dylan, The Neighborhood Bully, about how Israel is mistakenly perceived by the world as the neighborhood bully.
Pretty sure he was referencing that on purpose.
First of all, my greatest admiration to Daniel Gordis for writing so respectfully and graciously about Rabbi Eric Yoffie, after the latter trashed his book in the NYT. I am also an author, and I couldn't summon the graciousness to do what Daniel did.
But Daniel's perception of the protesters in Tel Aviv as being so motivated by love is just the projection of his own love-tainted glasses. Most of the protesters, while they love Israel-as-a-liberal-democracy-made-in-my-image, hate right-wing Israelis, Hareidim, and those they brand, "settlers." Their hatred for Netanyahu is what created this government. Moderate right-wing politicians refused to form a government with Bibi, so we on the right were forced to break the impasse (after 3 aborted elections) by voting for Likud. I have lived in Jerusalem for 38 years, and I feel the hatred. Daniel, how can you deny it?
A personal anecdote to give an idea of the depth of this hatred. One of the kindest people I know is a religious Jewish woman who lives in Austin, Texas. She is Israeli, from a traditional Mizrachi family. In the army, she met an Ashkanazi fellow whose lily-white family headed Tel Avi University. They fell in love and married. His family refused to come to the wedding, and ostracized the young couple. They fled to Austin. He, influenced by his traditional Mizrachi wife, also became religious. Because they are such decent, loving people, he tried to keep a connection to his Tel Aviv family. One night he called his parents. The housekeeper answered and said they weren't home because they were at their daughter's wedding. They had not even invited him to his sister's wedding! I'm sure that they are out on the streets of Tel Aviv joining the protests against this religious/right-wing/Mizrachi "coup-d'etat."
American Jews are just like other Americans, they understand and process the rest of the world as if it was identical in culture and thought to America. They cannot understand how different and just plain weird America is from a global perspective.
When they understand Israel is not a little United States with its commitments to ethnic and religious equality and separation of church and state, that it is a Jewish State, they just can't accept it. I think I am agreeing with Rabbi Gordis here.
Their attitude towards the judicial reform proposals is also a perspective issue. The NYTimes crowd has decided to treat Netanyahu under the formula Netanyahu = Trump. Part of this is the NY liberal inability to see any differences among anybody who is to the right of Chuck Schumer. Further, Netanyahu committed an unpardonable act of lessee-majiste when he spoke against the Iran Deal that Obama sponsored. (For all the good it did Israel, he should have stayed home.)
At any rate, under the formula, anything that Netanyahu wants must be wrong and evil because everything that Trump wants is wrong and evil.
The irony here is that if Americans understood Israel's judicial system they wouldn't like it. In the US, the Federal judiciary is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, but, in a majority of States, Judges are elected by popular vote or can be removed by popular vote. The same is true of high legal officers of the executive branch. Even local prosecuting attorneys are elected.
American Jewish attitudes on Israel are all over the map. There are very knowledgeable American Jews for whom Israel is somewhat important but not really a high priority, and others who are passionate about Israel but are quite ignorant and every variation. Some American Jews have given up on Israel--usually previously passionate Zionists in my experience. Others who reflexively support Israel are lukewarm. Overgeneralizations are misleading. In my experience in the congregational rabbinate the subject of Israel is quite explosive with the left and right quite passionate often overwhelming those in the middle, who are the least likely to express their opinion. We have ZOA, AIPAC, NIF and JStreet among our members. I suspect that many mainstream synagogues are similar. We are semi-Conservative and semi-Reconstructionist and intentionally unaffiliated. FYI, Daniel, my father (1915-1996) knew your father from seminary.
Mr. Gordis-
I find your comments rather disingenuous, seeing that you yourself (as expressed in your "Open Letter") encourage the "love" of Israel to be conditional on loathing the present Israeli government that is "undermining our society's cohesion and democratic values" and accepting specious claims about the trajectory of the proposed changes to the unchecked authority and (yes!) undemocratic
impulses of the very judicial system you purport to support without hesitation (or else we'll turn into Hungary or Turkey!)
Why are you worried about Zionism without "love", when, in fact (not in theory), you absolutely and unequivocally demand that American Jews have the "responsibility" to speak out against the current government!
Apparently, this "love" does not apply to the majority of the Israel voters (yes, the majority-and, by the way, nearly 60% of the Jewish electorate!)) who voted for parties forming the present government !
I am almost as old as Israel, and have loved it just as long. But I cannot love a government that wants my support but denies my Judaism because I am a Reform Jew. I can not love a government that supports violence against minorities, burning villages, cutting down olive groves and filling houses with concrete. And I am ashamed that the values I hold as a Reform Jew and an American citizen are violated again and again. I was always taught that the founders wanted to create a place where all Jews would be represented and supported, not solely ultra-religious misogynist Jews.
Wow I love this article. Yes it is all about love- for our people and this crazy beautiful country that we are blessed to live in