When I was at Columbia U. Monday, I stopped at the Hillel for tea and grabbed a brochure for a group called Masa. It’s the professional equivalent of the birthright tour. It offers grants to American kids to do internships in Israel after college, learning about their careers. Not just any American kids: it is "designed to give every Jewish young adult the opportunity to experience Israel on a long term program." I.e., gentile students need not apply.
The brochure I got told four interns’ stories, including a certain Stephanie. She is a UVa grad who has worked in the Ministry of Justice in Israel, drafting a "report documenting Israel’s adherence to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights." Now she’s thinking of coming home to "go right to work in US foreign affairs." She says she’s in "a unique position to advocate for Israel because I’ve seen, firsthand, the reality on-the-ground and Israel’s unique democracy in action."
This makes me uncomfortable. Maybe lots of countries offer internships, but the idea that young professionals schooled in, say, Israel’s human rights policies, such as they are, are coming into our foreign-policy scene to advocate for Israel…
Of course there’s the dual-loyalty issue. 60 years ago the head of the American Jewish Committee, Jacob Blaustein, a legend in my Baltimore community, insisted to David Ben-Gurion that "the citizens of the U.S. were Americans and the citizens of Israel were Israelis" and warned the prime minister: "To American Jews, America is home… They believe in the future of a democratic society in the United States under which all citizens, irrespective of creed or race, can live on terms of equality.” Zionists have blurred these distinctions; Jewish identity has been defined now to mean devotion to a militarized state that discriminates against its Arab citizens and occupied Arab lands.
And what about American identity. Masa is specifically aimed at training American leaders. Here is how the United Jewish Communites, the giant Jewish fundraising organization, which supports Masa, describes it:
The MASA program focuses on a deeper experience of Israel, and capitalizes on that powerful force to build leadership-level connections…. [P]rograms like MASA… have the ability to transform the attitudes of an entire generation…[I]t is not only the people in Israel that benefit from this relationship – it is also all of us in the Diaspora…[O]ur fundraising efforts are affirmed as we continue to share the importance of Israel and the overseas case with others in our communities. Israel cannot live without us, and we cannot live without Israel. [emphasis mine]
Jews are so privileged in the U.S. As Blaustein said, this country honored our minority rights; now we’re in the establishment, empowered; and how do we use that power– we offer Jews-only grants for kids to go to the Jewish state, where minority rights are derogated, so that we can preserve Israel’s special status in American politics. Makes me queasy. There are many universalist Jews out there; it’s time for us to stand up for a different tradition in Jewish life.
Also, here is a photograph of Masa kids having fun on a bus in Israel, wearing what looks to be blackface. (And will someone grab the shot before it gets taken down… for the archives?)
Ah at last: an answer. Commenter "Weiss is a douchebag" submitted this link to suggest that the kids had dipped themselves in black Dead Sea mud, therapeutically. And my friend Dan, who has been to the Dead Sea, called me to say that it is black mud. I apologize for the suggestion. An honest mistake; but I’ll be more careful in the future.
