An anonymous friend from Busboys and Poets reports from Pittsburgh:
Peter Beinart spoke to a crowd of about 250 at Pittsburgh’s temple Rodef Shalom Thursday evening, on the topic, “Is the Love Affair Over? Young American Jews and Israel.” The moderator was delighted to observe that “usually we see only grey heads at these events, but this evening we see brown heads; there are many, many young people.” From the balcony, one could count about 35 “brown heads” in the audience, several of whom were asleep.
The young people were not only the special focus of the talk but also of fierce lobbying afterward, when numerous audience members, disgruntled with Beinart’s suggestions, cornered individual youngsters and explained to them how Beinart was wrong. Comments heard: “Beinart shouldn’t talk about the bad things Israel does, or about Lieberman. We should focus on Israel’s successes.” And, “Why is Beinart so concerned about Gaza? Israel is out of Gaza; we have nothing to do with Gaza.” And, “If Beinart wants to send his kids to Jewish schools he should move to London or Australia.”
The comments were reactions to Beinart’s suggestions upon being asked what should be done to “make young Jewish Americans love Israel and Zionism as much as we do,” Beinart immediately suggested, “More trips to Israel! The Birthright trips are great.”
But, continued Beinart, the tours in Israel should include Gaza and the West Bank. Here, Beinart returned to his theme that young American Jews demand “authenticity” and more honesty in viewing Israel’s government and policies.
His second suggestion was to commit more resources to good Jewish schools in the US. Beinart mentioned that young Jews in London or in Australia could attend very good Jewish schools at manageable cost, but that the same was not so readily available in the US. “Frankly,” said Beinart, “we should stop building Holocaust museums and start building schools,” which was greeted with the first burst of applause of the evening.
Beinart continued, “For many Jews, the cost of Jewish schools in the US is very high. I know I worry about my financial obligations and sending my children to Jewish schools. Perhaps we could support voucher programs; partner with Catholics and get vouchers,” which was greeted with more applause.
Beinart’s presentation was standard fare: Young American Jews are not as emotionally involved with Israel and Zionism as I am; I want my children to love Zionism as much as I do; there is a flag of Israel in my son’s bedroom. “Young American Jews hear from us that they should love Israel, but they see the bad things that Israel’s government is doing. They want authenticity.”
Beinart touched upon the way many American Jews are shut out of a Jewish place to express their concerns on campus. “Many young Jews in the US are part of Palestinian organizations,” where they can express their liberal values, which are not welcome by Jewish organizations on campus, he said.
In the Q & A period, Beinart touched again on the systematic way that young American Jews experience only a selective version of Jewry’s history. “We celebrate Purim, and we’re happy that Queen Esther foiled the plot to kill Jews. But we don’t come to grips with the other half of that event, the morality of Jews having massacred 70,000 people. Likewise, when we celebrate Hannukah, we do not grapple with the morality of a breakaway group having engaged in another massacre.” Young American Jews demand authenticity, said Beinart, returning to that theme; we have to acknowledge the entirety of Jewish history.
Beinart responded to most questions head-on; the one exception was his dodgy response to a complex question about the involvement of Jews, in the US and in Israel, in generating Islamophobia. To this Beinart said, “Both the Muslim and Jewish communities face distortions” about our beliefs, “although, we didn’t blow up the World Trade Center.” Beinart continued, “The degree to which we want to lecture Islam” should be tempered by the fact that Jewish terrorism does exist. Beinart mentioned that Baruch Goldstein was an American Jew, then expanded on anti-Islamic activities evidenced at Israel Day parades in New York, where followers of Kahane are leaders, speakers, and sponsors of posters bearing vicious and hateful attacks on Muslims.
Beinart said, “I fear being anti-Muslim has become the core of what it means to be Jewish… We should ask Muslims if they criticize Hamas, but without the genius of Muslim civilization, Maimonides would not exist.” My sense is, Beinart was trying to counsel the audience to isolate the Palestinian situation and not apply the sense of conflict with Muslims in Palestine to the entirety of Islamic civilization and culture.
After similarly cautioning against overuse of charges of “antisemitism,” Beinart said, “If you look at what Israel has achieved in terms of what it gives to Arabs, how it elevates Arabs, we have much to be proud of. . . .And this is based on zZonism’s earliest ideals: Herzl and Pinsker were children of the European Enlightenment; they believed all men should be free; that’s what they wanted to achieve . . .for Jews and Arabs.” Beinart cited Herzl’s novel, <i>Altneuland,</i> to support this belief.
Ironically, Beinart strongly cautioned against the establishment of a no-fly zone over Libya, without a thorough understanding of the implications of such a scheme, and plans for who would replace Qaddafi.
While many adults in the audience nodded approval to several of Beinart’s arguments as they listened in their seats, as the crowd broke up and left the auditorium, many more adults were heard to voice disapproval of much of what Beinart had to say.
