It has happened again. The rift between America’s Jewish Establishment and young, liberal-minded Jews has widened in the wake of the Gaza War. Synagogues, Jewish Federations, Jewish Community Councils, Rabbinical Boards and all three major Jewish movements (Orthodox, Conservative and Reform) from Detroit and Cleveland to New York and Miami have thrown their unconditional support behind Israel.
In the past few weeks, virtually every Jewish communal institution in the United States has organized, sponsored or participated in rallies to ‘support Israel’ or ‘stand with Israel,’ ambiguous language which actually means ‘stand with’ or ‘support’ the policies of the current Israeli government. Jews would certainly dispute this point, and emphasize that Israel is not perfect.
But I am not aware of a single rally organized by a single Jewish institution of the kind described above to have opposed the policies of the current Israeli government. If Israel is indeed imperfect, as we are so often told by its supporters, what are imperfections? I’m sure this magazine would gladly publish a statement criticizing Israeli policies signed by all the major Jewish organizations.
But there were no critical rallies at synagogues or Jewish Community Centers just as there were no statements from the major Jewish movements criticizing Israel.
Of course, there have always been Jewish groups to oppose Israel’s actions, such as Jewish Voice for Peace, but they remain at the margins of the ‘the Jewish Establishment,’ and have long been left out of organizations such as The Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations – an organization which itself includes almost as many self-described ‘Zionist’ organizations as it does Jewish. Where does Zionism end and Judaism begin?
Our parents generation – people in their 50s and 60s – was prepared to stand behind their naughty better half across the Atlantic in good times and bad. But younger Americans, Jews no exception, have found themselves increasingly at odds with Israel’s actions.
Photos taken from pro-Israel rallies across the U.S. in the previous weeks suggest that the pro-Israel crowds were overwhelming aging adults (see Los Angeles and Chicago, for instance). The pro-Palestine crowds were noticeably younger (see, for instance, Washington D.C. and Baltimore).
Two recent polls taken about American attitudes towards the current Gaza War suggest that Americans, as a whole, are reflective of the Jewish community:
Younger Americans were three times less likely to show sympathy with Israel than were older Americans, according to a recent Gallup poll taken on July 23. Older Americans were much likelier to say Israel’s actions were justified: 55 percent of those over 65; 53 percent of those between 50 and 64; 36 percent of those 30-49 and just 25 percent of those 18-29.
In a Pew poll conducted only a few days later in late July, the numbers were equally remarkable: 29 percent of adults aged 18-29 held Israel more responsible for the conflict and 21 percent blamed Hamas.
The trend is undeniable, and its worrying pro-Israel propagandists, who are now speaking about it openly. Americans in general are less likely today to consider Israel’s response to Hamas “appropriate” than they were during Operation Cast Lead in 2009, down to 34 percent compared with 50 percent.
Peter Beinart blamed what he called the refusal of the American Jewish world to foster a Zionism that challenges Israel’s behavior. He argued that the Jewish establishment has increasingly found itself married to an abusive partner, Israel, while younger American Jews have increasingly been asked to “check their liberalism at Zionism’s door.” As it turns out, “to their horror, they [the establishment] are finding that many young Jews have checked their Zionism instead.”
Whatever one thinks about the Gaza War – the reverberations set off by Peter Beinart’s now classic essay, “The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment,” are as loud today as ever, and should send all Jewish professional reeling back in their armchairs.
Israel may still be winning the public relations war in America, but it’s only a matter of time before people my age begin to reach positions of power and influence. Who are the New Jews?
I don’t suppose to speak for all of them; only social media likes, shares and comments can determine if my experiences are representative. We know the numbers are there. But where are their voices?
I was raised in a fairly typical, pro-Israel Jewish community in the Midwest. Day School. Summer camp. Hebrew school. Synagogue. Bar Mitzvah. Shabbat. USY Israel Trip. The whole works. In College I dabbled in ultra-Orthodox, Chabad, modern Orthodox, Open Orthodox, Carlebach and Reform – pro-Israel activism, liberal Zionist activism and eventually pro-Palestine activism.
I imagine my experiences reflect many people my age, born in the 80s and early 90s. We experimented with our Judaism and our relationship to Israel, and sought to figure out what seemed just and what worked for us, religiously and politically.
The American Judaism I was raised with was pro-Israel by definition. Israeli Independence Day was celebrated side by side Purim and Pesach. American and Israeli flags where hung side by side in the synagogue; the Prayer for America recited side by side the Prayer for the State of Israel during Saturday morning services. Removing Israel from Judaism would have been taking away the peanut butter from a PB & J sandwich.
I recall, very vividly, when this worldview began to seem odd to me. I had just returned from a month long trip to the Balkans in July 2006, the height of the Hezbollah-Israel war. I trekked over to the Conservative shul my family attends Shabbat morning, and I was handed the usual synagogue flyers and announcements, as well as six talking-points on the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, such as Hezbollah hides behind civilians while Israel distributes leaflets to warn civilians before bombing. A prepaid postcard was also distributed, addressed to President George W. Bush, thanking him for supporting Israel. Asking around, no one seemed to think much of it.
I suppose you could say, the Jewish community ‘lost me’ on Israel. During that war in 2006, all the Jewish organizations I was involved with urged me to support the current policies of the Israeli government. A prominent International Jewish assembly suggested I send a message to Kofi Annan reminding him of the Bush administration’s jargon, a “sustainable ceasefire.”
My Orthodox Minyan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where I was an undergraduate student, as well as my Conservative Rabbi from West Bloomfield, Michigan, pressed me to stand in solidarity with Israel by attending a rally. The local Chabadnik in Ann Arbor told me I could support Israel by wrapping phylacteries (tefillin for those who speak English) and installing mezuzot on my doorposts.
(I wonder now if I should have depose as many mezuzot as I could find to bring an earlier end to the war? Or, alternatively, I could have hid the tefillin of my religious roomates, prevent them from wrapping their leather straps and black boxes, and then perhaps the war might have ended sooner?).
But Judaism was not Zionism, at least not to me. It was certainly not Netanyahu’s Zionism and definitely not the Zionism of the currently Israeli government.
In 2012 I attended a Bat Mitzvah in a northern New Jersey suburban Conservative synagogue. It was about as typical an American Conservative Synagogue I had ever seen. Here, the announcement board was decorated with pictures of Israeli soldiers as well as flyers to take home for purchasing Israel bonds online.
Where did Judaism end and pro-Israel propaganda begin? How could one feel comfortable in any Jewish community at all?
Sociologists of religion disagree about a lot of things. One of the few consensuses in the literature is that people will only join religious movements if they develop strong personal ties with members of those movements. No Religion is just about sharing some belief in the supernatural or shared customs and traditions, but also about developing social bonds with other people in a community.
The politicization of the Jewish world has pushed many young Jews away from organized Jewish life, who intermarry at rates above fifty percent. Meanwhile, as Beinart has explained, the Jews that are left are looking increasingly Orthodox.
I remember very vividly one of my last Shabbat dinners as a senior at the University of Michigan’s Hillel. Friday night services and dinner, back in those days, was the most quintessential encounter your average Jewish student had with the organized Jewish community on campus. Based on my experiences elsewhere at Columbia, Princeton and Georgetown, my alma mater was no exception. Hillel was the place to be Friday night.
I recall in the winter of 2007 that the largest pro-Israel student group on campus, AMI (American Movement for Israel), one of the Hillel “affiliated” groups, “sponsored” one such Shabbat Dinner. Blue and white ornaments bedizened the otherwise austere basement, where the masses of Jewish students on campus congregate to enjoy a scrumptious Shabbat dinner. A giant Israeli flag was posted in the middle of the room and small Israeli flags lay dispersed across the tables. “Fun facts” about Israel were also placed on the tables for Jewish students to read (e.g. did you know that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East?). Student leaders spoke romantically about the connection between American Jews and Israel.
Asking around, I seemed, again, to be the only student uncomfortable with the Zionist symbols plastered around the fundamentally Jewish function (there is a Jewish commandment to make three Seudot, or meals, on Shabbat).
Upset over the intrusion of politics into Judaism, I met with three Jewish professionals back in 2007 to ask Hillel to sponsor a new student organization called “Jews Against Zionism,” or its watered down version, “Jews Wrestling with Zionism.” Then I could “sponsor” a Shabbat, post Palestinian flags around the room and warn students of Zionism’s consequences. How might students have reacted?
The idea, of course, in 2007, was rejected immediately by the Hillel professionals, who explained that such groups had no place at Hillel. Indeed, they had no place in the organized Jewish community.
With the rise of groups such as Open Hillel, which rejects pro-Israel litmus tests for speakers or groups that want to associate with Hillel, the Jewish establishment is now feeling the threat more than ever.
Some small amount of progress has been made, but the gains have been marginal. “Resetting the Table,” funded by the UJA Federation of New York, is a Brooklyn-based initiative and part of a project called to Civility. It aims to discuss openly, within the Jewish community, issues such as “should there be red lines around who speaks in Hillel, JCCs, and other Jewish institutions?”
At an April 2014 meeting, the results were mixed, wrote, Elisheva Golberg. “Some groups were heated, like the one on “legitimate and illegitimate criticism of Israel,” where the conversation revolved around the word “apartheid.”
These are steps in the right direction and they are conversations that need to be had. Hopefully the Jewish establishment will come to terms with their antiquated views about Israel. If not, plan for a struggle between the establishment and the New Jews.
“How could one feel comfortable in any Jewish community at all?”
I’m not sure there are any “Jewish communal organizations” (of course, you would know a lot more about this than I would, so I will defer to you) Are any of the organizations, whether religious, charitable, advocacy, whatever, owned in common by the Jewish people? I don’t think the are. They are owned by their owners, who ultimately answer to the laws of the state in which the organizations are. (whether taxable or non-taxable, profit or non-profit)
I don’t think an obligation to adapt themselves to either the ethics, or even the compassion of the members of the organization, as opposed to it’s owners (which also ryhmes with ‘donor) or administrators is anywhere a legal obligation of organizations like that. In fact, the opposite might obtain, they might very well feel it is up to the members to adapt themselves to the positions taken by the management, and I believe they have the legal right to feel that way.
I think non-Zionist Jews will simply have to start and maintain their own Jewish institutions, as Reform Jews did, at one time. We don’t have to leave exactly like that,
“To celebrate the ordination of its first graduating class in 1883, the (Reform) seminary threw a lavish banquet that included, to the horror of traditional Jews in attendance, clams, shrimp and other traif. This shattered Rabbi Wise’s dream that all Jews in the United States would be unite as the “Union of American Hebrew Congregations.”
But the example is surely telling, or was that over something more important than Zionism? Handling Jews who wouldn’t ‘go with the Zionist program’ was one of the first things Zionism learned to do. I really doubt they have lost any of the old skill or technique.
If Reform Rabbis could leave the established or traditional Judaism (and with such a gratuitous and cruel slap at those poor Orthodox Rabbis! Why? What for?) maybe, just maybe, Zionism is as important as ham and shrimp.
I’d be interested to know what the basic terms mean to you. Does Judaism = belief in a divine being best understood through the Hebrew Bible and Talmud? Zionism = belief in exclusive Jewish rights to sovereignty in Palestine?
I hope that your dissertation will become available soon – specifically well in advance of June 2015 when I’m to deliver a talk to my local Classical Association on the ancient name ‘Palestine’.
that one can be answered with facts:
judaism as an identifiable culture/religion has been around nearly 6000 years
zionism was a political movement created around 120 years ago as a nationalist movement
the two are distinct despite the zionists’ efforts to link them for geo-strategic and political advantage
I understand that polls show support decreasing for the State among young Americans, but have there been polls of young Jewish Americans?
To my best recollection, the latter group did not change in whether they supported it, except that it was not as important to them as their parent’s generation.
@Zachary —
As one of those older generation Jews, there isn’t a distinction. At this point Zionism is part of American Judaism. Just as one can keep or not keep kosher, observe or not observe shabbat, belong to or not belong to a minyan one be zionist or non-zionist.
The American Jewish community in 1967 was faced with a serious assimilation problem. Jews became white people in the 1950s. The ethnic neighborhoods across the United States that had existed in WWI were collapsing. Jews no longer went to Jewish schools (whether in practice or public schools so Jewish), they no longer grew up in all Jewish neighborhoods. Judaism had effectively become just another denomination.
Sure they may not eat ham and cheese sandwiches, sure they may think worshipping a cracker is outright blaspheme, sure they might still might like to break a lightbulb at their wedding but those things will not hold a culture together. They can’t.
Globally Hitler had wiped out Eastern European Judaism and most of what was left had migrated to Israel. Sephardic and Mizrahi Judaism had migrated to Israel. There are a few scattered communities but outside America fewer and less important all the time. There is no plan-b for Judaism. Every 100 years or so half the cultures on the planet die. Do you want Judaism to be one of them that doesn’t make it this century or not? Everything else is details of implementation.
Everyone dies. In 50 years I’m worm food. I live on through my daughter. Jews have always believed in the idea which is why we name our children after our dead not living ancestors. Israel is our progeny. Israel is how the American Jewish community will live on. Israel is what gives meaning to 2000 years that are otherwise a pointless exercise in stubborn stupidity.
What else in Judaism is more important? You sound like a sensible person. If your back is really against the wall do you think preserving arcane debates about what can or cannot be in your pocket when your town is surrounded by a wall vs. a telephone wire vs. a string are the crucial thing that absolutely must be passed on from generation to generation? Sure we have some fun songs, but in fairness so do the Christians. Who really cares about that stuff if Israel dies?
If your generation has their attitudes about Israel when you hit your 50s there will be a struggle and since our generation will be dying off you’ll win. But that buys Israel another generation to grow, to strengthen to prosper. If American Judaism doesn’t make it that’s bad. If Israel does, that’s more than fair compensation.
Besides I have a feeling as BDS grows stronger on campuses we’re going to see a lot more militant zionists. When a Jew criticizes Israel you know deep down they are coming from a place of wanting Israel to be more moral. I often give this analogy. Assume that one of those 3000 rockets had a chemical weapons tip and guidance system from Iran. And instead of landing harmless it had killed 40k people in Tel Aviv. For many of Israel’s enemies that would be a good thing, the Palestinians managed to have an effectual resistance.
In the end life is the rearrangement of the world for your will. You kill or you die. Israel may seem like it doesn’t have to kill right now but is choosing to be cruel. I get how you can be offended by that. Its been decades since Israel has been genuinely threatened but no one gets lucky forever. Israel will get hit by enemy one day, hard. Not hard enough to break them but hard enough to hurt. 9/11 and the 2nd intifada which you likely were too young to remember in the early years was like that. You probably only remember the tail end not the early years when it was scary. Your gentile liberal friend will be thrilled to embrace Jewish sacrifice with a really truly beautiful elegy. Or Judaism can live and deal with the moral consequences of that. As moral as possible, as brutal as necessary. And from there we can discuss details.