How U.S., Israeli Jews Could Draw Closer

by Yoav Shoham
Special To The Jewish Week

At the heart of Judaism lie two elements: an Idea and a Place, which are distinct but inseparable. The Place is clear — it is the land of Israel. The Idea is harder to pin down, as if often the case with ideas. To some it is a shared history, to others shared values, culture, customs, or indeed a belief in God. I believe that in all its forms, the Idea can always be traced back to the Torah, however indirectly.

My point is that, crudely speaking, modern Israel has lost the Idea, and modern American Jewry has lost the Place. As a result the identities of the two communities have suffered, but in complementary ways. By becoming closer, the two communities will not

fuse and become one — that is unlikely given the very different geographical, cultural, ethnic, religious and political circumstances — but they will help each other overcome these complementary challenges.

By Americans losing Israel I don’t mean losing affinity with the state of Israel, although there is evidence for that in recent polls. I mean something deeper. With the exception of a small number of community leaders and other individuals who have frequent contact with Israel, the majority of American Jews, even those who feel a deep connection to Israel, have little understanding of it.

This is not a critique. Based on aging myths (1948, 1967), and informed by superficial coverage by primarily American media, occasional additional reading, and sporadic visits which are usually brief and often highly scripted, American Jews for the most part simply do not have an opportunity to understand what it means to be an Israeli in the 21st century. They have a very partial understanding of how the average Israeli thinks, feels and lives. Americans do connect with Jerusalem; in fact they are buying large portions of it in terms of real estate. But Jerusalem, with its increasingly religious and foreign population, is becoming more the Idea, and less the real Place. Americans don’t have quite the same affinity with Tel Aviv, Haifa, or Rosh Ha’ayin, yet those are much more representative of modern Israel than is Jerusalem.

Of course, Israelis scarcely have a better understanding of American Jewish life. They cannot begin to appreciate the richness and pluralism, the big-tent attitude, and in general the vibrancy of a Jewish culture. Because of the historical status-quo agreement crafted by Ben Gurion with the religious Zionists, Israelis are in fact exposed to quite a heavy dose of Jewish culture. Even secular Jews read and hear many more Jewish passages than do American Jews in Sunday school, either because of explicit texts studied at school or because of many phrases and idioms that make into everyday discourse.

Certainly, all Israelis are exposed to Judaism in everyday life in the form of laws and customs that mix state and religion, from public transportation and shopping that are often not available on Shabbat, to restaurants and hotels that keep kosher whether out of ideology or self interest, to marriage and burial controlled by the rabbinate.
But precisely because they are exposed to them with such intensity, usually without having a choice in the matter, and in the uniform flavor reflecting the Orthodox hegemony in Israel over Conservative, Reform or other brands of Judaism, the majority of Israelis conceive of religion in practical rather than spiritual terms. Indeed, they often develop antagonism towards religion, and the establishment that represents it in their minds. And so you have this strange phenomenon of a whole country coming to a standstill on the holy day of Yom Kippur, with significant fractions of the population viewing it as an opportunity to have a picnic on the beach or rollerblade on the empty roads.

If American Jews took the concrete and turned it into an idea, Israelis have taken the idea and turned it into the concrete. Many Israelis don’t feel Jewish in any sense that an American Jew will recognize. To paraphrase Churchill, Israeli and American Jews are increasingly separated by a common religion.

And this is precisely the opportunity. American Jews can rekindle the Idea in Israelis by exporting the vibrancy and pluralism of American Jewish culture, and Israelis can re-establish the role of Place in American Jews by exporting the lively Israeli culture as it has developed. The potential impact is incalculable. In the U.S., the real connection with the energy of Israeli culture will serve to counteract the decline in Jewish affiliation among the young. In Israel, this clarification of identity will bolster the people’s cohesion, resolve and resilience. This is perhaps not the most immediate challenge for the State of Israel, but it is among its deepest. Long term, it is no less relevant to Israel’s national security than Iran’s nuclear program.

Birthright Israel, the hugely successful program, is an excellent example, but it is the tip of an iceberg. The viewpoint expressed here calls for a rethinking of the relationship between Israeli and diaspora Jews. The practical ramifications on both sides of the ocean are far reaching, and range from many other sorts of exchange programs, to educational curricula in Israel and the U.S. day school system, and more deeply to a re-examination of the very role of organizations such as the UJC and the federation system, the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Joint Distribution Committee in the 21st century. n

Yoav Shoham is professor of computer science at Stanford University. He has spent equal portions of his life in Israel and the U.S.

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