By Zvika Klein
Dear Jewish-American leaders: I know you’ve been going through rough times. The egalitarian Kotel government initiative has been “frozen,” the new “conversion bill” created frustration, anger and a sense of betrayal. As an Israeli covering your side of the story – I feel for you. You’ve finally realized the tragic reality: Israelis don’t really know you, American or Diaspora Jewry. Israelis also don’t necessarily consider your opinion when making important decisions. The thing is, it’s been like this for a very long time.
As a reporter and a columnist, covering Diaspora affairs for Hebrew-speaking media, I often blame Israeli society, its leaders, rabbis and politicians for creating this gap between us.
“Diaspora Jewry has had our back for so many years,” I tend to write. “They have been lobbying for us, and funded the Jewish state from the very beginning.” I explain that half of the Jewish people do not live in Israel, and that most of them live their Jewish lives very differently than us. I always feel that Diaspora Jews know more about Israel than what Israelis know about their brothers and sisters across the globe – and in a way, unfortunately, it’s true.
But if we want to try and solve this difficult situation, there has to be some sort of communication between us, and that is exactly what’s lacking.
Surprisingly, the Israeli media covered the “Kotel Crisis” seriously, especially after heads of North American Jewish organizations canceled dinner with Prime Minister Netanyahu. But unfortunately, many Israelis translated your anger as a “threat.” Some of your leaders said straight out: “Our congregants will have difficulty to keep on donating to Israeli causes.” You have to understand that Israelis don’t work well with threats – especially from a group of people who want to, as it were, “interfere” in Israeli politics and policy.
In short: You’re not speaking the same language, and I’m not just talking about the Hebrew-English language gap, but rather a mentality gap. Israeli Jews only hear about you lately regarding two issues: We hear of Diaspora Jews in the Israeli media mainly when there are antisemitic threats or big waves of aliya. Israel may be a central part of your Jewish identity, but Diaspora Jewry is not a central part of the average Israelis Jewish identity. That is a big difference, and if you don’t internalize this, you won’t be able to get us. I write this from sorrow, but it’s very true.
Just recently, when bomb threats were sent almost daily to hundreds of Jewish institutions in the US, an Israeli journalist asked me if “I could help find an American Jew who decided to stop wearing a kippa in public as result of the threats.” I explained to him that there aren’t any Jews like that in the US, and that this is a bit exaggerated in the Israeli media. Another friend asked me if it was safe to travel to the US. Can you believe the disinformation?!
Heads of the Jewish Federations of North America said during their recent visit to Israel that they plan on creating a campaign in Israel so that “Israelis know what we’re about,” they explained. My answer to this is: It’s about time, but also a bit too late. Hundreds of millions have been invested in promoting the connection of young Diaspora Jews to Israel, but how much has been invested in getting Israelis to learn about Diaspora Jews? Not very much.
There are a few organizations that have been promoting visits by delegations of influential Israelis to Jewish communities around the world. Sort of a reverse Birthright trip. But not more than a few hundred Israelis have participated in these important delegations.
Dear Jewish-American leaders: If you won’t do it, no one will. You have to hire the best creative minds and think how you can convince Israeli society that this is not a war between US Reform/Conservative Jews and Israeli/Orthodox Jews, but our last chance to prevent a historic split. Think how you can get Israelis to love not only American malls, movies and music, but to love you, as fellow Jews.
There are many good-hearted Israeli Jews who are trying to convince Israeli society that we need the connection with you in order to be a Jewish state, but we need your help. It should be on the top of your priority list, if it isn’t already.
Zvika Klein is an Israeli journalist, covering Diaspora affairs for the Makor Rishon newspaper and the NRG360 news site.
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Mr. Cohen,
Did you bother to read the piece before making your comment? It was neither about whether a Reform synagogue serves shrimp or why “Orthodox rabbis aren’t exactly waiting to roll out the red carpet for them to bring [their] practices to the Western Wall.”
We encourage dialogue on this website; but we do not allow rants about Reform/Conservative Jewish practice or the ills of intermarriage. You are entitled to your opinions. However, you are not entitled to insult others.
Israeli Jews, including many American Diaspora olim, seem to have no problem communicating that my views have no standing unless I make aliya—oh, but send your and American taxpayers’ money.’ Shouldn’t Israelis from the Diaspora also be accountable to play a role in bridging this ‘language gap’ rather than widening it?
A few years back (2011), I researched the subject of Israelis’ perceptions of Jewish identity before and after they served as summer shlichim for the Jewsih Agency (at the time, my daughteer was one of these people). The research was done on her colleagues.
These respondents are now at the apex of their careers , in their early-mid thirties.
I am glad to say that the Jewsih Agency has enacted some of my suggestions.
For more information, feel free to contact me at:
margiecj@gmail.com
The above is a very important article and Zvika Klein is a lone voice in Israeli society who brings these issues to the fore. I totally agree that much of the dialogue is a one between “deaf” people, and after working for years in Partnership 2000 in the Jewish Agency similar mistakes are being made. The idea of the Partnership is very important and supposedly removes the patronism from the Israel-diaspora relationship. But that element is still there and Israelis (especially israeli mayors) have to understand that US Jews are not ATM machines. There is much to improve and change
Why should the onus be on American Jews yet again? Why is it up to Diaspora Jews instead of Israeli Jews to change this? Seems like a failed mandate, as one can only change oneself.
With respect to the author, he ignores the fact that for five decades, Israeli educators deigned to come and teach US educators how to teach about Israel (and even Judaism.) Most of those who came were singularly clueless about, and deliberately uninterested in, American Judaism and its adherents. Many US Jewish educators worked hard to try and teach our Israeli colleagues about our society and culture. Our efforts were largely ingorned or deemed unworthy or irrelevant. So don’t call us (at least the US Jewish Ed community) on the carpet for failing to try and educate Israeli Jews about diaspora Judaism. We did try. Now, just as then, Israelis aren’t listening (and many seem to not care.)
I don’t believe that Israeli’s don’t care. I don’t believe that diaspora Jews want to ram anything down the Jewish Israeli’s throats. What I do believe is that we collectively need to find avenues of common threads and work on those. The State of Israel NEVER NEEDS TO BE THREATENED BY JEWS. Just look at our history. Another couple thousand years of wandering the world. Lets try to get the ego out of this and just work on moving forward.
Just because you tried and it didn’t work could mean that you didn’t make a good presentation, or the message wasn’t good. Did anyone try to put themselves in the others shoes? This is not an issue that has winners and losers. This issue could be a winner for everyone. I am very tired of listening to issues and there are only winners and losers. Don’t let us become these fools.
My message is really for all sides…..
American orthodoxy supports Israel to the extreme because of orthodox ideology, so this article must really be about nonorthodoxy which is now 85% intermarried & continues to intermarry at a rate of over 75%. Only 8% of the grandchildren of intermarrieds are raised as Jewish. Huge amounts of nonorthodoxy voted for Obama (TWICE) & Hillary, both who 1) pushed for army an Iran that openly wants to nuke Israel I think it’s too late 2) pushed for Israel to withdraw to the Auschwitz borders of 1967 3) blocked weapons to Israel in the middle of the last Gaza War.
Israeli Jewry saw this.
I think the author is not really being fair to Diaspora Jews. During the Intifada, When Israel was being bombed almost daily, It was Diaspora Jews who got on plains and came to Israel to offer our support, to buy Israeli goods and defend Israel in the political world. Now that we need the support where are the Israelis to stand up and remember what we have done for them in their hour of need? Does nobody in Israel think to return the favor? There is not a lot of support for a Rabbanut that is often corrupt and derided by Israelis but they don’t think that we can be allies to change the system?
I am sorry, I just don’t get it. I am not threatening anyone, Just a politician who thinks that nobody in Israel will care if Diaspora Jews are slighted and marginalized. Is Netanyahu right? Does anyone in Israel care enough to stand with us?