The following essay is part of a collaboration between eJewishPhilanthropy and the Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education, which will publish a new edition of its Peoplehood Papers series, “The Rifts Within Israeli Society – How Should World Jewry Respond?”, with this essay and more, in the beginning of April.

The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations… We appeal to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the Jews of Eretz-Israel in the tasks of immigration and upbuilding and to stand by them in the great struggle for the age-old dream — the redemption of Israel.

Israel’s Declaration of Independence, May 14, 1948

The Jews of the United States, as a community and as individuals, have only one political attachment, and that is to the United States of America. They owe no political allegiance to Israel. In the first statement which the Representative of Israel made before the United Nations after her admission to that international organization, he clearly stated, without any reservation, that the State of Israel represents and speaks only on behalf of its own citizens, and in no way presumes to represent or speak in the name of the Jews who are citizens of any other country. We the people of Israel, have no desire and no intention to interfere in any way with the internal affairs of Jewish communities abroad… As democrats we can all agree, in the most friendly way, to differ on some points while rejoicing in the many others in which we are in complete agreement.

Letter from David Ben Gurion to Jacob Blaustein, Oct. 2, 1956

“The Jewish people are one family, and we must stand together, regardless of where we live… As Prime Minister of Israel, I feel a deep responsibility not just to the citizens of Israel but to Jews around the world. We must ensure their safety, dignity, and connection to our homeland.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

WASHINGTON – Prime Minister Netanyahu has wrapped up a meeting with Evangelical American community leaders in Washington… Netanyahu is not currently scheduled to meet with American Jewish leaders, with whom he has had a rockier relationship over the years.

The Times of Israel, Feb. 3, 2025

As has been documented through the Peoplehood Papers series, there are significant complications in defining the parameters of “Jewish,” both in Israel and the Diaspora. As we face a generational challenge to so much of what we hold dear in this relationship, we need to understand that the present Israeli government is redefining its relationship to the body politic of Israel and, no less, the larger Jewish world. 

Using President Reuven Rivlin’s framing of the four tribes within Israel, we see how this right wing coalition is built on division. Whether stepping back on issues of culture and language or attempting to diminish the healthy checks and balances presumed in liberal democracy, the Israeli public is under threat and has clearly expressed its concerns. At the very same time, the government has eviscerated its relationship with Rivlin’s fifth tribe: the Jewish Diaspora. There is little evidence that the government cares about the relationship, as evidenced by the recent time spent with American Christian leaders while not meeting with American Jewish leaders, the abrogation of a carefully designed compromise on prayer at the Western Wall and the appointment of a language-clumsy Minister of Diaspora Affairs, who consistently demonstrates his lack of understanding or commitment to Jewish peoplehood.

Our shared history is filled with amazing examples of the miracles that can occur when Israel and Diaspora Jews align. Just ask the 900,000 participants in Taglit/Birthright Israel, whose commitment to Judaism, Israel and the Jewish people was transformed by the experience. Ask the olim from the former Soviet Union, Ethiopia, Syria and Yemen, none of whom would be there were it not for multinational diplomatic and economic efforts led by Israel and Diaspora Jewish communities.

This amazing alliance is rooted in the principles of Zionism, the Zionism so artistically crafted in the establishment documents. It is those shared Jewish values that have redefined global Jewish thought and behaviors to place Israel in the center of Diaspora education. Yet despite almost 80 years of a miraculous rebirth of the nation, both as a political entity and a sociological one, gross political calculations have placed it under existential stress.

I, for one, bought into the triangle implied in the Declaration: liberal democracy, fairness and peace. While not a citizen and very clear about my limitations as a Diaspora Jew to be but a limited partner in the Zionist enterprise, I have both agency and a voice in expressing my expectations for the state. We need to become more serious about the mechanisms that exist in which we can undertake those expressions.

In the past several years, any number of initiatives have emerged to bring Israelis and the Jews of the Diaspora closer. Among these are the work of the Ruderman Foundation, ENTER: the Jewish Peoplehood Alliance, The London Initiative and Global Jewry. An active Jewish Peoplehood Coalition exists in Israel. ANU: the Museum of the Jewish People, is working diligently to achieve more in this arena. And yet, data indicate that things are moving in the wrong direction.

Among the steps required to change this reality include:

• Building the teaching of the Diaspora into Israel educational curriculum;
• Creating global standards for peoplehood education in all Jewish education (see 18×18, an effort to identify the eighteen principles that every Jewish 18-year old in the world should know, as managed by M2 in Jerusalem);
• In the Diaspora, treating the teaching of Israel less like a Jewish Disneyland and more like the layered reality it is;
• Expanding dramatically mifgash opportunities at all ages so that the family gets to know one another;
• Creating a meaningful “Reverse Birthright” so that Israelis understand the rich Jewish life and communities that exist outside of Israel.

As with all debates for the sake of Heaven, we need to engage with honesty and respect, but with the certainty that, as with most families, disagreement need not lead to disunity. Our shared history, values and destiny will overcome any arguments of the moment. But agency and voice must be a prerequisite for a loving global relationship.

Jeffrey R. Solomon is senior advisor to Chasbro Investments, the family office of Charles Bronfman. For two decades, he was the president of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies. He currently sits on the KIND and Lubetzky Family Foundations in New York and the CRB Family Foundation in Palm Beach, Fla.