an editorial from this week’s Forward worth circulating:

Ehud Olmert’s stock with the Israeli public has fallen so low these days that virtually anything Olmert says or does is taken to be a cynical ploy to save his job. That’s a pity, because the Israeli prime minister has had some very good ideas of late…

…One of his best ideas surfaced in a June 22 address to the governing board of the Jewish Agency for Israel. In the address, Olmert called for a “new paradigm” in Israeli relations with the Jewish Diaspora…

…Skeptics say that Olmert no longer has time or sufficient authority to get a project of this magnitude rolling. That may be true, although Olmert has frequently surprised his detractors. It’s also said that Israel won’t be able to find the needed millions in its strapped budget, and that the Jewish Agency is too calcified to transform itself in the manner required. Again, very possibly true, but beside the point. Responsible observers have been predicting for years now that the world’s Jewish community is facing demographic and cultural disintegration in the coming decades, unless something like a miracle occurs. It’s time to start organizing that miracle.