Some say peoplehood is parve. That it’s godless. An opening for Diaspora-exclusive Jewish belonging. 

We say that it’s our best chance at saving Zionism.

Peoplehood makes the singular point that to be a Jew is to be a part of a global Jewish nation. It’s not just a religion, culture, or nationality. In Israel, it’s a radical idea and the work of our time. 

Returning Israelis to the Jewish narrative through the lens of peoplehood offers Israeli society a pathway by which to mend the tears between our tribes. It creates the rationale and subsequent pathway to build a relationship between Israelis and global Jewry.

Yet, Israelis aren’t familiar enough with peoplehood — amiyut — to have an opinion on it. 

This is due to the deep foundational nature of Israeli “negation of the Diaspora,” the belief that Jewish life outside of Israel is far inferior, if not wrong. This ideology played a vital historical role in the establishment of the State of Israel and its society. Today, it damages Israeli-Jewish identity and the bond between Israelis and World Jewry. It jeopardizes the realization of our Zionist destiny as an integral part of the Jewish people.

The Peoplehood Coalition, a diverse network of over 600 Israelis, is tackling this.

Since our launch in 2018, the coalition focused on bringing about a “peoplehood awakening” from within Israel: moving Israelis to see themselves as a part of a larger Jewish nation.

Our coalition is a nonpartisan, Hebrew-speaking network of individuals who choose to promote Israeli peoplehood together. Members range from Reform to ultra-Orthodox, left to right. Some have day jobs in the Israeli government, and some protest against it in the evenings. Many of us are “Jewish professionals.” 

The coalition was founded based on the core belief that to preserve Israel’s destiny as the national home for the Jewish people, the general Israeli mindset must move from one based on “negation Zionism” to “peoplehood Zionism.”

The 2017 Kotel crisis was our catalyst. The cancellation of an agreed-upon plan for an egalitarian section of the Western Wall created a deep sense outside of Israel that the Jewish state had just rejected the Jewish world, while in Israel, the event was little more than another political game. The incident demonstrated the ultimate danger of an Israeli society detached from the Jewish people.

In its wake, the Reut Institute, a “think-and-do-tank,” gathered a handful of concerned individuals in a Jerusalem conference room. The participants left with a commitment to work together to bring peoplehood into Israeli civil society as the antidote to the growing rift.

The group expanded and established a set of policy goals, working groups and ongoing meet-ups. Some goals, such as integrating the Jewish peoplehood as a core subject in the Israeli education system, based on a narrative that respects Diaspora Jewry, have had significant success. Others, like initiating mandatory consultation with representatives of the Jewish people before legislation that has an impact on Diaspora Jewish life, remain unrealized.  

As the coalition’s 2021 survey mapping project, conducted with several partners, discovered, the coalition organized a vibrant “Israeli peoplehood field” helping turn the notion of “Jewish professional” into a viable career path in Israel. According to the survey, over 80% of coalition members agreed that “in the two years since the coalition’s existence, Jewish peoplehood in Israel has progressed,” and “over 85% of coalition members met new people who gave them professional value.” That being said, in the last two years the group became largely dormant, outside of a very active WhatsApp group.

But this month, the Peoplehood Coalition (Koalitsiat Amiyut) relaunched from its new home at Anu: Museum of the Jewish People, under the Tisch Center for Jewish Dialogue. In addition to our work within Israel, we are ready to reach out to our global colleagues to create a shared space for Jewish professionals and peers across the Jewish world to work together in uplifting the Jewish people and ensuring Israel’s place as our Jewish and democratic home.

We seek “covenant” and not “contract” with our global brothers and sisters — the difference, articulated by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z”l, is key to our mission: “A contract is a transaction. A covenant is a relationship. Or to put it slightly differently: a contract is about interests. A covenant is about identity. It is about you and me coming together to form an ‘Us’.”

Since Oct. 7 and its aftermath, we approach this covenantal work with practical urgency. We aim to create a platform to bring the voices of global Jewry into Israeli civil society, creating the ground for Israelis to care and then activate around your concerns. 

If we choose to work together now under a global dome of Jewish peoplehood, we will not only get through this period as a people; we will open up the possibility to shape a shared vision for the “day after.”

There’s nothing parve or godless about that. 

Naama Klar is the director of the Koret International School for Jewish Peoplehood at Anu: Museum of the Jewish People. She founded the Peoplehood Coalition in 2018.

Tracy Frydberg is the director of the Tisch Center for Jewish Dialogue at Anu and a member of the Peoplehood Coalition.