Today, an unprecedented number of American Jews are seeking new ways to grapple with the complexity and nuance that is needed to understand Israel. And, as always, Judaism and Jewish text have the answer: return to the core texts of your people. 

An inherent pedagogical challenge at the heart of Israel education is the question of how we can connect young Diaspora Jews to Israel in authentic, personally meaningful and sustainable ways. We make choices about which stories and voices to center, how to frame narrative and timelines and how to answer critical questions of identity, connection and belonging. There is a tendency to create a bifurcation between the events that shape the contemporary Jewish experience and the core texts that formed the foundation of how Judaism came to be; and within that framework, to choose only contemporary texts to talk about Israel without tapping into the canon of classical texts as our foundation and reading those texts with complexity.

Aritha/Pixabay

Our proposal: Israel education and deep, rich Jewish text study must be understood as fundamentally intertwined rather than two separate fields. Torah is the foundational story of the origin of the Jewish people and the Jewish people’s connection to the land of Israel. 

Let’s consider some examples of how the integration of ancient text and contemporary questions can serve our Jewish community and our learners at this time, starting at the beginning:

“God said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you shall be a blessing” (Genesis 12:1).

This text is the Torah’s original call to action, directed towards our patriarch Abraham, propelling him to choose fidelity to only one God through the foundational trek to the Land of Israel. This text contains the promise of the Land of Israel to the Jewish people, portraying Israel as a blessing to be gifted to Abraham’s descendants, and a canvas on which the story of the Jewish people will be written. Today, this text raises questions and challenges that we see through the lens of a new reality. Abraham sired more than one nation. As the father of Isaac (Judaism) and Ishmael (Islam), what would it mean to use this text to center our students’ questions about claims to this land? 

Furthermore, the text tells us that the land is not empty when Abraham arrives, but “the Canaanites were then in the land” (Exodus 12:6). How, from our earliest relationship with the land of Israel, have the Jewish people responded to the complexity of multiple peoples existing in shared space? Jewish texts can be the locus where we ask these questions, allowing our students to cement their identities, while being given the tools to unpack the world around them.

“Moses replied to the Gadites and the Reubenites, ‘Are your brothers to go to war while you stay here? Why will you turn the minds of the Israelites from crossing into the land that God has given them?” (Numbers 32:6-7)

In this story, just as the Israelites are about to achieve the culmination of a journey of 40 long and difficult years and arrive to inherit the land of Israel, two and a half of the 12 Tribes inform Moses that they do not want to inhabit the land with their fellow Israelites, preferring to stay on the other side of the Jordan river, where life was better and easier. Moses of course is furious at this suggestion, stating “Will your brothers go to war, and you will stay here?” While in the past, medieval commentaries saw this question as purely a theoretical one, today this passage takes on a new relevance. We in the Diaspora must consider, what should the responsibility of Diasporic communities be to our brothers and sisters serving in the IDF? How do we share the burden of service?

“When the community is immersed in suffering, a person may not say: I will go to my home and I will eat and drink, and experience peace… Rather, a person should be distressed together with the community… And anyone who is distressed together with the community will merit seeing the consolation of the community.” (Babylonian Talmud Tractate Taanit, 11a)

Here the Talmud warns us against the danger of apathy: As a community member, there is the possibility that I will focus solely on my own needs as an individual and, if those are met, I can ignore the larger issues and worries that befall my community. 

Today we see that many Jews don’t know how to deal with the complexity of the situation in Israel, preferring to shy away from identifying with the Jewish community — sometimes out of callousness but mostly out of feelings of distance and dissonance, not knowing how to respond to the very difficult questions and judgements they are receiving. Their response is often to run away and focus inwards. Others may feel distraught and disapproving about the choices the community leaders are making, thinking that choosing not to engage might be the better way forward. Learning a text like this allows us to open up questions: What do I do when I feel at odds with the choices of my people? How do I remain an engaged and informed member of the Jewish community when I do not know enough, or I do not always agree with my leaders?

Jewish texts have served as a means of inspiration and meaning over millennia. Today, they have a new challenge and embody a new opportunity. They must become as integral in the way we teach about Israel as they have been in the way we teach about other aspects of Jewish heritage. Our canonical texts can provide our learners with a shared language, a sense of rootedness in their history as members of the Jewish people and a meaningful framework within which to grapple with their heritage in all its complexity. 

Jewish texts show us that while we may often describe our current moment as “unprecedented,” the existential dilemmas of today have been present throughout our collective history; and as such, we have core wisdom to consult about the questions of this moment. In a time where the Jewish community is experiencing uncertainty and increased polarization, a text-based approach is at once a shared experience and one that allows each student to read themselves into the collective story of the Jewish People.

Samantha Vinokor-Meinrath is the senior director of knowledge, ideas and learning at The Jewish Education Project. 

Rabba Yaffa Epstein is the senior scholar and educator-in-residence at The Jewish Education Project.