Diaspora Jewry and Israel: Mending the Breach
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It should not be lost on any of us that today’s caucus is taking place in the shadow of very worrisome developments at the UN. It would be a mistake to attribute the news of last week’s UN resolution solely to the behavior of an outgoing American President, to differences of policy or personality between the Obama and Netanyahu administrations. When future historians look back on this moment, the gap they will discuss will not just be the one between America and Israel, but the one between American Jewry and Israel. I do believe that somewhere in all the political calculations, the American administration understood that a gap exists between the vast majority of American Jewry and the actions of Israel. American Jews are not citizens of Israel. It is not our place to tell Israelis how to govern their own country. But there is a moment, a moment in which we are living right now, that American Jewry’s historic reflexive support of Israel will no longer be a given. An American Jewry that is not able to reconcile the dream of Israel as a liberal democracy and the death of the two-state solution. An American Jewry that is unable or unwilling to defend Israeli actions in the court of world or campus opinion. God help the person who criticizes a member of my family whom I love and who loves me unconditionally. But someone whose love for me is in question, well, that person – or in this case, that country – will have to learn to fend for themselves.
Now is the time for Israel and American Jewry to work together, taking steps, both substantive and symbolic, towards healing our relationship. As we near the one-year mark since the Kotel agreement, now is the time to show leadership, courage, and determination to make sure the decision of the Israeli government is brought to completion. On the question of funding, on marriage and personal status, on mikvaot and especially conversions, any and every step Israel can take towards cultivating a sense of areivut, of shared destiny, will send a powerful message. It is a contradiction of Israel’s most basic premise and promise to allow Jewish identity to be defined by the most extreme segment of Israeli society. It is insulting to American Jewry when Mosaic, Israel’s bold initiative to bolster Jewish identity in the diaspora, is overseen by an Education ministry that opposes the recognition of Reform and Conservative Judaism. Seeds must be planted. If Israel is truly interested in the future of world Jewry, now is the time to include an understanding of all religious streams in Israeli curricula, to build bridges between Israeli and diaspora Jews in mifgashim, in mechina programs, in visits by Israeli MKs, mayors, and thought leaders to Conservative and Reform congregations, and otherwise. The dialogue between Israel and diaspora Jewry must be inclusive, collaborative, transparent, and done in a spirit of cooperation and pursuit of the collective welfare of the Jewish people.
As Jews, we are defined by our ability to see the world through the eyes of another and act accordingly. Ethically, in the words of Hillel, d’ali snei, l’haverekh lo ta’aveid, That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. As a people, we are defined by our ability to see a Jew anywhere in the world, and say: Atah yakholta l’hiyot ani, va-ani yakholti l’hiyot atah, “I could be you, and you could be me.”
The relationship between American Jewry and Israel will heal when and only when we begin to act upon the mutual obligations that come with ahavat Yisrael, love of Israel. Like two strings on a violin, American Jewry and Israel, though separated by a distance, when touched by a bow, can make a beautiful sound. Am ehad im lev ehad, one people with one heart; in dialogue and partnership, passionate stakeholders in a shared destiny.