One can find Jewish organizations focusing on environmental issues, women’s concerns, civil rights and virtually every other subject. One major organization spent a good part of its annual conference discussing poverty.
These are all important. But are any of them “Jewish” issues?
Jews take an interest in every subject; and Jewish law and tradition has something to say about all of them. But that does not really answer the question. If everything is a “Jewish” issue, isn’t that the same as saying nothing is a “Jewish” issue?
I would suggest that you can determine whether something is a Jewish issue by asking two questions:
• Does this issue uniquely affect Jews, or have a greater effect on them than on other people?
• If you remove Jewish participation, would anyone else be involved?
If the answer to the first question is “yes,” then it is a Jewish issue. If the answer to the second question is “yes,” then it is not.
The most obvious “Jewish” issue would be supporting Israel. Some might argue that Evangelical Christians also support Israel, but the reality is that Israel would not survive without the support of Jews.
We can make a case for participation in everything because most issues impinge on our lives. But usually they affect us as individuals, not as Jews.
Any specific issue I mention will undoubtedly start an argument. For example, are environmental issues Jewish?
It is possible to find Jewish texts that discuss them; but our surroundings don’t affect Jews differently than anyone else.
Talking about women’s issues risks going into the Larry Summers minefield. But let me suggest that there is at least one women’s issue that is clearly “Jewish” — the problem of agunot, abandoned Jewish women who can’t remarry because their husbands refuse to grant them a Jewish divorce.
I doubt many non-Jews care about this issue. Is the general issue of divorce a “Jewish” issue? I don’t think so.
It is now popular for high school and college students to do community service projects around the world.
But apply the tests. Are the students visiting Jewish communities? Usually not. If Jewish students didn’t participate, would others do so? Undoubtedly.
If students were going to help Jewish communities in places such as Cuba or Argentina, then they would be engaged in a “Jewish” activity. It would be better, however, if they went to Israel.
We already know getting kids to Israel is one of the best ways to build their Jewish identity and connection to Israel. So why can’t Jewish “peace corps” organizations send students to build houses in poor neighborhoods in Israel, help Ethiopian children learn English or perform any number of public services for Israelis in need?
At least one birthright israel provider does offer students on their Israel trip an opportunity to do good works; but perhaps the program should go further and offer a public service track. In the meantime, how many non-Jewish organizations send students to help needy Israeli Jews?
Jewish foundations usually have no trouble distinguishing between Jewish and non-Jewish issues. Their guidelines often indicate Jewish/Israel causes they support and non-Jewish ones.
It’s great that foundations build hospitals and libraries in the United States, but why not do it in Israel? Instead of endowing a chair in engineering, why not endow one in Israel studies?
Of course many philanthropists do this now. But a study published last year found that Jewish foundations typically make their largest gifts to non-Jewish causes.
Jews are extremely generous, so other causes would probably suffer from loss of Jewish support. But those resources could be redirected to Jewish causes that need them.
Our resources are finite, so we should try to maximize the impact of what we have. Jewish contributions typically make a marginal difference to non-Jewish causes, but all the difference to Jewish ones.
Can’t buy friends
Rabbi Hillel from the Talmud (Pirkei Avot 1:14) agreed with me when he said, “If I am not for myself, then who will be for me?”
But, in the next breath, he added, “And if I am only for myself, what am I?” Fair enough.
If we are doing good for the sake of doing good, it is virtuous. We often engage in helping others, however, because we hope non-Jews will then come to our aid when we need them.
The record is not that good in this regard. Israel, for example, spent many years doing good works in Africa, in part for the sake of philanthropy, but also in the hope that African states would support Israel politically. In the 1970s, however, Arab political pressure led those states to abandon Israel.
Similarly, we often like to remind African-Americans about the Jews who marched with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. But the alliance on civil rights issues had minimal effect on African-American support for Jewish issues.
Today, African-Americans tend to be among the least supportive of Israel and are more irked by the Jews’ stand on affirmative action than impressed by old photos of Jews with King.
I admit to being deliberately provocative. But I believe there are definable “Jewish” issues and our community has lost sight of them as we’ve become more assimilated and universalistic.
Some might argue we need to go further in this direction or risk losing more young Jews who are turned off by parochialism. But I believe the opposite is true, that erasing the line between types of issues makes Jewishness less distinctive and gives the next generation less reason to remain Jewish.
Am I advocating abandoning all non-Jewish causes? Who am I to argue with Hillel?
But there needs to be a balance, and it has tipped much too far away from supporting ourselves.
Mitchell G. Bard, Ph.D., is the author of 17 books including “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Middle East Conflict” and “Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict.”
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