Israel’s elections next week will certainly help determine the next few years of events in the Middle East, and the world’s attention is focusing on those kinds of issues.
But for the Jewish world, there is another topic: What will the elections mean for the relationship between the Israeli and Diaspora, and especially American Jewish communities?
Some national observers are worried about this. Gary Rosenblatt, editor and publisher of the New York Jewish Week, in a Jan. 4 posting on his blog expressed concern that many American Jews both supported Israel’s efforts in Gaza to protect its citizens from Hamas, yet were “uncomfortable” with the violence and death, especially of civilians, that resulted.
“My worry is that with an ongoing economic contraction at home, and fewer projects to bring Israeli and American Jews closer together, the gap between us will only widen,” he wrote.
Yet this may just accelerate trends that others have observed for years. Steven T. Rosenthal, professor of history at the University of Hartford in Connecticut, wrote a book on “Irreconcilable Differences: The Waning of the American Jewish Love Affair with Israel” (published 2001).
In the book, he describes “centrifugal forces that have divided the rest of American Jewry from one another and from the state of Israel. Jewish unity has fragmented, the vaunted Israel lobby has often been paralyzed for lack of community consensus, and the disciplined public statements regarding Israel have given way to very public disagreements over politics and religion.”
But a Milwaukee observer feels there is no danger of such an Israel-U.S. Jewry gap developing or widening, no matter what the election results.
Bruce Arbit is president of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, a member of the board and executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel and chairman of the United Israel Appeal.
“I believe the relationship between Israel and Diaspora Jewry is very strong,” he said in a telephone interview.
He acknowledged there is a generational difference between those who lived through the time before Israel’s existence or during its early years and those living later who “don’t come with that predetermined Jewish education in their back pocket.”
“Yet I think about the number of kids in Birthright Israel [free trips to Israel] or participating in year-long programs; those numbers have been escalating in the Jewish community,” Arbit said.
“I think about the number of summer camps with Israel emissaries, schools with young Israeli teachers and aides, the number of emissaries. I think about the interest in Partnership 2000 and the number of Milwaukeeans who have flocked to those things.”
“I think our relationship transcends politics,” he said. “I won’t love Israel less if I don’t like the prime minister.”
Not discussed
Rakefet Ginsberg, Israel emissary to Milwaukee and director of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Israel Center, told The Chronicle that three topics figure in the how the elections might affect relations between Israel and U.S. Jews.
First, “How is the new government of Israel going to work with the government of the U.S.,” she said. “If the cooperation will be good and the relationship will be understanding, it is going to be easier for American Jews to relate to Israel in a lot of ways and to feel comfortable with Israel.”
“If there will be more conflict,” she continued, “then I think it puts American Jews in internal conflict.”
Second, the issue of Israel-Diaspora relations doesn’t appear to be an issue in Israel’s elections, she said. “Nobody is expressing a public opinion about it,” she said.
Moreover, the platforms of the parties “say more or less the same: we need to keep a strong relationship” with Diaspora Jewry, “but they don’t get into hard-core issues of how we do that,” Ginsberg said.
However, she said, two Israelis in the Kadima party are important for Israel-Diaspora relations and are very likely to become Knesset (Parliament) members and perhaps even members of the government. They are:
• Zeev Bielski, chairman of the executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel.
• Nachman Shai, senior vice president of the United Jewish Communities, the umbrella organization of Jewish federations, and director general of UJC Israel.
“That is a good sign,” said Ginsberg. It means that “if somebody is needed to represent those issues, they understand.”
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