MILWAUKEE – Israelis came to town this month and got to know us a bit. Here’s what they learned: America is not a cushy place where one can avoid the cost of being Jewish.
When delegates from northeast Israel; St Paul, Minn.; and Milwaukee gathered here last month to make plans for more Israeli-American relationship building, they stumbled into some hard truths. Discussion invariably meandered to the state of the Jewish world, and this led to some surprises regarding the state of the American Jewish world.
“The hostility that we are stewed in … that is becoming very tolerated, that no one is standing up for us, it really hit them. I saw it hit them,” said delegate Rebecca Povarchuk, chair of St. Paul’s P2G, interviewing during a group visit to the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center in Bayside.
The annual Steering Committee meeting held June 5-12, for P2G, or Partnership2Gether, brought together delegates to plan a continuing effort to link northeast Israel and with two American cities. Several delegates from areas that act as sister cities to Israel’s Sovev Kineret region, near the Sea of Galilee, joined with representatives from Milwaukee and St. Paul. They visited Jewish Museum Milwaukee, attended a Milwaukee Brewers Game, visited schools and met with local people. In a week, Israelis absorbed Milwaukee and changed their views.
“The whole meaning of being a Jew in America changed from my perspective,” said Shalhevet (Shali) Deri, a P2G steering committee member visiting from Israel.
Deri noted that it can seem in Israel like Jewish Americans have “a very comfortable, easy and simple life. I think it’s also comfortable for us to think like that, about the Jewish American people.”
There can even be jealousy, or a sense that Americans shouldn’t criticize Israel because they don’t know how it is, she said. Interviewing before the Iran-Israel conflict, she said learned in her week here that America’s supposedly soft embrace is a misconception.
This reporter responded: But you know, there are two different Americas. There’s before Oct. 7 and after.
She said: “I met this America.”
Povarchuk, the Steering Committee member from St. Paul, said the Israelis she met during the summit were truly surprised – it got a lot of “wow”s – when she told them she gets vitriol during a walk for the hostages in Minnesota. “It’s not easy to phase Israelis,” she said.
Americans explained to Israelis how young people can be put on the spot to endorse the views of their peers or they’re rejected. Israeli committee member Galit Betsale noted all the security she’d seen everywhere. “If we want to go to a bar mitzvah, we just go to a bar mitzvah in a synagogue,” Galit said. “Here, you need to be in security.”
“It surprised me.”
Deri said she wasn’t surprised by the security, but by the price we pay to be Jewish. When she hears that an American parent sends their child to a Jewish institution, she wants to say thank you. It takes money and intentionality to have a vibrant and safe Jewish community in America.
Israeli committee member Betsalel agreed: “I’ve realized how difficult it is to be Jewish outside of Israel. I realized that even though I live in a country that is under attack every day, I feel more safe than you.”
One Israeli said she wondered, if she lived here, what would she do with her Judaism?
Aaron Biel, a St. Paul committee member, gave his interpretation: “They see every choice we make, we make for a reason.”
Povarchuk said it was fascinating to watch several Israeli visitors learn about the Jewish American community’s challenges during the trip. “They’re really feeling our pain, which is remarkable given the suffering they know on a daily basis. They can really feel in their bones empathy for what it means to be a Jew in the U.S. now.”
She said they also appreciated feeling a caring, supportive American Jewish view of the hostage crisis in Gaza.
“I found something that I realized when I met rabbis today and yesterday – I realized that every Jewish person on Earth is shaliach,” Betsalel said.
She explained: “The Jewish people all have the same concern that they want to do this world better. They’re sending love. They’re sending help. The Jewish community in the United States or in Israel, sends people to help all over the world. It doesn’t matter if it’s in Turkey or Butan or Japan or Germany or wherever. We just need to help.”
She said the realization made her proud.
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