An Unfinished Sri

Leaders of Diaspora Jewry face tough talk at their Jerusalem convention.

CYNTHIA L. MANN
Special to The Jewish News

Jerusalem

T

he role of Israel in the lives,
hearts and philanthropic bud-
gets of North American Jews
is always somewhere on the
agenda of the annual marathon conver-
sation known as the General Assembly
of the Council of Jewish Federations.
But this year, with the GA held in
Jerusalem for the first time to celebrate
Israel's jubilee, it was front and center.
Three thousand North American
Jewish community activists converged
upon Jerusalem to have that conversa-
tion this week despite U.S. State
Department advisories that non-essen-
tial personnel leave the country. While
many GA delegates were greeted by
front-page newspaper pictures of
Israelis donning gas masks to prepare
for possible attacks by Saddam
Hussein and articles on recent terrorist
attacks, organizers reported there were
virtually no cancellations.
For many, this showing appeared to
defy all of the surveys — and the
declining percentage of federation allo-
cations to Israel — that indicate the
Diaspora connection to Israel is waning.
"This means Israel does matter and
that people do care, particularly at a
time when there's a travel advisory," said
Shoshana Cardin, the immediate past
chair of the United Israel Appeal. "It
suggests that those who believe there's a
rift [between Israel and the Diaspora]
are totally misreading the situation."
For Cardin and others, what made
this GA different was the registration of
more than 2,000 Israelis, far more than
anticipated. That offered the chance for
an exchange, rather than a monologue.
There were moving instances of
unity: During a plenary session Tuesday,
the gathering observed a moment of
silence for the three Israeli soldiers killed
Monday in a bomb blast in Lebanon.
But if one of seven three-hour ses-
sions earlier that morning on "cross cul-
tural dialogue" was any indication, there

-

Cynthia L. Mann is the editor of the
Atlanta Jewish Times, sister publication
to The Jewish News.

11/20

1998

12 Detroit Jewish News

Israeli Prime Minister Binjamin. Netayahu and his wife Sara greet delegates to the
General Assembly in Jerusalem.

remains considerable distance between
the two cultures. Filled with nearly
1,000 people, the session featured an
intense exchange between yeshiva-edu-
cated American author Chaim Potok
and internationally acclaimed secular
Israeli writer A.B. Yehoshua.
After warning that he meant no
offense, Yehoshua declared that, "Your
Jewish existence in the Diaspora is a
partial existence. You are dealing with
Jewishness abstractly. You are talking
about it, but you are not projecting
Jewish values in real life."
In Israel, he said, the language, the
parliament, the nation's system of val-
ues, of welfare, and of prisons, are
Jewish, while in the United States,
they are American.
Yehoshua drew gasps when he added,
"To be an American Jew is a kind of a
hobby. It isiess expensive than fishing."
Potok said it was "not helpful to
talk about being a better Jew by living"
in Israel. He said the constant choice
and effort that is required to live
Jewishly in the Diaspora ultimately
strengthens a conscious Jewish identity
"There's got to be more to being
Jewish than Hebrew street signs, drink-
ing bottles of Coca Cola with Hebrew
letters and the language ... You can be
Israeli, but it's not enough."
He added, "Three thousand Jews
are here [at the GA] because they
chose to come. No one dragged them
here ... Something is happening in

western Jewry that we don't fully grasp
and most Israelis don't have a clue as
to what's going on."
Further, he said, with the Zionist
enterprise a success, "you don't have to
dislike the Diaspora anymore. Let's
not denigrate what we do, and let's
never make the mistake of thinking
that nationalism per se, without con-
tent," is enough.
Paul Berger, North American co-
chair of the GA, later said, "It is not
apparent to me that most Israelis or
North American Jews are interested in
this. But we have to think about the
kinds of lessons we will learn from this
[encounter] that might help make
those [back home] who are apathetic
not apathetic."
Dr. Conrad Giles, CJF president
from Detroit, said the "connection
between world Jewish communities
and Israel demands a redefinition.
This three-day Shabbaton will only be
successful if the North Americans
come away with a new understanding
of Israeli society and our differences
and a rethinking of our language.
Sometimes we say the same things and
mean something different."
This GA, sponsored for the first
time by the combined UJA
Federations of North America, comes
as the Israeli economy gets stronger
and North American Jews re-evaluate
their connection to the Jewish state,
historically based on financial support.

Federation donors remain commit-
ted to helping with the immigration
and resettlement of Jews in Israel via
the Jewish Agency (65 percent of its
$385 million annual budget is spent
on this), but all the rest is being re-
examined. The UJA Federation system
raised $759 million in its annual cam-
paign last year. Nearly $200 million
went to the Jewish Agency
Also, American Jews have been
jarred by recent Israeli political devel-
opments that show the Jewish state
does not always reflect or even official-
ly recognize their religious and spiritu-
al values and practices.
Israelis, in turn, have been impatient
with the traditional paternalistic rela-
tionship. But there are some so-called
"secular" Israeli voices that recently
have begun suggesting that Diaspora
Jews may have lessons to offer in plu-
ralistic and communal Jewish life.
Zvi Reshef, a Jerusalem architect, is
at the GA because "the issue of Israel-
Diaspora relations interests me." He
said he is "not a typical Israeli." He
spent eight years in North America
and believes Israelis "have a lot to
learn about developing communal
structures, to be more self-sustaining
rather than relying on the state to deal
with social issues."
He also believes that people on both
"sides" are "getting tired of the kind of
relationship characterized by money and
donations, and that the Israel Forum, a
volunteer organization in which he is
active, strives for "more mutuality"
The GA was to culminate Thursday
in an unusual meeting between
Knesset members and GA participants
dubbed a Parliament of the Jewish
people and designed to underscore
world Jewish unity. El

Clarification

Peter Heytler, Dr. Shirlee Kuhl
and Samantha Kuhl, featured in
the Nov. 13 Mazel Tov!, are
members of Temple Shir Shalom.
Ann Newman, featured in the
Nov. 13 story "Derring-Do
Recollected," is 70 years old.