OTHER VIEWS

American Jewry's Indifference

Jerusalem

T

he failure of Israeli advoca-
cy is only one of the many
reasons for Israel's lessened
world stature. No less sig-
nificant is the loss of Israel's most
powerful source of support: the Amer-
ican Jewish community.
Within American Jewry, there is
both a rapidly diminishing identifica-
tion with Israel and a complete break-
down of the old consensus about just
what is good for Israel.
The loss of identification with
Israel owes to several causes, chief
among them rapidly declining ethnic
identity.
As being Jewish ceases to be a pri-
mary identity fc.: most American Jews,
they have less and less connection to
other Jews 6,000 miles away, especially
as Israelis also tend to de-emphasize
their Jewishness. Historian Lucy S.
Dawidowicz noted more than a
decade ago that, apart from the
Orthodox, few American Jews vote
primarily based on Jewish issues, Israel
included.
Statements by Israeli politicians,
chief among them Yossi Beilin, that

Jonathan Rosenblum is a columnist
for the Jerusalem Post, where this article
first appeared. He is the director of the
Israel office of Am Echad, which dis-
tributed the column.

THEY NEED US from page 35

we can to keep them safe?
We were just as relieved as our
Christian fellow passengers that the
plane landed safely. We all clambered
down the steps into the warm, fra-
grant darkness of the early morning
hours. The first thing my sons did, as
if on cue, and much to all the sur-
rounding passengers delight, was to
drop their knapsacks and kiss the air-
port tarmac under the stars.

Fun, Family, Friends

Waiting outside was my cousin, Edna,
who drove us through the dawn hours
north to the moshav (village) where
she and her husband Moshe raise
dairy cows. The kids played computer
with their Israeli cousins, helped milk
cows, and visited a Crusader castle
and a kangaroo zoo.
Then we went south by train to
Arrad to visit Avi and Hadass Kidron,

5/18
2001

38

Israel no longer
needs American
Jewry have also
driven a wedge
between Ameri-
can Jewry, which
liked to believe it
had a major role
to play in secur-
JONATHAN
ing Israel's exis-
'ROSENBLUM
tence.
Special
Finally, the
ongoing portrayal
Commentary
of Israel as a
theocracy by
Reform leaders angry that the conver-
sions of a handful of colleagues in
Israel are not officially recognized has
succeeded in de-legitimizing Israel in
the eyes of many American Jews.
Even those with a warm spot in
their heart for Israel no longer know
what supporting Israel means.
Since Oslo, Israel's Jews have been
bitterly divided over the direction of
the country, and those divisions have
been reflected by American Jewry as
well. Once the consensus resisted
American dictation of terms to Israel.
For much of the last eight years,
Israeli governments have courted such
dictation. And during the brief
Netanyahu interregnum, President
Ezer Weizmann counseled U.S. Secre-
tary of State Madeleine Albright to
squeeze Israel harder.

former fellow counselors at Tamarack
Camps and now the parents of six chil-
dren. Their 19-year-old son enters the
army this summer, while boys and girls
here plan their next year in college.
We then were off to Jerusalem to
daven Shachrit (daily morning prayer
service) at the Western Wall, tour the
Jewish Quarter, walk through down-
town, and travel to Masada and the
Dead Sea. Our last stop was Pardes
Hanna, a typical Israeli, not-so-afflu-
ent seaside town.
Ours was not the typical whirlwind
tour of Israel. We had a great mix of
fun with family and friends and sight-
seeing. The strangest part was sitting
in an Israeli living room watching
CNN's constant coverage of Israel.
Our Israeli friends and family take
in the images of stone throwers, the
shooting and the sobbing mothers,
just as we do every day in Detroit, and
ask me: "Why aren't they showing the
pictures of our soldiers restraining

While no position in American
Jewry is without its Israeli
antecedents, American Jewish opinion
tends to be considerably to the left of
Israeli opinion. Those who will not
bear the consequences of miscalcula-
tions can always afford to be more
forthcoming to the Palestinians. And
in the social circles in which most
American Jews travel, it is easier to
adopt the dovish line than to make
oneself a pariah.

New Israel Fund's Role

Nothing better indicates the leftward
drift of American Jewry than the
mainstream status afforded the New
Israel Fund (NIF), which raises more
than $20 million annually from
numerous Jewish federations and
thousands of individual contributors
while supporting a host of groups
associated with fringe positions on the
Israeli political spectrum.
The promotional materials of the
Israel-Palestine Friendship Center
announce that American tax
deductible contributions can be sent
to the NIF, and the center's directors
credit NIF with giving them credibili-
ty. Yet the center relentlessly advocates
the Palestinian right of return — a
position viewed as national suicide
even by Yossi Sarid.
One recent center speaker, Israel
Shamir, told his audience, "Jews exist

themselves from shooting, of our
mothers crying when their sons are
injured or killed facing these rock
throwers and assassins?
"Why aren't they filming the
bombed-out buses or the rocket-
shelling of our neighborhoods? Why
have they not interviewed Hadass'
brother, a victim of a terrorist in
Netanya, forever scarred by burns, and
the picture of body parts blown onto
him by a suicide 'idealist?' "
Our artist friends in Jerusalem, who
must sell beauty products to other
Israelis since there are no tourists, are
too considerate to ask us where are
our friends from America? Is it really
more dangerous in downtown
Jerusalem than it is downtown
Detroit? They know better.

Keeping The Miracle

That's not to say that our boys were
not relieved to come back home to
West Bloomfield safely. But they have

only to drip the blood of Palestinian
children into their matzahs."
Another NIF recipient is Bat
Shalom. From 1994 to 1996, Bat
Shalom campaigned for the release of
Abi Waheidi, who led a terrorist cell
that murdered Zvi Klein after stop- .
ping his car and dragging him from it.
After her release, Waheidi, who was
praised by Palestinian Authority leader
Yassir Arafat as the model Palestinian
woman, vowed to continue her terror-
ist activities and refused to express
regret for murdering Klein.
Jeffrey Halper of the Israel Corn-
mittee Against House Demolitions, an
NIF recommendee, travels throughout
America with a Palestinian colleague
denouncing the "Nazis" and
"apartheid" house demolition policies
of Israel. Halper speaks sympathetical-
ly of his Palestinian allies who cannot
agree to accept a two-state solution for
fear of foreclosing a unitary state
between the Jordan and the Mediter-
ranean.
NIF's April 4 update proudly
describes how the Israeli office hosted
Amnesty International's secretary gen-
eral just weeks after Amnesty lambast-
ed Israel as a human rights violator for
not granting Palestinians the right of
return.
As long as the NIF remains main-
stream for American Jewry, Israel has
little to hope for from that corner.

❑

returned having witnessed the miracle
that is our country, Haaretz (the
Land) — something none of their
many generations of ancestors could
have done in their bar mitzvah years.
We are sure that they will never take
the existence of Israel for granted. We
hope that they will do their parr to keep
the miracle alive for future generations.
For those who can go, please do.
Your relatives and friends and the
shopkeeper you buy a sesame bagel
from will appreciate it beyond words.
For those who cannot go, buy
Israeli products and support Israeli
causes with your well-earned money.
Just as importantly, write to the media
venue of your choice and get the other
side of the story out.
If you can, find an Israeli that you
can e-mail or write to on a weekly
basis to get information firsthand and
to let them know we care.
Israelis need us. We need them.
Make your support real. ❑