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A look at some recent books about Israel.

`Irreconcilable Differences'

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Examining Israel

Last year, a few thousand young,
Jewish Americans packed into a
Jerusalem conference center for a kind
of pep rally near the end of their 10-
day, free trip to Israel under the
Birthright Israel program.
These young Jews, some with only a
vague connection with Jewry, roared
with Zionist patriotic fervor when they
were shown a few seconds of a film clip
of Israeli soldiers liberating the Temple
Mount during the 1967 Six-Day War.
At best, however, an increase in pro-
Israel patriotism among young American
Jews is anecdotal and is to the credit of
the Birthright program, the increased
presence of Hillels on college campuses
and a sort of circling of the wagons in
light of the renewed violence in the
Jewish state.
Yet in Steven T Rosenthal's book,
Irreconcilable Differences? The Waning of
the American Jewish Love Affair with
Israel (Brandeis University Press;
$24.95), practically no mention is made
of Israel's new appeal to "Generation Y"
Jews.
Nor does Rosenthal explain why, if
the "love affair" is over, American Jews
on the left and the right are rallying to
support Israel during this latest crisis
— with their words and pocketbooks.
That's one of the problems associat-
ed with releasing a history book that
has to do with the Mideast, when cur-
rent events can quickly make some
conclusions obsolete.
Irreconcilable Differences? does a com-
petent job of outlining the history of
relations between Israel and American
Jewry — from that of an older brother
and younger sibling from 1948 to
1967, to jubilant hero worship after

the Six-Day War victory, to open criti-
cism after the invasion of Lebanon, to
today's relative ambivalence.
Rosenthal, an associate professor of
history at the University of Hartford,
has a very academic writing style and -
reading this book is much like sitting
through a lecture.
The book is primarily a history of
American Jewish leaders' and organiza-
tions' relations to Israel. When
Rosenthal says "American Jewry," who
exactly is he talking about? For the most
part, he's referring to organizations that
most American Jews have never heard
of or have little connection with, and
"Jewish leaders" who represent only a
small percentage of American Jews who
are involved with these organizations.
Meanwhile, most American Jews are
increasingly assimilated, mingling in
the American stew, and have only a
passing interest in Israel.
Rosenthal does, however, correctly
make the point that those American
Jews who do care about Israel are
increasingly not donating money to the
Jewish state through the UJA or their
local federation, but directly to the
causes in Israel they believe in.
Ag ain, however, the recent Mideast
crisis has begun to reverse this trend,
with some local federations seeing an
increase in donations. Whether this
trend continues remains to be seen.
If you want to get a good outline of
the history of American Jewish rela-
tions with Israel, skim this book. If
you want to see how that relationship
is changing every week, you'd be better
off subscribing to this newspaper.
— Reviewed by Howard Lovy

`The Foods Of Israel Today'

Michigan readers hold a special con-
nection for Washington D.C.-based
cookbook author Joan Nathan. Before
earning a master's degree in public
administration from Harvard, she got
bachelor's and master's degrees in
French literature as a student in Ann
Arbor, where she launched a promo-
tional tour for her latest effort, The
Foods of Israel Today (Knopf; $40).
Nathan believes being fluent in
French has opened communication
with many chefs, and she thinks of
recipes in general as a way to open
communication among people.