OTHER, VIEWS

Teach Judaism The Religion

I

have read with interest the creative
su*:estions of Michael Steinhardt
to create a fund for our Jewish
future in an attempt to provide a quan-
tum leap in the quality of Jewish educa-
tion to halt the decline in the "vitality of
diaspora Jewry" ("Shifting Priorities,
Saving Our Future," Dec. 12 page 39).
We are indeed hemorrhaging thou-
sands upon thousands of our number
every year. When I was a young man
growing up in the 1940s and 1950s, the
Jewish population in America was 5 to

Louis M. Stern is president of the

Glorian Corporation in Oak Park.

5.5 million. In those days, it was easy to
qualify as a Jew. We all had Jewish
mothers.
But recently, the United Jewish
Communities released its National
Jewish Population Survey (NJPS) 2000-
01 using the broadest possible definition
by asking such questions as "Do you feel
like a Jew?" (I feel like a chocolate ice
cream cone, but does that make me
one?)
Their current survey indicated a U.S.
Jewish population of 5.2 million. To
arrive at descendants of the original
1940-1950 population, one would have
to factor out 335,000 recent immigrants

or to promote their own needs,
they have essentially created a
club. There are several obvious
problems. As members' interests
wane, they are content to let
their membership lapse as they
seek other venues for their satis-
faction and entertainment.
LOUIS M.
Being customer-driven in a
STE RN
buyers' market, the managers of
Comm unity
the organization must offer
Two Judaisms
Perspec tive
even greater inducements and
It seems to me that we are deal-
promotions to retain their
ing with two Judaisms.
memberships. Until, ultimately, they
The first is Judaism as a club. When
open the membership to anyone willing
people create an organization to satisfy
to pay their dues.

ly false charges against Israel must
be answered, but most of these
young Jewish adults will not feel a
sense of pride in being Jews by
being armed with the best debating
points, or even when they fully
understand the extraordinary events
of recent Jewish history. They will
want to understand their remarkable
history and know how to respond to
these attacks only if they have a
sense of deep pride in being Jews.
Rather than simply teaching
Jewish students how to win the
debates with Israel's detractors or
even to promote the many positive
features of Israeli culture, it's time
for our community to help them
reframe the war of words and to
directly confront our Arab and
Palestinian cousins on campus and
tell them clearly what both we and
they need to hear.

one when Jordan and Egypt occu-
pied the West Bank and Gaza.
Outside of Israel, there is arguably
little interest in the Middle East for
a democratic state of Palestine. Such
a state would constitute a threat,
simply by its existence, to many of
its neighboring regimes if it were to
join Israel as one of the precious few
democracies in the region. If you
want to make the best possible case
for Palestine, we have some sugges-
tions for you.

from the former Soviet Union
and nearly two generations of
intermarriage, patrilineal descent
and non-traditional conversions
Perhaps not more than 2.5
million Jews of traditional,
matrilineal descent remain from
the original 5 million from -
1940-1950.

BROOKS from page 27

with thousands of them, would like
to have a sense of pride in Israel but
feel a profound sense of sadness and
frustration at the continued suffer-
ing of the Palestinian people and the
less-than-equal treatment of Arab
citizens in the Jewish state — how-
ever much better their lots may be
than those in neighboring Muslim
countries. These students also feel a
sense of acute shame when their
Israeli brothers and sisters some-
times behave with less than the
highest moral rectitude, even if bet-
ter than most others under similar
circumstances.

Role Of Pride

It is indisputable that Israel is held
to an unfair double standard on
campus and throughout the world.
Jewish students more than any oth-
ers expect more of Israel than of any
other country — surely a measure of
positive Jewish identification — and
are concomitantly more troubled
when Israel does not live up to these
often unrealistic expectations.
The campus debates between
Israel's advocates and detractors will
have no impact on what actually
happens in the Middle East — only
Israel and the Palestinians can deter-
mine that. But how these debates
are conducted will have a profound
impact on the future of Jewish life
in America because the war is not
really for Israel but for the hearts
and minds of the overwhelming
majority of this generation's college-
age Jews.
Of course, the base and egregious-

JR1

1/23

2004

28

A Proposed Conversation

Here are five arguments we should
be making to pro-Palestinian advo-
cates:

1. Israelis want a Palestinian state.
There are many countries that want
to see a resolution of the brutal and
tragic conflict between Israel and
the Palestinian people for geopoliti-
cal reasons, but the two communi-
ties in the world that most want it
for existential reasons are the
Palestinian people and the Israeli
people. Very few Arab countries
seem to be very eager to actually
have a Palestinian state — if they
were, they might have established

2. Drop the anti-Semitism. Clean
up your act. Do you really hope to
win support for the Palestinian
cause by proclaiming, as you now
do, that the only people in the
world not entitled to national self-
determination are the Jewish people?
Spain and Italy and Argentina can
legitimately be states with a pre-
dominantly Christian character,
Egypt and Saudi Arabia and
Indonesia can legitimately be states
with a predominantly Muslim char-
acter, but the Jewish people alone
are not entitled to a state in their
homeland with a predominantly
Jewish character?
. The behavior of every nation
should be the subject of discussion,
but why should any nation's exis-
tence be the subject of discussion?
Why is it that Israel, the homeland
of the Jewish people, is the only
country in the world about which
anyone could conceivably begin his
or her criticism with the words, "I
believe Israel has a right to exist, but
...? Do you really think that present-
ing yourselves as racists and anti-

Semites will build sympathy for the
creation of a Palestinian state?
Enough is enough."

3. Don't insist on a Judenrein [the
Nazi-German expression for "puri-
fied of Jews"] state. End your argu-
ment — even if only for tactical rea-
sons — that all of the Jewish settle-
ments must be dismantled as a pre-
condition for a peace agreement.
With hindsight (except for The clear
vision of a few, like Hebrew
University Professor Yeshayahu
Leibowitz, who understood it imme-
diately after the 1967 war), growing
numbers of Israeli Jews now
acknowledge that the settlements
were probably a mistake and main-
tain that they would be prepared to
dismantle most of them in exchange
for a real end to the hostilities.
While evacuating these settle-
ments, which will come at a terrible
price for Israeli society, may prove
to be necessary for a resolution of
the conflict, do you really want to
maintain that the only way that a
state of Palestine can come to an
accommodation with Israel is if it is
Judenrein like Saudi Arabia, or that
an independent Palestine can't be
counted on to protect its Jewish citi-
zens — or even non-citizens — liv-
ing there? Why not take the high
moral ground?

4. Don't be afraid of self-criticism.
Think about engaging in a little
self-criticism, not only because it is
called for but because it is a sign of
strength, not weakness. One can
open the pages of Hdaretz and find