New Subject
Study of American Jews making its way into Israeli schools.
Dina Kraft
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Tel Aviv
T
he Jews of America may be the
largest Jewish community in the
diaspora, but that does not mean
Israeli schoolchildren learn much about
them.
Sixty-two years after Israel's founding,
its school system still largely sticks to the
Zionist trope that all Jews should live in
Israel and those who do not at the very
least should be actively engaged in helping
support the Jewish state. In turn, there is
scant study of contemporary Jewish life in
America.
"The bottom line is that there is very
little taught, if there is anything at all," said
Daniel Gross, a Hebrew University gradu-
ate student who has researched the topic.
But there is some change afoot.
What's On Tap
Signaling the beginning of a shift in direc-
tion, 1 lth- and 12th-graders preparing for
the national history matriculation exam
this year for the first time were required
to study a unit on American Jewry's con-
tribution to the Jewish people after the
Holocaust.
Orna Katz-Atar, a high school his-
tory teacher who drew up the new cur-
riculum for the Education Ministry, said
plans include introducing a new unit on
Israel and the diaspora, with a focus on
American Jewry, probably by fall 2012.
"We are in the process of building the
curriculum, gathering material and teach-
ing the teachers:' Katz-Atar said.
At a time when studies show a declining
sense of kinship between American Jews
and their Israeli counterparts, Israelis'
unfamiliarity with diaspora Jewry is a
subject of some concern in America. This
lack of familiarity only exacerbates ten-
sions over divisive Israel-diaspora issues,
such as the debate over who is a Jew. There
is a feeling that members of the world's
two largest Jewish populations know less
about each other with each passing gen-
eration.
Until this year, when and if the subject
of American Jewry was taught at all in
Israeli schools, it usually was within the
context of the great wave of Jewish migra-
tion in the 19th century, the life of Jews in
26
June 10 • 2010
Israeli schoolchildren may be learning about American Jews for the first time.
America between the world wars and what
American Jews did to try to help their
brethren during the Holocaust.
Policymakers feared that "showing
a successful diaspora might encourage
emigration:' Gross said. "Another prob-
lem has been how the religious schools
would teach about Reform or Conservative
Judaism, and how the topic might hurt the
Zionist agenda!'
What Is Taught
A 2005 report by the American Jewish
Committee found that only 14 percent of
Israeli teachers surveyed said they taught
about Reform or Conservative Judaism in
their schools in the previous three years.
While Israeli students are beginning now
to study more about American Jewry, the
focus remains on American Jews' connec-
tion to Israeli history.
In preparing for the history matricula-
tion exam, Israeli students learn about the
aid American Jews provided at postwar
displaced persons camps and the role
American Jews played in helping lobby the
White House to support Israel's creation.
"I tell my students all the time that we
and the American Jews are brothers:' Katz-
Atar said. "Its important that students
understand that we did not do everything
alone, that the Zionist project was assisted
by the entire Jewish world!'
One place where diaspora studies are
taught differently is in Modiin, a rapidly
growing city midway between Jerusalem
and Tel Aviv. For the past five years, sev-
enth-graders have been studying a course
called "Friends Across the Sea" as part of
a pilot program initiated by the Education
Ministry, the TALI educational fund and
the Jewish Agency for Israel.
In this new curriculum, students learn
about the various Jewish religious denom-
inations, the challenges of Jewish conti-
nuity and diaspora concerns over inter-
marriage. A section on Jewish feminism
includes the emergence of female rabbis.
The program's backers want to bring the
curriculum to public schools across Israel
and to translate it into English for study in
American Jewish schools and into other
languages for other diaspora communities.
"I think it's a result of changes in the
1990s, when increasing numbers of
Israelis encountered the Jewish American
community through organized delega-
tions:' said Varda Rafael, an educator who
helped coordinate the project. They "real-
ized we can learn from each other — not
copy each other, but inspire one another."
Shifting Views
Gross says the Israeli perception of
American Jewry is changing, at least in
academic circles.
"In the past, Israelis would say of
American Jewry that they chose not to
be with us, but if they want to support
us financially or politically that's great:'
he said. "But now, there is the sense that
maybe there is a need for greater Jewish
pluralism in Israel."
Israelis unhappy with the Orthodox
monopoly on religious matters are begin-
ning to look to American Jews for direc-
tion, Gross noted.
But among the general Israeli popula-
tion, most Israelis seem to have little or no
concept about the lives of their American
Jewish counterparts. Yisrael Wolman,
in a scouring Op-Ed in the Israeli daily
YediotAchronot, mocked his fellow Israelis
for being apathetic about American Jews.
"The American Jewish leadership is
aging and is frightened by surveys of
assimilation and low birth rates and is
putting most energies into strengthening
its own community;"Woolman wrote, "but
this does not mean a parallel blind identi-
fication with Israel. The tragedy is that for
the average Israeli, it is as interesting as
last year's snowfall. Tens of thousands of
Israelis fly to America each year to have a
great time in Times Square, gamble in Las
Vegas or hang out in Disney World.
Rabbi Ed Rettig, acting director of the
American Jewish Committee in Israel, says
that American Jews do almost as bad a job
of educating their children about Israel as
Israel does in educating their youth about
American Jews. "We in Israel, by not learn-
ing how American Jews think, lose in our
capacity to engage in deep dialogue with
them:' he said. Israelis pay for this igno-
rance, he noted.
"These are the same people from which
we are asking for passionate advocacy
within the American Jewish system, peo-
ple whose own children we are sometimes
disallowing as Jews. We are smacking
around the people who love us most."
Shlomi Ravid, co-director of the Jewish
Peoplehood Hub, a startup that seeks to
be a clearinghouse for peoplehood issues,
says there is one key question.
"Are we a people who has a state or a
state that has a people?" he asked.
"I would say for most Israelis it's all
about Israel, and the Jewish people are
supposed to be source of personnel, sup-
port and funding.
"There is a loss of a sense that the real
client here is the Jewish people. And the
state is a very important expression of the
agenda of the people, but it's not the soul.
Jewish life matters and is important every-
where it exists!' 0