[— Thoughts

EDITORIAL BOARD:
Publisher: Arthur M. Horwitz
Chief Operating Officer: F. Kevin Browett
Editor: Robert Sklar
Associate Editor: Alan Hitsky

A MIX OF IDEAS

Send letters to: letters@thejewishnews.conn

Guest Column

Editorial

Seeds Of Alienation

W

here are you from?" I
asked a student in my
Wayne State University
journalism class when I recognized
what I thought was a Middle East
accent.
"Palestine," she replied.
When she noticed a slight
hesitancy on my part, she added, "I
guess you call it Israel."
While obviously curious, I did
not reply, not wanting to abuse the
instructor-student relationship. But
a few weeks later, my curiosity got
the better of me and I asked if she
were willing to discuss her views in
detail. Sensitive to my role as her

instructor, I promised
not to "debate" with her.
She said she was eager
to do so, having a pas-
sion for the subject.
Here are some of her
major points:
• Israel's existence is
illegal. It has no right
to any land — not one
inch.
• If she had the power,
she would kick Israel off
all the land.
• Jews did not live in the area
until 1882 when immigration by
Jews began.

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•Ask any Israeli
where their relatives
were born and all will
say somewhere in
Europe.
An exchange student
from Jerusalem here
on a scholarship, she
said, "Everyone in our
culture believes this."
Where did she learn
all of this "history"? In
school.
There was, of course, more, but
the above makes the point on how
her generation and those younger
are being educated to live in peace
with Israel.
A few days after the discussion,
she sent me a video by e-mail. The
video, she said, is a good summary
of the Palestinian plight and the
abuses by Israel.
And, indeed, it is.
Titled Our Story, the 14-minute
video, a product of the Palestinian
National Initiative, is narrated by
Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, who was
a candidate for president of the
Palestinian Authority, but fin-
ished second to Mahmoud Abbas.
Information on him on the Internet
states that Barghouti, who lives in
Ramallah, was trained in the Soviet
Union and Jerusalem and also has
a degree from Stanford University.
The video is very slick, falling
into the propaganda category. It
depicts scenes like Israeli jets fly-
ing in formation in the skies while
showing Palestinian children suf-
fering on the ground. In one scene,
one hears the roar of the jets while
seeing dead and injured children.
Barghouti focuses in on one family
that, tragically, lost five young sis-
ters in a bombing.
Invoking such leaders as Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson
Mandela and Gandhi, Barghouti
states that Israel has adopted the
most strident policy of apartheid in
the 20th and 21st centuries.
Here are some other highlights:
• Incursion by Israel into Gaza
in 2009 was the worst war in world
history.
• Israel has demolished 86,000
Palestinian homes since 2000;
uprooted 1.5 million olive trees
since 2002; and arrested 650,000

Guest Column on page 26

Engaging Our
Young Adults

assion for Israel grows dynamically out
of Jewish knowledge and commitment.
Caring for the Jewish state seldom
happens without a concurrent feel for what it
means to be Jewish. People give to Israel for
various reasons, but the act of giving alone
isn't likely to bring Jewish givers meaningful
Jewish identity; they require something more.
So argues Dr. Hal Lewis, president and CEO of the
Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies in Chicago and
one of the presenters at the Kolenu conference for
20- and 30-something Jewish leaders from North
America, the United Kingdom, Australia, Holland,
South Africa and Israel. The January attendees
came from large city campaigns; yes, Jewish
Detroit was represented at the forum, intended
to imagine alternatives to Israel-centric fundrais-
ing and support for centralized campaigns, both of
which are in a troubling slide.
Boosting the Gen X and Y donor bases certainly
is a high priority for the federated Jewish commu-
nity. The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit
has only scratched the surface on how to expand
all-important bases if we have any hope of securing
Jewish Detroit's future.
Lewis' message in a JTA-distributed commentary
makes a lot of sense. History indeed shows that
allegiance to Israel derives from strong diaspora
communities that embrace Jewish life. Sustained
loyalty to Israel is not possible without an apprecia-
tion of Jewish culture, values and ethics.
For young adults, a love of Israel and a support
for Jewish community aren't inbred. Lewis argues
that for them, being Jewish is one of several identi-
ties, often relegated to an episodic role rather than
part of their soul.
Better marketing and PR certainly isn't the
enduring answer. Nor are all the new social media
tools, from Facebook to Twitter – alluring as they
are.
What might lead to the answer is a strategy that
brings young Jews closer to Israel by first making
Judaism – history, tradition, involvement, tzedakah,
Torah – personally and deeply resonant for them.
To get our newest postgraduates on a trajectory
where they actually will want to participate in orga-
nized Jewish life, including the art of giving, we in
the Jewish communal world must strive to engage
them in Jewish learning that speaks to them. Lewis
imagines "sophisticated and compelling opportuni-
ties to explore the Jewish experience." That's a
great description.
Let's be honest: Jews today must begin to under-
stand the Jewish experience, and make enough of
it theirs, before the notion of supporting Israel will
pulsate. Federation-sponsored annual campaigns
for Israel that don't boast high-caliber Jewish
learning for our young adults as a foundation
component are destined to fall way short. I 1

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