10 | FEBRUARY 23 • 2023
PURELY COMMENTARY
guest column
The Story of Israel
continued on page 12
T
hese are difficult days
in Israel. Leaders and
citizens are deeply divid-
ed on the issue of the proposed
judicial reform, some saying it
is long overdue,
others saying
that it portends
the end of Israeli
democracy. Much
has been written
about the pro-
posals, and much
more will be.
There is much that is troubling
about the current situation, not
the least of which is the potential
for violence in a society that has
already known its share of politi-
cal violence.
Yet there is another possible
impact of the current situation,
which though less momentous,
also deserves our attention. In
just a few months, Israel will cel-
ebrate its 75th anniversary. That
would be an important mile-
stone no matter what; but given
the challenges that Israel has
faced over the past three-quar-
ters of a century, it is nothing
less than extraordinary, if not
miraculous.
So, at this moment of turmoil,
worry and even dread, it is worth
taking a moment to review, even
very briefly, what the Jewish state
has accomplished. Or to put
matters slightly differently, how
has the Jewish people changed
because of the Jewish state?
First, and perhaps most
importantly, the existential phys-
ical condition of the Jews has
changed. There are no longer
defenseless Jews anywhere in
the world. Though Israel was
certainly not created primarily
to be a refuge, the Law of Return
welcomes every Jew who does
not feel safe where s/he lives. For
any who Jew who seeks it, there
is now a homeland in which they
are welcomed, a homeland in
which they are safe.
The rebirth of a people,
though, is made manifest in
many ways far beyond physical
security. Zionism and Israel have
breathed new life into Hebrew, a
language that was long dormant.
Only in Israel (except for a few
haredi enclaves in the diaspora
which speak Yiddish) is there
an entire society that speaks a
distinctly Jewish language. And
how real could culture be with-
out its distinct language? Could
there be great French culture
without French? Russian litera-
ture written the same way with-
out Russian? The thousands and
thousands of books published,
plays written and performed,
concerts stages and much more
in many hundreds of venues
across Israel are testimony to
more than a vibrant cultural
scene. They are the markings of
a people brought back to life.
Peoples also have rhythms of
life. In Israel, the rhythm of life
is a Jewish rhythm. There are
entire swathes of cities in Israel
in which, on a Friday afternoon,
the nation transforms itself.
Streets become much more still,
people are home preparing for
Shabbat, whether or not they
are punctiliously religious. On
Yom Kippur, one can walk in the
middle of the highways, because
not a car moves. When air
raid sirens go off on Holocaust
Memorial Day or Memorial
Day for Fallen Soldiers, an
entire nation comes to an utter
standstill. That cannot happen
anywhere else. Nowhere else
can both joy and sadness bring
millions of people together for
intense moments of connected-
ness across racial, denomination-
al, ethnic, socio-economic lines
and more.
Israel has even made us
rethink what a Jew looks like;
that, too, is a dimension of a
people reborn. Before there was
an Israel, most North American
Jews assumed that Jews looked
like most of the people reading
this column. But once the Jews
from the Levant came to Israel
in large numbers and then
Jews from Ethiopia, and others
began to stream in, we began
to understand that “what a Jew
looks like” is far more complex
and nuanced than we could ever
have imagined.
THE FOUNDERS OF ISRAEL
There is much more to point
to, but instead, let’s go back
in history, to that momentous
meeting on May 12, 1948,
when 10 men had to vote
whether or not to declare inde-
pendence. Yigal Yadin, who
would become a great Israeli
archaeologist but at that time
commanded the pre-State
Jewish military forces, was
asked how much of a chance
the Jews had of surviving the
onslaught that was sure to fol-
low. Said Yadin, “50/50 — the
Arabs have a lot of power to
bring to the battle.”
Still, in a vote of six to four,
which means that it could not
have been closer, those 10 men
voted to create a state, hoping
against hope that it might be able
to somehow hold out.
They didn’t know if the United
States would recognize Israel
(the State Department was
vehemently opposed, whether
enough Jews would move to
Israel to make the state viable,
whether there would be enough
food (Israel had to institute strict
food rationing of even basics like
flour and fruit). They certainly
didn’t imagine that the Arab
world would embrace them.
Had someone asked them,
back then in May 1948, what
they imagined the state they
were creating would look like in
2023, could they have imagined
a world-class military so pow-
erful that no nation-state dares
attack it any longer? When Israel
almost ran out of money in the
1950s and had 445% inflation
in the 1980s, could they have
imagined the economic engine
that Israel is today? When Israel
was attacked on all sides in 1948,
1973, could they have imagined
that Egypt (1979), Jordan (1994)
the UAE and Bahrain, then
Morocco and then Sudan would
make peace? That the Saudis
would be in the on-deck circle?
That the Arab world would be
reaching out to the Jewish State?
Could they have imagined not
only an end to the hunger, but
a country so overflowing with
food that it’s actually a “foodie”
country? Could they have imag-
ined the bounty, the confidence,
the cultural output, a country
with more nonprofits per capita
than any other country in the
world, a country with a birthrate
among secular Jews higher than
that of any other OECD country,
a country that ranks higher on
the World’s Happiness Scale than
Daniel
Gordis
DMITRY ROZHKOV