Don’t Lose U.S. Jewish Support

Last month, it was the dismaying image of beleaguered reform Jews assailed by ultra-Orthodox while seeking to pray at the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site. Now, this week, the ultra-Orthodox challenged the rule of law by attacking Israel’s Supreme Court for affirming religious pluralism.

Sadly, American Jews and Israel are moving away from one another and the consequences over time could be disastrous for both. The next election in Israel may well accelerate the process.

The link between Israel and American Jewry is vital to both sides and cannot be taken for granted. If it begins to fray, it could have catastrophic consequences. With Jewish religious issues once again before the Knesset and likely to be the currency of aggressive deal-making for politicians seeking election in May, the risks are real.

Israel is vital to the Jewish identity of American Jews. Israel’s miraculous rebirth, remarkable development and sheer survival are sources of immense pride to Jews everywhere.

Jewish identity, whether in the Diaspora or Israel, stands on three interconnected legs: the land, the people and the book. Removing the land because it no longer is appealing to a growing number of American Jews would be a calamity and only accelerate the already worrisome assimilationist trends in the U.S.

Moreover, American Jewry is indispensable to America’s pro-Israel stance. If the American Jewish component is gradually removed from the equation, it will not be long before we witness a more “evenhanded” U.S. approach. There are other forces in the U.S., whose foremost goal is neutralizing American Jewish influence in Washington.

Maintaining American Jewry’s sophisticated political involvement depends heavily on a strong sense of identification with Israel.

Survey data indicate that American Jewish ties with Israel are closely linked to age. The younger generations, while wishing Israel well, increasingly feel less connection with Israel than their parents. Thus, even under the best of circumstances, those of us profoundly committed to American Jewish-Israeli bridge-building have our work cut out for us.

But other troubling factors are also at work, foremost among them a growing religious disenfranchisement, felt most strongly among younger American Jews overwhelmingly non-Orthodox who are not as prepared as their elders to “excuse” Israeli behavior in this arena.

It would be absurd to seek to export to Israel America’s strict notion of “church-state separation,” which has worked so well in our country. Israel is a Jewish state, however elusive the definition may be. Yet, the entanglement of religion and state in the Israeli political arena is dismaying for most American Jews.

Images of rabbis wheeling and dealing in the insatiable pursuit of secular political power to buttress their religious agenda cannot be reconciled with our traditional views on Judaism. Such an unbridled meshing of religion and government is bad for the state, worse for religion. Its effects are corrosive.

However desirable, Israel’s religious parties will not have a sudden epiphany and disband in favor of study and teaching. Consequently, the Israeli majority needs finally to find the courage to say “enough already” to religious coercion. This still relatively silent majority must overcome its own petty divisions and, while there is still time, define an alternative vision for Israel that maintains democratic values and ensures an enlightened Jewish character of the state.

The religious minority’s imposition of its will is unquestionably doing real damage. For American Jews, it may mean reductions in charitable giving or less willingness to engage politically on Israel’s behalf. For Israelis, it is reflected in a growing cultural divide and the unsettling sense that the state they worked so hard to build is slipping away from them.

When do those people of good will, Orthodox and non-Orthodox, who do understand the dangers to religion and state of the current situation together plan a new vision and the strategy to achieve it?

In the final analysis, we are one people and a small one at that. We can ill afford further splintering.

This is not simply a debate about what’s good for Jews in America, where the overwhelmingly majority of Reform and Conservative Jews live--although with 40% of the world’s Jewish population and U.S. political support heavily dependent on the active involvement of American Jewry, the stakes are certainly high.

No, it’s every bit as much about what’s good for Israel. It is in fact a long overdue debate about Israel’s soul. Unless the Israeli political establishment stiffens its spine, we risk alienation and division.

I pray that we will see the same courage Israel has demonstrated in diplomacy, rescue and defense applied to preventing some religious dogmatists from hijacking this ever-so-precious country of the Jewish people.