1 People, 2 Centers, 3 Opinions
My brother used to joke about the difference between American Jews and Israeli Jews. What’s the difference? The American Jew will ask to do your taxes, while the Israeli Jew will ask you to hold his Uzi while he takes a leak. Offensive? Sure. Grain of truth? Undoubtedly. There’s a definite culture gap between the two cultures. That is neither surprising nor unusual.
What is unusual is that — for the first time ever — there is both a strong Jewish homeland in Israel and a strong Jewish Diaspora outside.
This raises some basic questions about our combined Jewish future. What will the relationship between these two thriving centers of Jewish be like? Will there even be an intersection, or will there be two separate and distinct Jewish cultures developing over the next several generations?
From my experience, I find that we Jews here in The States tend to view developments in Israel through our comfortable and secure American lens. I am not too worried about external existential threats to my homeland from our friendly Canadian and Mexican neighbors. If I were living within missile range of Iran, I would likely view political developments differently.
After the recently Israeli elections, I’ve got a lot of questions and concerns too. (Note: I feel the same about our impending 2024 presidential election).
I’m not saying that we need to be constantly unified with our Israeli family, or they with us. Debate is healthy and normal. So is being horrified by recent developments (in both countries). But I am looking for the type of disagreement that does not permanently fracture our Jewish family. Both countries contain miraculous aspects, but both countries need a lot of hard and painful work from within to make the respective countries better.
My first step is to try and educate myself. Sometimes we do not know what we do not know. That is why I will be at the Z3 Conference in Palo Alto on December 11th https://z3project.virtualjcc.com/ . This conference brings together Diaspora Jews and Israel Jews for dialogue, debate and a reimagined relationship. If you cannot join me there in person, you can participate on-line.
I suspect that we will discover that each branch of the family needs each other and can learn from each other. But we will not know until we each take the first step.