Do it in Israel

An acquaintance from New York remarked a few years ago, during my mission on behalf of the Israel Bonds, that he sees something wrong with the invitation he received from an important Jewish organization to take part in a certain annual convention in one of America's cities.

Today, in the era of jet engines, the distance and time it takes to reach that city is not much less than flying to Israel, he argued. Why don't Jewish organizations hold their conventions in Jerusalem?

This question features an important a fundamental context to the basis of the connection between Jewish organizations and Israel that is the basis of their activity both in ideological and practical terms.

The tradition of holding the annual conventions of important organizations such as The American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, the Anti-Defamation League, B'nai B'rith, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs usually follow regular frameworks and habits.

This conventions indeed serve to reinforce Jewish unity, but also the direct distancing from the Israeli existence. A synthesis of a certain combination of identities is desired and possible in Israel too, if only we take into account several important subjects that are a result of the problems facing the people in Israel, community life in the Diaspora, and new challenges that emerged over time.

One of the more acute problems on this front is directly related to the familiarity with and sense of the existential issues of the Jewish State and society: The horror of Islamic hatred, the need to explain Israel's struggle for its existence, the demographic rifts in Israel and Western countries, and the question of presenting new objectives in the realm of culture being constituted in the global Jewish "cosmos."

Now we can no longer ignore the fact that elements within Diaspora Jewry already have reservations regarding the basic assumptions of Jewish partnerships, and those could expand once Israel faces decisions that could hurt us.

Indeed, a large part of the discussions in those annual conventions deals with issues that are specific to community life, yet community and group representatives can discuss them and solve them in Israeli hotels with the same efficiency and freedom as they would have in Washington or Cleveland. This way, the practical effects would be joined by the deep symbolism that is valuable both in the immediate and long term.

If there's a need to hold ad hoc meetings at the location where the organizations operate, we can accept that as part of local reality. But beyond that, those organizations would be asked to adapt to the new reality and their leaderships would experience the sense of responsibility to the country and the Jewish identity through what would also appear as a regular display of courage and the assumption of risk by way of volunteering for this mission.

This has additional significance if we recall that in the United States, for example, there are dozens of organizations where there's special significance to their representatives holding their meetings here. This stems from the very names of these organizations:

Jewish Labor Committee

Jewish War Veterans

National Action Committee NACPAC

National Jewish Coalition

Parents of North American Israelis

The Coalition Against Terrorism

United Jewish Appeal, Inc

The Washington Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values

United States Israeli Defense Force Veterans

UJA National Young Leadership Cabinet

Those are just examples of such organizations, and if a permanent and institutionalized connection is formed to their conventions in Israel, group members everywhere would get involved in them and we will see both a practical and spiritual interaction in the activity of the various representatives and functionaries with the general Jewish public.

This could also lead to new forms of bringing together the various parts of the Jewish people in cultural terms, and possibly serve to resolve problems of religion and state.

It might not serve as a great motivator to remind those organizations that fundamentalist Christians are traveling to Israel in large groups for solidarity displays with Israel in the face of the horrors that threaten the country's existence. It is difficult to imagine that the sense of fear could constitute an obstacle to Jewish organizations of all groups.