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American Jews no longer understand modern Israel. It's time to develop a new context for the American relationship with Israel
My first time back in the United States after moving to Israel
happened to coincide with the High Holydays. As common in synagogues throughout the country, there was the annual appeal for Israel Bonds.
“Support Israeli agriculture – the fruits and vegetables grown on Israeli kibbutzes (sic). Buy Israel Bonds so that you can support Israel’s modern highways that transport Israeli agriculture,” said the local representative of Israel’s loan program. Kibbutzim? Modern highways – as if this is such a big deal?
That week, after living in Israel, despite being born and raised in America, I realized that Americans do not have an accurate view of Israel. Despite the rhetoric of support for Israel, Americans are not looking at Israel on the verge of 5758 but rather imagining a mythic Third World country of the 1950s, a safe haven if … .no, when … the Holocaust happens in the United States.
The Israel of today is not a country dependent on American economic aid (in fact, at Israel’s request Congress phased out economic aid) or charity. Israel is a high-tech powerhouse with a western European standard of living. It is in the top 25 world economies in terms of per-capita GDP, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Multinational corporations like Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM have large R&D facilities in the country. Israel has the largest amount of listings on NASDAQ outside of the United States.
And it is not only technology but also Torah. In Israel, most Jews, religious or secular, marry other Jews. More Torah is studied in Israel today than at any point in Jewish history. Jerusalem’s feminist Orthodox Shira Hadasha synagogue has spawned imitators throughout the globe. Purim is celebrated in schools throughout the country and the local supermarket has sales on cheesecake before Shavuot. North American aliya is at record highs – people choosing Israel, not running away from where they came from. To them, Israel is the place of best resort, not last resort.
Despite Israel’s tremendous success, my cousins in the Diaspora still don’t see today’s Israel. Viewing it as a place of refuge or a place to give a few pennies of pity charity (despite a record number of Israeli billionaires) in what journalist Matti Golan referred to as “blood for money” it’s time for Americans to reevaluate their relationship with the Jewish homeland.
But I suspect, you have already turned the page. After all, when leading Israeli writer AB Yehoshua came to speak to you last year, you stalwartly protested. This year, as the annual appeal is coming to synagogues near you perhaps its time to listen closely.
As I write, the stock market is crashing in America. America is quickly losing respect and influence in the world. More than half of all American Jews are marrying non-Jews, yet more money goes towards “fighting antisemitism” than Jewish education. Americans need to look inwards before they claim to be “saving Israel.”
But isn't Israel is in danger from Iran, Hamas, Hizbullah, and surrounded by enemies? In part, yes, but it’s not as bad as you think. The dangers are inflated. Yes, Israel does have serious foreign policy issues and security challenges. We also have one of the best militaries in the world and a foreign ministry hard at work. That doesn’t mean American’s should not do anything about Iran. They should -- because a nuclear Iran is a threat to the entire free world and not just Israel.
It’s time for American Jews to find a new paradigm that deals with the Israel of the present and today’s global Jewish community. The rapid achievements of Israeli society and economic growth over the past decade have led to new challenges: the brain drain, sex trafficking, economic inequality and the growing desire by some to roll back the inevitability of globalization and a growing influx of non-Jewish refugees and foreign workers from the Third World.
Yet American Jewry’s image of Israel as a Third-World, economically backwards country surrounded by enemies is mythic. It’s fiction – Leon Uris’s Exodus - not fact. The use of Israel in the birthright israel program as an IV of Jewish identity to repair decades of neglect is a start. The skyrocketing growth of academic Israel studies on American college campuses, unheard of less than five years ago, is another positive development.
It is time to develop a new context for the American relationship with Israel: one that recognizes Israel as a modern, thriving country and the only place in which one can truly be a Jew. While the Jewish New Year is not traditionally associated with resolutions, perhaps a resolution to learn about the modern, twenty-first century, successful Israel can be an exception. It can start with a long-overdue visit to today’s Israel.
The writer has a master’s degree in Israel: Society & Politics from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
