'Criticism of Israel by young American Jews is a good sign'

"The new generation of Jewish leaders is very creative and trying to incorporate their philosophy and ideology while looking for their own meaning of Jewishness and Jewish Peoplehood", President of the NADAV Foundation and Jewish Peoplehood expert Irina Nevzlin Kogan said Monday.

"The fact that young American Jews display 'a whole range of liberal feelings’ means that Israel is very close and personal to them, and for me it's a positive sign", she added. Her remarks were conveyed during a panel discussion at a JFN (Jewish Funders Network) International Summit in Phoenix, Arizona entitled ‘Continuity and Discontinuity’.

The plenary session was based on the results of an extensive survey of 6,773 young Jewish leaders in their 20s and 30s conducted by Professor of American Jewish History at the Jewish Theological Seminary Dr. Jack Wertheimer.

The survey researched the respondents’ attitudes towards the Jewish people, Israel and collective Jewish action, as well as the implications of this for funders, existing Jewish organizations, and the likely configuration of Jewish communal life in the coming years.

Mrs. Nevzlin Kogan participated in a panel addressing the implications of the survey results together with President of HUC-JIR Rabbi David Ellenson, and Samuel and Althea Stroum Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Washington Professor Noam Pianko.

"I was much more concerned about whether Israel is relevant to young American Jews at all, because only when they care can we have a chance to create a dialog", said Nevzlin Kogan. She added that Israelis cannot demand or expect unconditional loyalty to the politics of the State of Israel from young Jews in America, as they cannot expect from their peers in Israel an unconditional support of the policy of Israeli government.

Nevzlin Kogan also noted that while Israel is often perceived as a central theme in the Jewish world, recent research shows that young Jews believe a connection to the State of Israel is not among the primary factors in determining the collective Jewish identity.

“As such, we must create new initiatives which will foster creative and productive dialogue between young Jews in Israel and in the Diaspora, which will hopefully produce joint projects, activities and experiences” she emphasized. “This will also expose young Israelis to the abundance of Jewish life in the Diaspora.”

About the NADAV Foundation - Founded in 2003 by Leonid Nevzlin and his partners, the NADAV Foundation works to support initiatives to strengthen Jewish Peoplehood, build substantive and pluralistic collective Jewish identity, and create lasting connections among Jews the world over. For more information: nadavfund.org.il