Channels

Photo: Reuters
'The Jews are the most liberal group in the US. In Israel, there are opposite trends'
Photo: Reuters
Yaron London

Nationality bill affects Diaspora Jews too

Op-ed: An affiliation between two populations separated by an ocean, living conditions and a language can only be based on identical values; but our values, as reflected in Jewish nation-state bill, are moving further apart.

The "nationality bill," according to all of its formulas, can serve as an exercise in breaking up narratives. Those who delve into their meaning will find, one after the other, the contradictions between truths and figures of speech and between good intentions and their feasibility.

 

 

Last week, I wondered about the wording "in the spirit of Israel's prophets," and found that this spirit will destroy most of the values of a moral society. This week, I would like to dwell upon a clause in one of the bill's versions: "The state will work to ingather Israel's exiles and strengthen the affiliation between Israel and the Jewish communities in the Diaspora."

 

This sentence, which distinguishes between "exiles" (a negative quality) and "Diaspora" (a neutral quality) alludes to an admission that the Zionist heart's desire will not be fully realized, and that the state must therefore make sure to preserve the connection between Israel and the Jews who will not immigrate to the country until the Messiah's arrival. This is welcomed realism.

 

How will the "affiliation" be preserved? Naturally, a basic law does not include implementation instructions, but it should also not contradict the possibility of its implementation through its existence, and this is what the bill does. It harms not only minorities, but also the Diaspora Jews whose representatives have already voiced their concern over its meaning, which firmly fixes the rule of one faction of the people.

 

An affiliation between two populations separated by an ocean and living conditions and a language can only be based on identical values, but our values, as they are also reflected in this bill, are moving further apart.

 

The biggest Jewish ingathering outside Israel lives in the United States. There is no need to elaborate on its importance to the state's strength. The Pew Research Center has been following the sociological changes among US Jews persistently, and its most recent survey found that 58% marry non-Jews, one-quarter don't believe in God and 32% of those who were born after 1980 describe themselves as having no religion.

 

The Jews are the most liberal group in the US, and probably the richest and most educated group as well. Sixty percent of its members support the Democratic Party.

 

In Israel there are opposite trends: About 80% believe in God's existence, 70% believe we are members of the chosen people, 65% are certain that the Torah and mitzvot were given to us by God, and 56% take comfort in the thought that there is an afterlife. The trends and demographics predict that the number of those who hold these views, which involve seclusion and xenophobia, will grow.

 

The rate of religious people among us is one of the highest in the world, nearing the percentage in Ghana, Nigeria, Armenia, Fiji, Macedonia, Romania and Iraq. The lowest rate of believers can be found in China, Japan, the Czech Republic, France, South Korea and Germany.

 

We should beware any reckless analogies, and yet it's hard to shake off the suspicion that there is a statistical relation, and perhaps even a causal relation, between the population's religiosity and its prosperity or laggardness. Let's hope that we're an exceptional case: Very religious and pretty advanced.

 

In any event, it's clear that in terms of our culture's character, we are moving further away from the US Jews, and at the end of this process the connection will weaken to the point of separation.

 

In the meantime, almost 70% of Jews in America still state that they are proud of their Jewishness and feel a connection to Israel, but the depth of their affiliation is in inverse proportion to their age – and therefore it's safe to assume that the emotional connection between us will grow weak.

 

Nothing, apart from a sudden religious awakening and serious anti-Semitism, will change this trend, which has a serious strategic significance, but the "nationality bill" points to this trend and will surely accelerate it.

 

The lawmakers didn't think about that, or perhaps they did and realized that we are better off in solitude and that salvation is in the hands of God.

 


פרסום ראשון: 12.02.14, 00:25
 new comment
Warning:
This will delete your current comment