Channels

Dennis Ross presents report to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
Photo: Moshe Milner, GPO

US Jewry fears for Israeli Jews' security

European Jewry disappointed at diminished status of Israel as focus of support, source of inspiration for Jewish people

The Jewish People Policy Planning Institute (JPPPI), led by Ambassador Dennis Ross, presented to government ministers on Sunday morning its annual assessment of the state of the Jewish people for the year 2007.

 

The JPPPI assessment, Social Perspectives – 2007, focuses in depth, for the first time, on the influence of the Second Lebanon War on Diaspora Jews, and draws distinction between the reactions of European Jews and those of North American Jews.

 

Professor Yehezkel Dror, founding president of JPPPI, did not participate in the meeting with the government due to his activity as a member of the Winograd Commission, which is investigating Israel’s management of the Second Lebanon War.

 

The annual assessment of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, established by the Jewish Agency for Israel, is the Institute’s flagship project. Social Perspectives – 2007 is the fourth such annual assessment prepared by the JPPPI since 2004, and was delivered to the government by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institute, Ambassador Dennis Ross, its Director General, Avinoam Bar-Yosef, and Professors Chaim Waxman and Sergio Della Pergola, both Senior Fellows of the Institute.

 

The assessment shows that world Jewry is deeply troubled by the ramifications of the Second Lebanon War and views them with tremendous anxiety – compounding the overall worry engendered by the Iranian threat. In this context, one must differentiate between European and North American Jewry.

 

The results of the war were received, among European Jews, with disappointment and a certain amount of fear. For them, the weakening of Israel harms its image as a source of support and inspiration for the Jewish people.

 

In addition, the absence of a decisive victory alarms European Jewish communities, as perceived against the backdrop of their own relationships to European Muslim minorities and the anti-Semitic forces around them. There are also increases in the perception of the threat posed by radical Islam, and the apprehension it causes.

 

Referring to the North American Jewish community, the annual assessment emphasizes that American Jews were extremely taken aback by the vulnerability of a Jewish community so similar in size to the American Jewish community; one within the core state of the Jewish people. North American Jews worry about the extent to which Israel was harmed by the war, and expressed their deep concern for the safety and well-being of their Israeli counterparts, particularly because more than a million Israelis were forced to evacuate their homes during the war, many of whom were left with no alternative to spending large quantities of time in rocket-safe shelters.

 

The American Jewish community saw –in the context of the Iranian danger—the first true existential threat to a large community of Jews since World War Two. This threat constitutes a strategic threat to the future of the entire Jewish people.

 

In general, the assessment finds that, for world Jewry, the quality of Israel as a source of reassurance has diminished in light of the results of the war, and because of the ongoing diverse investigations of the Second Lebanon War and of some Israeli leaders.

 

This annual assessment also analyzes in depth a number of social aspects and developments in the Diaspora, with particular emphasis on the US. The annual assessment project’s head, Professor Chaim Waxman, a Senior Fellow of the Institute who recently made aliya from the US, delivered a presentation on several socio-economic trends affecting the Jewish people, as well as patterns of immigration, family life, and religion.

 

'Losing ethnic identity' 

Social Perspectives – 2007 ends with a number of conclusions and recommendations– foremost, that Israel must strengthen its strategic significance for the existence of the Jewish People worldwide, together with improving Israel-Diaspora relations with special attention paid to the younger generation.

 

The JPPPI director-general, Avinoam Bar-Yosef, emphasizes that as a result of the assessment’s findings, the Institute also intends to study, in the coming year, the significance and contribution of the ‘second circle’ in the Jewish people.

 

“The intention is to reach out to families who are not halachically Jewish but who have a clear commitment to the Jewish people. The president of France, Nicholas Sarkozy, is an example of this,” explains Bar-Yosef.

 

“We hope that the evaluations and recommendations in the annual assessment will help decision makers in Israel and among the Jewish people to correctly perceive what is happening, and to give an appropriate response to the complicated challenges that face us, with the help of imaginative policy innovations and appropriate resource allocations," he said.

 

Professor Chaim Waxman, head of this year’s annual assessment project, in reference to social patterns of North American Jews, said that “although those who belong to the hard-core of North American Jews are growing stronger in commitment and identity, they are shrinking in numbers. On the other hand,” he said, “the second circle of North American Jews is growing – a group that, despite its positive attitudes towards the Jewish Civilization, is losing its ethnic identity.”

 


פרסום ראשון: 01.06.08, 22:03
 new comment
Warning:
This will delete your current comment