Orthodox and Other American Jews and their Attitude to the State of Israel

The central argument of Professor Gabi Sheffer in his interesting essay is that since the 1973 war American Jewry has experienced “a gradual process of decreasing loyalty to Israel and increasing criticism of it.” He relates this process to two main factors. One of them is the growing integration of American Jews in their surrounding society and the other is the weakening of their Jewish identity.

What he implies is that there is a negative correlation between the degree of Diaspora Jews’ integration in their host countries and their attachment to Israel, and a positive correlation between the “Jewishness” of Diaspora Jews and their loyalty and support to Israel. Although these arguments seem reasonable they require certain clarification qualifications.

First, there is not necessarily an inverse correlation between integration of Diaspora Jews in their surrounding societies and their attachment to Israel. This is related to the distinction between two kinds of integration: The first one, “assimilation”, is the total adoption of the ways of life of the surrounding society, which means breaking all social and cultural barriers between the individual and this society.

It is obvious that the growing tendency of American Jews to be fully integrated in all spheres of American life drastically diminishes their Jewish identity and solidarity, which leads in turn to their distancing from Israel. Steven Cohen points to this kind of integration when he asserts that the main factor behind the changes in the identities of American Jews is “the enormous change in the integration of Jews into the larger American society.” In contrast to previous generations of American Jews, “Today’s Jews have far fewer Jewish spouses, friends, neighbors, and coworkers. Not surprisingly, they feel less attached to both Jewish peoplehood and Israel.”¹

The second type of integration is “acculturation”, which means the adoption of cultural norms of the surrounding society, without severing all or most ties with one’s ethnic or religious group. This kind of integration should not necessarily lead to the weakening of Jewish identity, as is evident by the fact that many Jews who are deeply involved in the affairs of the American Jewish Community have been well adapted to American culture.

This distinction is also relevant to the relationship between integration of Diaspora Jews in their host countries and their attitude to Israel. While assimilation often leads to decreasing loyalty and support to Israel, this might not be the case in regard to acculturation.

The relationship between Jewish identity and attitude to Israel is also not straightforward. This might be inferred from Sheffer’s observation that even “hard core” Diaspora Jews are now less inclined to support Israel and to identify with it. The significant fact is that many American Jews are looking for alternative ways to express and preserve their Jewish identity. Some of them are keeping Holocaust memory, combating anti-Semitism, working for their local Jewish community, and maintaining solidarity with other Jewish communities.

There are also deliberate attempts to preserve and enhance the Jewish identity of American Jews by educational experiments designed to introduce a new kind of Jewish identity, one that will be more reconcilable with universalistic and liberal values of Western culture. Ofira Seliktar notes, “Not surprisingly, the place of Israel in this new round of identity building was minimal.”²

It can be concluded then that the weakening of Jewish identity and the increasing of Jewish integration cannot in themselves account for the declining attachment of Diaspora Jews to Israel. Some observes link this process mainly to political changes that occurred in Israel since 1977, of which the most important is the ascendance to power of the Likud in that year.

Seliktar argues that, “The right-wing national religious coalition that Begin had put together offended the liberal-secular sensibilities of the majority of the community.”³ Other developments that induced the distancing of American Jews from Israel are the 1982 war in Lebanon, Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, and the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.

She attaches an especially great impact to the growing...