The Israeli State and Society: Boundaries and Frontiers

9: Between "Alexandria-On-The-Hudson" and Zion

Between ''Alexandria-OnThe -Hudson" and Zion* 9 BARUCH KIMMERLING The Bipolar Nature of ''Jewish Reality" The establishment of a sovereignJewish State in part of Palestine in 1948 created a new configuration of forces within the Jewish people. The initial signs of this configuration had already emerged along with the political, social and economic development of the Yishuv (the pre-State Jewish community in Palestine) or even earlier, as the Jews began to encounter the modern world. The founding of this state (an act both temporally and causally related to the Holocaust, which destroyed the Eastern European Jewish center and reinforced the North American one) instituted a "Jewish reality" which, although reminiscent of several previous historical periods, could not have been foreseen. Neither the various streams of Zionist ideology, nor the Jewish religion nor anyone school of thought or politics in Judaism was prepared for responding to this reality and its attendant problems , contradictions and tensions. In seeking a historical analogy to this situation, scholars tend to compare the North American Jewish center-particularly that of the United States-with the Jewish center which flourished in Babylonia from the end of the Second Temple Period until the end of the tenth century. Initially , there were two centers ofequal significance-Jerusalem and the academies of Sura and Pumpeditha. However, as the revolts in Palestine were quashed and the population decreased, the Babylonian center gradually became dominant. A new Jewish culture was created in Babylonia, spearheaded by religious sages and philosophers (the Amoraim), culminating in the compilation of the monumental Babylonian Talmud (from 200 to 500 CE). This community and culture were closed, introverted, particularistic *The author gratefully acknowledges generous support provided by the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, and Ezra Mendelson for his friendly help. 237 BARUCH KIMMERLING and politically dependent on the good graces of constantly changing rulers . The North American Jewish center is also compared with that of Hellenistic Alexandrian Jewry (from the third century BCE to the Revolt of 66 CE). While this community never created any particular Jewish cultural assets paralleling those of Babylonia, it did develop a new culture which was more receptive to the modern world, attempting and largely succeeding in attaining a synthesis between Judaism and Hellenism, the foundations of which still number among the cornt'Tstones of so-called "Western culture." The Septuagint, the translation of the Hebrew Bible, was produced in Alexandria , revealing Judaism to the world. Outstanding Greek philosophers studied the Jews, seeking common features between their respective schools of thought. This universalist Jewish-Hellenistic culture spawned both historical and philosophical works, as well as plays and poems. Its most prominent exponent was the philosopher called Philo of Alexandria. The Jews of Alexandria also wielded considerable political power (until the Roman conquest). Some were citizens of the polis-actually a metropolis by ancient world standards. Most supported their brethren in Jerusalem , both materially and politically; in the year 66 CE, they joined in the revolt against Rome, in which some 50,000 were killed (B1udau, 1906; Tcherikover, 1959). The American Jewish community's inability to choose unambiguously between these two analogies essentially expresses its internal dilemma, or at least a failure to determine which sectors are to be emphasized. In comparing "Babylonia" and "Alexandria-on-the-Hudson" from an Israeli point of view, we also express various aspirations regarding the nature of the American partner and relations between the two centers. Objectively speaking, the analogy with Alexandria appears to parallel reality more closely, considering both the nature of North American Jewish culture and its sociopolitical position in American and global systems. We recognize, however, that analogies of this type constitute more of an intellectual plaything than an efficacious scientific tool for analysis and comprehension. The contradictions and tensions which developed with the formation of the two contemporary centers did not surface at once, perhaps because of Zionism's ostensibly absolute victory over all its rivals, due to the realization of its prognosis that the Jews cannot survive without fulfillment of the Zionist ideal and to its amazing success in establishing a state with considerable military prowess and the ability to absorb mass immigration. These achievements long overshadowed all other components of the new Jewish reality . Moreover, several of the social and political elements of this reality find it in their best interests to suppress contradictions and tensions in the collective consciousness. This situation corroborates Harkabi's contention 238 BETWEEN "ALEXANDRIA...