Is This the Way?: On Reading Michael Graetz's Essay

Michael Graetz loves Israel and his love affair is palpable in the essay he has written. His love for Israel is demonstrated even more by the leadership he has provided during his distinguished rabbinate in Omer and by the bold thinking he has offered the Masorti movement in Israel throughout his career. Michael has been a respected colleague and friend for many years and I appreciate the opportunity to reflect on his thoughtful essay.

Graetz can be described as an "old-fashioned" Zionist, and that explains some of his traditional sh'lilat ha-golah, that is less a reflection of negative attitudes toward the Diaspora than of his exulting in the unique Jewish possibilities which Israel provides. He writes movingly and persuasively of these possibilities. Graetz is doubtless correct in finding in the reality of living in Israel a unique Jewish experience and, in the possibility of living that experience, a remarkable transformation of Jewish life and Jewish history.

Graetz's love for Israel and celebration of Zionism is not blind; he bemoans the incompleteness of the Zionist transformation, specifically calling attention to the fact that Zionism and the establishment of the State of Israel have not brought about a radical transformation of Jewish religious life and thought. Graetz argues that there is a vital need in Israel for just such a transformation, and this represents a vision which Israel requires. Providing such a vision is the appropriate role for Masorti, which Graetz asserts has evolved from the experience of Israel itself, and he further suggests that the need for Masorti has become evident in Israel because it is the product of the Jewish experience of Israel.

Finally, and perhaps most boldly, Michael argues that for Masorti to effectively articulate its vision, it must form a political party, Mifleget Ha-yahadut Ha-masortit, since political parties dominate the public square in Israel and only political parties are taken seriously in shaping public discourse. The establishment of the Masorti political party will lead to the formulation of a coherent and resonant platform for the transformation that he views as vital for Israel and for the Jewish people.

While I am both stimulated and moved by Michael Graetz's essay, I find myself perplexed by some of what he has written and unconvinced of the operational thesis that he advocates. I propose to examine the essay closely, beginning with Michael's vision for Israel, and ask a number of questions about the history of Masorti in Israel and the role he has proposed for it. I will then raise some issues relating to the argument that Masorti should form a political party to enhance its voice and expand its influence in Israel, Graetz's "bottom line" proposal.

Graetz begins his essay by putting forward a vision for Israel. The vision requires close examination since it provides a foundation for the argument of the paper, and I quote it here from Graetz's opening paragraph:

As it enters its seventh decade, the State of Israel is in dire need of a vision that negates the Jew as victim, affirms the Jew as hero, and reads Jewish religion as an instrument to facilitate both of those ends while maintaining a sense of deep and abiding fidelity to the twin conceptions that constitute the beating heart of authentic Judaism: that God so profoundly believed in the potential worth of human destiny that all humanity was created in the image of God, and that it is the mission of Israel to make manifest the reasonableness and correctness of God's faith in humanity.

I am very much in agreement with Graetz about the need for an informing, energizing, and uplifting vision for Israel. Graetz's formulation, however, is convoluted and unconvincing. At the very least, he needs to make a case for this particular vision, which while sincerely and even passionately held by him, is subjective and tenuous. Are these the needs of contemporary Israel? Is "negating the Jew as victim" really the first priority of a new vision for Israel? Affirm the Jew as hero...