The Storm Ahead

In October 1994, several days after kidnapped IDF soldier Nachshon Wachsman was killed in a failed attempt to save him from his terrorist captors, I was scheduled to teach my weekly graduate seminar at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles. But given the horror of what had just transpired, I couldn’t even imagine simply teaching as planned. I no longer recall what had been scheduled for that day. But what I do remember is that I decided to scrap the usual fare and that I taught a text in memory of Wachsman.

As the seminar drew to a close, it was obviously quiet in the room. But just as the students were preparing to disperse, one looked at me and asked, “What does any of this have to do with us?”

More than 15 years later, I can still picture that moment, frozen in time. I remember exactly where she was sitting. I recall the looks of discomfort on the faces of some of the other students, but the nods of agreement with her question from others. And I remember that I had no idea what to say.

And I remember feeling unbearably lonely and wholly out of place. Lonely because it was clear that she was not the only one wondering why in the world we were thinking about Nachshon Wachsman, when my own heart was breaking, and out of place because I had no idea how to engage those students in a conversation about why he mattered to me. I didn’t know where to begin.

What I didn’t know then, of course, was that a question that seemed to me an aberration would soon become the norm.

BUT IT has. Among young American Jews today, the public discourse has been captured by the intellectual and emotional heirs of that graduate student. Today’s is a generation of young American intellectuals and communal leaders without the instinctive bond to Israel that my generation possesses, even when Israel infuriates or embarrasses us. This is a generation of people like the talented writer Jay Michaelson, who wrote in The Forward, “I no longer want to feel entangled by [Israelis’] decisions and implicated in their consequences… count me out.”

Even in the moments of our greatest frustration with Israel, the people that I grew up with could never utter the words “count me out.”

Michaelson is but part of a massive wave. Prof. Jack Wertheimer, in presenting some preliminary findings from his newest study of American Jews (the specific figures are still being processed), noted a few weeks ago that most young American Jewish leaders (yes, leaders) “do not see Israel as central to Jewish identity and peoplehood.”

The evidence is virtually limitless. We’re witness to a tectonic shift in American Jewish life, but many people would rather ignore it than face the serious work that lies ahead. Thus, when I pointed out (“If this is our future,” Jerusalem Post, May 7) that following Brandeis University’s invitation to Ambassador Michael Oren to be its commencement speaker, the public discourse was captured by those opposed to his invitation, some people responded by pointing out the (obvious) fact that many Brandeis students (and probably the majority) supported the invitation. A petition in favor, signed by 5,000 people, was also reported. And a small number of articles in the Brandeis paper, opined one faculty person in a response to the Post, ought not be taken out of context. “Imagine someone telling you it’s pouring rain outside and you stick your head out the window and see there are just a couple of clouds in the sky,” he wrote.

But what we’re facing would be “just a couple of clouds in the sky” if the story that mattered was about Brandeis, which it obviously is not. Everyone knows that Jewish life on campus doesn’t get better than Jewish life at Brandeis. So why pretend that Brandeis is the issue? What is significant is that even at Brandeis, one of the crown jewels of American Jewish academe, as of the publication of my previous column, there had been four pieces in the student newspaper about the Oren invitation. The Justice’s official editorial and the head of the campus J Street chapter weighed in opposed. So, too, did a member of the computer science faculty. And a student representative to the Board of Trustees aimed to defend the invite by suggesting that Oren was being asked to campus not as a representative of the State of Israel, but as an academic.

WHY DOES any of this matter? Because in not one of these pieces did any of the four writers have a single positive thing to say about Israel. That, not Brandeis, is the story.

So instead of circling our wagons, seeking to convince ourselves that it’s not really raining and that there are only a few clouds in the sky, I propose that we ask ourselves a few basic questions: (1) Do we believe that the future of the Jewish people depends on what happens to Israel? (2) Do we believe that Israel can survive without strong and consistent support from the American Jewish community? (3) Given today’s younger generation, does a serious problem loom? (4) If we are facing a challenge, how did it arise? (5) And perhaps most importantly, what should be done?

To me it seems patently obvious that the secure, confident and creative Diaspora community that many American Jews now take for granted is directly dependent on a vital and flourishing State of Israel. Today’s young American Jewish leaders can neither recall nor imagine the days in which Jews hesitated to march on Capitol Hill, or the days in which one could not get a job on Wall Street wearing a kippa. That confidence is the product of Israel, and of the formative experiences that many American Jewish leaders have had in the Jewish state. The image of the Jew, no longer one of victim, but of utter confidence, was born in June 1967. In Israel.

Though many will disagree, it seems equally clear to me that were the State of Israel to be vanquished, the vibrant American Jewish life that we now too easily take for granted would wither away within a generation. And if that were to happen, the two great centers of world Jewry – Israel and America – would each essentially be gone.

And I believe that Israel’s military might, cultural flourishing, strength of spirit and more, important though they all are, are not sufficient to sustain the country. America’s support – financial, military and in the increasingly hostile court of international public opinion – is critical. Yet that support would be much endangered without an American Jewish leadership that instinctively feels deeply connected to Israel, that doesn’t ask, “What does any of this have to do with us?”

Today, we have that leadership. But the future is not as secure as many would like to believe. Nor is that future very far away.

SO HOW did this come to be? To be sure, Israel is partly at fault. It is notoriously horrendous at telling its own story, and has allowed those sworn on its destruction to capture world opinion. Nor has Israel been blameless in the interminable conflict with the Palestinians, of course. Israel alienates American Jewry with an anti-intellectual and often intolerant religious establishment. And the government still refuses to see the gradual distancing of young American Jews as a serious existential challenge, which it could become, if it isn’t one already.

But the responsibility for this widening fissure in world Jewish life cannot be attributed solely to Israel. Too many young American Jews have not been taught what they need to know to evaluate the conflict fairly. They know that they are opposed to the occupation, but they are much less clear on how the occupation began or what Israel has done in the past 43 years to seek to end it. Largely illiterate in Jewish texts or language, they are increasingly unaware of the cultural renaissance that Israel has made possible for Jews the world over.

Yet the problem is actually far more complex. At its core, the issue isn’t really Israel, or even American Jewish education. The real issue is the larger world in which today’s younger American (and Israeli) Jews live. Responding to Wertheimer’s study and the concerns it raised, Noam Pianko, a professor of Jewish history at the University of Washington, denied that there is a problem. As Gary Rosenblatt of the Jewish Week recently wrote, Pianko insisted that “boundaries don’t match the moment” of 21st-century America. His America, Pianko says, is “‘post-ethnic,’ symbolized by President Barack Obama, who he said represents racial fusion rather than division.”

Obama did not create this worldview; this Weltanschauung elected him. But Obama is perhaps the most eloquent spokesperson for this orientation, insisting, as he did in Cairo, that we ought not be “defined by our differences.”

Even if we set aside the obvious fact that it is precisely by pointing to differences that we define most things, Obama reflects the worldview that is shaping both young Americans and increasingly, young Israelis: Difference is not an ideal, but an unfortunate reality, best transcended whenever possible.

In such a world, it is no surprise that a successful young nation-state, which breathes new life into an ancient language, which fosters Jewish ingathering from across the globe and which enables a cultural regeneration unlike anything humanity has ever witnessed – a state which, in other words, celebrates difference – would be uncomfortable for many, and reviled by some.

All of which makes the challenge even greater. Because engendering the instinctive passion for Israel that many of us feel, and miss, requires swimming against the current of an intellectual culture now pervasive in America and much of the Western world. But Jewish history in general and Zionism in particular are proofs that the trends of Western civilization can be withstood, and even altered at times. The question facing us now is whether we plan to capitulate, or whether we’re willing to lace up our boots and enter the battle.

This will be no simple battle. But as Joshua said to the angel (Joshua 5:13), you are either with us or against us. Left versus Right, or Orthodox versus Reform are now secondary issues. What matters now is whether or not each individual, organization, movement, etc. sees defense of Israel’s absolute right to exist as a Jewish state as its foremost responsibility. Let all our differences abide. But let both leftists and hard-liners understand that today, they are not opponents, but rather partners, assuming that both are committed to Israel’s survival and to making the case for that survival day in and day out. The rest we can deal with down the road. For the moment, especially when any substantive chance for a peace deal seems remote, changing the Jewish conversation about Israel, and then the international conversation, is what matters most.

That will not be easy, but first we have to decide that that’s what we want to do. So let’s begin with honesty. We delude ourselves if we pretend that there are but a few clouds in the sky. The Jewish people will survive, and thrive, not by pretending that everything will magically work out, but rather by acknowledging the challenges that lie ahead, and by then bonding together and resolving to meet them head-on.

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"The West has given more significance to the myth of the genocide of the Jews, even more significant than God, religion, and the prophets...."—Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The Holocaust Chronicle ~
" ... It's time we recognized the nature of the conflict. It's total war and we are all involved. Nobody on our side is exempted because of age, gender, or handicap. The Islamofacists have stolen childhood from the world."—FReeper Retief
"Palestine is the wrong name for their State. It should be called Anarchy."—FReeper sgtbono2002
"Then let's wait and see what the Arabs do after they take Gaza. There's nothing like Arab reality to break up a Jewish fantasy."—FReeper Noachian
A student told his professor he was going to "Palestine" to "fight for freedom, peace and justice,"—Orwellian leftist code words that mean "murder Jews."

Good article. The German-Jews had exactly the same attitude right up until they realized that it didn’t matter whether or not they cared about their Jewishness - it only mattered that the Nazis cared and intended to kill them because of it. I don’t know how we are going to make this younger generation understand that there are people who want us to die and this is what they teach their children:

“Kill The Jews!” Muslim Children Memorize and Recite Antisemitic Messages on Egyptian TV Channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vtt8V25lGmc

3 YEAR OLD MUSLIM GIRL YEARNS TO KILL INFIDELS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjbJnZUJTYU&feature=related

11yr Old Muslim Girls Yearn to Murder Infidels
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FHHZ-BOMuI&feature=related

Muslim Children Trained to KILL ! ??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSzAh9Kf-o0&feature=related

Depraved Muslims Make 6-Year-Old A Homicide Bomber
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45hLKiedoDM&feature=related

3 year old from india recites Quraan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kazi9X9wiZE&feature=related

Child Imam - Miracle And Blessed Child /das wunder Kind 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGc5CFwlBGU&feature=related

Iranian Child - Remembrance of Fatimat Al-Zahraa [as] [ENG SUB]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4e93_u2d5U&feature=related

ENFANT IMAM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_uaXJXFktk&feature=related

mohammed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvrgTSIIt2c&feature=related

Muslim Moroccans want to kill Jews..mp4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g9u3nQOoxw

Crazed Muslim Girl “KILL ALL JEWS!!!!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmxR6jYR6pk&feature=related

Canada: Death to all those want to leave islam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjiNbe5KRP4&feature=related

Islam: fastest growing faith in USA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksAQN_fvcic&feature=related

TV Report: 40,000 Hispanics in America converted to ISLAM after 9/11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Cr-ZFPXPLM&feature=related

Thousands Hispanics converted to ISLAM in USA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9pru_lzdkM&feature=related

Latino Muslims Growing in Number in USA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6OGs6gAtHE&feature=related

Converts of Peace (statistics are of USA only)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6HePL4mtAU&feature=related

Miracle Boy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UqoOjKNj3k&feature=related

Russians flock to see ‘miracle’ baby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE7t6wnfx0E&feature=fvw

The Nazi Origins of Modern Muslim Terror
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjap2eDGQjE

The shocking video Muslims don’t want you to see!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Gzyeo1Z1I4&feature=related

Why did Hitler hate the Jews?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITz72sRcpzU

Glenn Beck When Things Go Bad, The Jews Become Scapegoats
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxOLF2Fj4yI&feature=related

“Oh Jews, Muhammad’s Army WIll Return!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8qtsJxsQ1c

Wake up!!!!!

To be sure, Israel is partly at fault. It is notoriously horrendous at telling its own story, and has allowed those sworn on its destruction to capture world opinion. Nor has Israel been blameless in the interminable conflict with the Palestinians, of course.

I am weary of moral relativism. From the time Israel was formed they were under attack and have had to DEFEND their existence ever since then.

This reminds me of 2 brothers. One 9 years old and the other 4 years old. The 4 year old, constantly, kicks and punches the older brother. The older brother asks the younger to please stop. But the younger continues over and over again. The older brother has bruises and knots on his body because of this abuse, but he still trys to reason with his sibling until the younger punches him in the eye. Thats when the older brother restrains the younger because his actions threatened his future well being. The younger brother runs crying and screaming to mother that the older brother hit me. The mother comes in and yells at the older brother, "Don't you touch your little brother, you should know better. You are being put on punishment" The older brother showed the mother the bruises and his swollen eye and the mother fixed him up and simply said "He (the younger) didn't mean it." She then comforts the younger son to make him stop crying and never chastizes him for hitting the big brother. As you can guess this situation was repeated over and over as they grew up and the younger became more rambunctious, but somehow it was always the older boys fault and nothing he did could change that.

The author of the posted article does have a legitimate point, but the problem of the younger generation of American Jews turning its back on Israel has little to do with Israel’s allegedly being “notoriously horrendous at telling its own story.” I’ve seen quite a number of well-produced books, documentaries, and commercials in good English extolling Israel’s unique history and scenic wonders for foreigners. The problem these young American Jews face is more one of a lack of an educational background in Jewish history and world history in general. Lacking that, they are faced with a constant drumbeat of negative comments about Israel spewed forth by the MSM and leftist politicians. (The author of the posted article himself joins in this inadvertently(?) by using the word “occupation” in reference to Israel.) Probably the single most useful way of improving the attitudes of these young American Jews toward Israel is to encourage more of them to travel there.

Please think about this.

Simply by attending socialist-funded government schools, children learn that the government has enormous police power to force their neighbor to pay for a service their parents want tuition-free. Well?...If the government can use the threat of police action to force a neighbor to pay for free schooling, why not a thousand other socialist wants and needs?

This was true from the very first day that the first government school opened in the mid-1800s.

As for generic religiousity:

Yes, the first government schools forced a generic and lukewarm form of Protestantism on their captive kids. ( The new testament tells us what Christ thinks of lukewarm. He spits these people out of his mouth.)

**ALL** of our nation's children would have been far far far better off if they had attended private schools that thoroughly integrated their family's religious denomination's philosophy into every subject taught. If we had done this instead of losing Jewish youth to intermarriage and secularism we would have thriving Jewish congregations. ( And that would have been a **good** thing!)

One of the problems in discussing religious schooling with other conservatives is that many really have no idea what a thoroughly religious K-12 education is like and why it would be impossible to duplicate this in the government school.

Here are a few examples from my **tuition-FREE** Catholic education:

** Every hour was blessed with prayer as we began a new subject.
** When we heard a ambulance or fire alarm, the class was stopped and we all prayed for the safety of those involved.
** In literature and history, frequent mention was made of the writings of Catholic philosophers, and contemporary Catholic leaders. The opinion of these leaders was important to the discussion!
**Even in science and math, at appropriate times, we were reminded that it was our duty to learn as much these subjects, since it was a reflection of a **rational** God. We were taught about the history and development of science and math by Catholic scientists and mathematicians, as well as the growth of Catholic universities and hospitals. We were to use our knowledge to serve and bless others.
** Every year on the high school level we had a spiritual retreat for a week where local leaders came to speak to the school ( as well as daily Mass).
** In elementary school there was a yearly May procession to honor Mary. Novenas were encouraged. We attended Station's of the Cross on Friday afternoons during Lent, and memorized the Catechism every day.
** Easter and Christmas was **religiously** a big deal and time for repentance and renewal with plenty of thoroughly Catholic music.

Do you get the idea? The above is not a lukewarm experience. All children deserve an education that thoroughly integrates their family's spiritual values ( whatever they are) into their entire school experience.

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