Beyond Attachment: Widening the Analytic Focus about the American Jewish Relationship to Israel

Abstract

In this article, I briefly review the competing claims of the two sets of authors (Cohen and Kelman versus the Sasson team), noting their points of convergence and divergence. Second, for all of their differences, implicit in their analyses I detect an under-explicated conception of the relationship between Jews in America and Israel, one that warrants a fresh exploration going forward, leading me to call for much-needed exploratory research about these questions. Finally I situate the discussion about needed future research in terms of the how we ought to envision the relationship between ''town and gown'' in creating knowledge about and for the Jewish communal-organizational world.

The contradictions of Diaspora: A reflexive critique of the Jewish Diaspora’s relationship with Israel

“…Hence, Tabory's reference to Israel being part of the Jewish-identity toolbox is a fairly empty comment without also examining the toolbox itself and the metaphorical room or space in which the toolbox and its tools reside. Indeed, Horowitz's (2010) remark about narratives can be re-interpreted as an invitation to examine how we understand these tools, with a focus on the meaning that Israel provides and which enables it to serve a role where distancing from or being connected to Israel as a Jew carries normative inferences.…”

“…As he wrote, “What I find especially fascinating about the dispute is the unexamined assumption that there is something good about American Jews feeling connected with Israel” (Fellman, 2010: 248). But in the next sentence, he dismissed this assumption’s questionability: “I see nothing the matter with that being a fundamental assumption … but why not acknowledge it as such and examine it in some complex way?” Bethamie Horowitz (2010), however, suggested that we should not take such assumptions for granted and instead we should explore the wider range of reactions that American Jews have toward Israel, investigating these various “narratives” (2010: 245). Tabory (2010) offered a potential response to Horowitz when, in his contribution, he wrote that Israel is part of a “cultural tool-box of Jewish identity” (2010: 195).…”

Learning about Palestinian narratives: What are the barriers for Jewish college students?

“…Finally, there is a generational difference in the American Jewish relationship to Israel, whereas 32% of younger Jews under age 30 believe caring about Israel is central to being Jewish, while 53% of Jews older than 65 hold this view (Pew Research Center, 2013). Horowitz (2010) points out the complexity of American Jews' relationship with Israel, and the possibility of these generational factors at play. Acknowledging that the current generation has a different relationship to Israel than the previous one (Heilman, 2010;Judis, 2014b), one that is increasingly insisting on pluralism of views about Israel (Rofes & Zimmerman, 2013), offers a window of opportunity for new learning about Palestinian narratives.…”

“…American Jews, and by extension American Jewish college students, have a complex relationship with the state of Israel, one that is under debate (Horowitz, 2010; Margalit, 2005) and may be related to attitudes about Palestinians. Contemporary Jewry’s special issue (2010) on American Jews’ attachment to Israel outlines two positions with regard to this issue.…”