CONTACT Autumn 2011

by RABBI DAVID GEDZELMAN

I n a certain sense, this issue of CONTACT, which explores the possibilities of engaging North Americans in the Israel experience beyond advocacy and Hasbarah, is a continuation of our Spring issue, which explored the potential of Hebrew in America. The notion of Americans mastering Modern Israeli Hebrew is in effect a component of Israel engagement; speaking Modern Hebrew is inextricably tied to an appreciation and experience of contemporary Israeli culture and life. Israel advocacy, on the other hand, is about promoting the rightfulness and position of something beyond oneself; it is “about” Israel. Israel engagement beyond advocacy and Hasbarah aims to incorporate elements of Israeli life and culture in the lives of American Jews on a regular basis. In its best expression, it is not just a way of engaging Jews “about” Israel but finding ways for Americans to “live” Israel wherever they might be.

For far too long, Israel engagement has mostly entailed ways for Jews to gain a positive sense of and commitment to the State of Israel with the effect that Jewish life ends up being lived vicariously. The goal has been that one identifies positively with this Jewish place over there without incorporating the content of that place — its language, calendar, food, music and art — into one’s real lived experience. From an historical perspective that is certainly a missed opportunity.

It took 50 years after the founding of the State of Israel before a program like Birthright was conceptualized with the goal of bringing a taste of Jewish sovereign life to unprecedented numbers of Jewish young adults in order to effect a tipping point in the consciousness of a generation. One would have thought that after a 2,000-year wait, Jewish leadership would have realized the imperative of getting as many young people as possible on such a trip earlier than 1999. But even then, the bulk of the Jewish establishment was resistant to the notion that exposing Jewish young adults to a free Israel educational trip experience could have a multiplier effect on participants’ Jewish identity and commitment. Now that the value of this program is clear to almost all, it is still not obvious to many that the components of contemporary Israeli life can constitute elements of content and substance for American Jewish life.

Return trips and internship experiences like Birthright Excel can help make normative the sense of ongoing relationship and contact between Israelis and Americans. Programs that advocate learning and speaking Hebrew with the spirit of an Alliance Française for the Hebrew language can ultimately make these relationships profoundly deeper using language as an immediate access point to the life and culture of Israel. A robust program for exchange between American and Israeli academics centered on extended time in Israel for American opinion makers provides additional promise. Strategies of making Israeli art and music far more accessible in the American cultural landscape need to be explored.

What do we lose by admitting that the miracle of a sovereign, Jewish, Hebrew speaking culture and society in the land of Israel can contribute positive elements of culture, language and life to our American Jewish experience? Is there a subtle Diasporism afoot that negates what Israel has to contribute out of a fear of our own negation? At a time when Israelis are finally beginning to give up on the concept of the negation of the Diaspora (Shelilat HaGolah) that had been a central pillar of classical Zionism, a broader Zionism is now possible. An Israel engagement agenda whether for young adults, Birthright alumni, school-age children, seniors, boomers, youth or teens that imagines new programmatic platforms for American Jews rooted in contemporary Israeli life might very well constitute a new and expanded Zionism. This Zionism draws on the Zionism of Mordecai Kaplan, Achad Ha’Am and A.D. Gordon, seeing the existence of Israel not as its end-point but as that which enables the revitalization of Jewish life everywhere. This Zionism does not negate the Diaspora with the requirement that all Jews emigrate to Israel or ultimately face Jewish oblivion, but envisions a vibrant Jewish life outside of Israel inspired and influenced by the language and culture of contemporary Israel. Perhaps as we build new possibilities for Israel engagement beyond Hasbarah, it behooves us to see that enterprise as the next step in the building of a greater and expanded Zionism. ■

Rabbi David Gedzelman is the Executive Vice President of The Steinhardt Foundation
for Jewish Life.