The relationship between world Jewry, the Zionist movement and the State of Israel has never been simple, and it has a long history. In 1897, Ahad Ha-Am (aka, Asher Ginzberg) published an essay in Ha-Shiloah, the Hebrew monthly he edited from Odessa, titled, “The Jewish State and the Jewish Problem.” In the essay, Ginzberg argued that, as important as it is to have people settle in the Yishuv (the term used for pre-State Israel), it would be a mistake for Zionists to write off the millions of Jews who lived in the Diaspora and who would never make aliyah. He argued that the creation of a Jewish homeland must never become, strictly, a political endeavor. Rather, it was a spiritual endeavor. As such, the land of Israel (and the national entity that he and other Zionists hoped would emerge) must find ways to tap into the great spiritual heritage of the Jewish people scattered throughout the world, so that the new national entity would become a unifying force for world Jewry.
How far we have strayed from this vision! Today, Israel is more a source of division in the Jewish world than it is a source of unity. Sociologists have been tracking the growth of a phenomenon labeled “distancing” for some time now — a term used to describe Jews who no longer see Israel as a central component to their Jewish identity. More recently, we have seen Jews create non-Zionist and anti-Zionist groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, and many Jews have become active in Students for Justice in Palestine, the organization that has been largely responsible for sponsoring anti-Israel protests on college campuses, including harassment of Jewish students. Many Jewish parents, who grew up identifying with the State of Israel, now have millennial children who see Israel as an occupying, colonialist power that is engaging in a genocide against the Palestinian people. On matters related to Israel today, we are a people divided.
Sociologists have been tracking the growth of a phenomenon labeled “distancing” for some time now, a term used to describe Jews who no longer see Israel as a central component to their Jewish identity.
For much of Israel’s history, there has been a struggle between spiritual Zionism and political Zionism. Because Israel has had to defend itself against hostile Arab neighbors for so much of its history, the advocates of political Zionism have continued to have the upper hand in that struggle. Diaspora Jews are valued primarily for the way they can influence the United States and other Western nations to offer economic, military and political support for Israel. The message Diaspora, pro-Israel groups get from Israeli political leaders is essentially: Leave the policy decisions to us, and lobby your respective governments to remain steadfast allies of Israel.
The international climate today is one that sees democratic values under assault in the face of autocratic, nationalist political leaders. Israel has its own version of that in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has formed a governing coalition with religious and anti-democratic political parties. The organized Jewish community will continue to support the State of Israel as it reacts to the atrocities of Oct. 7, 2023, and the Iranian-sponsored military and political assault on Israel’s existence and legitimacy in the international arena. But just below the surface, many Jews are increasingly alienated by an Israeli government that ignores appeals to the humanitarian needs of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and that prioritizes the prosecution of a war over a political deal that might release Israeli hostages from Hamas.
Judaism and the Jewish people have a long and rich history of championing the values of justice and peace/tzedek v’shalom and helping to make those values manifest in the world. There are many in Israel who have raised the banner of tzedek v’shalom since the founding of the modern-day State of Israel. And yet today, those voices seem to be drowned out by those who believe that Israel’s future can only be guaranteed by military might and a form of nationalism that privileges Jews over non-Jewish citizens of Israel. Ahad Ha’am was not the only early Zionist who feared that a state without Jewish values at its core would betray 3,000 years of Jewish history.
Unfortunately, Israel has never been able to operationalize an aspirational idea that has been around for more than 100 years — allowing the values of Judaism and the voices of Diaspora Jewry to inform the way the State of Israel is governed and led. Frankly, given the fact that Israel has yet to even write and endorse a constitution for the country after 77 years makes it seem next to impossible to conceive of a way to allow Jews, who are not citizens of the country, to have some say in its affairs. And yet, a small experiment in which I was involved may point a way forward.
When Ephraim Katzir was the president of Israel (1973-78), he wanted to elevate the discourse about Zionism and the future of Israel above partisan politics. He knew that Zionism was deeply rooted in the history of the Jewish people and was born in the rich intellectual ferment of European Jewry. He started to convene some of the greatest minds and spirits of Israeli society at Beit Hanassi, his Presidential Residence in Jerusalem, on a regular basis. He called it the President’s Study Circle on World Jewry. There, Israelis with no political office or governing authority discussed and debated the future of Israel and the Jewish people.
The success of these seminars at Beit Hanassi enabled Katzir to convince the World Zionist Organization to provide staffing and some funding to seed a project called the Continuing Seminars on Zionist Thought in major Jewish communities around the world. By the mid-1980s, seminars engaging leading Jewish intellectuals existed in New York, Boston, Toronto, London, Paris, Cape Town and Caracas. Each seminar met regularly with members writing papers and other members acting as respondents. I was invited to organize an ongoing seminar in Philadelphia in 1983, which met for several years. There even was an international conference held in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1989, convening representatives of all the Continuing Seminars. I was privileged to attend. It was truly awe-inspiring to sit with Jews from all over the world, committing their time and intellectual capital to the question that Ahad Ha’am addressed in his 1897 essay. I remember thinking: How lucky we are to have the State of Israel and how fortunate it is that it could inspire a conversation that spanned both geography (e.g., the seminars on different continents) and history (e.g., centuries of Jewish longing for a homeland).
The loudest and most ascendant voices in Israel today believe that Israel’s future can only be guaranteed by military might and a form of nationalism that privileges Jews over non-Jewish citizens of Israel.
The Jewish people is not lacking in brain power. Nor does it lack for the resources to create think tanks and international conferences, and publish books and periodicals. What is lacking is an invitation by the Israeli government to make the Jewish people true partners in the State of Israel. Not just funders and not just lobbyists of their governments, but true partners. As we see from the global surge in antisemitism this past year, the fate of Jews worldwide is intimately tied to decisions made by Israeli political leaders in Jerusalem. If Israel is to become a true center of the Jewish people, then it must empower and partner with the Jewish people in a very tangible way.
[This article is taken from the upcoming The Jewish Peoplehood Papers, No. 34, Spring 2025, “The Rifts Within Israeli Society — How Should the World Jewry Respond?” a collection of essays on the website of the Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education. It first appeared on eJewishPhilanthropy, March 25, 2025.]
