Relations Between Israeli and American Jews

“Never was such a great Jewish community in such danger of gentle extinction as American Jewry today. If this great historic miracle had not taken place in our time and the State of Israel had not risen, the great majority of the Jews of the United States would have been left without any bond to Judaism.” – David Ben-Guion[1]

As evident from Ben-Gurion’s remark, Israeli and American Jews have had a complicated relationship nearly from the establishment of the Jewish State. A growing chorus of Jews both in the U.S. and Israel has argued that non-Orthodox American Jews, especially younger Jews, Democrats and liberals, are becoming increasingly disenchanted with Israel.^[2] A number of reasons account for this perceived alienation: assimilation, lack of knowledge about Israel, frustration with the absence of a peace process, the expansion of settlements, Israelis’ disdain for American Jewish concerns, dislike of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies, and anger over the treatment of non- Orthodox Jews with regard to access to the Western Wall, non-recognition of their rabbis, weddings, and conversions, and the lack of government support for Reform and Conservative Judaism.

Since 2016, liberal Jews have become especially upset by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to renege on an agreement to open an egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall, the perception that he is eroding Israel’s democratic values, his close relationship with President Trump, and his seeming disinterest in peace with the Palestinians.

The Israeli attitude is typified by Daniel Gordis’ response to a review of his book, We Stand Divided, by Judith Shulevitz in the New York Times. Shulevitz, he says, “has no suggestion as to how Israelis can end the occupation without endangering their children” and was safely pontificating from her home in New York where “the specter of the West Bank turning into Gaza isn’t her problem.” That week, Israel was under attack and “Israeli parents had to comfort their distraught children who had run time and again to bomb shelters” Gordis wrote. “It felt to me fundamentally immoral for her to suggest that we should endanger our children in Israel so she can assuage her conscience in Manhattan.”[3]

The differences have grown to the point where the New York Times headlined a story, “American Jews and Israeli Jews Are Headed for a Messy Breakup.” The paper quoted from a letter to the Israeli government from Rabbi Steven Wernick, chief executive of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the umbrella organization of the Conservative movement in North America, which said: “I do not believe we can talk about a ‘gap’ between Israel and the Diaspora. It is now a ‘canyon.’”^[4]

The disdain on the part of some Israelis for non-Orthodox Jews particularly rankles American Jews. Following the massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in October 2018, Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi would not describe the site as a synagogue, calling the Conservative shul “a place with a profound Jewish flavor.”^[5]

Conservative rabbis were outraged a few months earlier when a Conservative rabbi in Israel, Dov Haiyun, was arrested for conducting a non-sanctioned wedding in Haifa. He was released, but the incident raised the possibility other rabbis could be prosecuted for performing marriages without government authority, which means the sanction of the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate.^[6]

More American Jewish anger followed comments in July 2019 by Israeli Education Minister Rafi Peretz, a rabbi from the ultranationalist Jewish Home Party, who said that intermarriage among American Jews is “like a second Holocaust.” In a comment not directed specifically at American Jews, which still angered many, he later said, conversion therapy could change the sexual orientation of gay men and lesbians.^[7]

Arnold Eisen, Chancellor of the Conservative Movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary, said that the problem is not new, having written about it as far back as 1990, but he believes it has gotten worse and “will not easily be overcome” because of the negative influence of the ultra-Orthodox on issues such as creating an egalitarian prayer space at the Kotel and changing laws regarding conversion. As a Conservative leader, Eisen is also offended by the prime minister’s belief that non-Orthodox Jews in the United States have no future, something Ben-Gurion also expressed more than 60 years ago.^[8]

While the close relationship between Trump and Netanyahu was cheered by more conservative members of the pro-Israel community and most Israelis, it upset liberal American Jews who are rabidly anti-Trump. For many, the president’s positive steps to strengthen the U.S.-Israel relationship were offset by his other policies, his behavior, his demeaning of the office, and the allegations about collusion with the Russians and obstruction of justice.

Though Israeli officials are well-aware of the conflicts with American Jews, much of the Israeli public is oblivious. For example, less than 30% of Israelis are familiar with the Western Wall compromise.^[9]

Since relatively few Israelis identify with Reform or Conservative Judaism, they are not particularly moved by protests from the leaders of the movements in America. As Gordis exemplified, they also have little patience for American Jews—unless they have similar opinions—who pontificate about matters of peace and security from the comfort of their homes 6,000 miles away where they pay no Israeli taxes, face no threat from terrorists, and do not have to send their children to the military.

For many years, Israeli officials adhered to the unwritten rule to refrain from criticizing their government while abroad. That convention broke down in the 1980s when, first, Labor Party officials and, later, Likudniks began to come to the U.S. when they were in the opposition and encourage American Jews to speak out against the governing party. This emboldened American Jewry, which had typically observed the convention of avoiding public criticism of the Israeli government. This remains the policy of most establishment organizations but is ignored by others.

Prior to the April 2019 election, Netanyahu pressured the right-wing Bayit Yehudi Party to unite with the even more extreme Otzma Yehudit Party, which is composed of followers of Meir Kahane who support annexation of the disputed territories and call for removing “the enemies of Israel from our country,” a reference to Israeli Arabs. Establishment American Jewish organizations are typically reticent to publicly criticize any Israeli prime minister, or comment on Israeli elections, but Netanyahu’s action crossed an invisible line. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), for example, said, “There should be no room for racism & no accommodation for intolerance in Israel or any democracy. ADL previously has spoken out on hate-filled rhetoric of leaders of the Otzma Yehudit Party. It is troubling that they are being legitimized by this union.”^[10] The American Jewish Committee (AJC) said, “The views of Otzma Yehudit are reprehensible. They do not reflect the core values that are the very foundation of the State of Israel.”^[11] AIPAC offered a mild but rare rebuke by agreeing with AJC and commenting that it “has a longstanding policy not to meet with members of this racist and reprehensible party.” Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, called the development “very disturbing.”^[12]

As Batya Ungar-Sargon observed, “Partnering with avowed racists, it turns out, was a step too far, even for American Jewish organizations devoted to hawkish Israel policy. It’s not just American Jews, either. After years of an increasing divide, American Jews were joined by our Israeli counterparts, many of whom spoke up vociferously against Netanyahu.”^[13]

American Jewry was generally supportive of Israel’s actions in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria, but liberals, especially, are unhappy with the lack of engagement with the Palestinians and the “occupation.” Israelis believe those liberals are naïve and ill-informed. Daniel Gordis argues that asking when Israel will end the occupation and what can be done to hasten it are the wrong questions.

Gordis adds that few Israelis advocate ending the “occupation” immediately and that American progressives seem to believe “American Jewish moral sensibilities are more finely honed than those of Israelis.” The 2020 Israeli elections reinforced the point. Not only was the “occupation” and peace with the Palestinians not an issue, the parties that won the most seats in the Knesset were supporters of applying sovereignty to some or all the West Bank.

In 2020, a new divisive issue emerged when the Israeli government announced plans to unilaterally apply sovereignty to the Jewish communities in the West Bank. Left-leaning organizations were outraged, largely out of the belief it would end hope for a two-state solution. Some falsely claimed Palestinians would be denied democratic rights despite Defense Minister (and Netanyahu’s replacement as prime minister under the coalition’s rotation plan) Benny Gantz’s statement, “We will not apply Israeli law in places in which there are many Palestinians or in cases where we would harm their mobility; if there’ll be Palestinian citizens in regions where Israeli law is applied, they will have equal rights.”^[15]

J Street, nevertheless, railed against the plan and worked to rally members of Congress to oppose it. “As pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans, we believe that annexation would severely imperil Israel’s future as a democratic homeland for the Jewish people, along with the future of the U.S.-Israel relationship.”^[16]

More than 130 American Jewish leaders wrote to Gantz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi objecting to “Israel unilaterally annexing West Bank territory and applying sovereignty to Jewish settlements, whether according to the parameters of the Trump plan or any other similar proposal, at any point in time.” The message warned of a “rupture inside Congress” and the alienation of American Jews from Israel.^[17]

The mainstream AJC took the more conventional approach of leaving it to Israel to decide issues of war and peace: “It is not for the ardent friends and supporters of Israel, comfortable in our homes thousands of miles away, to tell the democratically elected Israeli government what to do.” Jason Isaacson, the AJC’s Chief Policy and Political Affairs Officer, acknowledged that “annexation, should it come, will exact a price” but said, “AJC will do what it has always done: explain Israel to the wider world.”^[18]

Organizations on the right such as the Zionist Organization of America,^[19] the National Council of Young Israel,^[20] and the Rabbinical Alliance of America^[21] expressed support for the Israeli government. The Republican Jewish Coalition planned to encourage Republicans in Congress to back it as well.

More surprising was the attitude of AIPAC, which supports a two-state solution and does not take a position on settlements but recognized the disapproval of the sovereignty plan on Capitol Hill. A donor told the JTA, “We are telling the senators ‘feel free to criticize annexation, but don’t cut off aid to Israel.’” AIPAC’s spokesman said, “AIPAC does not encourage members of Congress to criticize the government of Israel,” but reporter Ron Kampeas noted, “Telling lawmakers that they were free to criticize Israel, while short of encouraging them to do so, was nonetheless a departure from past practice.”^[22]

Some Israelis were unconcerned with the views of American Jews or warnings that this issue would be a turning point. Anshel Pfeffer, however, dismissed the idea that “this will be a watershed moment for the Jewish establishment in the Diaspora.” Instead, he wrote, “there will be a shrug of a disappointment – and then carrying on…. Any expectation that the mainstream Jewish Diaspora community will somehow disengage from Israel following annexation is a pipe-dream.” He added. “A small people of only 15 million members worldwide with a history of persecution and precarious survival isn’t going to split that easily…. those in the Diaspora who think this will be defining issue which will distance their communities from Israel are not reckoning with all the other historical, religious, cultural and familial ties that bind, and will continue to bind Israel to Jews across the world.”^[23]

One variable affecting the relationship is the growing confidence of Israelis as their society has evolved from a Third World country to a First World country. It is not just the oft-mentioned “Start-up Nation” that has produced this change. “Not that long ago,” Pfeffer observed, there was a clear material difference between life in Israel and the west. Most Israelis didn’t own a car or fly on vacations abroad. There was one black-and-white channel on television and the variety of cheeses in most stories was limited to white and yellow. The transformation of the Israeli economy in the last quarter of a century, not only changed all that, but removed one of the chief distinctions between Israeli and western Diaspora life.”^[24]

Furthermore, while American Jews were talking about the increase in anti-Semitism in the U.S., BDS and two horrific shootings at synagogues that shook the community, Israelis were having a very good year. According to Pfeffer:

For Israelis, 2018 was a bumper year with a booming economy, now growing for a straight decade, attaining for the first time ever an AA credit rating and with its all-time lowest unemployment figures. On the security front, despite a few scares, no major war or intifada broke out. Gaza nearly boiled over but was pacified with Qatari money. There were a few murders in the West Bank, but the corrupt Palestinian Authority kept a lid on any major unrest. And across the northern border, Iran and Hezbollah were kept in check. Nothing was solved, but then no one expected that to happen.

Some of the divisions among Jews can be seen in poll data collected by the AJC. In their 2019 surveys of American and Israeli Jews AJC found that both (68% of Israelis and 71% of Americans) were confident relations between the two would be the same or stronger in 5 years; however, they don’t have the same sense that Jews are one family. More than one-fourth (28%) of American Jews do not consider Israelis to be part of their family (23% of Israelis felt the same toward Americans).

Roughly one-third of Israelis considered American Jews siblings (31%) or extended family (36%). Only 13% of Americans felt that Israelis were siblings; 43% see them more as extended family.^[25]

Surprisingly more Israelis (74%) than Americans (65%) say a thriving diaspora is vital for the future of the Jewish people. Nearly all Israelis (91%) believe in the importance of a thriving Israel compared to 72% of Americans.

Less surprising is the large difference in Israelis’ approval of Trump’s handling of U.S.-Israeli relations. While 79% of Israelis approve somewhat or strongly, 59% of American Jews disapproved. American Jews were even more disapproving (71%) of Trump’s overall job performance.

On specific policies, 69% of Israelis approved of the U.S. pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal. The AJC did not ask American Jews their opinion in 2019, but 68% disapproved of Trump’s handling of the Iran issue in 2017.^[26]

More than two-thirds (71%) of American Jews feel caring about Israel is an important part of being a Jew. So perhaps it is not surprising that 57% believe it is appropriate to try to influence Israeli policy on issues such as security and peace negotiations with the Palestinians. Israelis, feel differently, however, with 63% saying it is inappropriate. This represents one of the most serious divisions between the two.

From Israelis’ perspective, it is probably a good thing that American Jews do not have a say on matters of peace and security. Israelis’ souring on the two-state solution is reflected by the 51% who oppose it even with a demilitarized Palestinian state (a popular formula that would likely be impossible to enforce). Nearly two- thirds (64%) of Americans, however, continue to favor this solution.

This difference of opinion is also reflected in attitudes toward the settlements. One-fourth of American Jews favor dismantling all the settlements compared to only 6% of Israelis; 66% of Americans would dismantle some or all the settlements compared to 43% of Israelis. The gap is similar between the 50% of Israelis and 28% of Americans who oppose removing any settlements. Israeli and American Jews cannot even agree on U.S. recognition of the Golan (asked before Trump did so) with Israelis favoring the move by a margin of 88%–50%.

Many Jews, especially liberal Democrats, are also turned off by the close relationship between Trump and Netanyahu as they have a strong dislike for both, which intensified as the prime minister seemed to share the president’s affinity for authoritarian leaders (such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin for Trump and Hungary’s Viktor Oban for Netanyahu) and adopt Trump’s approach to his critics. Facing the possibility of multiple indictments, for example, Netanyahu dismissed the accusations as inventions by his enemies and repeatedly attacked the media for “fake news.”^[27] As Yossi Klein Halevi explained:

The Reut Institute warned in 2017 that the growing gap between Israel and World Jewry “has widened to the point of endangering the role of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people” and that this “presents a major threat to Israel’s national security.” Reut noted that Israel “relies heavily on the [American] Jewish community’s commitment to and support of Israel.” The group’s report argued that the issue regarding the Western Wall “is not just a struggle for progressive Judaism in Israel but a matter of national security.” The conclusion was that “Israel must formulate a strategic framework towards World Jewry.”^[29]

Many people worry about the future because the schism between Israelis and Americans is not just between Orthodox and non-Orthodox or Liberals and Conservatives, it is also generational. If you think about American Jews who are in college today, born around 2000 or later, they were toddlers during the second intifada and teens during the last Israeli “wars” fought in Gaza. They have never known a time when Israel has faced an existential threat so is it any wonder they might believe Israel should just make whatever concessions are necessary to end the conflict with the Palestinians.^[30] Jonathan Weissman put it this way:

Older American Jews, more viscerally aware of the Holocaust and connected to the living history of the Jewish state, are generally willing to look past Israeli government actions that challenge their values. Or they embrace those actions. Younger American Jews do not typically remember Israel as the David against regional Goliaths. They see a bully, armed and indifferent, 45 years past the Yom Kippur War, the last conflict that threatened Israel’s existence.^[31]To close the growing chasm, the Jewish Federation of North America (JFNA) held its annual General Assembly (GA) in Tel Aviv with the theme, “We need to Talk.” More than 2,500 people from Israel and the Diaspora attended, but Judy Maltz noted there was one notable no-show—Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs, Naftali Bennett.^[32]

Yossi Klein Halevi views both sides as equally responsible for the disconnect between the two communities. He is appalled by Israeli Jews’ lack of understanding of American Jews and how they have insulted them “by denying the legitimacy of the religious expressions of the majority of American Jewry.” Halevi is equally appalled by the failure of “many liberal American Jews to understand Israeli vulnerability.” He adds, “too many American Jews speak of ending the occupation as if Israel were an island in the South Pacific and not a miniscule country surrounded by some of the most lethal terrorist groups in the world.”^[33]

Ethan Bronner, former New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief argues Israeli Jews and American Jews “have far more in common and interact and communicate with one another far more today than ever before in their histories.” In the past, few American Jews (15–20%) visited Israel and most Israelis did not speak English. Today, he notes that a Pew survey found that 40% of American Jews have visited Israel and 40% of Israeli Jews have visited the U.S. Israeli and American Jews travel back and forth to study, do business and visit family. Bronner recalled his first visits to Israel in the1960s and 1970s when he found that Israelis expected all Jews to make Aliyah. “Today,” he says, “Israeli Jews not only accept the Diaspora community but have little embarrassment or shame in being part of it.^[34]