Israel and the Jewish People: A Shared Responsibility In Need of Renewal

For much of modern Jewish history, the relationship between Israel and the Jewish people was understood as self‑evident. Today, that assumption can no longer be taken for granted. The idea that Jews cannot live without Israel—and that Israel cannot exist without the Jewish people—is increasingly questioned or minimized. Yet this relationship is not a matter of sentiment or politics. It is rooted in history, collective memory, and the hard lessons of Jewish experience.

Israel was established because the Jewish people required more than acceptance in the Diaspora. They required sovereignty, security, and self‑determination in their ancestral homeland. Jewish history demonstrated, time and again, that life without collective power left Jewish communities vulnerable. Israel emerged as a concrete response to that reality and remains a central pillar of Jewish continuity.

At the same time, Israel’s meaning extends beyond borders, institutions, or military strength. Its moral purpose and national character are inseparable from the Jewish people themselves—those who live in Israel and those who live throughout the Diaspora. Israel is not merely a country where Jews reside; it is the national expression of Jewish identity. That identity—defined by shared history, values, responsibility, and fate—is what gives the state its deeper significance.

This relationship is not automatic. It must be nurtured, especially in times of disagreement or strain. Healthy debate has always been part of Jewish life, and disagreement does not weaken the bond between Israel and world Jewry. What does weaken it is disengagement—the belief that Jewish identity can be fully detached from Israel, or that the connection itself is optional.

In recent years, some in the Diaspora have adopted precisely that view, arguing that Jewishness can be defined without reference to Israel. While Jewish identity has always been diverse and evolving, the effort to sever it entirely from Israel overlooks the collective dimension that has sustained Jewish life across centuries and continents. Jewish identity has never been solely private or individual. It has been communal, interdependent, and rooted in a shared sense of destiny.

The risks of this growing distance are real. A weakened relationship leaves Israel more isolated from the global Jewish community and leaves Diaspora communities more fragmented in a world where Jewish security and belonging cannot be assumed. Jewish history offers little evidence that fragmentation and disengagement serve Jewish flourishing over the long term.

For decades, Jewish communal institutions have invested significant resources in strengthening intercommunity relations, particularly in North America and beyond. That work has been important and should continue. But the current moment calls for renewed focus inward as well. Strengthening intracommunity bonds—between Israel and the Diaspora, and among Jews across ideological, religious, and geographic lines—must once again become a central communal priority.

Israel and the Jewish people are bound together not by uniformity of opinion, but by shared responsibility for the future. Renewing that commitment does not require agreement on every policy or decision. It requires recognizing that Jewish continuity has always depended on solidarity, mutual concern, and a willingness to remain connected even when it is difficult.

That work is ours to do—together.