Two Positives at a Most Difficult Time
Ever since the massacre of October 7, this has been the most difficult time for the Jewish people since the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust. We have witnessed the murder of 1,200 people in Israel on 10/7, the taking of over 250 hostages, many of whom are still in captivity, the explosion of antisemitism in America and globally (this past year alone that were almost 10,000 antisemitic incidents recorded in the U.S.), the disappearance of formerly safe places in America for Jews, particularly on campuses, and the normalization of antisemitism in a society where only a few years ago we would hear from many of our supporters that we were needlessly paying attention to hatred of Jews.
Yet, within these disturbing developments, two trends have appeared which have sustained us in difficult times and offer an opportunity going forward, if taken advantage of, to strengthen the Jewish people and address some of the vexing challenges facing Jews.
The first of these is how the Israeli people have stuck together during this war against the Jewish state.
Think back what was going on in Israel just prior to the massacre. There were huge divisions in society, challenges to the government, accusations of anti-democratic policies (particularly regarding the judiciary) which led some people to think about the unthinkable: civil war in Israel. Civility had been abandoned, each side referring to the other with extremist epithets, and commentators were wondering whether the pieces could be put back together.
And then came October 7. The social compact between the authorities and the people had been broken. The most basic value of any government, particularly for the Jewish state created after the Holocaust, was to provide protection for its people, something completely absent for Jews when the Nazis went on their genocidal onslaught.
And now ordinary Israelis were unprotected. So Israel had no choice. It not only had to regain the trust of its citizens by countering Hamas; it also had to reestablish that social contract.
It has been a tiring 21 months, but much has been accomplished even without the most important item unfulfilled, the return of all the hostages. While great credit goes to many, especially Israel’s military and intelligence communities, a big hurrah goes to most sectors in Israeli society who in spite of those profound differences, united in order to fight this war. Yes, there are all kinds of examples of divisions that can be cited, but on the critical matters that allowed the country to defend itself, the people were there.
Indeed, this self-repressing of internal conflict and movement towards solidarity was so admirable exactly because the differences before and during the war have been so profound. It would be wonderful if elements of this unity could be extended after the fighting ends. Everything should be done to build on it, not to avoid legitimate differences, but to behave in a civil manner and not treat the other side as the enemy.
This may be asking for too much, and as the conflict continues into its 22nd month, we are already seeing cracks in that unity. But the collective national behavior during this war imposed on the Jewish state was exemplary, and leaders in Israel should be thinking of creative ways to extend its spirit beyond wartime.
The second significant achievement during the last 21 months, also a product of a terrible development, has been, as American Jewish historian Jonathan Sarna has written, the “surge” in Jewish engagement in things Jewish in America.
Prior to the war, the major internal challenge facing America was all the studies showing that Jews in America were less religious, less likely to attend Jewish events, indeed identifying less and less in things Jewish.
Indeed, it reminded me of Jean-Paul Sartre’s book years ago, “Antisemite and Jew” in which he claimed that if antisemitism would disappear, Jews would disappear. Not that antisemitism had disappeared before 10/7, but again many Jews weren’t worrying about it. Between the 1970s and 2010, one could call life in America for Jews not only the most comfortable in the diaspora but probably the best for any Jewish community in 2,000 years.
That is why the eruption of Jew hatred since10/7 was not only distressing in itself but was so shocking to a complacent community.
Surprisingly to some, however, the response of the community, particularly young people — those most likely to be falling away from the community — was to rally round. Engagement at Jewish institutions on campus like Hillel soared over the last two years. Attendance at communal events skyrocketed. Synagogue attendance, philanthropic engagement, informational requests all reached peaks. Even conversions rose.
The very thing that many community leaders had been struggling with for years without much success, how to get Jews to care about their Jewishness, now was being realized exactly because their humanity was being challenged because they were Jews.
The challenge for American Jews going forward is twofold: first to continue to stand together against the explosion of antisemitism which puts all of us in danger.
And then when things quiet down, to find the way to prove Sartre wrong — to make being and engaging in one’s Jewish an attractive prospect, particularly in terms of community, even without the driving force of antisemitism.
So this time of crisis has produced both in Israel and America a healthy response in their Jewish communities. Now the challenge is to turn that response into a constructive path for the future to strengthen and expand Jewish life in the two main enters of Jewish existence in the modern world.