Why I Don’t Take Jewish Sovereignty for Granted

I believe that a connection between Jews is a phenomenon that still exists everywhere. A connection between individuals who belong to a “people” – the Jewish people.

This sense of nationhood, or peoplehood, is one of the things I discuss with Shmuel Rosner, in the ninth episode of our series of conversations about the book: #IsraeliJudaism, Portrait of a Cultural Revolution. I also share with him my own Aliyah story – I came here as a young boy with my parents – and my belief that Kibbutz Galuyot, the gathering and integration of many diasporas, is Israel’s greatest success.

#IsraeliJudaism, Portrait of a Cultural Revolution, based on the work of JPPI, and was coauthored by Shmuel Rosner, a senior fellow at JPPI and Prof. Camil Fuchs of Tel Aviv University. The English version of the book was published recently and provides us with an opportunity to both present the unique nature of Israeli Judaism to the broader world, and to discuss its future and the implications for world Jewry.

This series of JPPI produced video conversations focuses on Israeli traditionalism, nationality, pluralism, ethnicity and more. The first conversation featured Prof. Ruth Gavison and focused on Israeliness and Jewishness. The second, on Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community, featured activist and philanthropist Daniel Goldman. In the third, on Israeli secularity, we hosted historian Prof. Aviad Kleinberg of Tel Aviv University. The fourth featured Dr. Ran Baratz, who spoke about Israeli nationality. The fifth, which featured Dr. Moshe Hellinger, discussed the state of Religious-Zionism. The sixth hosted Prof. Tsvia Walden who spoke about progressive Judaism in Israel. In the seventh, Ben Dror Yemini spoke about Israeli Mizrahi culture. In the eighth, Micha Goodman discussed Israel’s relations with the Jews of America.

We invite TOI readers to try a short questionnaire prepared by Prof. Camil Fuchs. Once you have answered all the questions, you will be able to see where you are on the map of Israeli Judaism and compare yourself to Israeli Jews by political affiliation, religious affiliation, age and ethnicity (for the survey, click here). 

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#IsraeliJudaism is a research project of The Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI), an independent professional policy planning think tank incorporated as a private non-profit company in Israel (founded by JAFI). The mission of the Institute is to contribute to ensuring the thriving of the Jewish People and the Jewish civilization by engaging in professional strategic thinking and planning on issues of primary concern to world Jewry. Located in Jerusalem, JPPI takes a global approach to the Jewish People and provides decision makers in Israel and the Diaspora with action-oriented policy recommendations.