Center Field: Open Letter to our Diaspora Affairs Minister

Dear Minister Yuli Edelstein,

On April 5, Anshel Pfeffer welcomed you as Diaspora Affairs Minister with a bleak open letter in Ha'aretz, lamenting: "What a pity you've been given the emptiest brief of all in Netanyahu's mammoth cabinet." Pfeffer called your portfolio useless and toothless, with no budget, status, or clear mandate.

I disagree. Of course I wish you had a huge war chest and a clear mission. But there is such a vacuum of leadership in this area, and such a pressing need for visionary statesmanship, you can accomplish much as a public leader. Jews in Israel and the Diaspora are thirsting for inspiration. The Minister of Israel-Diaspora Affairs is essentially responsible for promoting, fulfilling - and at this historical juncture - reviving Zionism. You have what American President Theodore Roosevelt called a "bully pulpit" to complete this important task. Good luck with it.

Your most important job is reminding many Jews in Israel and abroad what peoplehood means while bringing pride back to the label "Zionist." Too many Jews have internalized our enemies' disdain. Zionism - the national liberation movement of the Jewish people - has been falsely linked with racism, as Arab enemies have spread a despicable big lie with Nazi-Soviet roots. As a refugee from that insanity, as a legendary refusenik who escaped Soviet Communist oppression to find freedom in modern Israel, you are living proof of Zionism's power and legitimacy. Use your inspiring personal narrative of renewal to infuse new relevance and resonance into Zionism, our people's collective narrative of renewal.(And if the rumors are true and Natan Sharansky becomes the head of the Jewish Agency, the two of you have a tremendous opportunity to revolutionize the Zionist Movement).

The past few years have witnessed great advances on the Israel-Diaspora front, despite some disturbing trends. On the plus side, over 150,000 inspired Birthright Israel alumni, and thousands of annual Masa participants, illustrate the transformational impact Israel experiences can have on Jewish life worldwide. Birthright's "Mifgash" program with Israeli soldiers and the Jewish Agency's successful P2K, Partnership 2000 have also demonstrated the benefits for Israelis from learning and working with Diaspora Jews.  Moreover, ease of transportation and communication, along with the globalized youth culture gives someone with a powerful platform like your new job affords you tremendous reach.

Unfortunately, this globalized culture often undermines Jewish identity, addicting many Jews in Israel and abroad to the worst, most indulgent elements of modern materialism. Moreover, too many Israeli and Diaspora Jews believe Zionism is passé, and Israel an embarrassing anachronism in a cosmopolitan, politically-correct, multicultural world. As a Zionist hero, you should build bridges between Israeli and Diaspora youth, and, within Israel between the National Religious camp and the Secular Zionist camp. This latest economic upheaval shows that human beings need anchors, frameworks for meaning, a sense of collective purpose beyond individual indulgence; you are uniquely positioned to explain how Jewish nationalism, meaning Zionism, can provide those nurturing ideological roots and core values, for Israelis and Diaspora Jews.

Every nationalist movement shapes a people's present and charts the future by defining its past. For Israelis to appreciate Zionism they must learn more about the past and about Diaspora life. You must ally with the Education Ministry, work with the Jewish Agency, and woo the media to instill some important Zionist lessons about Israeli and Diaspora life. Without returning to the outmoded notion of negating the Galut [the exile], you have to push Israelis to have a more sophisticated understanding of the realities abroad and the values they should be appreciating at home. That entails weaning so many Israelis from their obsession with all things American, fostering an appreciation of the benefits of living in a Jewish space by Jewish time, and learning about the historic conditions in the Diaspora that first triggered the Zionist revolution. It also entails embracing creative initiatives like Herzl Day, which gets Israel schoolchildren celebrating Zionism's founder.

In this anti-Semitism looms large - but handle this part of your portfolio carefully. On the eve of the Durban II conference in Geneva, we need greater vigilance against anti-Semitism, and your predecessors, especially Natan Sharansky, have launched important initiatives to combat hatred. However, Israel-Diaspora relations must be about more than fighting anti-Semitism. Zionism and Israel cannot just be the central headaches of the Jewish people. Without denying the negative, you must celebrate the positive. Work with Mayor Nir Barkat to use Jerusalem, for example, the Jewish people's capital, as a unifying asset, welcoming Jews from all over the world to build and be rebuilt there.

In dealing with Diaspora Jews, make sure to fill your role as a Zionist icon - and never underestimate the potency of the celebrity aura an effective, publicly savvy Israeli Cabinet minister can generate. As the Jewish state's representative, start every conversation, every speech, in Hebrew - emphasizing that Hebrew, not English should be the Jewish people's lingua franca. Make sure to deliver the good news about Israel, the updates about normal life in the Jewish state, not just the bad news. And make sure to challenge Diaspora Jews constructively - to use Israel as a vehicle for finding ideological fulfillment and communal satisfaction, to step in and take responsibility to make sure that the successful initiatives of the last two decades like birthright and Partnership 2000 do not languish due to this financial crisis. Be the shaliach-in-chief, an emissary to synagogues and schools, to organizations and foundations. But remember how many Diaspora Jews are unaffiliated, and reach them through non-traditional means in the general media and on the internet.

Life in Israel is a daily tableau illustrating the beauty and perils of the Zionist return to history. On both sides of the Atlantic, we know the perils. Make sure to remind us of the dream, and help us fulfill it.

Gil Troy is Professor of History at McGill University. He splits his time between Montreal and Jerusalem and is the author of Why I am A  Zionist: Israel, Jewish Identity and the Challenges of Today.