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.

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Conservative Rabbis should foster Zionism before pushing Aliyah

At its recent annual convention in Jerusalem, the Conservative Movement's Rabbinical Assembly launched a campaign to boost Aliyah - immigration to Israel. The slogan "A Call to Action - Putting Aliyah on the Map," illustrated that Aliyah barely ranks on American Jews' agenda. With 399 Conservative North American olim (immigrants) in 2008, this campaign has nowhere to go but up. But trying to boost Aliyah among American Jews is like trying to encourage virtuosity among music ignoramuses. The goal, while noble, is out of reach. Before pushing Aliyah, the Conservative Movement should stimulate a more pressing conversation about what Israel and Zionism can mean to American Jews.

Pushing Aliyah usually alienates American Jews - and has distorted attitudes toward Israel and Zionism. Although when I speak about Zionism I neither push Aliyah nor negate the American Jewish community's validity, questioners frequently accuse me of both. So many speakers before me have pitched Aliyah so aggressively, that as soon as I mention "the Z word" the already alienated questioners become defensive. Actually, many American Jews reject Aliyah as a goal. For them, it is like trying to sell ham in a synagogue.

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A pledge to fight anti-Semitism

I have considered myself a "Daniel Pearl Jew." Like that Wall Street Journal reporter Islamist terrorists kidnapped then beheaded in Pakistan - whom I never met - I was born in the early 1960s into the post-Auschwitz covenant. The world had sinned against our people, but now condemned anti-Semitism. We felt especially protected as Americans. Welcomed by America's meritocratic openness, we were lucky enough to attend elite schools, I went to Harvard; he went to Stanford. Our final layer of protection came from working as professionals for world-class institutions, me at McGill University, him at the Wall Street Journal.

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The GA should not be remembered as another bad date between American Jews and Israelis

The General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities brought over 2500 of America's most generous Jews to Israel for a conference in mid-November. Unfortunately, the warm feelings many participants experienced have been upstaged by a controversy that continues nearly two weeks later. "GA largely ignored by Hebrew press," a Jerusalem Post headline proclaimed on November 21. The article quoted Yediot Aharonot's Diaspora reporter characterizing the GA as "one big kiss-up to rich people. American Jews are not authentic; they're obsessed with money; there's something annoying about them." Echoing the nastiness, one of America's top Conservative Jewish leaders sneered: "Israelis speak Hebrew, but many live lives devoid of Judaism. Just closing your schools on Shavuot is not the totality of Judaism." What should have been a great bonding moment risked becoming another bad date between American Jews and Israeli Jews.

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Polarized Jews in a depressing election

Political campaigns are like social stress tests, regularly scheduled exercises that add enough extra pressure on the system to expose weaknesses - and strengths. The long 2008 election has uncovered certain American fault lines. Within the Jewish community, the results of the 2008 electoral stress test have been equally sobering. Partisans from both sides have behaved abominably, demonstrating a growing hysteria and close-mindedness.

Perhaps the most infamous Jewish contribution to this campaign is unproven. Many reporters have claimed the various e-mails accusing Barack Obama of being a Muslim targeted Jews or originated with Jews. There is no solid proof of this. Internet hoaxes, like most urban legends, are hard to track. But anytime I have written anything remotely positive about Obama in the Jewish media, many bloggers have charged that "Barack HUSSEIN Obama" is secretly a Muslim and I am helping this Manchurian candidate deceive America.

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Diaspora-Israel relations as bad date

The results of the third annual Survey of Contemporary Israeli Attitudes toward World Jewry commissioned by the B'nai B'rith World Center in Jerusalem are in, and once again we can proclaim: Israel-Diaspora relations remain less fraternal than we like to believe - and more like a bad date than we really acknowledge. Just as North American Jews are convinced that Israelis need us more than we need them, Israelis believe we need them more than they need us. In this survey, focusing on the Israeli side of the equation, most Israeli Jews - 76 percent - believed it is safer to live as a Jew in Israel than in the Diaspora, while 43 percent believed the State of Israel rather than the local Jewish community was more responsible for fighting anti-Semitic outbreaks in the Diaspora.

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The Birthright 2.0 challenge

The Jim Joseph Foundation just donated $17.5 million to Birthright Israel. This gift follows Sheldon Adelson's amazing $60 million donation, and hundreds of millions of dollars other generous philanthropists have donated. These contributions constitute one of the greatest gifts Diaspora Jews have given Israel in the past decade.

The Jim Joseph gift designated $12.5 million for "follow-up," Birthright's toughest challenge. Recruitment has been easy. Already 165,000 young Jews ages 18 to 26 have enjoyed these free ten day trips, with another 27, 000 coming this summer. Three-quarters of the participants are North Americans, the rest have come from 53 different countries. The trips themselves have also been easy - hard work but overwhelmingly successful.

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Voluntary and involuntary Judaism

Passover remains a beloved Jewish holiday, with the Seder one of the most popular Jewish rituals in Israel and North America. But the bitter hametz controversy about outlawing selling un-kosher-for-Passover products in Israel highlights a central contrast between the Israeli and American Jewish experiences. Most American Jewish identity is voluntary; much Israeli Judaism is compulsory.

Most Israeli Jews approach Judaism as a rigorous system of rules and faith reinforced by God and the law. Although only 20 percent of Israelis define themselves as religious, one recent Ynet survey estimated that 71 percent of Israeli Jews believe in God. Keeping God central to Judaism, as Jews traditionally did, defines Judaism by its commandments. Even many Israelis who break the commandments still perceive Judaism as rooted in God's law.

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