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I read where HALF of American Jews under the age of 35 don't feel a kinship toward the state of Israel. They couldn't care much whether it got destroyed or not. To those of you who DO feel that connection, you understand how troubling this news is.
I suppose this was to be expected, and I'm not interested in debating why this happened. I KNOW why it happened. Young Jews went to college, where they learned the "bad stuff".
I believe this dynamic has HUGE implications for the future Israel. I think the flow of money and political support is waning. What's Israel to do?
Other immigrants have come to Canada/USA and built their new lives in their adopted countries. Usually there is a reason why they left. It's no different here.
I'm not speaking about immigrants. These aren't people who left Israel. Most have never been there - like me. Nonetheless, in my generation and my parent’s generation, and especially my grandparent’s generation, Israel was a very special place.
It’s got to do with the holocaust and 5,000 years of waiting to get your own country again.
I had a college professor explain it like this - the further away the generation, the less meaning is attached to what was significant to the first generation. This generation does not understand the "cost" - what have they had to sacrifice for their religion, being able to live in their own country - a promised country, what suffering has brought to the family.
When she explained it like that it made sense and you can apply it to about any culture - Native American, immigrant pioneer families, etc. I thnk of my own family and I owe the greatest debt to those who came before me. Their's was true sacrifice. I grew up hearing and seeing just what it took to get what we had.
My brother spent time in Israel, although not planning on living there in the future, as far as I know. I have clients from Israel and they seem to spend almost as much time in the States. I remember speaking with my sister once upon a time about considering the move. I backed away when I figured out how comfortable I have it here in the US. Also once you start having your own family it is difficult to just get up and move. At least that's how it happened to me. Now one thing in my family though is that we always have had a great respect for Israel. As I've gotten older the way I look at it is that if a door closed on me in the States, hardship or otherwise, another one is open to me in Israel.
It does trouble me to hear that younger Jews don't have a greater kinship to Israel. New York City has the largest Jewish population in the United States, and Las Vegas, where I reside, has the fourth largest Jewish population. No city, no matter how populated with Jewish culture, can replace Israel. But I do think the main problem is that the parents somehow didn't share enough of the heritage. You know like trips to shul to experience Shabbos services, High Holiday services, or even the joy of celebrating Hanukkah at home.
Israel's Ministry of Tourism has done heavy duty advertisement to make Israel more attractive despite all the surrounding conflicts. They have tours for non-Jews, but some that are specially for Jews. I think their objective is enticement to specifically promote aliyah. Also for years now there has been an ongoing program used by many synagogues to have your children's bar mitzvah ceremony in Israel. A bit expensive though.
I don't know that Israel will be waning in the future from US support. Others, like myself for heritage reasons, and the Orthodox communities whereas like Elliot and Dan are fervently observant can make up the slack. It makes all the sense in the world to support Israel politically and otherwise despite marginal Jews that have short memories concerning history.
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