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Book Review: The Differing Perspectives of American and Israeli Jews
(Wall Street Journal) Elliot Kaufman - Daniel Gordis, senior vice president at Shalem College in Jerusalem, writes in We Stand Divided that America and Israel are fundamentally different enterprises. In Israel, the Jews are a majority and a people. They have rejoined history as moral agents and infused the public square with Judaism. In America, where Gordis was born, the Jews are a minority and a religious denomination. They have escaped from history and worked to strip the public square of religion. Most important is the dichotomy between Zionist Jewish particularism and American universalism. Zionism's mission was never to proclaim a principle of liberty for all, but rather to establish a Jewish state and reinvigorate the Jewish spirit. It is America's universalism that makes American Jews uncomfortable with Israel's devotion to one people - even if it is the Jewish people. Gordis pleads for greater understanding. He tells American Jews: Even if your way is universalism, surely there can be one country in the world where Jews have it their way. The failure of liberal universalism to solve Europe's "Jewish question" led Zionists to renounce powerlessness and fight for sovereignty. The Jewish state has its reasons, and American Jews shouldn't begrudge it the right to walk a different path.