JPPI’s 2023 Jewish World Dialogue examined the growing polarization and uncivil discourse within Israel and Jewish communities worldwide – especially in regard to Israeli government policies affecting religious pluralism in Israel, the balance of power between the Israeli judiciary and the other branches of government, and the administered/occupied territories (Judea and Samaria, aka the West Bank) post-l967.
While this polarization takes place within, and in some ways reflects, the growing political and cultural polarization in the United States, Israel, and other Western countries, it is making it increasingly difficult for substantial segments of the “organized” Jewish community to come together and effectively advocate and mobilize for strategies long recognized as important in ensuring the security and flourishing of Israel and Jewish communities around the world.
The subject was selected to better understand how this growing polarization impacts diverse Jewish leadership groups and to identity potential strategies to reverse or mitigate it so the assets of Diaspora Jewish communities can continue to be mobilized to strengthen and enrich Jewish life.
We have long held these truths to be self-evident – every pasuk (verse) of Torah has “70 faces” (i.e., 70 ways of understanding); “We are one”; and “alu v’alu” (these and these), which reflects the recognition that there are different ways (Hillel and Shammai) to understand Torah and obligation; and yet we affirm “kol yisrael arevim zeh lazeh” (all of Israel are responsible one for the other).
While there is broad recognition that Jews share both history and destiny, there have frequently been divergent understandings of Torah – its source and the nature of the obligation it creates – and of how to ensure a flourishing Jewish future. That said, despite theological and cultural differences, Jews and Jewish leadership – certainly in the 20th century – came together to defend other Jews facing external threats: antisemitism, military attacks on the State of Israel, and providing aid to communities in distress.
This degree of polarization is a new development in the post-war Jewish community. In recent years, political and cultural polarization has deepened in Western societies and has become increasingly divisive in Israel and Jewish communities throughout the world. In the mid and latter part of the 20th century, Diaspora Jews and Jewish leadership were broadly aligned around decidedly liberal political views on the role of government (supportive of Social Security, Medicare, public education, expanding civil rights for minorities, and far more). Jewish leadership, as described in Jonathan Woocher’s l986 book Sacred Survival, shared an agenda that had at its center being pro-Israel (i.e., supportive of the policies of Israel’s government, whether led by political parties associated with the right or the left), rescuing Soviet Jews, combatting antisemitism, and supporting public policies to help the poor, the elderly, the hungry, and the homeless. This was the civil religion of America Jews in the latter decades of the 20th century.
Over the past 40 years, growing cleavages have surfaced among Jews and Jewish leadership. Differences in multiple areas have emerged, but none have been more visible or challenging than those related to evolving divergent views of the policies of successive Israeli governments. These differences have principally centered around religious diversity and pluralism – the recognition, rights, and support provided Reform and Conservative rabbis and institutions in Israel, or the lack thereof – and Israeli government policies vis-à-vis the administered/occupied territories.
An important caveat: Although polarization and debate over Israeli government policies have intensified, multiple studies also document American Jews abiding positive identification with, and pride in, Israel. With some exceptions, the extraordinary unity of world Jewry in the wake of the October 7 Hamas massacre seem to confirm this view. When attacked, when in crisis, Jews coalesce. The polarization around Israeli government policies attracts more attention, but the continuing sense of strong connection with Israel among American Jews is of enormous import, an asset, and is one of the motivations for focusing on how leadership might more effectively manage intensifying polarization.
In Israel’s first decades, Jewish communities outside the country had broad communal support to mobilize their communities to stand with State of Israel and its people, to advocate for them, and support the positions of successive Israel governments whether led by Labor or Likud. However, in recent decades, at first mild and more recently strident differences have emerged among groups who consider themselves “pro-Israel.” Although Aipac and J Street both self-identify as “pro- Israel,” many adherents view those who support the other as undermining the security and well-being of the State of Israel. Diaspora Jewish communal leadership finds it increasingly difficult to speak for the community as it becomes more divided and less monolithic. And when communal leadership speaks and leads, there is no real mechanism within Diaspora communities for other views to be expressed. There is no leader of the opposition. Growing numbers who disagree with the positions of communal leadership have experienced being ignored, denigrated, and on occasion castigated as anti-Zionist or antisemitic.
