In this four-part Daily Kavanah, Rabbi Ron Stern examines the recently-released Pew Research Center survey of American Jews. To catch up with previous entries, click here.
Jews dreamed of establishing a Jewish nation in the land of Israel from the moment the Romans destroyed the ancient Temple in Jerusalem and dispersed our community in the first and second centuries C.E. They often invoked the far more ancient words of the Israelite prophets first penned in the sixth century B.C.E. to express both the pain of exile and the hope for a return to the land.
With the advent of modern Zionism in the 19th century, there arose dissention among the ranks. Some ultra-Orthodox Jews insisted that the nation could not be re-established until the Messiah arrived. Many religiously-liberal American Jews insisted that America was the new Promised Land. Certainly, from the 1967 Six Day War until only a decade or so ago, the vast majority of the world’s Jews supported the vision of a Jewish national homeland and truly embraced the vision of Israel. However, according to the Pew Research report, the trend for America’s Jews is that the younger they are, the less connected they feel to Israel (see page 36 here).
In the words of the report: “More broadly, young U.S. Jews are less emotionally attached to Israel than older ones.” That is a result of a host of complicated factors that are beyond the scope of this brief piece. However, the question to contemplate today is: Given that we are a generation that has been blessed with the fulfillment of the 2,000-year-old dream of a national homeland for the Jewish people to call our own—a truly miraculous occurrence—I believe that it’s incumbent upon us to teach our children both about the magnitude of this great gift and also the investment that Jews everywhere have in Israel’s future. Again, this is something that we dedicate ourselves to every day at Wise. (Join us for a three-part series beginning on May 12—and continuing in the fall—addressing this very issue: How do we talk about Israel? Register here.)
Your kavanah for the day: What can you do—and what will you do—to strengthen the emotional and spiritual connection between the younger generations in your family and our homeland?
—Rabbi Ron Stern