Daniel Gordis on the Rift Between American and Israeli Jews

The Tikvah Podcast

Tikvah

Judaism, Politics, Religion & Spirituality, News

4.6 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2019

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The occupation. The Western Wall. The nation-state Law. The warm bonhomie between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu. The rift between American and Israeli Jews grows daily. How did this happen? Wasn’t Israel an issue of consensus in the American Jewish community until just recently? Wasn’t Israel the rare cause that could unite Jews across the political and denominational spectrum?

Against the conventional wisdom, Daniel Gordis of Shalem College believes that this growing divide is decidedly not about what Israel does. It is, rather, about what Israel is. In a series of insightful articles as well as a forthcoming book, Gordis argues that the two largest Jewish communities in the world are animated by different attitudes about the purpose of Jewish life, and what it takes for the Jews to prosper. And these more fundamental differences, not the policies of the Netanyahu government or the Chief Rabbinate, are the true cause of the widening rift between the Jews of Israel and the United States.

In this podcast, Daniel Gordis and Jonathan Silver sit down for a discussion about the complex relationship between American and Israeli Jews. They review the long history of American Jewish ambivalence toward Zionism, explore the different theories that motivate the Jewish communities in the U.S. and Israel, and try to define what it means to be a Zionist living in America.

Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble as well as “Great Feeling” by Alex Kizenkov.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The occupation, the women of the wall, the nation-state law, the warm bonhamee between President
0:14.0	Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu.
0:16.0	If it's not one thing, it's something else.
0:18.0	The rift between American and Israeli Jews seems to be growing all the
0:22.1	time. And for contemporary American Jews, that's so very unlike our memory and our recent
0:27.5	experience. Israel was supposed to be the consensus issue in the American Jewish community.
0:32.8	Israel was supposed to be the rare cause that could unite American Jews across political and denominational lines.
0:40.0	So when we look at the Rift, are we looking at a departure from normal attitudes that we're
0:44.0	used to experiencing? Or are we looking at a return to normal attitudes from the exceptional
0:49.1	period in world Jewry brought about by Israel's victory in the Six Day War? Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Silver. Our theme today is the American
0:58.7	Jewish community's attitudes towards Israel and what those attitudes teach us about the existential
1:04.0	condition of American Jewry. My guest is Daniel Gordas of Shalem College.
1:09.6	And against the conventional wisdom, Danny
1:11.6	believes that the growing divide is not about what Israel does. It is rather about what Israel is.
1:18.2	He argues that the two largest Jewish communities in the world are animated by fundamentally
1:22.6	different attitudes about the purpose of Jewish life and what it takes for the Jews to prosper in each place.
1:28.9	And these more fundamental differences, not the policies of the Netanyahu government or the
1:33.9	chief rabbinit, these more fundamental differences are the true cause of the widening rift between
1:39.8	the Jews of Israel and the United States. If you enjoyed this week's show, you can subscribe
1:44.0	on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and Spotify, and I hope you'll leave us a five-star review. Those reviews really help us grow this community of listeners and this community of ideas. We'd love to hear your feedback on this or any of our other podcast episodes, and we welcome your email at podcast at tikfa fund.org. If you'd like to learn more about our work at Tikva, you can visit our website,
2:04.5	tikfafund.org, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
2:08.5	Here now is my conversation with senior vice president,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Tikvah, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Tikvah and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.