Israel, Jewish World, Networks and Identity

Paths to Peoplehood congratulates all participants in Koldor's 4th Global Conference for an inspiring and fruitful conference. This issue of Paths to Peoplehood is dedicated to two of the key subjects that were discussed at the conference: networking as a strategy for Jewish solidarity and Israel - world Jewry relations, as well as to the General Assembly of the United Jewish Community (UJC), a major gathering of North American Jewry which took place last month in Jerusalem.

The first two articles, by Moty Cristal and Tally Zingher, published originally in The Peoplehood Papers 3 discuss networking, both as a description of a form of social, economic and political relations that is gaining currency; and as a strategy that they recommend that Israel and the Jewish people employ. Both writers' view of the Jewish world as a network of communities lead them to reassess the position of the State of Israel vis-a-vie world Jewry. "Networks have no hierarchy", states Crystal, and in a world of interconnected nodes there is no center, adds Zingher; they therefore claim that Israel is an important Jewish community, but it is not at the center of the Jewish world. Deborah Housen-Couriel, whose article appeared beside Cristal's and Zingher's in The Peoplehood Papers 3, also calls for the networking of all Jewish communities in order to fortify what she views as the tribal roots of Jewish solidarity. But in her view the "Jewish tribe" has the covenant and Israel (as in 'the land' and 'state of') at its center.

With regard to the issue of Israel - world Jewry relations, sociologist and political scientist Shmuel Trigano, adds a French-Jewish point of view to a discussion that is often limited to American and Israeli participants. His article appeared in a newly published book titled Jewish Peoplehood Change and Challenge (editors: Menachem Revivi and Ezra Kopelowitz). Trigano views the dialectic of exile and return as inherent to Judaism, in his opinion this dialectic should be adapted to changing circumstances, but not abandoned.

At the General Assembly (GA) of the UJC Israel - world Jewry relations are played out in real-time. The GA was held in Jerusalem during the last November and was widely covered in the English language Jewish media. Forward correspondent Nathan Jeffay noted that while the speeches of Israeli politicians who were invited as guest speakers focused upon the security risks that Iran poses for Israel, the participants' discussions tended to concentrate on the possible impacts of the current economic crisis. With regard to Israel - world Jewry relations he noted that the current crisis led some participants to call upon Israeli philanthropists to play a more central role in funding philanthropic projects.

While Jeffay discussed American - Israeli cooperation within the conference, Jerusalem Post correspondent, Haviv Rettig, noted the general lack of interest that the Hebrew language Israeli press exhibited in the conference, a lack of interest that is typical of the Israeli media that tends to ignore world Jewry. This lack of coverage, he claims, is one of the reasons that Israelis know so little about Jewish communities throughout the world. Retting also quoted various participants who expressed anger towards what they understood as Israeli vanity, and claimed that Israelis have much to learn from American Jews with regard to Jewish Peoplehood, religious education and social activity. In response to these comments that appeared in a front-page article, Jerusalem Post columnist David Forman wrote that it is the American Jews who have much to learn from their Israeli brethren with regard to voluntarism and Jewish solidarity, and that even the secular education system in Israel teaches pupils much more about Judaism than most American Jews will ever know.