Israel at Sixty: The Persistence of Vision

Nationalism and the American Election

by Gil Troy

In his memoir “Faith of My Fathers,” Senator John McCain writes: “The United States Naval Academy, an institution I both resented and admired, tried to bend my resilience to a cause greater than self-interest. I resisted its exertions, fearing its effect on my individuality. But as a prisoner of war, I learned that a shared purpose did not claim my identity. On the contrary, it enlarged my sense of self.”

            Four years ago, at his Democratic National Convention debut Senator Barack Obama said: “it’s not enough for just some of us to prosper -- for alongside our famous individualism, there’s another ingredient in the American saga, a belief that we’re all connected as one people. If there is a child on the south side of Chicago who can’t read, that matters to me, even if it’s not my child. If there is a senior citizen somewhere who can’t pay for their prescription drugs, and having to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it’s not my grandparent. If there’s an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties.”

What both McCain and Obama understand is the power of peoplehood, the profound need individuals have for nationalism. Most Western Jews travel in circles that pooh-pooh nationalism, that embrace a universalistic cosmopolitanism. Zionism begins with the insight McCain shared that we as individuals find our personhood enhanced by joining a people, belonging to a community. Jewish nationalism works, as Obama’s American nationalism works, by feeling a sense of solidarity, by doing for others – whether or not they do unto you.

We can argue abstractly about whether it is better to do good works for the whole world, or just for your particular ethnic or national community. But the reality of human existence for the last few centuries at least has been that peoplehood and nationalism are the most effective vehicles for doing good works and great things – for one’s own group and for humanity. “Professors” McCain and Obama teach that it is a false choice to select between saving the world and saving your own kind. Both show that by going beyond yourself, by thinking about others in your own smaller group, you take those first essential steps beyond the self – and toward a more altruistic, noble, other-directed existence.

            Can nationalism curdle, turning ever more sour as people turn ever more inward? Of course. That happened again and again throughout the 20^th century. But nationalism can also sweeten life, sweeten the self, pushing us beyond selfishness and toward more satisfying communities and more meaningful lives. That is one of the lessons of the Zionist Revolution – and we should thank both American presidential candidates for helping us to remember those important ideas.

Why I am a Zionist

by Gil Troy

A Zionist Seder

by Gil Troy

This year’s seder should launch the big buildup to Israel’s 60th anniversary celebration. Just as in my youth we had a “matzah of hope” to carve out time from the historic ritual to remember the contemporary challenges of Soviet Jewry, we need to use this most popular Jewish ritual to delight in the miracle of Israel’s surviving – and thriving.

The power of the seder - which remains one of the most popular of Jewish ceremonies in Israel and abroad - comes from its ritualization of memory, and its dramatization of history. It is a most primal, most sensual, most literal, of services. The seder plate - with its representations of the mortar used in building, the charoset, and of the tears shed by the slaves, the salt water - helps us visualize the trauma of slavery.  The joy of Dayenu – and the building toward the festive meal – helps us feel the redemption of freedom.

What the Zionist Movement Could Learn From Obama

by Gil Troy
            Obamania has swept the United States. Whether or not Barack Obama ultimately wins the Democratic nomination or the presidency, he has triggered a surge of excitement, especially among young voters. As Obama – and millions of enthusiastic supporters – sing, shout, and proclaim, “YES WE CAN” – it would behoove us in the Zionist movement to pick up a few tips from this master of the zeitgeist.
            Note that “Yes We Can” is a positive, affirmative message – not a defensive, reactive one.
            Note that “Yes We Can” may be vague, but it resonates with America’s needs at this moment, in the wake of the George W. Bush presidency, to hope, to dream, to unite behind a broad optimistic platform of uplift.
            Note that “Yes We Can” has been embraced by celebrities, in that now-famous video produced by Jesse Dylan and the rapper Will.i.am, putting Obama’s concession speech in New Hampshire to music, and being echoed by others (including a young Israeli actress who said “Ken Anu Yecholim”).
            Wouldn’t it be great to sing a new song of Zion, proud and patriotic, affirmative and altruistic.
Wouldn’t it be great to trigger a broad celebration of Israel’s 60th birthday throughout the Jewish world, simply saying, in honor of this great milestone: “I Am A Zionist,” and “todah rabah, Israel, thanks for fulfilling our dreams.”
            Wouldn’t it be great - -given our culture of celebrity – if we could collect some famous, young, hip people, to say this in their own compelling, hip video – inviting others through the Web 2.0 to spread the message and share the hope.
            The time has come to be upbeat not defensive, to be savvy in our marketing, and to harness the miracles of modern technology to trumpet one of the great miracles of the twentieth century: the restoration of Jewish sovereignty in the Jewish homeland.

Fighting the Apartheid Slur

by Gil Troy

Israel-is-not-at-all-an-Apartheid-State-but-we-are-going-lie-and-claim-that-it-is Week is once again upon us, taking place in campuses across the world. Affixing this unconscionable, inaccurate “Apartheid” label insults anyone who supports the modern Jewish state of Israel as well as everyone who suffered under South Africa’s evil Apartheid system.

Apartheid was a racist legal system the Afrikaner Nationalists dominating South Africa’s government imposed after World War II. The Afrikaners’ discriminatory apartness began with their racist revulsion for blacks, reflected in early laws in 1949 and 1950 prohibiting marriages and sexual relations between whites and non-whites. Apartheid quickly developed into a brutal system that tried to dehumanize South Africa’s majority nonwhite population.

Beyond the historical definition, international law emphasizes that Apartheid involves intentional, mandated racism.

Why All Jews Need a Jewish State -- Wherever We Live

by Gil Troy

            Has Zionism become irrelevant? In this golden age of liberal democracy, with Jews welcomed and thriving in so many Western countries, why do Jews need a Jewish state? American Jews and Canadian Jews, Australian Jews and Argentinean Jews feel so comfortable that the major threats to the Jewish future have become assimilation and intermarriage not anti-Semitism. But wasn’t Israel created as a refuge for Jews who feared persecution not for those who feared being loved to death?
            The question “why do we need a Jewish state” is doubly problematic.

Taking Zionism Personally

by Gil Troy

What has feminism got that Zionism hasn’t got? What does gay liberation have that the movement for Jewish national liberation lacks? Why does a woman’s right to have an abortion feel so much more compelling than the Jews’ right to have a Jewish state? We do not need to commission one of those multi-million dollar polls the Jewish community loves to note that for many young Jews, especially in North America, the movements for feminism, gay liberation and personal choice are not only more popular than Zionism but felt more intensely.

LET’S HAVE A SUBSTANTIVE, ZIONIST CELEBRATION OF ISRAEL’S 60th.

by Professor Gil Troy

How do we celebrate Israel’s 60th birthday? How do we mark Zionism’s great success and one of the twentieth century’s most redeeming moments?   

When Rabbi David Hartman first came to Israel, he wondered what rituals secular Jews improvised to celebrate Israel’s Independence. On his first Yom Ha’atzmaut he visited an anti-religious kibbutz. He discovered a ghost town. Wandering around, he began sniffing something. Following the smell to the fields, he discovered mass mangal, group barbecues. Similarly, Americans celebrate their Independence on July 4th with picnics and firecrackers. To avoid mass indigestion and the occasional blasted-off finger, Zionists should celebrate Israel’s 60th anniversary with two classically Jewish activities: learning and arguing.

The learning should be straightforward, with the calendar as our guide.