Israel Matzav

The four sons of the Haggadah and support for Israel

There was a popular quip in the US 20 years ago (it may still be popular) that the four sons of the Passover Haggadah represented four generations of American Jewry.

The wise son was the son who came from Europe as an adult, remained religious and remained connected to Judaism.

The wicked son was the son who came from Europe as a young man (or who may have been American born) and proverbially or literally threw his tefillin (phylactories) overboard into the harbor on arrival in the US.

The simple son still knew something of what Judaism was about because he was exposed to his grandfather, but his understanding was simplistic.

The son who does not know how to ask knows nothing of what Judaism is about anymore. His memories are of his grandfather - the wicked son. He has no clue about Judaism. And to put it into context, he has no clue why Jews need a state of Israel. If the New York Times is to be believed, this son represents 60% of American Jewry (assuming that they're actually Jewish).

The Times reports that some of these not-very-committed Jews are complaining that they feel stifled from criticizing Israel.

But Professor Steven M. Cohen, a sociologist at Hebrew Union College in Manhattan who co-wrote a study last year charting a steep decline in attachment to Israel among younger Jews, said the younger and liberal-leaning are frustrated at being labeled “anti-Israel” or even anti-Semitic for expressing opposition to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories.

Many liberals cite a recent crackdown in San Francisco as an example. After leaders of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco learned that one of the film groups it supported had sponsored the screening of an Israeli documentary critical of Israeli security forces, “Rachel,” about an American woman killed in Gaza, they adopted new rules early this year prohibiting any of the cultural organizations it supports from presenting programs that “undermine the legitimacy of the state of Israel.”

William Daroff, vice president for public policy of the Jewish Federations of North America, defended the San Francisco federation’s decision. “An open exchange of views within the pro-Israel community is good,” he said. “But there has to be some sort of line between constructive discussion and destructive communication that does not recognize Israel as the eternal home of the Jewish people.”

Daroff is right. There is no reason why the organized Jewish community should be financing activities that could indirectly place the lives of the world's largest Jewish community at risk. To remind you all, Rachel Corrie was defending a Hamas weapons tunnel.

The struggle to define the middle ground was in evidence last month among a small group of Jewish Americans who gathered in a suburban Detroit synagogue to describe the view of the recent turmoil from somewhere in the demographic middle.

They were seven people from the “more or less inactive” list of the Birmingham Temple, said Rabbi Kolton, who gathered them at the request of a reporter because they roughly matched the profile of about 60 percent of American Jews, according to various studies: They do not belong to a synagogue and do not attend services or belong to Jewish organizations, yet they consider themselves Jewish — bound in a web of history, culture and DNA to their Jewishness, and by extension, to Israel.

“My parents were Jewish, so I’m a Jew,” said Rosetta Creed, 87, a retired hospital administrator. “I get into arguments with people who knock Israel.”

All said that they had voted for Mr. Obama, supported his efforts to prod Israel and believed there would never be peace in the Middle East without determined intervention by the United States.

Nonetheless, “It makes me angry that the Israelis are always blamed for the problems and asked to make concessions,” Ms. Creed said. “You know, the Israelis are not the ones launching rockets and placing fighters in houses with children inside.”

In different ways, each referred to the history of Jewish persecution throughout the world and noted that the absence of it here and now did not spare one the occasional flash of insight and dread — when swastikas desecrate a synagogue or neo-Nazi militias appear on the six o’clock news — that Israel will always be one’s last sanctuary.

With many of their children intermarried, they pondered what meaning Israel would hold for their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

“Let’s face it, with each generation we are getting less and less Jewish,” said Irving Hershman, an insurance agent who was raised in an Orthodox home.

He predicted, with regret, that the bonds between American Jews and Israel would dissipate in 5 or 10 generations.

They will indeed - unless their intermarried children become practicing Christians! I wonder how many of those seven people who were interviewed were under the age of 60.

Unfortunately, much of the younger generation has become like the child who does not know how to ask questions. They have no concept of Judaism, no concept of Israel. They have exchanged Judaism for the worship of Liberalism. And they resent being told - even if they have intermarried - that their Judaism is not authentic.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:02 PM