A Letter to Ezra Klein
You made quite a splash with your recent opinion piece in The New York Times about divisions among American Jews concerning Israel. Your article suggested a growing consensus among American Jews, especially younger ones, that they can no longer support Israel because “their commitment to the basic ideals of liberalism is stronger than their commitment to what Israel has become.”
When I started researching American Jewish polarization four years ago, your book “Why We’re Polarized” was my first read. I learned so much from you about the causes of polarization in our country. Although you were not focused specifically on American Jewish polarization, much of your analysis was also on point for our community.
But as I continued my research, I also came to understand that polarization among American Jews also involves unique dynamics specific to our religious and political composition. Discord surrounding Israel has also been a reality for decades, as demonstrated by Samuel G. Freedman’s groundbreaking book “Jew vs. Jew,” published in 2000.
But today, polarization surrounding Israel is especially intense in the American Jewish community. This is due to the current war, but also because anti-Israel voices are often the loudest ones in the liberal spaces inhabited by most Jews. But loud voices do not equate to a growing majority. Josh Kraushaar’s JewishInsider response to your piece cited numerous recent studies demonstrating the wide scope of Jewish support for Israel. Anecdotally, I see similar strong support for Israel in my own midwestern community among Jews of all ages and across the denominational spectrum.
Kraushaar rightly notes that your piece is “a worthwhile example of how even the best-intentioned columnists can struggle to understand the world outside of their own social and informational bubble.” When highly respected journalists such as yourself suggest that a much larger share of American Jews are turning against Israel than the relevant data suggests, this perception has a sad way of becoming the reality.
To gain a different perspective of how American Jews think about Israel, you might have considered speaking with someone such as Michael Koplow, the Israel Policy Forum’s Chief Policy Officer. Koplow also responded to your article not only by highlighting statistics demonstrating ongoing strong support for Israel, but also by discussing the reasons why a Jewish-majority state is essential.
Or perhaps you could have interviewed the veteran Israeli journalist Dan Perry, whose thoughtful article titled “Recognizing a Palestinian State is a Great Way to Doom Palestinians” came out a few days after your own in the left-leaning Forward. Like Koplow, Perry is an ardent supporter of Israel’s existence, a harsh critic of its government, and an advocate for Palestinians.
I worry that many readers of your piece, both Jews and non-Jews, will never read the responses by Kraushaar, Koplow, and others who have a more nuanced understanding of the actual numbers and the situational dynamics at play in Israel. This is the root of the polarization problem you aptly identified in your book—typically people do not venture outside of their comfortable bubbles, and the echo chambers grow.
American Jews cannot control the larger social institutions such as the media and the universities that have become bastions of illiberalism particularly over the past decades. But we can model broader engagement with those who think differently in attempting to create a more balanced, centrist perspective. When it comes to the American Jewish world, the entrenched anti-Zionists are not likely to engage in the types of conversations that are so necessary at this moment. But I did not read you as being in this camp and that is why I wanted to reach out to you.
You have the blessing of a huge platform among American Jews and beyond. Please be part of a much-needed effort to engage in real conversations about the critical issues regarding Israel. Please use your voice to work toward shaping a future that the majority of American Jews can support, and that the safety of the world demands. As your fellow New York Times columnist Bret Stephens wrote a few months ago in SAPIR: “There is no shortage of discomforting and intelligent debates to be had in good faith regarding Israel and its future. Proposing that Israel should have no future isn’t one of them.”
Roberta Rosenthal Kwall is law professor, author and Jewish educator with a focus on American Judaism. Her latest book is “Polarized: Why American Jews are Divided and What to do About It” (forthcoming, Bloomsbury Press).
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