It is no secret that Israel’s battle for public support has reached crisis levels. The fissures in the once solid consensus behind Israel in the West widen by the day. Voices that distort truth and justice are ascendant, while Israel’s clout weakens.
US President Joe Biden and his administration spit in the face of their Jewish constituents and the Jewish nation as a whole by choosing to appoint members of anti-Israel groups to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum Council – a move that recalls the disconnect and hypocrisy displayed in the United Nations’ recent appointment of the Islamic Republic of Iran as chair of the UN Human Rights Council Social Forum.
We urgently need to stem the tide, but in order to do so, we must first identify the root cause of Israel’s falling stature.
Observing the course Israel has taken in recent years in how it chooses to portray itself to the world may give us a clue.
Jewish identity and Torah values
Israel seems to believe that it can refashion itself as a mere democracy serving a collection of atomized individuals, rather than a nation bound together by a rich and exalted heritage. Downplaying our Jewish identity and Torah values is seen as the solution to the world’s enmity.
CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer tours the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, for a special airing on the network, Aug. 26, 2022. (credit: COURTESY OF CNN)This is a catastrophic error. The UN and other foes of the Jewish state will never change their tune on Israel, no matter how desperately Israel tries to prove that it is indeed just one among the nations. Watering down its Jewish identity only weakens Israel, while undermining its true purpose of spreading freedom of religion and Jewish values. When Israel’s enemies see that it is unwilling to stand up for its own heritage, they are emboldened. If all is meaningless, then even the six million who perished in the Holocaust can be disrespected by appointments that make a mockery of what Holocaust remembrance stands for.
Israel inspires hope and confidence in millions across the world, both Jewish and otherwise, precisely because of its uniqueness.
Instead of being ashamed of its identity, Israel should embrace it. In today’s age of multiculturalism, one can walk outside and see a medley of distinctive garb, proudly and unselfconsciously worn by men and women eager to express their varied cultures. Yet so many Jews are ashamed to walk around wearing a kippah; even standing before the world as representatives of its only Jewish government without bothering to put one on. Israel can learn an instructive lesson from its Arab neighbors, who earn the world’s respect when they proudly and unapologetically wear their keffiyehs and stand by their religious values.
We are a nation that has stood proudly together for thousands of years, sustained in exile by the Torah and its values. When Israel succumbs to the fallacy that it can sustain itself as nothing more than a democracy while putting those values aside, it plays right into the confusion animating enemies of the Jewish state from among its own kin, such as J Street and their ilk.
Indeed, if we are truly nothing more than a democracy, why it is so vital that Israel continues to be a nation capable of determining its own destiny? Increasingly, Israel seems to believe it can stake its entire identity on its mission to fight antisemitism – but an identity defined solely by those who oppose you is no identity at all.
Israel must give Judaism and Torah values a place of pride at the center of its activities at home and abroad. It should lean into its Jewish identity and seek to promote Shabbat and traditional family values. Israel is losing the next generation because it offers them nothing to believe in. When Israeli state schools don’t teach children about their history but intentionally deprive them of the deep meaning and value of their heritage and even the basic declaration of faith of Shema Yisrael, should we be surprised when, in their confusion, many of them begin to identify with the Palestinian cause?
Israel’s dealings with the Orthodox Jewish community in the United States should be guided by these same considerations. It behooves Israel to make a greater effort to recognize and acknowledge them than it has presently shown.
American Orthodox Jews are the largest unified Jewish group outside of Israel, whose commitment to Israel is unwavering – and the only group using their clout as a sizable voting bloc to influence public policy on causes favorable to Israel’s interests and its security.
The community’s extensive engagement on behalf of Israel is perhaps the most underreported and underappreciated story behind Israel’s success. This instinctively modest community quietly donates enormous sums to a plethora of Israeli organizations, builds schools and houses of worship throughout the country, invests heavily in Israel’s economy, and goes to bat on behalf of Israel in the halls of government.
Israel should reciprocate in kind and welcome their deep commitment to Jewish values openly. When Israel faces a choice, as it does now in New York, in selecting a consul general who will serve as an essential link between diaspora Jews and Israel, it should be sensitive to Orthodox Jewish values and appoint someone whom they can feel comfortable with and who shares their values.
In today’s challenging times, with antisemitism and assimilation an ever-present threat to Diaspora Jews, Israel can choose to be a rallying point for Jewish exceptionalism, rooted in a commitment to our heritage. Israel and Judaism are entwined in a relation of mutual dependency: By fostering Jewish identity at home and abroad, Israel taps into the wellspring of faith and moral purpose that has made Jews the most enduring nation in human history.
When we truly internalize this lesson, we will no longer degrade ourselves to get the nations of the world to tolerate us but instead elevate ourselves and rightfully earn their respect.
The writer is founder and CEO of the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce, bridging the business and governmental worlds, stimulating economic opportunity and positively affecting public policy of governments around the world.
