We Stand Divided: The Rift Between American Jews and Israel – Understanding Two Communities, Their History, and the Path Forward

by Daniel Gordis

From National Jewish Book Award Winner and author of Israel, a bold reevaluation of the tensions between American and Israeli Jews that reimagines the past, present, and future of Jewish life

Relations between the American Jewish community and Israel are at an all-time nadir. Since Israel’s founding seventy years ago, particularly as memory of the Holocaust and of Israel’s early vulnerability has receded, the divide has grown only wider. Most explanations pin the blame on Israel’s handling of its conflict with the Palestinians, Israel’s attitude toward non-Orthodox Judaism, and Israel’s dismissive attitude toward American Jews in general. In short, the cause for the rupture is not what Israel is; it’s what Israel does.

These explanations tell only half the story. We Stand Divided examines the history of the troubled relationship, showing that from the outset, the founders of what are now the world’s two largest Jewish communities were responding to different threats and opportunities, and had very different ideas of how to guarantee a Jewish future.

With an even hand, Daniel Gordis takes us beyond the headlines and explains how Israel and America have fundamentally different ideas about issues ranging from democracy and history to religion and identity. He argues that as a first step to healing the breach, the two communities must acknowledge and discuss their profound differences and moral commitments. Only then can they forge a path forward, together.

Genres: Israel, Jewish, Judaism, Nonfiction, Politics, History, Religion

292 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 10, 2019

Reviews

[Sleepless Dreamer · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a 288 page book, Gordis brings a lot to the table. Sure, he doesn't manage to describe every problem between Israelis and American Jews but I definitely think he frames some of them well. I'm giving this three stars hesitantly, it's more like 3.5 and the writing itself is great.

The main thesis is that the strife between Israelis and American Jews is not because of what Israel does (like the conflict or lack of acknowledgement towards non-Orthodox Judaism). Rather, it's because of what Israel is. American Jews are deeply involved with American notions of religious freedom, pluralism and universalism. Israelis, however, are more concerned with Jewish particularism and Judaism as a nationality. Israelis see themselves as a Jewish state, a country that has a Jewish essence. Israel is an ethnic democracy. Americans see Judaism as a religion. The USA is a liberal democracy. 

Since American Jews misunderstand Israel on an idealistic and fundamental level, problems are bound to show up. I appreciated this framework. I think Gordis managed to be fair while describing the various opinions involved. Israel or America aren't better than one another, they're different. They have different purposes and different values. The American dream and the Zionist dream simply aren't the same. 

That said, I felt like he was a little too soft with the Israelis. True, American Jews misunderstand Israel but Israelis simply don't think about American Jews. We talk a big game about being a Jewish home but no one wants to hear that around 40% of the world's Jews are Americans. It's easy for us to say, "well, if they want to be heard, they should just come here", without acknowledging how ridiculously hard immigration is. It's unfair that Israelis don't consider American (or diaspora) Jewry as an essential part of the conversation.

And yet, I've gotten the impression that while Israelis underestimate the importance of American Jews to Israel, American Jews overestimate their importance to Israel. I mean, I get so much second hand embarrassment when Israel does something and it annoys the global Jewish community so a few rabbis write an angry letter and simply get ignored. Such actions are rarely published in Israel because no one really cares what a rabbi from New York thinks about the annexation. This is something that must be faced. Should American Jews influence Israeli policy? 

This brings me to the big question that Gordis weirdly enough doesn't address. How is the relationship between Israelis and American Jews supposed to look like? What do we want from each other? What are our expectations and our boundaries? 

I know my thoughts on this- we're a Jewish community, first of all. Politics aside, we need to get to know each other as Jews. I may have millions of issues with the states but that doesn't matter, any Jew everywhere is part of my community. We're a people. I wish this type of mindset was more prominent. 

Should every Jew be connected to Israel? What do we, the Israelis, want of American Jews? I think it's important that every Jew gets to experience Israel simply because Israel is such a cool place for Jews. Like guys, you wouldn't believe how easy it is to keep kosher here or how much fun it is to celebrate Purim when an entire country does it. 

That said, Jews aren't representatives of Israel. This needs to be stopped. We put so much pressure on non-Israeli Jews to take part in a project that isn't necessarily theirs right now. The door should always be open for any Jew who wants to be Israeli but an American Jew isn't an Israeli- they don't share all of our interests. As Israelis, we need to stop assuming Americans are always and forever on our side. We need to accept that we can't simultaneously want Jewish support but refuse to accept their criticism. It's not both. 

It's easy to wrap up this conversation by suggesting that American Jews are meant to donate money to Israel and Israelis are meant to die in battlefields for Jewish ideals but we can do better than that. We should do better than that and yet, Gordis doesn't consider any of this. Gordis is trying to solve a problem before even understanding what's the desired solution.
 
There's also room to suggest neither group understands the struggles of the other group. Israelis romanticize life in America because many of them are unaware of the antisemitism, struggles of being a minority and general issues of America (like healthcare, gun violence or university loans, etc). For an Israeli, life in America simply means opportunities, huge houses and big salaries. 

And on the other side, American Jews often don't understand that the average Israeli doesn't feel the Palestinian pain- they feel the impact of terrorism and war. The average Israeli doesn't know what Reform Judaism actually is and most of them have never met anyone from those communities. There's a huge financial gap between the average Israeli and the average American Jew and that definitely impacts the way we perceive each other. 

This does relate to what Gordis writes. Israel has never been the land of opportunity, we have strong socialist roots. America has always strived to be a country where financial success is achievable. Both of us are Jewish communities, complete with trauma. In Israel, the existential fight is in the battlefield while in America, the danger is within the borders of the country. This absolutely changes the way each group does politics (and maybe even explains why American Jews lean left and Israelis lean right).

There's so much more but I should probably stop.

It's a shame that this book didn't focus more on contemporary thinkers. I feel doubtful that Zionists from the 19th century are that connected to modern problems. Gordis leans on a mishmash of history to make his points and it somehow weakened them because the historical texts lacked context.

To conclude, if you're curious about the issues between Israelis and American Jews, I do think this is a solid book to get introduced to some of the issues. We're all Jews so many opinions are to be expected. 

What I'm Taking With Me
- And damn, American culture and Israeli culture are so so different. 
- I wish Gordis would have spared some pages for Jews who aren't American or Israeli. I know they're a small minority but still, they should be part of this conversation as well. 
- If I had been born in the states, I'm pretty sure I would have been against Israel.
- Also, Gordis seems hesitant to say this so in classic Israeli bluntness, I will- Israel is entirely wrong by not giving equal space to non-Orthodox Jews. There's no getting around that, it's unfair. 
- And I didn't even start talking about the messed up ways Israel tries to get American Jewish support, like I could probably write entire books simply on how Birthright could be improved. 

------------------------------------
The true struggle between American Jews and Israelis is the debate about Uno vs Taki. Truly, we will never understand each other fully until we reconcile which card game is better. Review to come!

[Jon-Erik · Rating 1 out of 5]

We need a great book on this, but this is not it.

We need great leadership on this, but Gordis is probably the wrong author and leader. He has taken a side, no matter how much he tries to hide it. To his credit, he lives those views. He moved to Israel and committed to work towards what he believes. But we need a book on this divide from an honest broker who can do a better job identifying the give and take that could be productive here. Gordis's shift to the right is one that has accelerated beyond most of the rest of us, but we can relate to the pull in a time when the far left, no matter how hard they try to deny it (racists always deny it in one forum and trumpet it in another), is become antisemitic. But I think he is out of touch with a huge number of American Jews and lumps us all together. In my experience, and I believe in polling, most American Jews are pro-Israel. Indeed, a Gallup Poll from August (yes, 2019) found that

Jews in the U.S. are both highly likely to identify as Democrats and vote for Democratic candidates and to express views that are highly loyal to Israel. There is little evidence of a change in these trends, or that this situation creates the kind of Jewish cognitive dissonance that Trump asserts should be the case

. Indeed, it found that

95% of Jews have favorable views of Israel, while 10% have favorable views of the Palestinian Authority -- significantly more pro-Israel than the overall national averages of 71% favorable views of Israel

The minority that is not doesn't speak for all of us, but in Gordis's book they stand in for us.

This book probably should have been a short essay, probably just his last chapter. The rest tries to make a point, but it really comes across as Jewish Studies Mad-Libs, with a sorting of many historical events to weave a narrative that, for me, is way off of the mark. Most bizarre is Gordis's context-free use of quotes to make a point. Numerous times he uses click-baity-like quotes from American Rabbis and Jewish leaders from ages past to further his thesis and then talks about the context later without acknowledging how that context affected such public statements.

His thesis is that the disconnect is that America and Israel have different purposes. He doesn't want to admit that the weight of his argument is that it's American Jews doing the misunderstanding and who want to make Israel in America's image. But he only pays lip service to the reverse case, again, probably stemming from his work in Israel and his former role as a non-Orthodox Rabbi in the US.

I don't think it's much of an insight that America and Israel have different purposes. I also think he completely misunderstands the reasons behind the growing apart of American Jewry (the part of it, anyway, that is) and Israelis. It has nothing to do with what Reform Rabbis thought in 1920.

In other words, there is a complete historical discontinuity during the World War II period with respect to Zionism and people's views about it both because of the Holocaust and the founding of the State of Israel. There is probably no one outside of the Chareidim whose views on Israel have anything to do with what their great grandparents' views were 100 years ago. Yes, there were anti-Zionists in the US. Yes, American Zionism was different than the people who were actually there. But the largest Jewish political organization in Europe 125 years ago, the Bund, was also antizionist. It wasn't just Chareidim and Americans. Turns out a large number of former Bundists moved to Israel when the facts changed.

So, in addition to not particularly feeling this is an even-handed look from an honest broker, I also think it's bad history.

The fact that Gordis seems to either not understand or misrepresent that before the last few decades, American Jews' loyalty to the idea of America came both from a genuine feeling that America was the best home for the Jews in centuries and an ancient practice of trying to fit in. The Mishnah says we should pray for the welfare of the government! Without explaining why the public statements of American Jews before and immediately after World War II were about fitting in and being accepted, you cannot simply take them at face value. It establishes nothing. It's also irrelevant due to the intervention of epoch-making events.

What Gordis and many on the right do not want to accept is a corollary of Peter Beinart's statement that some Jews are leaving their Zionism behind and not their liberalism is that Israel is perceived to have left it's Zionism behind and become right wing. In other words, when Israel chose to associate itself with right-wing politics in the United States it became difficult for liberal American Jews to defend that. On the support side, the "Pro-Israel"® side supported the war of choice in Iraq, and almost managed to push President Trump into another unnecessary war in Iran. The former cost the so-called "Pro-Israel" faction with liberals, Jew and Gentile. The so-called "Pro-Israel" group also allies itself (just for our shared interests, they assure us) with the right-wing evangelicals who want to water down or eliminate the religious neutrality that has made America such a great home for the Jews. Most of us aren't buying that as anything other than a right-wing alliance; the assertion that it's a pro-Israel one is not borne out by words or deeds.

But what they failed to oppose or opposed cost them more dearly than what they supported, at least until Trump. Not opposing the Bush administration after its disastrous effort to lean on Israel to allow the elections that put Hamas in power in Gaza, or even doing more than noting an objection cost them. To this day, Israelis point to the disaster of withdrawal from Gaza as a reason not to do the same again. But it failed in large part because in order to sustain the "demcoracy for the middle east" narrative, which was at least the second or third justification for the Iraq War, the Bush administration cravenly forced Israel to allow elections that everyone knew would result in Hamas coming to power. When Obama repeated this mistake in Egypt, what little slack he had with the right on this issue evaporated, but cost Bush nothing in their eyes. How else should liberal American Jews see that?

Opposing everything Obama did also cost them. Whatever you think of the Iran deal, there was never a clear reason American interests should have opposed it. Trump has not faced anything close to the same attacks for calling off a strike on Iran that he had a legitimate reason to launch. Obama's attempt at rapprochement with the Arab world after his election was almost required after the war in Iraq, even if he mishandled (at first) Egypt and Syria. He got no benefit of the doubt for those missteps.

And then finally, the Israeli public's fawning adoration of Trump has not helped. It looks to many American Jews that not only has Israel chosen a side in politics, but that it has chosen to interfere in our politics and diplomacy. As much as I agree that American foreign policy cannot be held hostage by the "Arab Street" and I do believe that the American embassy's move to Jerusalem is trivial and shouldn't concern non-Israelis and non-Americans at all, for that very reason I think it's a pathetic reason to support a leader who is big on talk and not much else. They have chosen to ally themselves with radical Christians in America. Netanyahu's son tweets that he prefers fascist Europeans to liberal Jews. What are we supposed to think? Say nothing lest we appear antizionist?

Gordis says nothing about this at all.

Instead he condemns the paternalistic attitude American Jews allegedly have towards Israel due to our military, diplomatic, and economic support. We don't understand their predicament, he says.

Sure, but they don't understand ours and apparently neither does Gordis. American Jews depend, just like the rabbis of the mishnah, on a healthy government to protect our rights. That was the impetus for so many of those pronouncements of a century ago, not some wish to dilute peoplehood, but to survive here.

We are liberal in spite of our relative wealth and views on foreign policy because our identity is the most salient issue and we oppose the efforts of those they have made bedfellows with the tear down that aspect of the government that protects us for an expedient but myopic alliance. The Evangelical Right will not save Israel, but might greatly damage American Jewry.

So, we've been pushed into our corners. Sure, some of it is liberal Jews getting carried away with progressive politics and forgetting who they are. But Gordis completely elides the fact that even for Jews who have a more realistic view of Israel's situation, Israel's actions themselves have made us feel alienated not for being non-Zionists, but for not being on the political right. At some point, you are tempted to just say, fuck it. They don't want us anyways, they'll call us self-hating and anti-Zionist if we disagree with their right-wing politics, even if we do agree on what Zionism literally is. Maybe you or I won't feel this way, but those that do are unnecessary losses that must be avoided.

If I were writing this book, I would propose that Israeli leaders make it an article of faith to do (almost) whatever it takes to avoid becoming a partisan issue in the United States. The perception that they will have to accept a disastrous peace deal to do so is false. In fact, I think the Palestinian issue is barely more critical than the partisan disaster that has unfolded among American Jews and liberals, but especially among Jewish liberals.

And I think the "Jewish character" issue is entirely irrelevant to most American Jews. Indeed, I think it's a source of support, not opposition. I completely 100% disagree with Gordis that liberal American Jews are uncomfortable with Israel having a Jewish character. That there are menorahs on the streets during Hanukkah and peace and quiet on shabbat are not the issue. This is separate from the Palestinian question. Gordis doesn't see that. If the "Jewish State Law" was just about stating the obvious and not dog whistle politics why on earth would it have been done? Gordis pretty much proves he is either incapable or unwilling to read between the lines of people's motives. Or worse, he is happy to do it in defense of one side and as an attack on the other.

American Jews do need to understand the reality of Israel's situation. I do not part company with Gordis here. Gordis's sleight of hand where he inserts left of center Israeli politicians on the Jewish character of Israel for their views on the "occupation" is completely off the mark, however. It should be stated bluntly: there is no obvious solution. The Palestinians have never said yes to a peace deal. It's not clear that the Israeli public would either. But to Americans, the "occupation" is an entirely different question in most people's minds than the "Jewish character" question, even if the menace of a "one state solution" is tied up with it in reality. American Jews (probably naively) think there is a win-win solution to be had. We are not calling en masse for the Establishment Clause in Israel no matter what Gordis seems to allege when he says it makes us uncomfortable. It does? Citation needed.

American Jews do need to stop hand-waving away Israel's security concerns and forget the pretension that a Palestinian state will be some kind of Arab Norway. It won't. We also need to quit thinking that a peace deal will make European antisemites or anyone else suddenly approve of Israel. We also need, as Gordis suggests, to improve the Jewish education of our children. Camp is great. Sunday school is ok, but we could do more. Camp could be free like birthright instead of $3,000 per kid. Qualified teachers could be sent to rural areas paid by for foundations. Chabad is a great model to see how this can work, for example. I just don't think this should be stated as condescendingly as Gordis does. We're not willfully ignorant, we just are taking his (later) advice on not all being in one place.

Israel should also eliminate the Chief Rabbinate's monopoly on Judaism in Israel. Again, despite Gordis's shenanigans, this issue has nothing to do with the "Jewish character" of Israel. The government can put menorahs wherever it wants and close whatever it wants on the sabbath. Indeed, on the contrary, to be the spiritual homeland of all Jews, legitimizing the way American Jews worship should happen, and now. I'm not asking for an abolition of an established religion. The fact that something like 1/3 of Jews in the world are non-Orthodox (and many only attend orthodox synagogues and don't practice that way in countries without more liberal streams) ought to be enough. We're Jewish enough to emigrate there, Jewish enough to volunteer for the IDF, and Jewish enough to support Israel at the cost of friendships, money, and angst, but not Jewish enough to be married there or for our spouses to convert there and make more Jews. Awful.

These three small steps: (1) de-partisanizing the actions of the Israeli government, (2) legitimizing conservative and reform judaism in Israel, and (3) more education about the Israeli security and Judaism in general, situation would go a long way towards healing without having to solve the enigma of the "occupation."

This is a much more give and take kind of way forward than the thinly masked derision Gordis has for American Jews built up by his shaky thesis that it's down to a misunderstanding of Israel's purpose.

[Alan Zwiren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second Daniel Gordis book I have read where I thought his observations are right on the mark; however, he offers little in any realistic way to overcome the challenge. And yet, I don't think that is a deficiency of the book simply because I don't see any easy path to bridge the divide between Jews in the US and Israelis. The first step to overcome the divide is to first understand each other; which of course is the purpose of the book.

He skillfully addresses the perception of the divide through events that are happening. Whether it is the issues of the Rabunut, the Kotel, or Politics, the trends between the US and Israel appear to be headed in different directions. And yet, these are not the real issues. The real issue is there have been divisions from the very beginning and have always been there throughout time. Therefore, in order to understand where the two societies diverge, we first have to understand the history.

He is hardly the first to focus on the fundamental divide that formed during the early days of Zionism. Arthur Herzberg's book, "The Zionist Idea" clearly lays out the divide in Zionism between Theodore Herzl and Ahad Ha'am. In his subsequent reissue of the book, in an afterwards, he focuses on the fundamental difference as a challenge between the Jews in North America and Israelis.

Since the beginning, Jews in North America saw the Zionist project as one to help those less fortunate living in societies that did not create a safe environment to pursue their religion. Whereas Theodore Herzl saw the formation of a Jewish State as the only place where a Jew can be safe and secure. Arthur Herzberg labels this the difference between Herzl's Messianic Zionism believing that all Jews one day will emigrate to Israel and Ahad Ha'am's view of Israel being the cultural center with spokes radiating to communities all throughout the world. The Jews in the US and Canada did not feel threatened thus did not feel the need to emigrate to Israel.

This is only the first difference that Daniel Gordis highlights. He discusses the liberal view permeating in North America of universal values versus Israel's very particular values of a Jewish State. He goes into much depth on the differences in the US liberal democracy versus Israel's ethnic democracy. He also dives into the depth of Religion versus Nation. He does this in a very thorough way providing a historical view to the present not in his own voice, but bringing in voices since the birth of Zionism to present.

One of the issues he also highlights, that other Zionist writers throughout the ages have discussed is how the challenge in North America of not learning Hebrew widens the divide between Jews in North America and Israel. It is impossible to really embrace and understand the other if you do not have access to their books, newspapers, radio, TV and society. As an Oleh Hadash (new immigrant) to Israel with limited Hebrew skills I can personally attest that my absorption is challenged by my language skills.

In conversation with my son, he is a believer that there are today two centers of Jewish culture; the US and Israel. He points to institutions in the US to prove his point. And to a great extend Daniel Gordis agrees with this dipole model of Judaism today. However, he does point out the demographics are quickly turning against Jews in the US. It is predicted by the 2050 that there will be twice as many Jews in Israel as there will be outside of Israel if the current trends continue. So the question becomes does Israel need the diaspora and especially the US?

Daniel Gordis employs a metaphor of a couple struggling and at the end of the book the obvious question raised is the couple headed for divorce. It is obvious to me, and I hope to most, that Israelis need the support for brethren in hutz l'aretz, outside the land of Israel for many important reasons. It is equally obvious to me having been raised and raising Jewish children in the United States that those outside Israel equally need Israel for more reasons that is discussed in the book.

I view this book not as a beginning because this discussion has been going on for a long time. I believe this book is an attempt to restart the dialogue not on the affectations that many focus on believing they are the manifestation of the challenge. By focusing on the true root causes we can begin a constructive dialogue of engagement and bridging the divide.

[Adrian David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Israelis are from Mars and American Jews are from Venus
An in-depth examination of the widening schism between American Jews and their Israeli counterparts. Author Daniel Gordis compares their longstanding tumultuous relationship to an unhappy marriage with irreconcilable difference. He highlights that this is not a recent phenomenon, and traces its origins all the way to the early Zionist movement, much before the formation of the modern-day State of Israel.

The Zionist ideologues were relentlessly opposed to the universalism that gained momentum in erstwhile Europe. The ideological debate between the American and European Zionists eventually made way for the rift between the American Jews and Israelis. Theodor Herzl, the father of political Zionism, had realized that Judaism in America was a unique challenge for Zionism and had expressed his exasperation toward the community.

American Jews at large were against Zionism, which denigrated Jewish exile and espoused the re-establishment of a Jewish state. They internalized the notion that the US was their new national home and rejected the very idea of a Jewish state while considering Jews as a religious community than a nation. And their stance remained the same even in 1943, when the erstwhile Holocaust made the argument for the need for a Jewish state more compelling than ever. However, it’s interesting to note that the American Jewish leaders endorsed the 1947 UN Partition Plan for Palestine not because of ideological or religious reasons, but rather, they “saw the state merely as a utilitarian solution to a demographic problem.” This was in stark contrast to Israel’s founding father David Ben-Gurion, who “saw Israel as a rebirth of Jewish peoplehood.” The author elucidates that American Jews couldn’t embrace the statehood-centric version of European Zionism because they envisioned America to be their Zion, their promised land. The community did so out of the fear “of undermining their position in their newfound home.

The American Jewish community was attracted to the liberal politics of the Democratic Party, becoming one of their major voting blocs. Most of them feel that commitment to Israel seems does not mesh well with American liberalism and that a country specifically for Jews was in disagreement with their universal vision for humanity. In the words of sociologist Steven Cohen who’s quoted in the book, “Israel is a red state and American Jews are a blue country.”

The book further explores how the friction between the two communities exacerbated during the Eichmann trial and the Six Day War. Israel’s involvement in the First Lebanon War, the eventual conflicts in Gaza, and the passing of the 2018 nation-state law added fuel to the fire. The author notes that another reason for this rift is the dismissive attitude of Israel’s Rabbinate and ultra-Orthodox leaders toward non-Orthodox Jews (particularly Reform and Conservative) who make up 90% of America's Jewish population. Especially, attitudes towards Israel among young American Jews are mostly negative. Daniel Gordis points out that this is because “Holocaust feels like ancient history, people are not emotional, unlike the previous generations, young American Jews cannot imagine Israel faces an existential threat.”

The two groups’ opposite visions of Jewishness have greatly contemporary shaped Jewish discourse. As the author notes, both communities, which make up over 85% of the world’s Jewish population, have very different values and different visions of Judaism. Israeli Jews are living in a country that’s struggling to stay both democratic and Jewish amid existential threats while their American peers lead comfortable, secure lives. Israel is an ethnic democracy built on Jewish particularism, while America is a liberal democracy built on American universalism. The former draws inspiration from the Hebrew Bible, while the latter reflected on the Christian Bible’s worldview. America was envisioned as a secular country for all, while Israel was envisioned as a national homeland for the Jewish people. In their bid to fit into the Wilsonian dream of Americanization, American Jews opposed Jewish particularism and embraced American universalism. They wanted Israel to emulate the United States. The author reasons out that “America could not have achieved its greatness were it not a liberal democracy. Israel could not fulfill its intended purpose if it were.”

The book also sheds lights on the positive impact of the American Jewish community on Israel, including Israeli religious feminism, which was inspired by American feminism, and the innovative educational institutions in Israel, which were conceived by American views on education.

Furthermore, Daniel Gordis opines that neither American Jews nor Israelis will be perfect partners owing to the radical divide in their histories, commitments, and values and that building a relationship in the face of imperfection is the only way forward. He concludes by suggesting that the two communities “need to recalibrate their expectations of each other” and “recognizing the fracture in this relationship” will make progress and begin the long-overdue process of healing between them.

[Laura L · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is well written and quite interesting, it covers some history that I wasn’t aware of and I don’t think is well known. However, the writer’s biases come through clearly in what he chooses to focus on, and what he leaves out.
I was hoping for a bit more balance, I think it’s an important subject.

[Michael Burnam-Fink · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gordis explores the relationship between American and Israeli Jews through the metaphor of a marriage on the brink of divorce, arguing that both sides need each other. The evidence is primarily historical, based on a reading of pro and anti-Zionist statements from the 1880s through the 1930s.

Some parts of the thesis are fairly incontrovertible. Zionism was a major and fraught question in the Jewish community before the foundation of Israel in 1948. And while American Jews have chosen to primarily assimilate, with the notable exception of Haredi communities, Israel is a proudly, even defiantly Jewish ethnostate, where Hebrew is spoken and Jewish supremacy is enshrined in special law.

I believe the origins of the divide, and I don't expect any one person to have the answer to ending it in a short book. Israel may be a vibrant Jewish community, but unless I learn Hebrew it's a foreign land and a foreign people. Israelis may be thoroughly sick of being hectored by American Jews, but the refusal of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel to treat Conservative and Reform Judaism as worthwhile contributions to the faith rankles. The ongoing war crimes and genocide of the Palestinian occupation rankles, and the idea that because I am Jewish I am supposed to stay silent in defense of Israeli security is deeply personally offensive.

Where it is reasonable to expect a short book to have insight is on some more recent events. Gordis talks a lot about long-dead pre-independence Zionists and the triumph of the Six Day War, but he has almost nothing to say about the politics of the Israeli War for Independence, and the choices in state-building made thereafter. Events since 1982 and the occupation of Lebanon seem to have passed in a gray blur, for all that the book mentions them. Americans are unwilling to live with their own counter-insurgencies. Is it any surprise that we decline to live another country's?

Gordis' criticism that contemporary American Judaism is practically moribund is spot on, at least in my personal assessment of too many years of Hebrew school leading to a Bar Mitzvah. And while Israel may be more vigorously alive, it is increasingly isolated diplomatically. Both sides can point to history for examples of disaster. The First and Second Temple were sacked and destroyed. The European country with the most assimilated Jews lead their mass murder.

This book is interesting as a history, offer true, if trite insights into contemporary politics, and has no solutions. The marriage metaphor is often invoked, but it's also wrong on a basic level, because a marriage is a choice of consenting adults. A better metaphor is one of brothers. American and Israeli Jews, as a group, are descendants of a European Jewish tradition which was destroyed in the Holocaust. Orphaned, the two brothers grew up, and they grew in different directions. So what binds them, except for blood?

[Ilana · Rating 4 out of 5]

`Jewish life, history has taught, is exceptionally fragile. At times the deadly threats come from the outside. At other times rivalries between the Jews themselves have made communities so vulnerable that they fell. Either way, the lessons of Jewish history ought to be clear`.

Based on solid historical facts and knowledge of both American and Israeli Judaism, We Stand Divided by Daniel Gordis aims at adding possible directions to the often conflictual conversation between American Jews and Israel. In the media stories of the last years originated both in Israel and America, it seems sometimes that there is a conflict without solution. But according to Gordis, the seeds of this conflict should be sought after deep into the different evolution of the two countries. Plus a deception: American Jews were expecting Israel to mirror the American society, which is largely an exaggerated assumption.

The biggest merit of We Stand Divided is that it shows the differences in a very clear historical perspective: ´(...) at their core, American and Israel are exceedingly different: created for different purposes, they believe in and foster very different sorts of societies with very different values and different visions of Judaism`. Most specifically, there is a conflict between universalism and particularism that prevails the discourse on Jewish identity and Zionism in general, for almost two centuries. `For American-Jews-as-liberals, a nation-state for a particular people, or a certain religion, is a problematic idea. Their discomfort with Israel stems in part from the fact that the idea of a country specifically for the Jews is fundamentally at odds with their universal vision for humanity`.

Gordis outlines clearly those differences, through the main political and social concepts developed in time, which helps tremendously to understand the full landscape. It is, for instance, very important to have in mind that´the two communities developed differently in response to different fears; were designed to take advantage of different opportunities, developed different strategies for survival, and had at their core profoundly different visions of what and renewed Jewish flourishing would look like´.

This clarification is made though not to further deepen the rift between American Jews and Israel, but as a first step towards advancing towards more pratical and wiser answers to various challenges. Maintaining the conflict and the critical attitudes on both sides is counter-productive. Being able to understand in order to better tailor the community solutions and build the dialogue is a step forward from the current divisions. Obviously, it takes time and it will rather start from the very grassroot level, wisely finding what can be done together.

We Stand Divided by Daniel Gordis is a good reference for anyone looking to better understand the dynamics of American Jewish communities nowadays and their unique relationship with Israel. It is also relevant for anyone interested in modern nation building processes and Jewish identity.


Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

[Corin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots and lots of food for thought.

[Gordon Blitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daniel Gordis has written a brilliantly concise book about Israel and American Jews that attempts to explain how the division has become a wedge issue. There is a beautifully written sequence surrounding the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Daniel remembers being in synagogue and the transistor radio that was supposed to be used for the latest baseball update became a lifeline to the onset of the war.
Scary stuff when you hear orthodox rabbis make statements that reform Jews are worse than holocaust deniers, wicked son, or destroying Judaism. Shocking to hear that weddings and conversions done by non-orthodox rabbis are not recognized by the state!
The schism between American Jews and Israeli is not about what Israel dose but who is Israel. Is it really the center of world Jewry? In 1960 the Israeli Knesset found the Nazi war criminal Adolph Eichmann and wanted to try him in Israel. American Jews were outraged—they wanted him tried in an International tribune. Why should Israel speak for all Jews?
There was an unfounded theory by Zionists that Jews in America were in exile. That they should be returning to Israel despite all the freedoms and opportunity that America offered.
I was shocked about General Patton being antisemitic. That surely wasn’t addressed in the Oscar winning film in the 1970’s.
Gordis proposes various solutions to heal the wounds between American Jews and Israeli. Some of the proposals are standard. Comparing the riff to divorce and that a temporary separation might work. Of course, trying to understand the other side is always a good fall back plan.
Anytime you have a complex issue there are no easy resolutions but it’s important for American Jews to understand the issues.

[Nicole]

I’m not sure what to think. It’s interesting to think that American Jews and Israelis have had a rift for some time. It’s also interesting that people on the right can critique Israel, because it’s believed they love Israel, but somehow it’s not perceived that those on the left love Israel (a statement by J Street was called dangerous, I believe). You can critique, but you have to show your right wing cred first.

I guess I didn’t know that American Jews are woefully uneducated Jewishly. Also, we don’t know Hebrew so whatever goes on in Israel can’t really be our business since we don’t understand the culture. On the other hand, we need to love Israel since it’s the only element that distinguishes our religion from any other. (It isn’t Tikkun Olam.)

If you listen to the audio, do 1.25 speed. Otherwise the reader is much too slow.

[Caleb Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a banger of a book. This book slapped.

[ShamSham · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cogent survey of what lies at the division between American Jewry and Israeli Jewry and a powerful call for greater understanding and collaboration between the two.

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a philosophical, pontificating tone that makes this book rather interesting. It keeps very narrowly focused and presents an argument that gets very little airtime in any other places I've seen. It was thought provoking to really be asked to think about how other seemingly modern nations are not america and are not trying to be. It assumes the reader can set aside their american values - one of which is think everyone else is on a path to be like us in many ways. It's a weird thing to wrap my mind around.

1982 - first war Israel chose to launch, Christians murdered many Muslim Palestinians. IDF should have stopped it. Americans sour.

“For today’s young American Jews who have no personal recollection of a peace process of any sort, an Israel that does not appear to be pursuing peace even as it occupies another people is intolerable. It is, in short, not an Israel they can love or support. If anything it is Israel that they must resist.”

“American Jews wish for a country based on the teaching of the prophet Isaiah: the wolf laying down with the lamb, nation not lifting up sword against nation anymore. While Israel seems to act more like King David, battling the philistines and wielding power at every turn.”

“The prevailing view, therefore, is that the root cause of the rift between American Jews and Israel is what Israel does. If Israel only behaved better the relationship could be healed. There is only one problem with that explanation: it is wrong…. That is not to say that Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians is not a critically important security, demographic, and moral challenge, the resolution of which may ultimately determine whether Israel can remain both Jewish and Democratic. It absolutely is. In particular, millions of Palestinians living under occupation (even if it is an occupation that Israel did not seek and is trying to end) is terrible for the Palestinians and a threat to Israel's moral and democratic core… the fraught relations between American Jews and Israel predate by decades the conflict with Arabs and then the Palestinians.”

“The United States and Israel were created for entirely different purposes and as a result they are fundamentally different experiments in how to enable humans to flourish.”

“How many of the people who wished that Zionism was less adamantly state centered today know that there were Zionist leaders deeply committed to the idea of a bi-national state even before Israel was created? If they knew about [these leaders] have they asked themselves why the idea failed and why even many of its sympathizers… concluded that it could never work? Many young American Jews imbued with the idealism that has long been one of America’s great qualities have evinced no interest in what history’s painful lessons taught those idealistic Zionist founders.”

“It is that Israel is and is proud to be a nation-state, the nation-state of the Jews. And that is profoundly embarrassing to post-national Europe. American Jews share that embarrassment.”
“The legitimacy of the nation state should not be confused with the idolatry of the nation state.”

“America had granted its Jews a timeout from history. Should Jews in modernity return to history or escape it? That is another of the fundamental questions at the heart of the American Jewish Israel divide.”

“No doubt different is the shame at the core of Bialik’s rage and the shame that many American Jews feel about the Jewish use of power. Bialik is enraged at the weakness, passivity, and cowardice of European Jews. For many diaspora Jews however, Shame comes from having and using power.”

“Steiner locates Jews dignity in weakness because Jew were then unable to make anyone else as miserable as they were. Zionists wanted none of that dignity. Not only was Israel's amassing power legitimate given the ongoing security issues it faced, but in a way it was the redemption of the Jewish people from the humiliating religion-induced weakness of European Jews.”

“The only way to reach an agreement in the future is to abandon all ideas of seeking an agreement at present.”

“Yes, they admit, the fight is horrific, the costs often unbearable to all. But if not fighting means the end of the state then the alternative is worse.”

“[American Jews] believe that the most effective way to protect an environment of tolerance is a kind of hyper-civility in which as little as possible is said or done that might offend or cause discomfort to others. Yet there is a danger to such blandness, to a lack of cultural color and specificity.”

“The sad reality is that the wealthiest and most politically involved, culturally-invested, and securely-educated diaspora community in the entire history of the Jewish people is also by far the least Jewishly literate community ever created by Jewish people. As a result too many American Jews, absent Israel, simply do not know enough to have a passionate conversation about almost any other dimension of Judaism. What that means is this: Take Israel out of the conversation and there will likely be almost nothing left that can arouse the passions of the American Jewish community. But a community devoid of passion is not one that people will find reason to care about.”

“What Israel affords American Jews is drama in the very best sense of the world… Given what history had wrought for the Jews of Europe it was understandable that American Jews would relish that goodnight’s sleep and embrace with gusto the opportunity to sidestep the vagaries and cruelties of history. The question now however is whether two generations later that craving for a good night’s sleep has not also robbed American Jews of the profundity that only a life in national history can provide.”

“Israel has already served as a refuge to millions of Jews who fled North Africa, the Soviet Union, and other parts of the world. But Israel as refuge alone entirely misses the point of Zionism's radical reimagination of Judaism.”

“Israel would do itself irreparable harm if it were to imagine that it is only a county of its actual citizens.”

“One of the central points of Israel's culture of memory is to remind Jews that there is no place for complacency in Jewish life. The Jewish tradition focuses not on triumphalism but on the dread of losing all that’s been accomplished. An Israel that felt so secure that it came to believe that Jews elsewhere were not critical to the Jewish future would be ignoring the lessons of millennia of Jewish history. Similarly, an American Jewish community that imagined that it too was so secure that the Jewish people could live without Israel would be ignoring its own looming existential threats. Which is the more vulnerable of the world’s two largest Jewish communities? Is it American Judaism with its challenges of assimilation, Jewish illiteracy, intermarriage, and a possible resurgent American antisemitism? Or is it Israel, still at war with the Palestinians, sharing a border with a Hezbollah armed with hundreds of thousands of rockets many of which are accurate and can hit anywhere in Israel, and situated squarely in the crosshairs of an Iranian regime that boasts of its intent to destroy the Zionist germ with nuclear weapons?”

“There is something not only intellectually sloppy but fundamentally immoral about American Jewish progressives’ insistence that Israel end the occupation but when asked how explicitly refusing to offer suggestions. If they had no idea how to end it why would they assume that Israelis could end it but refuse to? Do they imagine that Israeli parents want to send their daughters and sons into combat? Just as one can understand why young American Jews want to end the occupation, one should understand just how offensive it is to Israelis when outsiders who have no idea how to end the conflict imply that Israelis are not interested in ending it or insist that ending the occupation is a prerequisite to their engaging with Israel.”

“To insist on perfection is to preclude any partnership. To build a relationship even in the face of imperfection is the only way forward. Nothing but the muddy messiness of a real relationship is going to work.”

[Sami · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gordis makes many strong points in this clearly well-researched book. The history of the fraught relationship between American Jews and Israelis goes much further back than I realized, and it was fascinating to discover so many elements of that story and the many actors involved. I had no idea that so many major American Jewish organizations were not ardent supporters of Israel from the beginning of the state, and Gordis offered incredible evidence that I'm not sure where else I would have found. Nevertheless, I did not find Gordis' primary argument--that American Jews take issue not with what Israel does but with what Israel is--as groundbreaking as he seemed to suggest that it was. Disappointing as it was to uncover so much information about the seeming distaste for Israel from its very establishment, it is quite evident to me, as a recent graduate from one of the most liberal institutions in the world, that (many of) those liberal American Jews among us have no interest in productive criticism of Israel, preferring to advocate for a borderless world, starting with the breakdown of Israel's borders; at that point, it is clear that Israel has no way to go up, only to cease to exist.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I struggled whether I wanted to dock a star just because I didn't like some of the arguments Gordis makes within this book, but I decided that my sensitivity (as an assimilated American Jew) to his perspective (as a Conservative American-Israeli Jew) is on brand, and on cue, while reading.

So I kept the 5-star. I was excited to read this book, and was pretty much in agreement of his painting of the rifts between our societies, until 2/3s or so through, when he posed an argument about American Jewish identity, Hebrew, and Jewish embodiment. He wrote how American Jews weren't interested in learning and speaking Hebrew, and that is just one point where I disagree. Hebrew School is an extra curricular most American Jews participate in.

Our perspectives are very different from each other, me and Gordis. I don't agree with all the ways he painted American Jews (he is quite obviously from the east coast of America). But he does describe the divide between our societies very well. He poses several different angles to the divide, and to an extent I agree with much of what he has to say, but I don't believe he approaches American Jewry without bias towards Israeli Jews being 'more worthy Jews.'

It is hard for me to understand how he does not see the devotion American Jews have to Israel-- I think of our societies as bi-national.

In Conservative eyes, an American Jew who only speaks English and who doesn't want to personally immigrate to Israel cannot truly be Jewish. In Conservative eyes, Judaism is particular, and so it is supposed to be exclusive. Despite one's personal identification with their heritage, in these folks eyes, an assimilated Jew is an illiterate mongrel.

I don't think Gordis has any concept of this challenge, the weight, the judgment of imposter syndrome many secular Jews in America feel. He no doubt sees this us as a watering-down, rather than an empowering, inclusive stance that helps us build our Jewish identities, that Reform synagogues across America are learning how to invite us ishy-Jews in.

And so part of the American Jewish experience is this one of Exclusivity, from both the society at large and within the Jewish community. It is not just between Conservatives and Reformists, it is within the Reform synagogues as well. Your support and self-ingratiation into Israeli society reflects your dedication to your Jewishness, rather than one seeking intimate counsel with G-d and following one's divine path?

The vast majority of Jews across America spend a great deal of time, money and energy Israeli-fying their Jewishness. Hebrew is usually the first step, and the first quiz a secular Jew receives from their community, for determining 'how Jewish' one might be. American Jews place a great deal of status in their support of Israel-> there is a litmus of Jewishness, speaking Hebrew, taking Birthright, visiting Israeli family & friends, weddings and honeymoons in Israel, etc.

The is obviously a financially privileged element to this.

For those of us feeling excluded by financial commitments like these, the Judaism we do apply to our lives becomes all the more meaningful, as it is done with intention and purpose. The communities we build are that much more special, because we have to try so much harder to build it into our worlds. It wasn't built into our life for us, through language, familial customs, and tilling the earth of a only certain coordinates for it to matter.

That being said, the "Universalism" of American Jews (and many Israelis I've met) is such a blessing, because of phrases like, "Jew it your way," "There's no Jewing it wrong," "everyone Jews differently," etc. Judaism is an action that takes our good intentions and applies it to G-d and our Humanity.

But what he says about Israeli and American Jews (of all stripes) needing each other to survive is true. Which is why Israel should take into account Palestinian personhood, as it matters greatly to many Diaspora Jews. Granting Palestinian personhood is for many Diaspora Jews, how we Jew.

But, I found most valuable in this book Gordis's explanation of Israel's purpose on Earth is not to be a smaller Jewish AMERICAN state-- it is not meant to be an equal-participation democracy. That is certainly how Israel conducts itself, and exactly where many of America's Jewry has severed their ties to Israel. Somehow, Gordis manages to talk about this attitude towards Palestine without discussing Palestine much at all. It's painted as a very blatant, almost flippant, *their opinion isn't supposed to matter to us, we are not an American democracy.*

He also says, "In the case of American Judaism, that universalizing conversation almost always morphs into one about *tikkun olam* (to cite the horrendously overused Hebrew phrase now in vogue)..."

'Tikkun olam' means "repairing the world," and it is presented to many assimilated Diaspora Jews rediscovering their Jewish heritage as a Jewish value to embody.

Gordis then goes on to describe, by quoting other Conservative Israelis, that "young American Jewish life" is facing "Jewish illiteracy" because we place values like tikkun olam, or, our "American liberalism" over our Zionism, as in, we put respect for Palestinians over our need to belong to a segregated Jewish nationality.

He's got a whole chapter+ that goes on like this, so this is my paraphrasing...

I believe that American Jews want to believe in an Israel that is safe for their neighbors, as much as its citizens. We understand its complicated. But we don't agree with near-total destruction of a trapped peoples. That is not tikkun olam, and we want to hold Israel accountable. Yes, the divide here is big, on idealism of living Judaism vs. the living society in current geopolitics.

This book was published in 2019- I'm curious to see what he has to say since Oct 7, 2023, but I'm going to be actively seeking Palestinian voices instead.

This was an interesting conversation, of sorts. I learned some things. I don't like all of it.

[Laura Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m surprised there are not more reviews of this book. It is FABULOUS. An incredibly thought provoking and important read for anyone that has a relationship with or connection to Israel. Daniel Gordis is deeply insightful and raises terrific theories on the complexity of the relationship between American Jews, Israelis and Israel. Wow!

[Amy Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an American Jew, I have often felt confused about why Israeli society feels so foreign to me. This book opened my eyes to the basis for the differences, and helped me understand why their relationship is so important.

I highly recommend that all American Jews read this book, especially those who find the relationship with Israel troubling.

[Leib Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I guess this book raises a philosophical question of what people are:

Are they what they are independent of circumstances, or do they just happen to be some confluence of things?

After reading this book, I'm leaning more toward the latter.

First thought: Why should we expect American and Israeli Jews to be the same thing? It's not as if we don't know that there is a long history by which Babylonian and Israeli Jewry became two different things over a very long time.

And if that is true, then all of the meticulously sourced names, dates, and lines of reasoning that the authors bring really is only just stamp collecting.

The first group has had to deal with being citizens of another country that welcomes them; The second group is born of being rejected by their host countries.

The first group only has experience with the institutions of statecraft in the context of a state that already existed; The second had to build the institutions of a state from afresh.

The first is composed of Men of Words (the "loquacious, jabbering diaspora Jew that had to live by his wits"--Lewis Glinert quote); The second is composed of Hofferian Men of Action.

Israel is made mostly of Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews; The United States is 90% Ashkenazi.
****
Second thought: I have to wonder what I thought I was going to learn from reading this book.

°°°Was it really new information that there are people from a very old civilization that become something different to what they were many centuries ago in the past?

°°°Who didn't know that Mainland and Diaspora Chinese are not the same thing? (They often speak different languages and their customs are a snapshot of the time that they left China.)

°°°Why is it so hard to imagine that it's the same thing with Jewish people?

°°°It's neither unknown nor unknowable that people can repurpose their literature in different ways according to the appropriateness of the period. (p.143--Some people who don't focus on the nation interpret Hanukkah as a spiritual salvation. Others who do focus on the nation repurpose it as a physical salvation.)

****
I'm really not sure what to think about this, or if I should think anything about it.

-I'm sending my own children to Modern Orthodox Zionist schools, and so if they want to reinvent themselves as Israelis it should be less difficult.

-The United States does have its own rabbinate, and if we know that, then we can know that religious communities can hang on for a very very long time outside of their initial sphere of influence. (The Roman Catholic church has been with us for a very long time past the collapse of the Roman Empire.)

-(Lindy's law). the American Jewish community has been with us for a long time. Even before Hebrew was revived as a living language. If past lifetime is any guide to future lifetime, then the American Jewish community will be with us for a very long time in some form or another.

This is not at all a bad book, and it does have a good cataloguing of differences between the two Jewish communities in one place.

On the other hand, I don't think I will return to read it a second time because the information doesn't have quite enough mass to justify the opportunity cost of the book.

Chapter synopses:

1. Establishment of the fact that the two major Jewish communities are not the same thing.
2. The rift actually is older than Medinat Israel itself.
3. The fundamental epistemic difference is that the (American) Diaspora is universalist and Israel is particularist.
4. Israeli Jews have had to repurpose themselves in order to attend to the needful issues of statecraft; current American Jews are not at this stage (for obvious reasons).
5. American Jews see Judaism as a religion, and Israeli Jews see it as a peoplehood / citizenship.
6. Christianity is the ambient religion in the United States, and Judaism is the ambient religion in Israel. And so, a number of differences between the two communities are a result of that.
7. There are a variety of reasons to maintain the relationship between American and Israeli Jews.

Interesting tidbits:

1. Between 750,000 and 1 million Israelis live as expatriates.
2. In just the last 100 years, Poland was the largest Jewish community in the world. And then the United States. And then Israel. (This is in the final chapter that asserts that survival is not guaranteed.)
3. 70% of non-Orthodox Jews are intermarried and the great majority of American Jews are illiterate in Hebrew--of any type.
4. 85% of Jews in the world live in communities that did not even exist 135 years ago.

Verdict: Recommended at the second hand price.
Thank you for your review.

[Dr. Harold · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dr. Harold Goldmeier is the manager of an investment fund, university teacher, business consultant, speaker and writer who can be reached at Harold.goldmeier@gmail.com


Countless articles and books address the vexing rift between American Jews and Israel. They are short on solutions and long on confirmation bias. Daniel Gordis adds another tome to the pile with We Stand Divided, The Rift Between American Jews and Israel, HarperCollins Publishers, 2019. He, too, is short on solutions.

Nevertheless, his 14th book is receiving plaudits and endorsements from big-name pundits and politicians. Yet, I find little in the book that adds to my general knowledge of the subject or a solution to his desperate plea opening the Introduction, “WHY CAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?”

He ought to know the answer by now after years officiating at the Shalem College in Jerusalem, speaking on the college-synagogue-Jewish lobby circuit crisscrossing Israel and America, making a mint, debating doubters like Peter Beinart and fellow-travelers of J Street. Yet, Gordis doesn’t off the reader outstanding, why didn’t I think of that, answers to heal the rift. There is nothing explosive if that’s what a book buyer is expecting.

“My goal is to put the big ideas about the relationship into the public sphere, so that we can all engage in a rethinking of why the relationship between the two communities is fraught, deepen the conversation that many in the Jewish world are having about the rift, and even begin to muse on some possible directions for healing the break.” We are way past musing. Just ask my foreign students and my children living overseas.




Moreover, the new government of Israel has multiple ministries addressing the rift spending billions of shekels. There are thousands of overpaid NGO officials with inflated memberships soliciting tons of money and little to show but glittering generalities claiming at lavish fundraising dinners to have the answers.


I’m not going to list the religious, political, and nationalist causes Gordis identifies for the rift. They are commonly known to people familiar with the subject. The book is interesting because Gordis provides a great deal of novel history and recordations of lesser-known interactions between Israel/Diaspora advocates and contrarians.

Suffice to say he spends more than 200 pages and nearly 250 footnotes on the history of the Jewish people and the rift. This is an excellent primer for students new to the subject of Israel and aliyah. But you cannot fix the rift with intellectual “truths” about history, or detailing the threats to Jewish survival in Diaspora. Gordis is more truthful and a realist than many observers when he offers readers this ominous portent: “If anything, what is surprising is not that the relationship is wounded, but that it has survived intact for as long as it has.” Furthermore, unless we find the right answers, darkness may descend on the two Jewish nations of Israel and Diaspora.


So, Gordis takes a stab at answering the ultimate question, “What anyone should actually do?” He offers six points for healing the rift but I cannot imagine how they will save the Jewish people.

There is a bit of sunshine on the horizon. Diaspora support for Israel is regularly reported on tenterhooks in poll after poll of young Jews. A new poll suggests there is a sea change in their views about Israel for the positive, as Diaspora Jews age into their late 30s and 40s. This is when Americans trend away from youthful progressive ideas and hook onto more conservative ones. Having been a teacher of international gap year students in Israel, I list as the number one-rift healer bringing Diaspora Jewish youth and young people of other backgrounds to Israel to see for themselves. COVID-19 hit these programs hard. Masa high school and college study abroad, yeshiva and seminary programs, Birthright, student exchange programs, are critical in healing the rift. Spend money bringing them two and three times to get to know life in Israel.

Gordis writes a four-page advocacy statement in the book for these programs. In my experiences, these programs are the most educational and lasting means of building a positive image and attachment to Israel. They are the means to realize the dream of Gordis, i.e., “The light simply must be ushered in.” The young people bring the light in their eyes home with them whether they make Aliyah or live overseas. Bring them to Israel and make her a light unto the Jews of their nations.

[Arthur · Rating 4 out of 5]

We Stand Divided by Daniel Gordis is a well argued, well presented book which may stimulate thinking on the different perspectives of Israeli and American Jews. Gordis traces these differences to the founding of Zionism. Israel emerged as a nation and American Jews, similar to their murdered European ancestors, remained as cultural carriers of the religion.

Israel, at its founding, was surrounded and attacked by all of its neighbors. With the holocaust still in recent memory, American Jews rallied round Israel with financial, political and emotional support. That has faded as the founding generations departed. With Israel's military, economic and political power demolishing concerns about their survival, some American Jews gained more sympathy for the aspirations of the Palestinians.

Gordis takes a well-earned shot at the education of American Jews, with a particular criticism of the failure to teach Hebrew to Jewish children.

Gordis doesn't specifically say this, but there are even signs of weakening of the unreserved support for Israel, as a result of its policies with regard to settlements and the treatment of the Palestinians.

From my perspective, the book's weakness is that Gordis treats American Jews as more monolithic than they actually are. Modern Orthodox generally are committed to a flourishing Israel. For the majority of American Jews, support for Israel, much of a commitment to Israel and even to Judaism are probably much weaker. With intermarriage and acculturation, many who might identify as Jews will slip into the category of Americans with a Jewish ancestor or relative. Michael Chabon, the writer, is cited as a Jew who is unconcerned about the disappearance of cultural Judaism. One hopeful sign for non-religious American Jews, also not addressed by Goldis is the development of Jewish Community Centers, JCCs, Jewish-oriented institutions that are light on religion and heavier on culture and community.

Also, from my perspective, I suspect that some of the alienation of American Jews is due to disillusionment with the promise of Israel, as an ingathering place for persecuted Jews in their historic homeland, a democratic state, with strong human-rights protections including the right to vote for the government of their choice, etc.

These people shouldn't be disillusioned, the reality is that Israel is very much like the United States. In Israel the reality is a state with different standards for Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs, settlers in the West Bank and Palestinians in the West Bank. What critics of Israel might not recognize is that Israel de facto is more like the US than many American Jews may realize. The US, while trumpeting its American values --life liberty and the pursuit of justice -- took the land of the native peoples. Like Israel, the US has a two-tier justice system, depending on a person's race/ethnicity and location. Minorities are redlined into ghettos, with lousy infrastructure and lousy educational systems and limited voting rights to elect the people who set the rules. Daily YouTube videos in the US of police violence against African-Americans are matched by Israeli violence against Palestinians. The difference: American police use live rounds while Israeli police use rubber bullets.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

***.5

Gordis starts with the observation that there was near unanimous support for Israel by American Jews during the 1967 and 1973 wars, which has eroded in many circles in recent decades, and sets out to explain the rift. His main thesis is that historically the founding of the Jewish communities in both places were done under different circumstances and for different reasons. He also underscores the different perspectives of Judaism as religion vs. a nationality.

While he makes some good points and provides interesting historical context, it's hard to see how statements and writings from 1880-1960 have anything to do with the change in attitudes over the past 50 years. In particular, he completely ignores the radical shift to the right in Israel since the Oslo accords. He even goes as far as brushing off the controversy over the inflammatory and anti-democratic 2018 Jewish nation-state basic law as silly and petty. In doing so, he ignores the inherent dilemma facing Israel - it can either be a modern democracy with equality for all citizens, or create a two-tiered system with an oppressed lower class. The latter is what Israel has chosen, and is odious to many American Jews. Blaming the disconnect on factors such the lack of Hebrew literacy among American Jews is a disingenuous dodge.

[Laura Jalkanen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The three-star review is largely due to how much insight Gordis offered into the differences between the worldviews of American (Diaspora) Jews and Israeli Jews. Although the book obviously deals in broad strokes, I felt like I came out the other side understanding a lot more than before. Having said that, Gordis' own very critical (actually even blaming) views regarding American/Diaspora Jews are extremely transparent throughout the book and bear an uncanny resemblance to rabbi Hirsch's 2024 Yom Kippur rant about "emotionally damaged" young American Jews who had betrayed the earlier generations because they didn't end up growing up Zionist unlike their parents.

There is of course a plethora of Israel apologetism and exceptionalism in this book, along with the usual clichés about how "the Arabs" only understand the language of power and how Israel on its part tries its best to avoid violence, but that was all worth hearing Gordis' thoughts on the very different values that Israeli and American Jewish societies are built on.

Still, this is only one writer's view on the matter and I'm looking forward to reading others as well in order to draw comparisons and gain a more in-depth understanding of the very complicated and often self-contradicting modern phenomenon that tends to be simplified into one label known as "the Jewish people".

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting exploration of the growing schism between American and Israeli Jews. As an Israeli American Jew myself, I’ve found myself in the middle of a lot of what Gordis discusses, and this helped to sort of parse the reasons behind that rift.

However, I felt his suggestions for bridging the divide were very shallow. He actually says that both sides ought to listen to each other, which is kind of a no brainer, and I didn’t need to read a book to figure that out. I also felt his own positioning very strongly: he clearly sides with Israeli Jewry and, at times, that led to dismissal of American Jewish values and lifestyles—which doesn’t help when you’re writing about bridging gaps.

All that said, I did find a lot to like about the book and it gave me new things to think about. If you’re willing to keep in mind that it’s not the most objective reading of the situation, you may find it useful as well.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daniel Gordis has written a cogent analysis of the world's two largest Jewish communities: the United States and Israel. His analysis begins with Herzl's founding of Zionism and the fact that American Jews viewed Judaism as a religion and Zionist viewed Judaism as a people. There is much to think about in this very readable book - the fact that most American Jews do not know Hebrew well enough to understand traditional Jewish texts or to communicate in Hebrew with their fellow Jews in Israel. The different foundational ideas that established each country; America as a universalist democracy and Israel as an ethnic centered 0nr. Each of the two Jewish communities built their communities based on very different challenges and visions. How we bring these two communities back together is a challenge but failing to do so will fail both communities. I recommend this book highly.

[Liam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book works well to look at the rift between American and Israeli Jews, and how those differences came from two very different visions of what the State of Israel would be. Gordis touches on ideas such as the ongoing religious struggle most American Jews (largely non-orthodox jews) have in Israel; the Basic Laws that mark Israel as an Ethnic rather than pluralistic democracy, and of course, the ongoing Israeli-Arab conflict.

Gordis' research is very good, and provides readers with no real education on the relationship between the worlds two largest Jewish Communities a good insight into what American Jews wanted Israel to be, what Israeli Jews want Israel to be, and a host of how the two communities grew into what they are from VASTLY different starting points. Well written!

[Diana Lazar · Rating 2 out of 5]

My daughter asked me to read this book because she and her friend enjoyed it. For me this book was interesting I could understand both view points very well. I grew up in a Reform family with very anti-zionist ideas, and married into a very Orthodox Zionists family. To the extent that I have a black hater brother in law living in Israel for over fourty years. I always considered myself to put America first and thought it was just because I was brought up to be patriotic but this but explained the reasons in a clear one considered way. It also explained why Israelis feel the way the way they do about Zionism and why the two paths will probably never meet. I can see why my daughter liked this book.

[Yossi Khebzou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the best book to understand Israeli Jews relationship with American Jews, why that relationship is crumbling and how it wasn't never that good to begin with (he argues that American universalism and liberal democracy were never compatible with Israeli particularism and ethnocentric democracy). He presents well-thought arguments, based on a good deal of research, history and both movements philosophy. The book finalizes with ideas for improving the relationship towards the future and with the lesson that every book about a conflict should have: before starting to argue, we should understand each other. Daniel Gordis's finest work.

[Andy Oram · Rating 3 out of 5]

The core of this book is useful: four fundamental ways in which the typical values of American Jews differ from those of Israeli Jews. Of course, the differences reflect the histories of these groups. These sections overlap a lot, but are worth reading. Although Gordis sometimes chooses facts selectively to fit his polemic, I think the key issues he's identified are correct and important.

I'm most disappointed in the last two chapters, where he says why we should care and how we could repair the rift. The reasons we should care come across to me as weak, and the supposed ameliorations are reasonable but uncreative.

[Alexandria Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read Israel, A Concise History by Gordis. Then, I heard him on Bari Weiss’ podcast. When Impossible Takes Longer came out I got it and am still currently reading it. Now, I’m listening to We Stand Divided. Gordis is an amazing writer. He takes the long and complicated history of the Jews and the nation of Israel and makes it easy to understand.

This book is specifically about the differences between Israeli Jews and the Jews living in America. Their worldview is different, their priorities are different. A rift I wasn’t fully aware of that existed. A fascinating book for anyone interested in Israel and the Jews and geopolitical events.

[Mich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daniel Gordis explores the many different points of view of Israeli and American Jews and how far apart they have drifted. Gordis points out that the differences aren’t so much due to the actions of the two but who they are based on the foundational origins of the two states. Americans don’t understand the nature of the state. The problem isn’t what Israel does but what it is.
“For decades, American Jews have assumed that the more Israel emulates the United States the more admirable it will be,” he writes. But Israel can’t emulate America because it’s not a liberal democracy. It’s an ethnic democracy, founded as a refuge for people hounded on account of their ethnic identity, as well as to restore to them “the cultural richness that a people have when they live in their ancestral homeland, speak their own language, and chart the course of their own future.”
Tracing the early Zionist movements, it is clear that American Jews were hardly enthusiastic supporters of Jewish homeland compared to Jews who already found a refuge in the US ( At the first Zionist Congress only 4 out of 200 Americans attended.)American religious and secular leaders (Prosksuer, Brandeis) were clearly not very warm to the idea of a Jewish nation state as their energies were focused on assimilation into American society and culture. They had already found their safe refuge. They certainly didn’t agree that they were in exile and needed to come home to the land of their ancestors. It was only with the end of the Holocaust did they start to come to the sympathetic view that Jews in Europe had nowhere to go. Similarly, as Jews escaped Russian antisemitism and were welcomed both in Israel with open arms and as they were in the US, Ethiopian Jews came from Africa, and most importantly over a million Jews from Arab countries escaped to Israel, did American Jews understand the necessity of Israel and looked to it as the defender of Jews everywhere. As Israel was repeatedly attacked and threatened by Arab nations and emerged with stunning victories American Jews began to wake up to the startling realization that Israel and its Jews had become a sense of pride not only for American Jews but also for gentile Americans who complimented them on their cousins’ prowess at the same time America was floundering and losing in Vietnam.
The problem for American Jews was that their democratic foundation was one of universalism - both regard to religious expression and all other forms of freedom.
Israel chose to be a particular haven for Jews almost exclusively and for Judaism specifically (In the Law of Return only Jews are guaranteed admission to Israel).
While most Israelis were secular in religious practice they were not in a rush to upend the dominance by ultra orthodox Haredi Jews ( until their religious practice affected their societal practices as well as military obligations); in the US multiple forms of Jewish practice ( Reform and Conservative) dominate.
The treatment of Palestinians, while necessary to avert mass murders of civilians, upset the deep Liberal sensitivities which were the pride of American Jews and had been for many years their ticket to acceptance by other minority groups. Many left-leaning American Jews urge Israelis to end what they call the “occupation”, but have no concrete suggestions that do not present an existential threat to Israel.
Suggestions for healing the rifts are primarily based on trying to put each side into each other shoes more frequently.
The bottom line is that both cohorts, which make up 85% of the world’s Jewish population, desperately need each other and need to be better educated about how different and how closely tied they are.