If there is one lesson the Galut should have taught all us Jews, it is to be fair, tolerant, even kind to minorities, to treat the stranger as we ourselves would like to be treated. As Nadav says, the Hilltop Youth are a disgrace to all of us Jews and it is shameful they have not been closed down.
Indeed. Its making it very hard to defend Israel, when that is the characterization of an Israeli people in the states have in mind. I recently heard a conservative say "I don't like any of those countries."
So the leftists say Israelis are white colonizers.. and the conservatives are beginning think of Israel along the lines of Iran and Syria...
Israelis needs to hear what diaspora Jews are saying or we will just grow farther and farther apart until we don't even recognize each other.
I predict that our next president will not be too friendly with Israel. Cant Israelis see that this infatuation with Trump is an illusion?
One can condemn the Hilltop Youth while acknowledging that the Diaspora will always have a sword over their heads in the event that gentiles become murderous like they habitually do.
Thus, the shameful Israeli law allowing for "hanging" of Palestinians in the West Bank and not Jewish settlers. All to clear the land to make room for new American jewish birthright homes. What you call aliyah.. But what we call a subsidized long-cation to Boca Raton or Palm Beach ultimately paid for by the US taxpayer. It is that sense of entitlement, bigotry that goes against the universalist principles of the vast majority of the diaspora. . The diaspora has to reject AIPAC and other organizations like it that bribe politicians to turn a blind eye to land theft in the West Bank and Netanyahu's crimes.
This essay does something important. It corrects the story. But the deeper issue is not narrative. It is structure.
What it reveals, without fully naming, is a system out of balance.
Israel holds state power. The diaspora holds relational and moral power. One operates through sovereignty. The other through legitimacy, networks, and influence. The system depends on both, but treats one as central and the other as secondary.
That worked when the goal was statehood. It breaks down in a world of distributed identity.
Since October 7, the emotional bond has intensified. But the structural gap remains. Crisis creates solidarity, not equality.
So the real question is not whether the diaspora has value. It clearly does.
The question is whether the system can evolve from a single center model to a shared one.
Until structure catches up with reality, tension is not a failure. It is the signal.
The Philo citation stopped me cold honestly. Most Zionist discourse treats exile as something that happened to Jews rather than something they partly chose, and the argument that 1948 changed the whole nature of diaspora existence, from something forced to something chosen, doesn't get made enough.
The stuff on minority-cultivated virtues, political realism, alliance-building, moral sensitivity, that's where things get interesting. Diaspora experience produced real wisdom, not just coping mechanisms, and that case is worth making.
But here's what I kept coming back to. Jewish identity wasn't just shaped in exile. It got remade there. The Temple is gone and suddenly everything that anchored religious life has to be rebuilt from scratch. What came out of that was something more personal, more inside the individual. Prayer instead of sacrifice. The kitchen table standing in for the altar. The Talmud comes out of Babylon, not Jerusalem. That's a pretty remarkable thing when you sit with it. The worst thing that could have happened turns out to be what made Judaism impossible to uproot, because it stopped being about a place.
Judaism stopped needing a place. It moved into the person instead.
Strongly agree with all of this. Is there room for a program where aspiring young Israeli politicians do a Diaspora Tour and go to different communities in the world to learn? Not just Israel Advocacy on Campus but actually to learn?
I like it, a sort of reverse birthright tour. But first young Israelis have to learn what listening is in first place, because it's not taught as a value there.
I've been itching to create something like this for a few months, but I lack the institutional resources and access to make it happen. I have a whole outline saved on my phone.
Nadav - as one of too few who capture the flourishing of Jews in history fully, you point to what few understand: despite the resilience of antisemitism, Jews belong everywhere in every time. Bavel supported Judea, the IDF bolsters Jewish pride, Levinas and Maimonides and Lurie enriched world history. Jews should be everywhere. In Israel and in Australia. In France and in Berlin. There are costs to being Jewish no matter where we live. Keep doing your outstanding work! כל הכבוד בעד עבודתך עם דן סנור!
We are all- Israeli and Diaspora Jews alike- in the same boat, on the same ocean. Even if we don’t believe that our fates and destinies are intertwined, it doesn’t matter- because our enemies surely DO believe that. And when our Israeli brothers and sisters are spending the holiday in their safe room, we are with them in spirit. We suffer together and we celebrate together.
We are lucky to have people like Nadav to help us understand each other and create a more unified עם ישראל.
Thank you so much for writing this. You are one of the few Israelis I’ve come across who understands diaspora Jews. These past two years as I’ve stood with Israel through the Gaza war I’ve had moments of feeling deeply betrayed, I.e. pausing of humanitarian aid long past Israeli officials raised alarms of starvation and humanitarian crisis. I’ve been told I have “shtetl mentality” all while Israel further isolated itself from the world and became its own self induced shtetl. I stood with Israel and felt compassion for their circumstance but it became clear that understanding was a one way street.
I love being a diaspora Jew in New York City, where my grandparents laid roots and contributed to this society. I love the compassion that comes from being a minority. I wouldn’t give it up for anything.
My wish is for one day, for Israelis to tour the US on a listening tour. Our connection can not be one-sided. Diaspora Jews cannot be taken for granted.
Thank you again for this thoughtful piece. This is always on my mind.
This is the argument I've been trying to make from the other side — the diaspora Jews who pulled back weren't abandoning Israel, they were exhausted by defending a government that gave them nothing to work with. The problem isn't that Israelis don't value the diaspora. It's that the specific political choices of the last decade made the relationship impossible to sustain regardless of good intentions on either side.
It is a new form of bigotry many Israelis dont fully understand, despite "zionism" being the focus of modern prejudice and persecution. While we fight it and try to educate our host societies, there is a danger that we lose touch with Israel itself, and that is a dialog that must be re-established
Israel is secure only because of the IDF. Programs such as Mahal (https://www.mahal.org.il/en/Pages/default.aspx) not only strengthen Israel, they can better prepare diaspora Jews to protect themselves. Once a specific threat emerges, it is too late to learn how to fight. If keeping one's house of worship safe requires armed protectors, then so does the rest of your life, but getting the right tools and training takes time.
Let's remember that it is the people's army, as in all except for a few that do not. Many work in the defense tech sector to invent defense systems that were never thought possible like hitting a missile the diameter of a coke bottle, or a laser that is also being tested on US Naval assets. The innovation, dedication, etc., that built a thriving economy that grows during war time and creates the economic resources to spend over 5% of its GDP on defense, and a security infrastructure that some say the USA would need 5 CIAs to replace. I could go on, but it's important not to forget that the the great success of the IDF is due to many things including a great sense of common purpose, the need to survive, and need I mention an Everlasting Covenant by The Creator! ברוך השם!
If there is one lesson the Galut should have taught all us Jews, it is to be fair, tolerant, even kind to minorities, to treat the stranger as we ourselves would like to be treated. As Nadav says, the Hilltop Youth are a disgrace to all of us Jews and it is shameful they have not been closed down.
Indeed. Its making it very hard to defend Israel, when that is the characterization of an Israeli people in the states have in mind. I recently heard a conservative say "I don't like any of those countries."
So the leftists say Israelis are white colonizers.. and the conservatives are beginning think of Israel along the lines of Iran and Syria...
Israelis needs to hear what diaspora Jews are saying or we will just grow farther and farther apart until we don't even recognize each other.
I predict that our next president will not be too friendly with Israel. Cant Israelis see that this infatuation with Trump is an illusion?
One can condemn the Hilltop Youth while acknowledging that the Diaspora will always have a sword over their heads in the event that gentiles become murderous like they habitually do.
Thus, the shameful Israeli law allowing for "hanging" of Palestinians in the West Bank and not Jewish settlers. All to clear the land to make room for new American jewish birthright homes. What you call aliyah.. But what we call a subsidized long-cation to Boca Raton or Palm Beach ultimately paid for by the US taxpayer. It is that sense of entitlement, bigotry that goes against the universalist principles of the vast majority of the diaspora. . The diaspora has to reject AIPAC and other organizations like it that bribe politicians to turn a blind eye to land theft in the West Bank and Netanyahu's crimes.
This essay does something important. It corrects the story. But the deeper issue is not narrative. It is structure.
What it reveals, without fully naming, is a system out of balance.
Israel holds state power. The diaspora holds relational and moral power. One operates through sovereignty. The other through legitimacy, networks, and influence. The system depends on both, but treats one as central and the other as secondary.
That worked when the goal was statehood. It breaks down in a world of distributed identity.
Since October 7, the emotional bond has intensified. But the structural gap remains. Crisis creates solidarity, not equality.
So the real question is not whether the diaspora has value. It clearly does.
The question is whether the system can evolve from a single center model to a shared one.
Until structure catches up with reality, tension is not a failure. It is the signal.
This comment is AI slop
What makes you say that? I thought the comment was succinct.
Moral power without state power is merely an opinion in the cacophony.
The Philo citation stopped me cold honestly. Most Zionist discourse treats exile as something that happened to Jews rather than something they partly chose, and the argument that 1948 changed the whole nature of diaspora existence, from something forced to something chosen, doesn't get made enough.
The stuff on minority-cultivated virtues, political realism, alliance-building, moral sensitivity, that's where things get interesting. Diaspora experience produced real wisdom, not just coping mechanisms, and that case is worth making.
But here's what I kept coming back to. Jewish identity wasn't just shaped in exile. It got remade there. The Temple is gone and suddenly everything that anchored religious life has to be rebuilt from scratch. What came out of that was something more personal, more inside the individual. Prayer instead of sacrifice. The kitchen table standing in for the altar. The Talmud comes out of Babylon, not Jerusalem. That's a pretty remarkable thing when you sit with it. The worst thing that could have happened turns out to be what made Judaism impossible to uproot, because it stopped being about a place.
Judaism stopped needing a place. It moved into the person instead.
When it stopped being a place, life got shitty for Jews. Survivorship bias serves no one.
Wow. This is so great. I'm an Israeli American. This is essential reading.
Thanks Liza!
Strongly agree with all of this. Is there room for a program where aspiring young Israeli politicians do a Diaspora Tour and go to different communities in the world to learn? Not just Israel Advocacy on Campus but actually to learn?
I like it, a sort of reverse birthright tour. But first young Israelis have to learn what listening is in first place, because it's not taught as a value there.
I've been itching to create something like this for a few months, but I lack the institutional resources and access to make it happen. I have a whole outline saved on my phone.
Nadav - as one of too few who capture the flourishing of Jews in history fully, you point to what few understand: despite the resilience of antisemitism, Jews belong everywhere in every time. Bavel supported Judea, the IDF bolsters Jewish pride, Levinas and Maimonides and Lurie enriched world history. Jews should be everywhere. In Israel and in Australia. In France and in Berlin. There are costs to being Jewish no matter where we live. Keep doing your outstanding work! כל הכבוד בעד עבודתך עם דן סנור!
לבי במזרח ואנוכי בסוף מערב.
We are all- Israeli and Diaspora Jews alike- in the same boat, on the same ocean. Even if we don’t believe that our fates and destinies are intertwined, it doesn’t matter- because our enemies surely DO believe that. And when our Israeli brothers and sisters are spending the holiday in their safe room, we are with them in spirit. We suffer together and we celebrate together.
We are lucky to have people like Nadav to help us understand each other and create a more unified עם ישראל.
הנה מה טוב ומה נעים שבת אחים גם יחד.
Thank you so much for writing this. You are one of the few Israelis I’ve come across who understands diaspora Jews. These past two years as I’ve stood with Israel through the Gaza war I’ve had moments of feeling deeply betrayed, I.e. pausing of humanitarian aid long past Israeli officials raised alarms of starvation and humanitarian crisis. I’ve been told I have “shtetl mentality” all while Israel further isolated itself from the world and became its own self induced shtetl. I stood with Israel and felt compassion for their circumstance but it became clear that understanding was a one way street.
I love being a diaspora Jew in New York City, where my grandparents laid roots and contributed to this society. I love the compassion that comes from being a minority. I wouldn’t give it up for anything.
My wish is for one day, for Israelis to tour the US on a listening tour. Our connection can not be one-sided. Diaspora Jews cannot be taken for granted.
Thank you again for this thoughtful piece. This is always on my mind.
Thank you Gabrielle. Chag Samech.
Chag sameach!
This is the argument I've been trying to make from the other side — the diaspora Jews who pulled back weren't abandoning Israel, they were exhausted by defending a government that gave them nothing to work with. The problem isn't that Israelis don't value the diaspora. It's that the specific political choices of the last decade made the relationship impossible to sustain regardless of good intentions on either side.
Wow. Very well said.
OUTSTANDING! Yasher koach!
Great article ! Regards from a Brazilian Jew ! 🇧🇷🇧🇷🇮🇱🇮🇱
חג כשר ושמח
This is a wonderful and honest essay. I have expressed a similar sentiment in my essays about antizionism and the Diaspora experience.
https://substack.com/@jesseguten/note/c-235207855?r=69jdwa
It is a new form of bigotry many Israelis dont fully understand, despite "zionism" being the focus of modern prejudice and persecution. While we fight it and try to educate our host societies, there is a danger that we lose touch with Israel itself, and that is a dialog that must be re-established
True indeed.
Israel is secure only because of the IDF. Programs such as Mahal (https://www.mahal.org.il/en/Pages/default.aspx) not only strengthen Israel, they can better prepare diaspora Jews to protect themselves. Once a specific threat emerges, it is too late to learn how to fight. If keeping one's house of worship safe requires armed protectors, then so does the rest of your life, but getting the right tools and training takes time.
Let's remember that it is the people's army, as in all except for a few that do not. Many work in the defense tech sector to invent defense systems that were never thought possible like hitting a missile the diameter of a coke bottle, or a laser that is also being tested on US Naval assets. The innovation, dedication, etc., that built a thriving economy that grows during war time and creates the economic resources to spend over 5% of its GDP on defense, and a security infrastructure that some say the USA would need 5 CIAs to replace. I could go on, but it's important not to forget that the the great success of the IDF is due to many things including a great sense of common purpose, the need to survive, and need I mention an Everlasting Covenant by The Creator! ברוך השם!