A JTA release informs us that Israel spends $127 million annually in programs meant to build bridges between Israel and world Jewry. That’s $127 million mostly wasted. Touted as the most recent program exemplifying this goal is the gathering of some 120 Jewish leaders from Israel and around the world for a two-day summit in Jerusalem. Make that the umpteenth such summit.
At the very best, the result of these expensive summits are some personal friendships and the awareness of the unbridgeable gulf between Israel and the Diaspora. A national life, colored pervasively by the threat of military annihilation, and characterized by the universal experience of living as a member of the majority, cannot be understood if you don’t live it. And if you do live it, you’re living in Israel, not the Diaspora.
We freely affirm the value of Jewish life in both Israel and the Diaspora., but the only bridge-building between the two will be personal and impossibly theoretical. Never the twain shall they meet. $127 million — mostly wasted.
A planning document for the current summit reads: “Building on past success, the Government of Israel is determined to champion and co-create, with world Jewry, a multi-layered initiative that guarantees a thriving future for the next generation of Jews.”
Do you know what that means? Don’t feel bad. It is, of necessity, so abstract as to be meaningless.
The planning document continues: “This new initiative has the potential to move to another and more mature level, in terms of cooperation, commitment, content and funding.”
Level of what? Cooperation between whom, exactly? Commitment to what? Content — unspecified. Funding — why?
Copyright © 2013 by the Intermountain Jewish News
