Recently the Israeli government sponsored 3 advertisements encouraging Israelis that have moved to the Diaspora to return to Israel. The ads make assumptions about culture as being the basis of nationhood. One of the ads sees a granddaughter horrifying her grandparents by exclaiming that the festival of the day, is Christmas as apposed to the expected answer; Hanukkah. Another sees a boyfriend mistaking a memorial candle for Israel Remembrance Day as a romantic gesture, again, implying that Israeli culture and U.S culture are out of sync.
A distinction needs to be made between the two scenarios. The first scenario (Hanukkah = Israel - Christmas = U.S) focuses on a Jewish holiday commemorating the Maccabees revolt in Second Temple time. The commemoration of this holiday has been celebrated in the Diaspora well before the thought of a modern state of Israel ever entered anyone’s mind. What comes to mind are the famous pictures of Jews in the ghetto huddling around a single menorah during the holocaust, the message being that if you want to commemorate, you’ll be able to do it anywhere. This is especially so in the land of the free where last week President Obama and his family celebrated Hanukkah. You don’t even need to go to your local Kosher bakery to buy your Kosher doughnuts for Hanukkah since many Dunkin Doughnuts hold the OU Kosher stamp. Jewish life in America is extremely vibrant and secular Jews don’t need to go so far to find Jewish culture staring at them in the face.
However, the girl whose knee jerk reaction is Christmas and not Hanukkah would probably not have said so had she been in Israel.
And so now what?
Do all Jews in the Diaspora, if they want to feel part of the Jewish nation, need to live in Israel? Well no, since Jewish life is vibrant in the US.
So should secular Jews then move to Israel in order to be part of the nation? Well only if they want to feel part of the nation, in which case they can get that in the US too.
The only ones who would really benefit from moving back are those who don’t care enough to educate their children about Judaism, but would be happy if they would be in a society where it makes up the dominant culture.
Do such people exist? Well probably, but the point brings up an interesting question;
Diaspora secular Jews who have no Jewish culture, are they really part of the Jewish nation? Well, as Judaism defines nationhood genetically maybe it would be better to ask do they have a Jewish national identity?
We’ll come back to that question but now onto the second video, the commemoration of fallen Israeli soldiers gone wrong. Obviously this commemoration was not celebrated before the creation of the state of Israel. Judaism has a day dedicated to mourning; Tisha ba’av, the fast on the 9th of the Jewish month of Av, in which Jewish tragedies are commemorated all on one day.
However Yom Hazikaron, (Israeli remembrance day) is a day just to commemorate fallen soldiers and victims of terror, a day directly linked to the modern State of Israel, it’s connection deepened due to the fact that it falls the day before Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel Independence day.
This theme is very different than theme number one. As appose to Hanukkah, Yom Hazikaron is much more likely to not be known about in the Diaspora. In the North West London Jewish community for example Yom Hazikaron is only commemorated by self-declared Zionists and even within those Zionists, probably only the more ardent end of the Zionist spectrum. Hannukah however, tends to be celebrated across the Jewish spectrum from traditional non-orthodox Jews to the ultra orthodox Hassidim, give or take.
In short, the video about Hannukah is an appeal about Jewish culture, the one about Israel Remembrance Day, about Israeli culture.
So with this in mind, let’s address the question again;
Diaspora secular Jews who have no Jewish culture, can they really have a Jewish national identity?
The creation of the state of Israel created an interesting situation. Jews living in Israel started going through a process of nation building, in obvious ways such a standardized state run education system, and some more subtle, such as the creation of Israeli culture through the media. Either way in Israel, a people were being united in ways that previously never occurred. The degree to which this has been successful is a matter of debate (something that I plan to cover in a future blog), however what is clear is that Israelis are a distinct people.
The fact that a Jewish people were able to identify enough to move to a new Jewish state is itself indicative of the fact that there were people who identified themselves as the Jewish nation before the state of Israel. However a process of nation building needed to occur to ensure the success of the new state. Jews living throughout the Diaspora were now to live together on one strip of land, each group bringing its own culture, set of belief and affinities. It is the job of the nationalist to solidify a nation. Eliezer Ben Yehuda for example, was known as the reviver of the Hebrew language and the author of the first Modern Hebrew dictionary. So as Jews now living in Israel were learning the revived language of the ancient Jews, Jews in the Diaspora carried on conversing in the vernacular of their state.
Over 60 years on and we find a people living in Israel who have bonded as a people using Judaism as a defining culture, and have also created over time a unique Israeli culture consisting of unique film, music, theatre and of course the (in)famous Israeli mentality(anyone who has been in an Israeli taxi or queued at the Misrad Hapnim –Ministry of the interior, will know what I’m referring to).
In this respect, a Jew from the Diaspora coming to the holy land could either
A. Relate to Israeli’s because of their common Jewish culture,
B. Not relate to them because they have no Jewish culture, or
C. Not relate to them even with their Jewish culture since their dominant culture is more Diaspora than Jewish, or the Israeli more Israeli than Jewish.
To some degree, as Benedict Anderson argues, a nation exists in the minds of the nation, and so if you will it, it is no dream (T. Herzl). Accordingly in the Diaspora a Jew who wants to identify themselves as a Jew can, and has much to draw on. From the perennial sense of ‘the other’, to common Jewish culture such as lighting the Menorah on Hanukkah. Walker Conner in his book ‘Ethnonationalism’ cites Sigmund Freud, who was a totally secular Jew living in the Diaspora who yet felt an ‘irresistible’ perennial feeling, nothing to do with Jewish or national pride, but rather
“many obscure and emotional forces, which were the more powerful the less they could be expressed in words, as well as a clear consciousness of inner identity, a deep realization of sharing the same psychic structure.”
This perennial feeling of course can be extended to the Jews living in Israel. However that is not to assume that a Diaspora Jew can easily leave the Diaspora and emigrate to Israel, as much as a Jew living in France say, can pick up and live in a Jewish community in the U.S. The Jewish people may have a perennial connection but that is not to take away from the culture that they take from their host countries. The call for Israeli’s to move back to Israel is one based on culture, some of it Jewish, some Israeli.
Israel’s right of return means that any Jew around the world has a homeland in the State of Israel. Is the future of the Jewish nation in Israel? Not necessarily. Do Diaspora Jews feel a national identity with Jews in Israel? Not necessarily. Is that a problem?...
Chanukkah video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAkXBULjUCk
Yom Hazikaron video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwXpkYQZHlo
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