Download ISRAEL AND DIASPORA

ISRAEL AND DIASPORA
A hundred years have passed since modern Zionism began to be
advocated, seventy years since Herzl convened the First Zionist Congress
at Basle, nearly fifty years since the Balfour Declaration was signed,
and nearly twenty years since the State of Israel was established. There
has therefore been plenty of time, so one would have thought, for #3:;31
to cone to terms with the problem which goes under the name of "Israel
and Diaspora".
But not so.
where is as much confusion on this subject
today as at any time inlthe past.
Broadly speaking, there are two opposite tendendas.
0n the one hand
there are those who look upon the State of Israel as the homeland of all
Jews, the centre of Jewish life and the guarantee of its future.
According
to this view the Jews of other lands, kn0wn as the Diaépora, occupy a
subordinate position.
Their chief function is to furnish the State of
Israel with money and immigrants.
If and when this is no longer necessary
the Diaspora communities will become redundant.
They may continue to
exist as outposts of the State of Israel, or they may disappear through
assimilation; but it Will not matter tremendously what happebs to them.
On the other hand there are those who look upon the establishment of
the State of Israel as a purely political event, perhaps to be welcomed,
perhaps to be regretted, but without any great spiritual significance.
On this view the land of Israel is just another country where Jews live
in large numbers.
Their role is in no way unique.
Nothing has really.
changed; everything is essentially as it was before 19u8.
From the one point of view the state of Israel is everything; from
the other it is nothing.
LEO
.»
“\"a‘" _
-'
\
V
\a-vi‘
-‘-J
- 2 _
Surely both these viegs are mistaken.
But to see the matter in a better
perspective we must take a journey back into the past.
The Bible regards the land of Israel as "the Promised Land" where
Abraham and his descendants are to keep, so to speak, a permanent appoinmment with destiny.
But the land did not always live up to the promise.
Again and again adverse circumstances, climatic or political, drove its
inhabitants to seek refuge in other lands. Abraham himself went down to
Egypt on account of a famine, and for the same reason his grandson Jacob
and his sons settled in a part of Egypt known as Goshen. As they said to
Pharaoh, according to our Torah portion, "We have come to live in this
land because there is no pasture for your servants' flocks, the famine
being severe in the land of Canaan."
In other words, they chose to live
in the Diaspora, not because they had been expelled from their homeland,
but in search of better economic condit$ona.
This particular Diaspora lasted for over four centuries, until Moses
and Joshua led the Israelites back to the Promised Land. 15 due course
they established a monarchy, with Jerusalem as the capital and its Temple
as the national shrine. Thus the bond between the peeple and the land
grew deeper, until the very idea that Judaism could exist elsewhere became
inconceivable.
And that is why the Northern tribes, wheh they were conquered
and deported by the Assyrians, soon lost their 1Qentity and disappeared from
histmry.
But a century and a half later, when the Southern tribes were conquered
and deported by the Babylonians, the result was very different.
indeed despair and sorrow.
There was
"By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and
wept, when we remembered Zion...How shall we sing the Lord's song in a
foreign land?" But by this time the Prophets had done their work. They
- 3 _
had inculcated into the people the conception of a universal God, whose
authority does not cease at the borders of one land, who can be worshipped
anywhere. Therefore all was not lost. The exiles remained loyal to
Judaism.
It is true, of course, that their spirits
the hope of returning to their former land.
were buoyed up by
Indeed the Prophets of the
Exile, like Ezekiel, assured them in glowing words that this would soon
§;;;;;?““"Tnus says the Lord’God, Behold,
I
will take the people of Israel
from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from
all sides, and bring them to their own land; and I will make them one
nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be
king over them all."' But when the opportunity came, many chose to remain
in Babylonia, and so the second Diaspora became quasi-permanent.
The third dispersion is usually associated with the destrucfiiEBLof the
Second Temple by the Romans in the year 70. Actually it began Eaug—beéere.
From the time of Alexafler the Great, if not e;;£éer, Jewish colonies
establidled themselves in many parts of the Greek, and subsequently the
Roman, Empire.
In Alexandria itself one-fifth of the population
was
Jewish, and Py the pgginning of the Chrihtian era there were substantial
Jewish commfig£gie Zfrgm Persia to Rome and from Asia Minor to North Africa.
This Diaspora, therefore, was not due only, or even primarily, to conquest
and expulsion. The motive was once again, as in the days of Jacob and
his sons, the quest for econmmic and commercial opportunity.
a
voluntary Diaspora.
It
was
In spite of all their love for the land of Israel,
Jews in their thousands, indeed millions, chose to live elsewhere in the
world. And what is more, they developed a considerable degree of religious
independence.
It is true that
they looked to the Temple in Jerusalem, as
long as it lasted, as their national shrine, and made a pilgrimage to it
-uwhen they could.
And subsequently they looked to the Palestinian
Patriarchate, while Egg; lasted, for religious guidance, especially
in the matter of the sadred calendar. But already in Maccabean times
the Jews of Egypt built their own Temple at Leontopolis, where they
offered sacrifices for two-and-a-half centuries; and from the third
century C.E. onwards the Rabbinic Academies of Babylonia began to
eclipse those of Palestine, so that ultimately it was the Babylonian
Talmud and not the Palestinian Talmud which became the nofm for Jewish
communities throughout the world.
Thereafter and all thnough the Middle Ages, religious leadrship
was exercised by whichever community possessed the greatest scholars.
Sometimes it was Babylonia, sometimes North Africa, sometimes Spain,
sometimes France, sometimes Germany or Pnland.
Of course the love for Zionlpersisted.
It inspired religious poetry
of high quality; it foufid its way into the prayerbook; it prompted
individuals in all ages to embark on the hazardous voyage across the
Mediterranean so as to end their days on the soil of the Holy Land.
But hardly ever, until modern times, did it occasion any large—scale
migrations.
How is this to be explained?
Was it due merely to lack of opportunity?
If so, it would be hard to account for the present situation. For
eighteen years now there has 323 been any lack of opportunity. For
eighteen years the Law of Return has been in operation, and therefore
the Ingathering of the Exiles has been, not only propagandistically
advocated but practically feasible.
All you have to do is to pack your
bags and purchase an air—line ticket to Tel-Avib.
There is no need
to wait for the Almighty to carry you as on eagles' wings; El-Al Will
-5—
do it for you at the standard commercial rate.
Yet only one-seventh of
the world's Jews have responded to the call, and even of those the
majonxy have gone there ae.v1ctims of persecution, seeking a haven of
refuge, rather than out of religious idealism.
(Indeed, in the 'thirties
they used to ask the immigrants, when they arrived in Palestine, "Have
you come from Germany or from conviction?")
From countries like England,
France and America, where Jews are secure and prosperous, only a tiny
proportion have taken advantage of the Law of Return.
majority are appafiently unwilling to be "gathered in".
The overfluelming
And today,
although immigration to Israel continues and xx remains for many thbusands
of Jews a matter of dire human need, there is also a substanéial and
apparently increasing emigration from Israel back into the Diaspora.
The implication is clear.
Already for many centuries the "Return to
Zion" has been for most Jews a remote ideal, a poetical dream rather than
a practical programme, and Jerusalem a symbol of the far-off Messianic
Age rather than a city éf mortar and brick where any self—respecting Jew
must seek to live here and nOW.
V
Ia spite of the love for Zion, in spite
of the prayers for the Ingathering of the Exiles, and in spite of David
Ben Gurion, most Jews seem to believe that they are entifled to live
anywhere in the war-1d,
wMfiMfifismei—emmwt, and
that
Diaspora existence is not a temporary expedient to be terminated at
the earliest opportunity.
Rabbi David Pmbieh was right when he wrote
that "the homing impulse in Judaism is counter-balanced by an almost
equally powerful centrifugal force" (Egg Egernal Dissent,
1M8).
p.
What, then, should be our conclusions about the relative importance,
and the mutual relations, of Israel and the Diaspaa today?
I
think we mud
_ 6 -
affirm and Ee-affirm that Jewish life in the Diaspora is possible,
that
Judaism is capable of flourishing in any country of the world which
is
sufficiently civilised to grant its citizens and its minorities the
necessary cultural as Well as political freedom. That may not be so in
the Soviefit Union, and it may not be so in the Arab world; but it is
so,
happily, in most countries, and it W111, let us hope, become increasingly
so.
But we must go furhher than that.
Just because the option of
emigration to Israel exists, Just because the modern Diaspora is in an
umprtuw
'3?" l)” 1*
new sense a voluntary Diaspora, those who make—4hafi-veiunfiafiybeheéee
need to have a sense bf purpose as Jews; they need to feel that
they have
a mission, fiKflKXI to spread Judaism among the Gentiles, to inject
its
insights and its ideals into the life of mankind.
And yet it would be foolish to regard the State of Israel as only
another country with a large Jewish population. It is unique because of
of affection
its historic associations. It is unique because of the special
place/
which it has held in the Jewish heart for thousands of years. It is
unique because it is the one country of the world where the language
of
the Bible is the language of daily speech.
It is unique,
ab¢ve all,
because it is the agg‘country where the Jews constitute a
majority of
the pOpulation and are in control of the Government. All
this does not
make the Jewish community of Israel more important than
other Jewish
communities. But it means that it has a special opportunity
and a
special responsibility.
Its task is not to propagate Judaism among
the Gentiles; for thét it is less well placed than
the Diaepora. Its
C Wk
task is to show to the world what Judaism means,
what religionlmeanfl,
H.
when an attempt is made to apply it to the
social and pplitical problems
of a modern nation.
M
_ 7 _
Both, therefore, are important - Israel and the Diaspora.
It is
Each has its own opportunities
not a question of either/or but both.
and challenges as well as its own problems and difficulties.
And
therefore neither should be regarded as subordinate to the other.
‘rh
The State of Israel does not existLin order to feed the Diaspora with
Jewish culture, neither does the Dgaspona exist only to feed the State
or Israel with money and manpower:"Both are responsible not only to
one another but to God.
f
"One nation under God", says the American pledge of allegiance.
That is also an apt description of the Jewish people.
When both,
Israel and Diaspora, recognise theggygggigation to God, then they
will respect pne another as equals, and they will become one people.
"Thus says the Lord God} Behold I am about to take the stick of Joseph,
and I will join it with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick,
that they may be one in my hand."
Bod N4 Jx tum ruin» l'b'fl, (M «w»
fi‘
M
Mm-muw.
wax
MM; w
Hi» “4
m
(LuL‘M—I.
.
VOW, 1"c
nU-WJ‘W Lu» m4
“WU:
(,1;
.wmww w W an (mm ca 0
mudgk 2.» 046m gw’c gawk
co~c~1C~Jr<L
M14
tin-14M
L”
v“
“LWH,
M‘Lhfli—J‘fl»
‘Q‘vx
W0“
.vxu
4%,
Hhmlxw
a.
9M
M4
,MLWLVKKM4
L4: .11
Wu
hai’bcnq
mu.
Ml
c.
41cm; ‘4