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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