Newspaper Page Text
U.S. Jews
and
Israel
by PHILIP RUBIN *
—JERUSALEM
Having now been living in Is
rael for several months, I have
been asked by the editor to write
a piece “on how little or how
much the Israelis understand the
American Jew.” This is, indeed,
a tall order, because as soon as
you begin to reflect on the mat
ter, you ask yourself: Which Is
raelis? Which American Jews?
Israel is a land of immigrants,
and wants to remain that kind
of land for a long, long time—
it wants as many Jews from
abroad as possible to come here
to settle. Half of the Israeli pop
ulation is of "Ashkenazi,” that is,
of European and American ori
gin, while the other half is of
"Sepharadi” and Oriental origin.
Half of the population is Ortho
dox. while the other half is neith
er non-Orthodox or non-religious
altogether. According to the latest
Government Statistics the native-
born “sabras” constitute only 33
per cent of the total population.
American Jewry, on the con
trary, is now overwhelmingly
native-born—some 80 per cent of
American Jews were bom in the
U.S.A., according to recent sta
tistics. American Jews are nearly
all of European-Ashkenazi origin,
those of Sepharadi-Oriental ori
gin being a tiny percentage of the
U.S. Jewish population. There are
far more non-Orthodox Jews —
Conservative, Reform, non-affili-
ated—in America today than
there are Orthodox, who cannot
even dream of wielding the same
power over other American Jews
as the Orthodox in Israel wield.
In the economic sphere Israelis
are overwhelmingly workers,
farmers and small shopkeepers
who might be called poor, at
least by American standards,
though they are better off than
people in most Asian and Afri
can countries. Still, at least 20
per cent of Israeli families today
* A native of Burlington, Ver
mont, Mr. Rubin is a veteran
Anglo-Jewish journalist whose
critical pieces on American
Jewish life have attracted wide
attention. He has served as edi
tor of a number of English-
Jewish publications and was
for many years a contributor
to the Sunday Book Review
Section of the New York Times.
He now lives in Israel.
own private automobiles and
many more have lesser luxuries,
such as frigidaires, washing ma
chines, etc.
American Jews are today over
whelmingly an affluent middle
class. It is safe to say that the
poor Jew in America, while he
no doubt exists, is in the minority
in U.S. Jewry. Nearly all Ameri
can Jews outside of New York
City proper, but including the
New York suburbs, have private
cars, own fairly expensive homes,
and send their sons and daughters
to college. In Israel, where you
have to pay for secondary school
ing, most parents can’t even afford
to send their children through
high school.
From all the above irrefutable
facts and statistics it should al
ready be evident that it is no
easy matter to give a simple ans
wer to the question as to how
much or how little Israel under
stands American Jewry. The East-
European Jews in Israel who mix
a great deal of Yiddish with their
Hebrew naturally have a greater
bond in common with that seg
ment of American Jewry, the
older generation, which also stems
from Eastern Europe and mixes
a great deal of Yiddish with its
English. The Orthodox Israeli
will find a common bond with the
Orthodox American Jew but will
find it harder to understand the
American Jew who is not Ortho
dox. The middle-class Israeli
member of the Liberal Party
would like to see more private
initiative in this country and icss
Government and Histadrut con
trol of industry will naturally
understand better the middle-
class American Jew who shares
his economic philosophy than will
the member of the three or four,
if you count the Communists—
labor parties in Israel. And so on,
and so on.
Perhaps the only way in which
we can even attempt to answer
the question of how little or how
much the Israeli understand the
American Jew is to take a bird’s
eye view of the two forests—the
general environments of the Is
raeli and the American Jewish
populations — and ignore, or at
least not notice too closely, the
various trees — the different com
munities, generations and individ
uals—of which they are com
posed. While varied histories and
varied cultural traditions serve
to keep communities separate,
New Year Greetings
AIR CONDITIONING
Residential and Commercial
Cools in Summer . . . Heats in Winter
• Complete Engineering • Installation • Service
WE SERVICE ALL MAKES OF EQUIPMENT
Dial PLaza 5-5725
Morgan Heating & Air
Conditioning Co., Inc.
780 GORDON ST., S. W. ATLANTA, GA.
y.
ear
People Who Know Use DeVoe
Quality Paints
229 Techwocd Drive, N.W.
3261 Roswell Road, N.E.
1825 Delowe Drive, S.W.
2800 E. Ponce de Leon Ave., Decatur, Ga.
DEVOE PAINT SERVICE STORES
PLENTY FREE PARKING
JUSTRITE
ENVELOPE MANUFACTURING CO.
523 Stewart Ave., S.W. JA. 3-1571
Atlanta, Georgia
The Southern Israelite
15