Is "American-Zionist" a contradictory identity?

By Josh Tobias
KOC Assistant Editor
Brown University

When I was in elementary school, the question that was all the rage on the playgrounds of the Solomon Schechter Day School was which side we would fight on in a hypothetical Israeli-American war. While the idea of war sounds pretty far-fetched today, given the current political bed-snuggling between the two countries, the question exposes some inherent contradictions in being an "American Zionist." If you believe that Jews belong in the state of Israel, then it seems logical that you would also want to move there. However, though many American Jews claim to support the existence of a Jewish state in Israel, few of them have actually gone to live there. In 2004, only 2,800 Jews in the US and Canada made aliyah to Israel, according to a Chicago Tribune article. Considering that there are 7 million Jews in the US and Canada, that means that only .036% of North Americans immigrated to Israel that year. While many American Jews seem to like the idea of Israel, very few of them are actually hopping on El Al and moving there.

The flip side of this argument is that American Jews are often accused of being less than patriotic because of their ties to Israel. A recent controversial article entitled "Dual Loyalty and the Israel Lobby" accused pro-Israel Jewish lobbyists of manipulating American foreign policy to benefit Israel. The uproar surrounding the article exposed one of the main contradictions facing pro-Israel lobbying groups like AIPAC. Despite the close relationship between Israel and America, Israel is a different country and its interests are not always the same as America’s. In a situation where the two countries are at odds, it’s impossible to declare loyalty to both countries. We can wear t-shirts emblazoned with both flags and we can sing Hatikvah along with the Star Spangled Banner, but at some point we need to choose which country we care about more.

Right?

This question is reminiscent of a debate that proliferated throughout Europe at the turn of the last century. This was before Israel even existed, when a Jewish state was only a theoretical construction in the imaginations of European Zionists. At that time, Zionists were by far in the minority; most Jews believed that a Jewish state was an impossible fantasy. Furthermore, they believed Zionism was dangerous because it fueled anti-Semitic accusations that Jews were not loyal to their European home countries. Instead, most European Jews believed that the best course to follow was assimilation. Sure, they argued, anti-Semitism still exists, but it’s a fading phenomenon. As society becomes more enlightened, old medieval conceptions of Jews will disappear and Jews will be embraced as fellow countrymen and brothers.

Of course we know how this story ends. The Zionists ended up being proven right by the barbaric march of "assimilated" Jews into the gas chambers. For many Zionists, the Holocaust "proved" that no country was safe for Jews. A Jewish state (with all Jews living in it) was the only way to ensure that a similar act could never occur again. To this day, many Israelis, especially older ones, still believe that all Jews must come live in the state of Israel and those who are living comfortably in North America are only courting destruction. But despite the large numbers of Jews who moved to Israel in the years immediately following independence, few North American Jews made the leap. Back then, perhaps, it was a matter of quality of life. After all why would American Jews leave their comfy new suburban landscape of immaculate lawns and red-brick public schools for the hot, undeveloped deserts of the Middle East?

Today Israel is a modern, technologically advanced state with all the modern conveniences of the West, but North American Jews are still not flocking to live in the Holy Land. I think the reason is more than just a matter of a convenience or a drop in living standards. Jews in America have always had a very different identity than European Jews. Jews came to this country along with millions of Irish, Italian, Scandinavian, and German immigrants who all retained some kind of connection to their country of origin. The pressures of assimilation that Jews faced in Europe were not nearly as strong in a country where everyone came from somewhere different. It was American values, not a shared history or some bogus racial hierarchy, that made someone an American. This allowed Jews to acculturate to American society, without abandoning their identity as Jews

This idea can best be seen in the writings of Louis Brandeis, the first Jewish Supreme Court Justice and one of the founders of the American Zionist Movement. In an essay entitled "The Jewish Problem and How to Solve It," Brandeis argued that Jews can be good Zionists and good patriots: "Let no American imagine that Zionism is inconsistent with Patriotism," he wrote. "Multiple identities are only objectionable if they are inconsistent." And according to Brandeis, there was nothing inconsistent about being a Zionist and being a patriot. Brandeis saw Zionism as promoting international brotherhood and social justice, spreading democratic ideals that he saw as an essential part of the American spirit. In fact, Brandeis even claimed that "loyalty to America demands rather that each American Jew become a Zionist."

I think Brandeis’ ideas are still relevant for today’s North American Jews. We should not have to choose between Zionism and patriotism. If we accept the notion that multiple identities are impossible, then we are forfeiting our identity to the prejudices of xenophobes and nativists. Especially at this moment in history, when some Americans are arguing that we should board up our borders to anyone speaking a different language or possessing a skin color that isn’t white, it’s important that we Jews demand a pluralistic notion of what it means to be an American. Being a good American should not be about what language your in-laws speak, but about whether you share the democratic values that form the basis of our country.

Being an American, being a Jew and being a Zionist is not always easy. There are many difficult decisions and sometimes the identities are contradictory or inconsistent with one another. But as long as support for Israel means also standing for American democratic values, there is no reason why we can’t be proud of all of our identities.

Josh Tobias will be leaving his post as Assistant Editor after this article. But you can still find him under his own pile of t-shirts emblazoned with the American and Israeli flags.

[Posted 06/15/07]