ALL MEN OR THE TRIBE?:

Today, the views expressed by Beinart and Rogen may indicate that anti-Zionism among American Jews, even if still beyond the mainstream, is gaining popularity, and most markedly among Jews under 40.

Jewish millennials certainly carry no personal memories of the Holocaust. Neither do they remember Israel's miraculous victory in the Six Day War, the anxiety of her near loss, but ultimate victory, in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and her fable-like rescue of Israeli and Diaspora Jewish hostages at Entebbe on July 4th, 1976. All of these historic events contributed to the formation of a strong, positive Jewish identity whose foundation was a gushing pride in the State of Israel. So pervasive was this experience that for more than a decade following the Six Day War American Jews' adoration of Israel was accused of replacing Judaism as their primary form of Jewish worship.

In stark contrast to their parents' and grandparents' generations the Israel most familiar to many Jewish millennials is anything but a source of pride. This is attributable to their understanding of Israel being shaped mainly by mainstream media and popular culture whose bias, in all international conflicts, favors the perceived underdog. More and younger American Jews are adopting and sharing the Palestinian view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In this narrative, the Jewish state is no longer heroic. It is undemocratic and oppressive, and being identified with it as Jews is a source of shame. For many younger American Jews "Zionism" has become a pejorative. [...]

 Today most American Jews of all ages see themselves primarily as Americans; their engagement with Judaism is at best a part-time affair. And as they understand the essence of Judaism to be "tikun olam," the practice of social justice, the very notion of a sovereign Jewish nation-state is problematic. As Rogen said, it "doesn't make sense."

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