Haaretz
Adar1 25, 5765
"The attachment of
American Jews to Israel has weakened measurably in the last two years,"
according to a study carried out by Prof. Steven Cohen of the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem, a leading researcher of U.S. Jewry.
The
study was conducted using identical questionnaires circulated during 2002
and also 2004 among 1,448 Jewish families, and was funded by the
Jewish-Zionist Education Department of the Jewish Agency.
Cohen's
findings, published late last week, reinforce findings suggesting that
there is a drop in support for Israel among U.S. Jews, especially among
youth and university students.
Unlike many in the American Jewish
community, Cohen does not believe that the declining support stems from
opposition to Israeli policies in the territories but rather from the lull
which has descended recently over the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.
The findings (see chart) show a 15-20 percent drop
between 2002 and 2004 in nearly all the indicators measuring emotional
attachment to Israel.
Forty-three percent of those asked agreed
with the statement that "Israel feels to me more about my parents' and
grand-parents' generation than to me and my generation."
Another
recent study, carried out on behalf of the United Jewish Communities of
North America, showed that only four percent of Jewish students with a
non-Jewish parent feel a special link to Israel. Forty-five percent of the
Jewish students in America have a non-Jewish parent.
The timing of
Cohen's second poll, conducted in December 2004 - during a relatively
quiet period in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - may have had a
significant impact on the question whether the intifada has been the main
reason for the growing distance between American Jewry and
Israel.
A number of researchers of U.S. Jews such as Prof. Shulamit
Reinharz of Brandeis University argue that the conflict damaged the image
of Israeli "purity" among American Jews and led many to distance
themselves from the Jewish state.
This view is echoed by Jewish
university organizations, including Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish
Campus Life, and the umbrella organization - Israel on Campus Coalition,
who blame the intifada for a reduction in visits by American Jewish youth
to Israel.
Cohen is reluctant to accept this thesis and says that
"during the intifada years American Jews did visit Israel less but cared
for it more. Today we see more visits but care much less."
"In the
distant past the Israelis were viewed as heroes, in the recent past as
victims. Today they are neither heroes or victims. Israel is increasingly
viewed as boring and irrelevant to American Jewry," Cohen says.
A
2003 study by political consultant Frank Luntz showed that support for
Israel among young American Jews was far weaker than among their
parents.
Cohen says that young American Jews have preserved their
personal Jewish identity but not their collective one. He says that
studies he has conducted showing stability in aspects of Jewish tradition
and religious obligations confirm this.