Israeli-Diaspora Relations on Israel's 50th Anniversary


 

Publication Date: January 1999

Publisher: Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

Author(s): Daniel J. Elazar

Research Area: Culture and religion

Keywords: Israeli Jews; Jewish Identification; Diaspora Relations; Jewish Continuity

Type: Other

Coverage: Israel

Abstract:

The author argues that the unity of world Jewry that has been fostered over the last hundred years is quickly becoming unraveled as the problems facing the global community are no longer seen as matters of survival but are rather viewed as "quality of life" issues. He concludes that the increasingly fundamental differences between the Israeli and Diaspora community on "quality of life" issues (such as understanding who is Jewish and how one can and should be Jewish), coupled with a growing indifference to being Jewish among large segments of world Jewry, is forcing Israel-Diaspora relations to be reconstituted on an entirely new basis.