We the People... of  Israel?  Steve Hoffman and the Sad Sucking of American Jewish Leadership.
Marla Patinkin

I didn’t realize how angry a Jew I can be, until, when reading Haaretz, I clicked on an article in Rosner’s July 6 Blog titled, “Can 120 Jews reach a consensus on policy recommendations?”.  This posting discusses the upcoming Conference on the Future of the Jewish People taking place in Israel this week.  What stunned, and stung, me was a statement Steve Hoffman (former president and CEO of the United Jewish Communities) was paraphrased as saying regarding Israel/diaspora relations.  According to Rosner, Steve Hoffman says he “is still not prepared to view Israel as the center of the Jewish people.  There are two centers, Israel and the US.”  

Unbelievable.  Still not prepared.  Really?  What would it take to convince the former head of an outdated, fat American Jewish dinosaur of a philanthropy to deem the State of Israel the official center of the Jewish people?    

Here in America, we Jews enjoy all the privileges and rights this great democracy affords us as one of it’s smallest ethnic minorities. We have become educated, relatively wealthy and politically influential. But in this country, our most successful assimilation story yet, we have also become culturally and religiously lazy, disinterested, bored, extremely segmented, self loathing, apathetic, and yes Steve, full of pride.  Although there are joyful, inspiring, dynamic examples of Jewish light here, we self consciously construct  this effort as citizens of the largest Protestant country on Earth.  As American Jews we are nothing more than a very important outpost, a relatively large population of Jews in diaspora, period.  

What amazes me most perhaps, is that since the creation of the State of Israel, this brand of American Jewish leadership, in all it’s patriarchal, self-important glory, has failed to make the essential paradigm shift from that of a homeless, wandering shtetl culture to that of a nation.  They’ve never embraced that which is truly the most incredible, powerful dimension we possess - our peoplehood, our place among the nations, as legitimate as the Greeks and Italians... and Jordan for that matter. We don’t embrace the vibrant, ever evolving,  Israeli culture as part of us; or more critically, something to essentially be a part of, that which is our new core, shaping and influencing our diaspora culture in a deep, meaningful way.  After almost sixty years of statehood, very few of us actually speak fluent Hebrew. The riches of contemporary Israeli culture still wait to breathe life into our stale, stagnant, synagogue style American Judaism.

Additionally, in calling the legitimacy of Israel’s status as our center into question, he carelessly and irresponsibly gives credence to anti-Israel post-Zionist ideology. To those who view Israel and Zionism as an imperialistic overlay imposed on the Middle East when Europe and America are the more appropriate places for Jews to live.  
 
Ultimately, the lack of hubris in his statement  suggests the classic tragic ending - our imminent downfall.  In this situation that would amount to irrelevance, a substantially diminished ability to effectively advocate for our true center, Israel. Sorry Steve Hoffman, it will never, ever be “Next year in Short Hills, New Jersey... and maybe Jerusalem".