In light of the growing disconnect between American Jews and the State of Israel, Lyle Plocher explains why it is important to try to repair this connection and calls for more American Jews to make Aliyah.
As a “watered-down” Jew (someone who does not meet the modern day definition of being Jewish i.e. having a Jewish mother), who has been to Israel six times in the last 15 or so years, I am somewhat baffled by the number of Jews that I meet in the US who have never been to Israel. These Jews all have the financial means to visit Israel, but have never made the journey. It’s hard to fathom that they don’t seem to have a desire at all to visit their ancestral homeland. In a survey of 1,074 Jews taken in 2012, by the polling firm Knowledge Networks, it was found that 59% of those surveyed had never been to Israel. Among the 41% who had made the trip, 19% went only once, 9% twice and 12% three or more times.
The survey also revealed that 31% of the Jews polled expressed no interest in visiting Israel. According to the second article referred to earlier, there has been a very strong decline in interest in or a sense of connection with the State of Israel among Jews born after 1980. Also, 70% of American Jews identify as Liberals, while Israel has been moving more and more to the right-wing side of the political spectrum.
Looking forward at the challenges ahead of seeing Jewish identity and influence in the world grow and not decline, we need to separate things into 2 categories. First, how do we increase the number of Jews from America and other countries visiting Israel each year and second, how do we increase the numbers of those who actually move to Israel.
In order to increase the number of Jews visiting Israel, 3 recommendations were recently made by David Bernstein of The David Project.
On the topic of moving to Israel, referring back to the first article from 2014, the observation was made that when large numbers of people have made Aliyah in the past, it was usually due to some kind of persecution in the host country. Very seldom are there large numbers of Jews migrating to Israel when they are living in relative peace and prosperity.