Related Stories:
American Jewish historian Hasia Diner caused a furor this week when she said, in an Aug. 1 op-ed in Haaretz, that she no longer considers herself a Zionist.
Raised in the Labor Zionist youth group Habonim and active in Jewish and Zionist circles until quite recently, Diner now says that she “abhors” visiting Israel, feels “a sense of repulsion” when she enters synagogues that “stand with Israel,” and considers the Law of Return to be racist. As our story this week details, she says Israel “fits neatly” into the matrix of European colonialism and, as such, she rejects it.
If this were written by an anti-Israel activist, it could easily be dismissed as provocative rhetoric. But coming from such a prominent and sensitive chronicler of the American Jewish experience, it is heartbreaking. Indeed, her pain comes through when she insists that the Israel she and her parents “loved” was nothing but a “naive delusion.”
There is much that is deeply wrong with her op-ed, which she co-wrote with fellow Jewish historian Marjorie Feld. First, the Law of Return is not racist. Israel was founded as a homeland and a safe haven for Jews, and it is entirely appropriate that Jews be welcomed into the country as citizens. Others may apply, just as new immigrants to the United States must apply, and as children of U.S. citizens born abroad are considered citizens when they return home. That’s how nation-states work.
Scholars Noah Efron and Jonathan Sarna have penned articulate refutations to the Diner-Feld essay, also in Haaretz. Both rebuttals focus on the trope of falling out of love with an idealized notion of Israel. Rather than “loving” a myth, Sarna suggests — an infatuation sure to be dashed when faced with the thing itself — diaspora Jews would do well to understand the Jewish state in all of its complicated reality and see it as the eminently worthwhile, if imperfect, enterprise that it is.
Indeed, Israel is the most important and exciting undertaking of the Jewish people since the completion of the Talmud. You can complain about its government, you can take issue with its policies, but as a Jew you should not and cannot turn your back on it. It is incumbent upon Jews everywhere to engage deeply with Israel, an exercise that can take many forms, but should be undertaken in the spirit of furthering one’s own Jewish identity as well as improving the national project. For it is our project, fundamentally so.
So, Hasia Diner, you are not part of a growing trend, as you wrote. You represent a tragedy, and this essay is not what we expect from an intellectual of your caliber.