24 January 2018

Haaretz: Young American Jews Increasingly Turning Away From Israel, Jewish Agency Leader Warns

Israel is rapidly losing its hold on young American Jews, who increasingly view the Jewish state as antithetical to their liberal values, a leader of the Jewish Agency warned on Monday. [...]

“I think it’s very important that we move to a new mode and encourage young Jews not only to engage in Israel advocacy and in defending Israel – those are all important things – but also to have them accept the legitimacy of challenging Israel,” Hoffman said. He was alluding to the tendency among Israeli political leaders to view Jewish students as their ambassadors on college campuses. [...]

“In the year since Trump was elected, the situation has only been exacerbated,” he said. “Jewish student college students in the United States, not including those who are Orthodox, see Israel, justifiably or not, as something opposed to their basic liberal and progressive values.” [...]

Older American Jews are not as disengaged from Israel as their younger counterparts, he said, but they were deeply offended by recent actions of the government. “Among large sections of American Jewry, there is a real question today about how much Israel is home to them,” he said.

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