From Jewish Identity to Jewish Responsibility

The Diaspora Index of the Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism points to a strengthening of Jewish identity in Israel and a deepening sense of fraternity with Jews around the world. At the same time, Gal Greenwald warns of the gap between that sense of belonging and the willingness to take practical responsibility for the future of Jewish communities.

The findings of the Diaspora Index published by the Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism should encourage everyone who cares about the future of the Jewish people. According to the data released, more Israelis than before define themselves first and foremost as Jews, more Israelis feel a bond of fraternity and shared fate with Diaspora Jewry, and more Israelis understand that their Jewish identity does not end at the borders of the State of Israel. These are highly encouraging results. After years in which it sometimes seemed that Israeli identity and Jewish identity were competing with one another, the public in Israel is reminding us of a simple truth, they are not rivals. Deep Israeli identity does not replace Judaism, but should be one of its strongest expressions.

But alongside the hope, the study also exposes a troubling gap. Israelis feel closer to Jews around the world, but still hesitate to translate that closeness into practical responsibility, investment in Jewish education, shlichut, communities and strengthening Jewish identity in the Diaspora. This is precisely the gap between belonging and responsibility.

Zionism was never just a local organizing effort by the Jews who lived in the Land of Israel. The State of Israel was not established as a project of one community, but as a political expression of the Jewish people’s responsibility toward itself. Herzl did not speak only to the Jews of the land. He gathered world Jewry, addressed the Jewish people as a whole, and sought to turn dispersed national longing into organized historical force. The Declaration of Independence also called on “the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora” to rally around the building of the land, and thereby established, at the very moment of the state’s birth, that Israel is the home of the entire Jewish people.

But responsibility for Diaspora Jewry does not begin only when they seek to make aliyah. It also exists when Jews choose to continue living in Buenos Aires, Paris, Munich, London or New York. They are not “them.” They are us.

From its earliest days, the State of Israel understood that its responsibility did not stop at its borders. The Eichmann trial in Jerusalem was not a trial about harm to Israeli citizens alone. It was a moment when a young state took on moral and historical responsibility to give voice to the millions of Jews murdered in Europe, most of them Diaspora Jews. Israel did not say, they were not our citizens. It said, they were our people.

This is especially true today. The State of Israel is no longer a small and poor country reaching out for help from Diaspora Jewry. It is the largest, strongest and most established Jewish community in the world. Precisely for that reason, the question is not whether we have the ability to bear responsibility for Jews around the world, but whether we have a sufficiently broad Zionist consciousness to understand that it is our duty.

As head of the Education Department in the World Zionist Organization, I encounter this responsibility every day. We send hundreds of teachers and emissary families to Jewish schools and Jewish communities around the world. In Buenos Aires, Munich or Manhattan, one emissary family can change an entire community reality. It brings living Hebrew, complex and loving Israeli identity, a connection to tradition, and above all the simple knowledge, the State of Israel sees you. You are part of us.

Educational emissary work is not a luxury. In a world where antisemitism is rising, assimilation concerns many communities, and the connection between young Jews and Israel is becoming more complex, it is the front line of mutual Jewish solidarity. It is the way to turn the phrase “All Israel are responsible for one another” from a beautiful saying into national policy.

Therefore, the conclusion from the study should not only be that our situation is better than we thought. The conclusion is that we have reached the next stage, if more Israelis feel Jewish, and if more Israelis understand that Diaspora Jews are their brothers and sisters, then we must now build the layer of responsibility in education, budgets, shlichut and a living connection with every Jewish community in the world. The study shows that the Israeli heart feels more Jewish. Now it is time for the Israeli hand to take Jewish responsibility.

The author is deputy chairman of the World Zionist Organization, head of the Education Department, and representative of the Mizrachi faction in the national institutions.