Educating Children to Love Israel While Acknowledging Its Complex Identity

The article addresses the educational challenge of teaching Jewish children to love the State of Israel while recognizing its complex identity and inherent tensions. It emphasizes the need for clarity and hierarchy in conveying values, highlighting that children can understand complexity if the foundational identity is clear. The core identity presented is that of Jews loyal to the Torah and the covenant with God, which forms the basis for brotherhood among all Jews and connection to the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.

The article explains that love for the state grows as it expresses a rooted Jewish identity, while principled opposition arises when the state embodies secular values detached from Torah teachings. This is not a critique of specific policies but a fundamental debate about defining the Jewish people and their national mission independently of the covenant with God. The practical relationship to the state is thus nuanced: embracing it where it reflects Jewish identity and distancing from it where it reflects secularism.

The piece stresses that children learn attitudes toward the state more from the language and emotions they observe than from explicit statements. Expressions of joy at national successes, sorrow over fallen soldiers, and honest criticism of secular aspects must come from a place of genuine connection rather than alienation. This approach allows children to grasp that the state and its people are "ours," while also understanding the depth of disagreement with its secular foundations.

The article concludes by noting that this framework of education, rooted in loyalty to the Torah, combines love and critique and is essential for passing on a balanced perspective to the next generation. It is part of a series published in the Achvata newsletter, which will be summarized in a forthcoming article.