American Jews and Israel in the Twenty-First Century: Has the Relationship Changed?

During the past half-dozen or so year there have been numerous books (e.g., Daniel Gordis, We Stand Divided: The Rift Between American Jews and Israel, HarperCollins, 2019) and articles (e.g., Marc Tracy, “Inside the Unraveling of American Zionism,” NY Times Magazine, Nov. 2, 2021), proclaiming that the relationship of American Jews and Israel has undergone major change. Some attribute the change to changes in the American political sphere; others attribute it to changes in the Israeli political sphere; some attribute it to changes in American Judaism; and others attribute it to changes in Israeli Judaism.

My paper will examine the available empirical evidence in several national surveys of America’s Jews, such as the 2020 Pew Survey and the 2019 Ruderman Family Foundation survey of American Jews, and more than a half-dozen recent studies of local Jewish communities, including Baltimore, Greater Philadelphia, Greater Pittsburgh, Chicago, Cleveland, and Minneapolis-St. Paul, among other, in which respondents were asked a variety of questions about their emotional and practical attachments to Israel, and will show that there is currently no substantive evidence of decreasing attachments between America’s Jews and Israel. The paper will conclude with a discussion of possible reasons for the perception or sense of declining attachments, which contrast with the actual findings. Some may be projecting their own hopes and derive their indicators from a small minority, while others may, in the spirit of the “ever-dying people,” project a negative future to stimulate a strengthening of American Jewish-Israel ties. Still others may assume that what may occur in the American political arena will be followed in the American Jewish community, such that if the American political parties become less supportive of Israel, American Jews will follow suit and their ties to Israel will weaken.