Israel-Diaspora Relations

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Excelerate18 Summit highlights global business leaders, young professionals
07.11.2018
This year’s annual program, hosted by Birthright Israel, covered topics including cyber security, community-building, digital health-care innovation, cryptocurrencies, commerce and more.
Randi Zuckerberg (left) and Birthright Israel CEO Gidi Mark at the Birthright Israel Excelerate18 Summit in New York, Nov. 3-4, 2018. Credit: Seth Litroff Photography
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Yisrael Medad07.11.2018
The rise of the Diaspora ‘supremacists’
It is not only an outlook that sees the Diaspora as so much better than a renewed clannish ghetto. It is the concept of Israel itself, as much as it is their misrepresentation of what Israel is and does.
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Yisrael Medad01.11.2018
Yes, we need to talk, but …
The Jewish Federations are important to Jewish communal life in North America and to Israel. But this is a two-way street.
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Yishai Fleisher31.10.2018
Digitally close, emotionally far from Pittsburgh
Many good people were taken from us, murdered in a horrific fashion. I think that if we could ask them now how they would like us to commemorate their untimely deaths, they would say: Come together, sisters and brothers, over our tragedy. Let’s not disappoint them.
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“We need to talk ... ”
Evelyn Gordon24.10.2018
‘We need to talk’ about the role of non-Orthodox movements
Because Israelis don’t need the non-Orthodox movements to maintain a Jewish identity, they often fail to understand why these movements are genuinely important for American Jews. And because American Jews do need those movements, they often fail to understand why many Israelis dismiss them as unimportant.
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Jonathan S. Tobin08.10.2018
Who speaks for the Jews, and why do we let them?
Jewish organizations’ stands on partisan issues reflect their supporters’ biases, but not necessarily the interests of the Jews.
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Jonathan S. Tobin10.08.2018
Myths and facts about an ‘illiberal’ Israel
If support for the Jewish state is declining, it may have more to do with American Jews than the Israelis they claim to deplore.
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Why Israelis aren’t as worked up about the Western Wall as Diaspora Jews
Josh Hasten01.08.2018
The Israeli public as a whole has been substantially less committed to—in fact, downright unenthusiastic about—changing the status quo.
Jewish worshippers cover themselves with prayer shawls as they pray in front of the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem's Old City, during the Cohen Benediction priestly blessing at the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, Oct. 8, 2017. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.
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Israel’s new nationality law sparks immediate debate from American Jewish groups
Jackson Richman26.07.2018
“It is astounding that this should be an issue at all,” said Sarah N. Stern, founder and president of the Endowment for Middle East Truth.
The Knesset Plenary Hall during speeches ahead of the vote on the National Law, which will enforce the foundation of the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people, on July 18, 2018. Photo by Hadas Parush/Flash90.
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Jonathan S. Tobin20.07.2018
What do we expect from a Jewish state?
Anger about the new nation-state law is misplaced. Concern over the rabbinate flexing its muscles and contempt for the Diaspora is not.
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Isi LieblerIsrael Hayom18.07.2018
The perils facing Anglo Jewry
Anglo Jewry is confronting painful challenges. The fact that “Zionist” youth can publicly express such hostility towards Israel reflects a serious breakdown in education.
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Jonathan S. Tobin12.07.2018
What’s the matter with a Jewish state?
Why the Knesset’s efforts to define the Jewish state should be influenced by Diaspora objections.
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Jewish Agency to expand school-twinning program with new government funds
09.07.2018
The partnership and investment by the Israeli Ministry of Education and Ministry of Diaspora Affairs represent “an important recognition that the program is impactful on students and teachers in both Israel and the Diaspora,” said Andrea Arbel, director of the Partnership Unit at the Jewish Agency.
Israeli children in second grade (7 and 8 years old) use computers in a classroom during a lesson at the "Janusz Korczak" school in Jerusalem, on May 17, 2011. Photo by Kobi Gideon/Flash90.
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From Knesset floor, Israeli coalition member says Reform Jews are ‘not Jewish’
05.07.2018
Knesset member Yinon Azoulay of the Shas Party said on July 4 that Reform Jews “are not Jewish” and then blamed non-Jews for an earthquake felt earlier that day in northern Israel.
Shas MK Yinon Azoulay at the Knesset assembly hall during his swearing-in as a member of the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem on March 14, 2018. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.
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Jonathan S. Tobin03.07.2018
Heed the lessons of Natan Sharansky
The hero of the struggle for Soviet Jewry’s efforts to foster unity were snubbed by Israel’s government while he was head of the Jewish Agency, but Israelis and American Jews should still be listening to him.
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