Germany Edition October14 Revised

GERMANY EDITION OCTOBER 14, 2009 Dear friends, If you haven’t already heard, Chancellor Merkel has been invited to Washington on Nov. 3rd to address a joint session of both houses of the Congress. It’s a great honor—of previous German leaders, only Chancellor Adenauer was so honored. I am pleased to report that I will be attending as a representative of the American Jewish Committee. That’s a great honor for me. I’ll give you a report in the next edition. Now on to the news… IN THIS EDITION * AJC’S ANNUAL SURVEY OF AMERICAN JEWISH OPINION – If you want to know what on our minds – read this. * IRAN – Where Americans stand in terms of military action. * AMERICAN JEWS & ISRAEL – Are we drifting apart? * THE TOLL OF INTERMARRIAGE – How will “marrying out” affect the American Jewish population? * UGANDA – Believe it or not, there’s a Jewish community there. * SIMCHAT TORAH – The holiday for starting over. AJC's ANNUAL SURVEY OF AMERICAN JEWISH OPINION There is nothing particularly “German” about this but it is important in understanding American Jewry today… Every year the American Jewish Committee underwrites a survey of Jewish opinion. It is objective and partisan free. As the old TV character Sgt. Joe Friday (Dragnet) used to say, “Just the facts, Ma’m.” As David Harris, AJC’s Executive Director said in his Jerusalem Post article, “Looked at in its totality, the AJC survey reveals, as in previous years, that the bulk of American Jews are conflicted on foreign policy – at times, leaning to the right; at other times, to the left. They yearn for peace in the Middle East and support some territorial concessions in its pursuit, but, at the same time, they have serious doubts about Arab intentions towards Israel.

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He continues, “Here are some of the most striking findings of this year's AJC study. “The most decisive response: 94 percent of those surveyed believe that the Palestinians must recognize Israel as a Jewish state in the context of a final peace agreement. “The key variable: It's not age, as some may have thought. In fact, there's little difference in attitudes towards Middle East matters among the various generational cohorts. Rather, it's denomination. “The gap in perspectives between self-identified Orthodox and Reform Jews is astonishingly wide. For instance, while 59 percent of Reform Jews approve of the Obama administration's handling of U.S.-Israel relations, among Orthodox Jews the figure drops to only 14 percent. “The biggest change: No question about it, it's on Iran. Last year, 42 percent of respondents said they would support a U.S. strike to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, while 47 percent were opposed. One year later, 56 percent would support military action, while 36 percent would oppose. “Apropos, in a Fox News national poll released last week, 61 percent of Americans voiced support for the U.S. taking military action to keep Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons; 28 percent were opposed. “In other words, according to this data, American Jews are roughly comparable to other Americans, or perhaps a bit less enthusiastic, in supporting the military option. “The saddest figure: Thirty percent of American Jews said they felt ‘fairly’ or ‘very’ distant from Israel. “The most worrisome answer: Forty-five percent of respondents believe that, in the years ahead, anti-Semitism will increase ‘greatly’ or ‘somewhat.’ Only ten percent assert that it will decline. The rest feel that it will ‘remain the same’ as it currently is. For those of you who want to dig deeper and read the entire survey, you can find it at www.ajc.org IRAN Since I’m on the subject of polls, Bloomberg.com reported, “A majority of Americans are skeptical that diplomacy with Iran will succeed and say the U.S. should use military action if necessary to prevent the Iranian

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government from developing a nuclear weapon. “A Pew Research Center for the People & the Press survey released today found 61 percent of Americans would support a military strike. Twenty-four percent said it is more important to avoid conflict even if that means Iran will end up building nuclear arms.

“The survey by the Washington-based group found 63 percent support direct U.S. negotiations with Iran to push the country to abandon its nuclear program. Still, 64 percent said such efforts won’t succeed. The poll was conducted last week, when Iran held talks with the U.S. and other United Nations powers and agreed to widen discussions on the nuclear dispute.” So it’s not only the American Jews who are suspicious about Iran’s nuclear ambitions and would strongly back military action if they are not willing to come clean about what they have already developed and what they are building. Americans since the 1970’s have a deep-seated suspicion and dislike of the Iranian government. The holding of American hostages has not been forgotten. In spite of the fact that many Europeans may have a more benign opinion, as the poll shows. If our government decided on a military strike, it would get a lot of support here. My guess (only a guess) is that if the strike was carried off by the Israelis the same sort of support would be forthcoming. Let’s hope that the upcoming negotiations with the Iranians will be productive. However, they should not think that if they don’t produce the needed information Pres. Obama will sit on his hands. Strong sanctions (hopefully backed by Germany) would be next and the possibility of military action if those do not work. AMERICAN JEWS AND ISRAEL I think it might be easy for non-Jews or, come to think of it, even many Jews to assume that American Jews and those in Israel are in lock step when it comes to their thinking about Israel itself. As reported above, 30% of American Jews feel fairly or very distant from Israel. My guess is that the numbers go up as the age of the recipients goes down. The feeling of separation is much higher as the distance from the Holocaust and the establishment of the Jewish State grows larger. The younger American Jews are, the greater is the chance of a genuine disconnect. Prof. Jonathan D. Sarna of Brandeis University has recently addressed this issue in the Forward in an article entitled, “After Utopia, Loving Israel.” Prof. Sarna notes that Israelis are feeling this separation and are concerned – as they should be. “There is … a critical difference between support for Israel in the past and today. For much of the 20th century, the Israel of American Jews — the Zion that they imagined in their minds, wrote about and worked to realize — was a mythical Zion, a utopian extension of the American dream. Proponents conjured 3

up a Zion that they described as a ‘social commonwealth.’ They conceived of it both as an ‘outpost of democracy,’ spreading America’s ideals eastward, and as a Jewish refuge where freedom, liberty and social justice would someday reign supreme. “Now, though, that dream, which had more to do with the lofty visions of American Jews than with the sordid realities of the Middle East, lies shattered beyond repair. In place of the utopia that we had hoped Israel might become, young Jews today often view Israel through the eyes of contemporary media: They fixate upon its unloveliest warts.” Prof. Sarna concludes with a somewhat more hopeful note, “When the bloom falls off of young love, there are always those who announce that their relationship is in trouble and prepare for divorce. So it is today with too many American Jews and their ‘waning love’ for Israel. The deepest and most meaningful of relationships, however, survive disappointments. By focusing upon all that they nevertheless share in common, and all that they might yet accomplish together in the future, American Jews and Israelis can move past this crisis in their relationship and settle in, as partners, for the long haul ahead.” There is very little I can add to what the good Professor has written. The Jews are a small people. There are only 13.3 million of us with 46% living in North America. History tells us a couple of important things. For the last few thousand years, in order to survive, we have been unable to count on many others to help us. Yes, some – but not many. Even in my own lifetime that has been the case. Second, in unity there is strength. Aesop was the one to say it first – and that is no fable. So, the growing split between Israelis and American Jews is a serious matter, in truth, one of life and death – and is something on the minds, as it should be, of Jews who are serious about the survival of our people. THE TOLL OF INTERMARRIAGE If there is concern about the Jews of America and Israel drifting apart, there is, perhaps, deeper concern right here in the U.S. about American Jews drifting from being Jewish due to intermarriage,. All the studies show that there is a greater chance that the children of intermarried Jews will not consider themselves Jewish. The exception is, of course, the children of the Orthodox in whose families Jewish education and religious participation occurs to a much higher rate than in those that are Reform, Conservative, or just plain secular. The same problem is present for the Jewish community of Germany – probably to a greater degree than even in the U.S. The vast majority of Russian Jews who emigrated to Germany came with little Jewish background. The less there is in the way of religio-ethnic background, the greater the chance of melting into the general population. Great efforts are being made in Germany to expand Jewish infrastructure so, perhaps, the tide can be stemmed – but it’s a difficult problem

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with no easy solutions. Back to the U.S. for a moment. The Forward recently contained a column by one Uzi Silber (who I don’t know) who posits that the future of the American Jewish community will have an increasingly Orthodox look to it. Its easy reading and I do believe Mr. Silber has a point. Incidentally, because writers should provide full disclosure—in this case me—my wife of 48 years is not Jewish and my two daughters, I believe, consider themselves to be half-Jewish, whatever that is. In any case, you should read the Silber article. You can do so by clicking here: http://forward.com/articles/116252/ UGANDA I think it’s time for a positive Jewish story. A couple of weeks ago The Jewish World carried an article about Jewish life in Uganda. Uganda? Yes, Uganda! They reported “After five years of rabbinical studies in Los Angeles and Israel, Rabbi Gershom Sizomu has returned to the Abudaya Jewish tribe of Uganda with full spirits and his eyes on the future of his community. “In May 2008, Sizomu completed his studies at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at American Jewish University in Los Angeles,. . . was ordained, then returned home with his family. “Since his return, he has been made chief rabbi of Uganda, completed 250 conversions, opened a yeshiva in Nabugoye Hill, fed nearby villages suffering from starvation and welcomed hundreds of Jewish guests from around the world in a modern guesthouse (with electricity and running water) that was funded by American Jews.” There is a bit more to the story at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1118192.html Since there are only 13.3 million Jews in the world we can certainly use all those who want to convert. There are already black Jews in both the U.S. and Israel so I think we’re open to all comers green, purple or chartreuse! SIMCHAT TORAH By the time you get this newsletter, Simchat Torah, the final holiday of the Jewish “holiday season” (which begins the Jewish New Year) will have passed. During the year Jews read through the five books of Moses. On Simchat Torah the last chapter is read and then we start all over again. Re-reading and studying is an important part of religious Judaism. In the 20th century, Simchat Torah came to symbolize the public assertion of 5

Jewish identity. The Jews of the Soviet Union, in particular, would celebrate the festival en masse in the streets of Moscow. On October 14, 1973, more than 100,000 Jews took part in a Simchat Torah rally in New York city on behalf of refuseniks and Soviet Jewry. Dancing in the street with the Torah become part the holiday's ritual in various Jewish congregations in the United States as well. While we have not had all that much to be joyous during the last 2,000 years, Judaism is a happy religion full of very happy celebrations. So, if you happened to pass a synagogue last week and saw the congregants dancing around, you’ll now know it wasn’t a rock concert but a Simchat Torah event. See you again after the Merkel visit to Washington. **************************** DuBow Digest is written and published by Eugene DuBow who can be contacted at [email protected] Both the American and Germany editions are also posted on line at www.dubowdigest.typepad.com.

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