US Jews and Israel: Distancing, Yet One

In the debate about whether distancing has occurred between American Jewry and Israel, the distancing side is more convincing than the non-distancing side. Unfortunately, much of the current debate focuses on samples of the more identified Jewish population thus ignoring the more marginal that are quite crucial in adjudicating the controversy. Age specific cross-sectional data from the broadly representative 2001 NJPS unequivocally show a blurring among the younger of the strong sense of interest, affective involvement, responsibility and caring that American Jewry historically displayed toward Israel and its needs. Much of this is related to broader trends such as intermarriage and diminished participation in Jewish organizations. However, as of 2001, the demonstrable persistence of similar patterns of Jewish identification in the US and in Israel provided powerful evidence to persisting coherence in contemporary symbolic and institutional perceptions over the opposite thesis of a Jewish identification stemming from the variable circumstances of local contexts. Jews in the US and in Israel were distancing from each other, but they still were part of one.