Israeli President Reuven Rivlin Receives The American Jewish Community and Israel’s National Security, prepared by INSS, in cooperation with the Ruderman Family Foundation.
On Thursday, December 6, 2018, INSS researchers submitted a study to Israeli President Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin on the relationship between Israel and American Jewry and its impact on the national security of the State of Israel. The study, conducted in cooperation with the Ruderman Family Foundation, is titled The American Jewish Community and Israel’s National Security.
President Rivlin: “I am pleased to receive this important study, particularly in the current crucial period for relations between Israel and world Jewry. I regard world Jewry as the fifth tribe of Israel, and I believe that its importance and its role are determined not by its location but rather by its immense importance to building the society, the state, and the people in Israel. This study proves, without a doubt, American Jewry’s importance to the national security of the State of Israel and to the national strength of the Jewish people, and I thank you for this. I am aware of the widening gaps between Israel and American Jewry. Many Israelis have no family connections to diaspora Jewry, and for them this Jewish community is remote and unfamiliar. It is important that we do not wait in passive anticipation for the arrival of the inevitable. Now is the time to build bridges of understanding and appreciation between us. We are brothers, and brothers we shall remain.”
The study was initiated by the Ruderman Family Foundation and was conducted by a team of INSS researchers, led by Assaf Orion and Shahar Eilam. The study charts growing trends of mutual distancing, alienation, and weakening ties between Israelis and American Jews. It also reflects a decline in the sense of belonging, involvement, and mutual responsibility of these populations. These trends hold long term implications for the national security of the State of Israel and the security of the Jewish people as a whole; for the purpose and identity of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people; and for the internal strength and bonds between the Jewish communities in the United States and Israeli society. Today, both communities are in need of a new, joint plan based on a deep understanding of how each can help the other weather the challenges of the present and the future. Only a meaningful joint effort by both sides will be able to change these trends that have materialized in the relations between these two populations and to ensure their security and their future.
Shahar Eilam, Researcher at INSS:
“The study is meant to provide Israeli decision makers, the foreign affairs and security establishments, and the public at large with a knowledge base and a foundation for discussion and engagement on the relationship between Israel and United States Jewry as an issue of national security. The study also proposes a comprehensive plan on the response necessary to address the strategic challenges in this context that are currently facing the state of Israel, the Jewish community in the United States, and the Jewish people as a whole. We are grateful to the President of Israel for his great interest in this study, and we are convinced that with his leadership and inspiration, it will be possible to mobilize many others in Israel and among American Jewry to foster an updated discourse and undertake the work necessary to strengthen the relationship between the communities, based on the understanding that it is essential to the shaping of our future and our security as communities, as a people, and as a state.”
Shira Ruderman, CEO of the Ruderman Family Foundation:
“We hope that this study constitutes the beginning of a new era in Israeli discourse regarding American Jewry, and we are pleased that the President of Israel understands the essential and urgent need for this discourse. American Jews are not simply distant relatives – they are also a strategic asset. The state-security discourse between Jerusalem and Washington is inseparably linked to the discourse between the Jewish people in Israel and American Jews. These are not two parallel lines, but rather a triangle of relations in which every point interacts with the other two. Put simply, injury to the relationship between Israel and American Jewry is an injury to the national security of the State of Israel.”