Society
The Future for Jews and Israel
By Lane Jennings
Action and innovation, not faith and tradition, may be the keys to
Judaism's future.
Repeated incidents of violence and hate-filled rhetoric in recent years
have focused world attention on the threat posed by extremist groups within all major
religions, not only Islam. But Israeli scholars Tsvi Bisk and Moshe Dror, writing
specifically on future prospects for Judaism, see the basis for a rebirth of tolerance and
more positive involvement in solving world problems by emphasizing the personal benefits
and responsibilities of religious identity in the twenty-first century.
In Futurizing the Jews, Bisk and Dror explore how Jews in Israel and
throughout the world might unify in new and effective ways that embrace economic
globalization and government by secular law.
The future they envision for Judaism builds on the experience of
Western, secular Jews. Their main concern is to demonstrate how nonobservant individuals,
even convinced atheists, can still identify with Judaism as a living culture and
contribute to its future growth regardless of how far their personal faith and worship
practices may diverge from traditional norms.
What Will it Mean to Be Jewish?
For many centuries following the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans
in A.D. 70, Jewish communities existed only as small and weak minorities scattered
throughout the world. During this time, the question "What does it mean to be
Jewish?"was easy to answer. Being Jewish meant belonging to "the tribe";
that is, identifiable by a language and culture noticeably different from all the other
groups around them. Though this separation was reinforced by suspicion, hostility, and
occasional persecution from outside, it was fundamentally preserved by choice and
tradition.
With the Enlightenment in western Europe, religious tolerance expanded,
and laws and institutions grew increasingly secular. This opened opportunities for
individuals of all backgrounds to acquire wealth and power based primarily on their own
effort and ability, while the relative advantages conferred by birth or inherited land
holdings decreased.
As a result, many Jews left their old communities and adopted new ways
of life and worship that reflected the diversity around them. By the mid-nineteenth
century, urban ghettos and rural villages were no longer the only models for Jewish
identity, and assimilation into the mainstream of Western cultural and economic life had
become an attractive option for some.
By the mid-twentieth century, the emigration of many Jews from Russia
and Eastern Europe and their resettlement in the United States had made American Jewry the
largest, most affluent, and at the same time most culturally diverse Jewish community in
the world. At this same time, however, the Zionist movement was promoting Jewish migration
to Palestine and laying the foundation for a revival of Judaism at the historical center
of Jewish civilization. This effort has been so successful that today in the United States
the one thing that practically all who claim to be Jewish have in common is an affection
for, and willingness to support, the state of Israel.
But what of the future? For Orthodox Jews (as for many fundamentalist
Christians and Islamists), even slight modifications of tradition represent dangerous
departures from time-tested ways and values that have preserved their community from
corruption and assimilation. Their desired future is to return as much as possible to the
lifestyle and community norms of their ancestors.
But authors Bisk and Dror see little chance that reviving orthodox
practices will spread or strengthen Jewish community. Instead, they urge that Jews stop
looking back to the far past (specifically the era of King Solomon and the First Temple)
as a utopia and to recognize that the conditions existing then cannot be reestablished or
even successfully approximated today. Bisk and Dror also believe Jews must transcend the
horrific recent past of the Holocaust and accept that the Jewish people can no longer
remain a nation apart, unaffected by or indifferent to the trends and problems of an
increasingly interdependent world community.
A Model Nation
Israel, the authors argue, should view itself as a city-state like
ancient Athens and not as a potentially self-sufficient nation. Even if Israel were to
create an efficient agrarian society and "make the desert bloom," as the early
Kibbutz system of collective farms set out to do, it would remain a minor country with
little economic or cultural influence. A far better approach, they insist, is for Israel
to focus on Third Wave economic activity (that is, providing services and expertise)
rather than agriculture or even manufacturing. By pursuing excellence in research,
education, government, and public services, Israel can make itself a model state and
demonstrate how democracy and economic opportunity can function in a postmodern world to
benefit all citizens.
Rather than promote unlimited Jewish immigration that would only
intensify the pressure for new settlements and expansion at the expense of neighboring
states, Bisk and Dror recommend capitalizing on the Internet to enlarge the Jewish
homeland. Electronically linking experts, scholars, and congregations from Jewish
communities all over the world with their counterparts in Israel itself would effectively
reunite twenty-first-century Judaism in the form of a cyber-reality transcending physical
borders, the authors contend.
In practical terms, this expanded notion of citizenship would help
generate healthy debate and constructive criticism of Israeli policies and marshal support
for internal bureaucratic and legal reforms. At the same time, it would greatly expand
Israel's global reach and give Jews who live outside Israel a more constructive and
fulfilling way to support the Jewish state than merely giving money or blindly backing any
policy or action for fear that criticism might encourage Israel's enemies. Joining
alliances like NATO and the European Union and cooperating with other states and regional
authorities to address global problems of ecology, development, and security offer Israel
its surest way to guarantee long-term survival.
But is survival enough? Many Jews, like the later Christian and Muslim
communities that have accepted and adapted many basic Jewish values, have long believed
they have a special duty to set an example for the world. This means that the challenge
facing Israel, and the far-flung community of those living outside Israel today who
identify themselves as Jews, is not merely to survive, but to prosper and, in so doing, to
benefit others as well as themselves.
The inherent dangers in such a sense of mission are arrogance and
self-congratulation. But without some overriding long-range goal what is the point of
risking or improving anything? History demonstrates that attempting to preserve the past
unchanged is an exercise in futility. Yet having no purpose beyond maximizing near-term
pleasure and convenience can leave an individual or a whole society unsatisfied and
depressed in the midst of plenty.
While some futures thinkers believe the role of organized religion in
human affairs will likely diminish over time, traditional religious practices and deeply
held personal beliefs still powerfully affect daily life in many parts of the world today.
Reexamining the basis for established rituals and customs and rethinking transmitted
wisdom in the light of new priorities need not threaten personal beliefs and worship
practices. In fact, the effort seems a reasonable way to improve the likelihood that
fervor and hope will continue to work alongside technical knowledge and ingenuity to
address both short-term and long-term human needs.
Sources: Futurizing the Jews: Alternative Futures for Meaningful Jewish
Existence in the 21st Century by Tsvi Bisk and Moshe Dror. Praeger Books/Greenwood
Publishing Group, 2003. 258 pages. Order
See also "The Threat of Thearchy" by Arnold Brown and
"Humanity's Common Values: Seeking a Positive Future" by Wendell Bell in THE
FUTURIST, September-October 2004.
