In a recent survey, the Pew Research Center revealed that about a third of American Jewry has completely broken away from the Jewish people. They are not affiliated with any stream of Judaism, not with the Jewish people and certainly not with Israel.
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Another extensive survey, by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, showed that a quarter of Jews in the United States believes that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people, just as Germans did against the Jews during the Holocaust.
About 2 million American Jews – whose ancestors gave their lives just so their children would maintain a Jewish identity – are at the forefront of antisemitism, leading the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement against Israel.
What emerges from both surveys is that the radical fringe is growing wider each year. One cannot help but ask, how did we manage within the span of one generation to both lose so many of our finest sons and see them emerge among the greatest of antisemites today?
To answer this question, we must learn from our history, from the sin of the spies who were sent by the twelve tribes to tour the land of Israel, before the Jewish people entered it. Those spies were good people but did not believe in a prosperous future in the land, and so discouraged the people from entering it. For their lack of belief, they were erased from the nation and have no portion in the World to Come.
They saw the miracles of the Exodus from Egypt, but did not believe in the Jewish people's ability for revival. They knew the stories of the patriarchs but did not believe in the people's ability to return to the same virtues, faith and mission of being a light unto the nations.
This is precisely what happened to the parents of American Jews. About a century ago, they chose not to immigrate to Israel, believing that nothing would come of Theodor Herzl's vision and Edmond Rothschild's madness. They thought the Jewish people had no chance of becoming independent. They did not believe that Israel would again turn into a land of milk and honey.
Our Sages teach us that the Jewish people's belief in a prosperous future is tested in every generation. Whenever we choose to believe it – that God will never break the promises he made to his people – we win. Whenever we lose that belief, we pay the price, especially on Tisha b'Av.
Our generation has the same choice. If we think that Zionism is a thing of the past, then we do not believe in the future. Do we think that making aliyah and settling the land is the thing of the past? Or do we believe that the people of Israel have much more to develop, grow, and offer, and that we have a mission to bring blessings to the world, and inspire our brethren overseas to believe that they can return to the promised land.
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