In this presidential election, American Jews need more from Israeli Jews than their opinions about which candidate they think is better right now for the State of Israel. We need your partnership and support now, and we will need it even more in the aftermath of whatever happens tomorrow.
For the past 100+ years, American Jews have been engaged in a radical experiment to rethink what is possible for Diaspora Jews. While Israelis responded to the collapse of Jewish citizenship in Europe by building a Jewish nation-state, American Jews helped shape America's promise and commitment to be a true multicultural, multifaith, liberal democracy in which Jews, among others, could be full members. This fragile experiment depends on shared commitments to pluralism, civic participation and civil discourse, a respect for institutions, a willingness to engage in political compromise, and a shared commitment to rules and norms in politics, including the peaceful transition of power.
Many of these commitments are vulnerable now, not just in America but around the world. The rise of political authoritarianism on the right and ideological authoritarianism on the left, growing distrust in institutions on all sides along with global pessimism about our economic future, climate change, and an immigration crisis, have created deep divisions and polarization that threaten the stability of our liberal democracies. The rise of Donald Trump as a force in American politics is both a symptom of these concerns as well as an accelerant of the threats against American democratic norms. So too is the normalization of antisemitism in America, the result of both Trump's authoritarianism and the growing ideological illiberalism of the left that makes opposition to Israel central to its platform.
When American Jews who overwhelmingly vote for the Democratic party – and which is still overwhelmingly pro-Israel – express fear about Trump and his dangerous populism, it is not merely in service of winning this election; it reflects a deep concern about whether the grand American experiment will continue. If the thriving of American Jews has depended on the thriving of the American promise, we fear that a divided and undemocratic America will be bad for the Jews.
Israelis owe American Jews the decency of listening to our fears and taking them seriously. This is what peoplehood means, as it meant to American Jews in standing with Israelis after October 7. We are all threatened by attacks against our democracies and our democratic values, whether from external forces or by internal unrest. American Jews need the courage right now to stand up for the pluralism, democracy, and decency that has made America safe and that enabled us to thrive in America until now – and for a Zionism, and a support for Israel that has enjoyed bipartisan consensus for decades, that fully integrates those values as well. And to marshal that courage, we also need the partnership of Israelis. Only a Jewish and democratic Israel, and a liberal democratic America – different from one another, but both Jewish responses to the terrible political alternatives in our history – will enable the Jewish people to thrive.
Dr. Yehuda Kurtzer is the president of the Shalom Hartman Institute.
