Opinion

June 21, 2011

Pick a Gordis, any Gordis

by leonard fein

Tweet

Share

Rabbi Daniel Gordis, I’m told, is perhaps the single most popular speaker on Israel to American Jewish audiences.  He moved to Israel in 1998, after serving as founding dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, and in Jerusalem he serves as Senior vice president of the Shalem Center, a think tank.  Gordis is thought to be a man of considerable distinction, but I fear we have here a case of a whole that is smaller than the sum of its parts, as a consideration of three of his recent essays will show.

So: Gordis is the author of a lead article in this month’s Commentary magazine, “Are Young Rabbis Turning on Israel?”  The article, citing some anecdotal evidence – a handful of letters, a number of conversations (“anecdotal evidence” is, of course, an oxymoron) – asserts that pro-Israel students in (non-Orthodox) rabbinical schools in America are “lonely.”  In fact, he argues, “the number of vocally anti-Israel students is probably small, but their collective impact is far from marginal. These students are shaping the discourse about Israel in America’s rabbinical schools.” 

Gordis then goes on to ask why this is so, why this crop of rabbinical students has such different instincts from his own.  He cites four reasons.  The first is memory.  The Gordis generation remembers Israel imperiled; the current generation is beset with “images of helmeted IDF soldiers with rifles chasing young boys who’d thrown rocks.”  Obviously true, since memory is inherently generational.  Second?  “Despite the ongoing conflict, the fundamental goal of political Zionism . . . has been so utterly successful that these [current] students cannot imagine that Israel is actually at risk.”  False, I think; the sense that Israel is in existential crisis is pervasive, even in rabbinical seminaries.  (But my evidence is no better than Gordis’s.)  The third reason is that “they will do virtually anything in order to avoid confronting the fact that the Jewish people has intractable enemies. Their universalist worldview does not have a place for enemies.”  False again; the current crop is a long way from the kumbaya disposition of yesteryear.  And finally, [what] “is lacking in their view and their approach is the sense that no matter how devoted Jews may be to humanity at large, we owe our devotion first and foremost to one particular people—our own people.”  That’s the tough one, inherently neither true nor false, worthy of serious discussion and debate. 

That’s it.  The looming crisis of rabbinical alienation from Israel that Gordis perceives has nothing to do with Israel itself.  It is entirely about the students and their values. 

Is Gordis right?  He is the same Daniel Gordis who wrote in his widely distributed blog last January that “[Israel’s] ossified government, with no opposition to goad it into action, is passively presiding over the demise of much of what we have toiled to build.”  And: “Without some serious attempt at making progress . . . Israel effectively contributes to its own marginalization.”  And: “Something ugly and dangerous is bubbling to the surface of society, endangering the very democracy and decency that have rightly been the very source of our pride for decades.”  And: “At a moment in which the world (largely hypocritically) seems ever more inclined to decide that the State of Israel is morally corrupt and thus fundamentally illegitimate, elements of our society seem determined to provide them all the evidence that they need.”

Which, then, is the real Gordis?  Is it the one who supposes that rabbinical students are not aware of and affected by what is happening in Israel or the one whose own critique of Israel is so devastating?  (And, one wonders, which is the version he presents when he speaks on AIPAC’s behalf, which he does frequently?)  Or maybe the real Gordis is the one who wrote in an OpEd piece for The New York Times last February that perhaps America’s “best hope for peace in the region is to throw its weight behind Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu . . . . ”

No, it cannot be that one, since Gordis also wrote in his January blog that “Our emasculated political leadership - ossified by the unmanageable coalition it created - is endangering the very survival of the values and hope that have long led the Jewish people to live in - or rally around - this country,” and that “an Israel not working publicly to move the peace process forward is one that says to its young people that the Arabs are our enemies, always will be and that, frankly, we don’t care that much . . . . In that suffocating mind-set, instilling commitments to decency, liberalism . . .  and even democracy becomes almost impossible.” 

Does Gordis then intend that American Jews, and rabbinical students specifically, are to throw their weight behind the “emasculated” and “ossified” leader of Israel who is “endangering the very survival of the values and hopes that have long led the Jewish people to live in – and rally around – this country [i.e., Israel]?”

Alienation from Israel is a problem, and rabbinical students are not immune.  But Gordis’s anecdotes hardly warrant his assertion that it is the alienated students who are shaping the discourse in our rabbinical schools.  Maybe the serious discourse is (and should be) about whether Gordis is right in his lament for decency, liberalism and democracy in Israel, and what’s to be done if he is.

---

Post your comment below!

Click here to return to the homepage.

COMMENTS

We welcome your feedback. Comments may not exceed 700 characters.

Privacy Policy

Your information will not be shared or sold without your consent. Get all the details.

Terms of Service

JewishJournal.com has rules for its commenting community.Get all the details.

Mr. Fein asks: “whether Gordis is right in his lament for decency, liberalism and democracy in Israel, and what’s to be done if he is.” A reb asks that question. But Israel is still a young nation in process of becoming, as they like to say, or think, or hope, a normal nation.  Decency, liberalism and democracy are scarcely characteristics of normal nations.  Democracy is an empty shibboleth. Ancient Athens had it for a few decades: then over and out. Where are decency liberalism democracy to be found, today, or ever?  Such vapidity of thought and criticism.  Please, give us a break with the sentimentalisms of our disordered epoch.

Comment by Jascha Kessler on 6/21/11 at 2:34 pm

I feel a"kinship"with Daniel Gordis since he is a Baltimorean, has a son named Avi, and one named Micha, as do I. This “criticism"is unfair. As anyone who is passionate about something, opinions change, depending on the ebb-and-flow of the times. I remember his thoughts just before the retreat from Gaza when he took his children on a visit to see what was being relinquished, and tied both an orange and white tie to his car because both sides-to leave or not-had their strong points. Israel is complicated, and when we - those if us who care-are faced with defining its faults, it can be painful.Gordis lives there;his children serve in the army. He is in the thick of it…give him a break!

Comment by Sue Liberman on 6/21/11 at 2:46 pm

Dear Sue: Well said.

Comment by Honey Bee on 6/21/11 at 3:06 pm

I get the feeling that Mr. Fein (whom I don’t know) is overreaching in trying to make a point of some kind. 
Gordis sounds, to me, like Melanie Phillips on Israel—objective, intelligent observation of the problem(s), as in the emperor has no clothes on.  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk3xKYbsuY8)
But, the catch, which I haven’t yet heard from anyone, is, what can we do about this situation?  And isn’t that, after all, the problem?

Comment by Naomi Shapiro on 6/21/11 at 3:25 pm

P.S. Gordis is a wonderful writer. He knows how to take the arrow and stick it to you so that you leave his paragraphs with thoughts you may never have had, plus they can bring on the tears….The issues of young rabbis, or young “Anyones” for that matter and their angsts are perfect fodder to bounce around ones’ own questions, which he does brilliantly….I don’t get why Mr. Fein takes such an issue with this…

Comment by Sue Liberman on 6/21/11 at 3:29 pm

“The looming crisis of rabbinical alienation from Israel that Gordis perceives has nothing to do with Israel itself.  It is entirely about the students and their values.”

Fein shows here the narrowmindedness of his claims.  Students and their values do not exist in a vacuum.  He will not allow them an honest reaction to news events.  If you cannot see how someone might disagreee with Israel’s current direction, then YOU are part of the problem.  Just as HAMAS is part of Israel’s problem.

Fein should look at the social hypocrisy of Israeli policy. The Orthodox are given subsidies and privileges deprived of others; the Ultra-Right controls the definition of who is a Jew and sacred sites.

Comment by The Logician on 6/21/11 at 3:31 pm

Well, Naomi, we have the butting of heads of two intellectuals…Leonard Fein is a very respected commentator, and Daniel Gordis, also respected, I think is a little more passionate in his reactions to the current Israeli “weltanschaung.”.....This kind of thing can be “fun” actually…as long as no one gets hurt!

Comment by Sue Liberman on 6/21/11 at 3:33 pm

When heads butt there is always blood

Comment by honey Bee on 6/21/11 at 4:04 pm

Seems like many Israeli leftists Gordis is coming to the realization that Israel hasn’t a partner for peace, that Israel’s existence is the problem, not its actions.

Netanyahu is popular because Israeli leftists now agree that Israel must negotiate from strength until the Palestinians reciprocate Israel’s passion for peace, rather than with paper promises not taken seriously.

As Gordis allows realty to set in, he seems to hug both sides of the fence. Perhaps it’s seeing how many young rabbis are standing on the left side of it that has got his mind concentrated. After all, if rabbis fall for the global left’s surreal perspective, then the diaspora is destined to eat its own.

Comment by Steve on 6/21/11 at 4:11 pm

Thank yo Steve, one can only negociate peace from a position of strengh.

Thank you Streve, one can only negociate peace from a position of strength. That is why the tiny honey bee has a stinger!

Comment by Honey Bee on 6/21/11 at 4:45 pm

Daniel Gordis’ comments mirror the frustration so many of us feel. His call to American and Israeli youth,as to yeshiva students, to be loyal to the country and to remember that its original purpose was to provide a safe, and necessary homeland for Jews, does not contradict his worry over the durability of our pluralistic attitude and ideals; nor do these longings for a state that is inclusive and humanistic to the extent that it can safely be negate his worry over the effectiveness of our government. Gordis’ concerns are multi-faceted, like the country he has chosen as his home.

Comment by Batya Casper on 6/21/11 at 4:52 pm

Sue:  “Fun”?  “As long as no one gets hurt”?  I believe that Israel is teetering on the edge of a precipice, more over the edge than ever before, and I don’t see who’s/what’s coming to pull things back.

Comment by Naomi Shapiro on 6/21/11 at 4:53 pm

Naomi- I was referring to the intellectual banter,not the situation!..and I agree with Batya…

Comment by Sue Liberman on 6/21/11 at 5:00 pm

Naomi discussing Israeli policy is great fun,as long as I,m safely in the USA.

Comment by Honey Bee on 6/21/11 at 5:04 pm

Here is the real problem in Fein’s article

“Rabbi Daniel Gordis, I’m told, is perhaps the single most popular speaker on Israel to American Jewish audiences”

It’s called sour grapes. Fein no longer has his regular bully pulpit in the Forward. His is no longer the darling of the Jewish policy wonk rubber chicken circuit. Many of us have listened to him for decades regal us with stories of all the important people he has eaten lunch with. He is so emotionally tied to his old views that he cannot see what is in front of him. Sometimes people write things like this when the phone stops ringing.

Comment by Rafael Guber on 6/21/11 at 5:11 pm

If Israel behaves like a rational state then we do not need to brainwash our children to love it. As long as it is acting like a mad dog and does not respect other people, we shouldnt expect people love it. Antisemetism card even does not work anymore either.

Comment by Norman Frohman on 6/21/11 at 7:01 pm

As the Israeli left has had growing pains with the realization that Israel’s enemies really do want to destroy Israel no matter how much Israel gives; so to with the Jews in Brentwood and the Upper East side.  Those Jews who still hold on to the it’s the Jew’s fault mentality that has been persuasively pushed by the far left both here and in Israel, can’t come to terms with the realization that their world view hasn’t remained a universal leftist Jewish norm, and they are responding like Frohman and Fein. They can’t seem to grasp that no matter how good Israel is, Antisemitism will make her wrong

Comment by Lou Adams on 6/22/11 at 5:18 am

Lou Adams: Thank you, you hit the nail on the head. If we crawl if we beg, the world will love us and there will be peace.  This stratagy worked in 1938.

Comment by Honey Bee on 6/22/11 at 9:14 am

The emphasis of this thread is the distance of rabbinic students from Israel. That begs the question of the 80% of American Jews that will never take a seat in any synagogue any of those rabbi’s may be leading?

Comment by Linda Zweig on 6/22/11 at 10:54 am

once again the amen aipac chorus from the states writes that views widely held in israel by such “hamasniks” as the ex head of the mossad the president of israel and the former secular intellectual spolesman for the greater israel movement - chanan gouri are somehow traitorous. Writing from Israel where I spend half my year the i see it as laughable. A little investigation into the shalem institutes funder might shed some light n the reason for Gordis’ inconsstent opinions

Comment by l wineman on 6/27/11 at 12:38 am

Post a Comment

Name:
Email:

Type the word you see below:

Comment:

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?