opinion
BY GALL SIGLER
Repairing Israel’s Ailing
Relationship with American Jewry
Requires Political Stability
Oleksii Liskonih / iStock / Getty Images Plus
S ince the national elections in April 2019, political
stability eluded Israel. The numerous elections
that followed, largely viewed as referenda on
Netanyahu’s domination of Israeli politics for the past
decade, failed to produce sturdy coalitions. On Nov.

1, Israelis will head to the polls once again, for the
fifth time in 3½ years.

The political chaos that plagues Israel bolstered
political apathy and exacerbated social divisions
within the Israeli Jewish community. Most signifi-
cantly, the Israeli government appears paralyzed
and unable to pass necessary reforms. Notable are
the widely-reported budget delays, transportation
reforms and the US Visa Waiver program.

Ultimately, the fragile coalitions and repeated
elections made a coherent government strategy,
necessary to tackle politically complex issues,
impossible. Israeli politicians appear somewhat
willing to cooperate on obvious national security
issues, such as Iran and Hamas. Yet the preoccupa-
tion with short-term issues and election campaign-
ing left festering wounds untreated. Among those
wounds is the aching relationship between Israel
and American Jewry.

Recent polls reveal how profound the chasm
between American and Israeli Jews became.

In 2021, Pew Research Center found that 71%
of American Jews identify with the Democratic
Party. Meanwhile, only 8% of Israel Jews identify
their political ideology as leftist. During the Trump
administration, the ideological disconnect between
Israeli and American Jews reached a new high.

While American Jews balked at Trump’s politics,
Israelis revered his blatant pro-Israeli policy. At the
end of his tenure, Trump had an overwhelming
71% approval rating in Israel, whereas only 27% of
American Jews viewed Trump in a favorable light
before the 2020 presidential elections.

The differing political postures of Israeli and
American Jews are often contextualized by the dif-
ferent political environments the two states inhabit.

American Jews have long accepted Israeli security
needs in the region and the exceptional nature of
its political predicament. Yet the rightward shift
in Israeli politics has left many American Jews,
most of whom are liberal, unable to reconcile their
attachment to Israel and their political ideology.

The absence of peace negotiations in years, cou-
pled with the destruction wrecked in Gaza in 2014,
2018 and 2021, left American Jews questioning
Israel’s intentions. Strikingly, only 33% of American
Jews believe Israel is making a genuine attempt to
reach a peace resolution with the Palestinians.

The differing political postures between Israeli
and American Jews are understandable; diversity
of political opinion within the Jewish world is argu-
ably desirable. Nevertheless, the fact that American
Jewry, the majority of which believes Israel and an
independent Palestinian state can coexist, ques-
tion the integrity of Israeli policy, must raise alarm
in the Knesset corridors. Meanwhile, in light of the
political turmoil, Israeli-Palestinian peace has been
marginalized from the political discourse.

Beyond the political alienation of American Jews,
Israel has made few efforts to promote inclusive
Jewish institutions that welcome the diversity of
American Jews. The vast majority of Jews in the US
either identify as Reform or do not affiliate with any
particular branch; only 9% of American Jews are
Orthodox. In Israel, however, the Orthodox tradition
reigns exclusively.

At the nascence of Israel, a compromise between
the largely secular Labor movement and the
Orthodox minority was reached. The “status quo,”
as it came to be known, anointed the Rabbinate
as a quasi-governmental entity. The elected gov-
ernment relinquished sovereignty over family law
and personal status, such as marriage, divorce and
conversions, to the Orthodox institution.

American Jews have long lamented the exclu-
sionary nature of the Orthodox Rabbinate, which
refuses to accept the Reform and Conservative
traditions. Recognizing inclusive policies as a
focal point to revamping Israel’s relationship with
American Jews, numerous governments pursued
legislation that would ease Orthodox restrictions.

Nonetheless, the reforms were quickly pushed
aside to protect precarious coalitions.

In 2016, the Israeli government approved a plan
to open a praying section at the Western Wall, to
welcome Jews of non-Orthodox denominations.

Under the Orthodox tradition, men and women are
separated at the Western Wall, and women are not
allowed to read from the Torah.

However, the plan, welcomed by American Jews
as a significant move toward a pluralistic accep-
tance of Jewish diversity, was never applied due to
the objection of Orthodox coalition members. While
Bennett wished to reinvigorate the non-Orthodox
praying plan, fears that drastic policy changes
would hinder the unity of Bennett’s razor-thin coali-
tion convinced him to forgo the plan.

The relationship between American Jews and
Israel is not beyond repair. Most American Jews
feel deeply connected to Israel, with only 16% of
American Jews claiming that Israel is not important
to them. Neither did most American Jews give up
on the notion that Judaism and democracy can
cohabitate in Israel. The critical question is whether
the Israeli government is willing to accept that
meaningful reform cannot be overlooked if the rela-
tionship is to be improved.

The upcoming elections in Israel must be more
than another referendum on Benjamin Netanyahu;
the elections must recognize the heavy price of
reactionary politics. In the absence of a strategic
approach to the myriad challenges facing Israel,
among them the aching relationship with American
Jews, Israel will continue to alienate American
Jews. If Israel is to repair its relationship with
American Jewry, it must advance political and reli-
gious reforms that indeed signal Israel’s devotion
to its claim to be an inclusive home to all Jews. JE
Gall Sigler is a rising senior at Yale University, a
native of Israel and a Jewish Exponent intern.

JEWISHEXPONENT.COM 15