Filling the black hole with the New Israel Fund

June 2, 2011 - News & Politics, Published - 5

Kron cartoon

I almost entered the communal black hole. For a time, wandering with other disengaged Jewish youth, I lacked an anchor to the community. And for a time, it was tempting to jump in and be taken away.

I had been through a Jewish school and I learnt about the land of milk and honey. I went through a youth movement and I’d been to Israel and seen its many wonders and its many dysfunctions, coming out truly in love.

I led programs on youth movement camps and was an AUJS activist on university campuses, but then the time came to call myself too old.

The black hole was attractive. I have many friends there, people I’ve been through school, movements and AUJS with. More than three-quarters of those I once shared a deep bond with in our communal lives have since gone back into their shells, leaving behind any formal connection they once had to the establishment community.

And who can blame them? I would guess there are two main reasons for wandering into the surprisingly comfortable abyss. First, we’re tired. After 10 years of Jewish day school and another few years of youth movement or AUJS life, my peers are “Jew-ed out”, a now well documented phenomenon. The second, more worrisome, factor is disengagement through a lack of options.

By that I mean that most of my friends, myself included, could not find a natural home in an existing communal structure; the black hole was simply a substitute to viable Jewish engagement if only because there were no alternatives.

Most of my friends are politically liberal and either secular or cultural Jews, with strong links to Israel and their Judaism. We struggled to find a place within current community organisations to express those views.

We all have a deep connection to Israel, have studied and visited there, have many friends there, and we believe we share its destiny; a blow dealt to Israel is a blow dealt to ourselves.

We are oriented by the Jewish and global values of social justice and human rights – we see Israel as a beacon of light in what is a dark and dangerous sea of equal parts despots and uncertainty.

We are also concerned about Israel’s future, because it is only so long that Israel can retain a positive image in a world where Palestinian self-determination is postponed and the toxic occupation of the Palestinian territories continued.

Until recently there was no Jewish organisation in Australia where I have been able to feel comfortable acting on my values with others in the same headspace. I’m therefore very glad that I’ve been able to join in the formation of the New Israel Fund (NIF) in Australia.

I’m proud that NIF in Israel supports non-government organisations that are integral to the flourishing of Israeli civil society and democracy and very excited to be able to support its work on the ground in Israel.

The dream of Israel was to create a democracy with equal rights for all, not just in the wording of the page, but also in reality, regardless of one’s religion, race or sex.

There are flaws in Israel’s democracy, just as there are in every country, and NIF’s work helps empower Bedouin women, train Russian immigrants, work on peace-building through environmental cooperation with Palestinians and Jordanians and provide assistance through Israel’s legal system to its Arab minority.

Once I understood these were the principles of the New Israel Fund, that they were so similar to my own, and that their grantees’ work is with many organisations so well known to me, it was a no-brainer to become actively involved. With NIF I can contribute directly to helping Israelis make Israel a better country, along with many others who are involved and share my ideals.

Some individuals have focussed entirely in recent weeks on criticising alleged conduct of a very few NIF grantees, even past ones. Reasonable minds can agree or differ on minutiae about particular grantees but that is no reason to demonise an entire organisation that does so much good for Israel and speaks so powerfully to young Jews like me.

Communal dialogue should be centred on how to attract and include the maximum number of young Jews, by being open, welcoming and diverse, and NIF is part – though not the only part – of that picture.

It is short-sighted for the community to be questioning why young people are not involved and at the same time to allow undermining of organisations, like NIF, that offer a central focus for youth engagement.

The New Israel Fund in Australia has given me an avenue of engagement, and it will do the same for others of my generation. We should welcome it and watch as it breathes new life into our community.

This column was originally published in the Australian Jewish News.

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Permalink: http://liamgetreu.com/2011/06/02/filling-the-black-hole-with-the-new-israel-fund/

  • biggins

    I suspect you misunderstand today's youth, Liam. Most young Jews are not sucked into a 'black hole'. Rather, they become understandably fed up with the ghetto mentality and the propaganda pumped out by its political offspring, Zionism (your article pussyfoots around this issue). A rejection of these things is a rejection of tribalism. Young Jews are just like young people everywhere – they want to create their own destinies, not be handed down some doctrinaire and traditionalist perspective. They want to get out in the world, not hang around Caulfield their whole lives. But I wouldn't worry too much about it. Once they are ready to 'settle down', the counter-reformation will be palpable. All those world-weary people will come back to the ghetto and raise kids with the same distorted viewpoints they were raised with. Just like for the baby boomers 'all you need is love' became 'all you need is cash'….

  • Gabe

    Nice article about an important issue. I'm almost surprised that the AJN hasn't just created an NIF "foldout" given the amount of material they are printing relating to the ruckus that its Australian inception has caused.

    I do feel the need to challenge your assertion that getting involved in a charity will fill this black hole in a real way. The NIF is great and do amazing things–for Israel. Disaffected, disengaged Jews will not find the path to fulfillment or enlightenment through working for a charity, no matter what charity, many thousands of miles away from the places to which the funds they are raising are destined.

    Plenty of funds that do great things already exist. One has to question why the JNF for instance doesn't engage the "Jew-ed" out Jews on environmental issues. Both sides of the NIF debate have beat up such a furious roar about it coming to Australia that it would be difficult for the uninformed to hear the quietly spoken truth that NIF is neither the saviour nor the demon that so many are making it out to be.

  • CyberYid

    I think you're missing a much more profound idea – a great paradigm shift. The traditional style 'community' model is no longer anthropologically or even socially relevant to humans living in 1st world nations in the 21st century — We live in an age of hyper-communication and the 20th century model of a 'Jewish community' simply cannot keep up- we should be pushing for the establishment of entirely web based – 'data world' community models – If you are really concerned about keeping people with common interest together you need to focus on the implementation of a new model (based in the data world). The reason most youth eventually become disenfranchised is probably because they realize that they don't NEED the physical community model anymore. The earliest communities were established in order to protect, provide security and resources. The paradigm eventually shifted and communities became about ideas and common beliefs. The paradigm is currently shifting again and the currency of the community is data. Humans are now embracing a far more complex form of community where data is shared – sometimes in the form of data that recreates the traditional physical bulletin board(i.e. this blog – or facebook).

    21st century Australians no longer rely on traditional style communities for the sharing of common interest or belief. We can quite happily get by with virtual communities. The sort of romantic idea of a close knit community that conducts social gatherings (in the physical) in order to share ideas and common beliefs is simply outdated. We need to start moving forward and stop relying on an antiquated model. Digital theorists should be involved. I'm talking about a serious step forward here.

    BTW, Israel was established for the security of the Jewish people (and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that), it wasn't established because of some righteous desire to enact democracy. To suggest that there is absolute equality in Israel for people of all races and creeds is absolutely ridiculous. In fact, inequality is necessary for Israel to exist – and I am fine with that – In fact I celebrate that idea. A degree of Inequality is present in any western style democracy, that's the nature of the system. The lovely frenchy idea of liberty, equality blah blah is quite obviously nice but ultimately unrealistic in terms of extreme implementation.

  • shailee

    So Liam, I'm going to have to take you on a few of your points. :D

    Personally, I believe the continual creation of NFP/charities are the biggest waste of time that essentially divides the already fragmented community by forcing people to align themselves with more niche and cause specific events. We should rather build and expand upon existing groups with established links to community and resources for effective change.

    Obviously the NIF is not "new" other than it being new to our shores but it feel this article in no way addresses how to deal with the issue of being 'Jewed-out'. In fact, the idea of not identifying with ones Jewishness means that one would not want to identify with Israel, let alone give money to it.

    Sure, its a worthy cause. But, are there other charities that provide support for the poor and low socio-economic groups in Israel? Yes. Moreover, there are Israeli government organisations set up for this very purpose who effectively support this group as well.

    I believe in the great power of social empathy, but also in people's great ability to waste money. This organisation is simply an NGO helping other NGOs and contributing to the cycle. I don't doubt it has and will continue to help a lot of people. But there is no link between supporting the poor with an online bank transfer and reinvigorating one's identity.

    Lastly, supporting Israel financially (even if it is directly to the poorest citizens) is still a dividing issue, something you seem to omit in your article, which feels to me to go against your message about the NIF as the better option for those feeling they sit on the fringe of the community.

  • samantha

    The "jewed out" term is hypocritical, why did your parents send you to an orthodox school any-way in the first place, It seems like there is a gravy train agenda there some-where and status?

    I call it self indulgent and ungrateful mate . The orthodox jews i have met, that are in this black hole are the warmest and loveliest people who have gotten the right balance and know their stuff.

    Have you heard the term Uncle Tom Jew ?

    To some it is just hot air and to others it is selfish to the extreme to make you look edgy or have something interesting to say.

    Whatever it is,good luck in finding it out!!

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