The Arab_Israeli Conflict

by Jonathan Rynhold

  6 Cohen, American Jews and the Zionist Idea, 62, 71; Halperin, The Political World of American Zionism, 136–165.

  7 Sarna, American Judaism, 335–336.

  8 Melvyn Urofsky, We Are One! American Jewry and Israel (Garden City, NY: Anchor Press, 1978), 238–242.

  9 Ibid., 356–359.

  10 Thomas L. Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1989), 454.

  11 Daniel J. Elazar, Community and Polity: The Organizational Dynamics of American Jewry (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1995), 107.

  12 George E. Gruen, “The United States and Israel: Impact of the Lebanon War,” in Milton Himmelfarb and David Singer, eds., American Jewish Year Book, vol. 84 (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1983), 84–90.

  13 Steven M. Cohen, Ties and Tensions: An Update: The 1989 Survey of American Jewish Attitudes toward Israel and Israelis (New York: American Jewish Committee, 1989); David Landau, Who is a Jew? A Case Study of American Jewish Influence on Israeli Policy (New York: American Jewish Committee, 1996); J. J. Goldberg, Jewish Power: Inside the American Jewish Establishment (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1996), 337–347; Colin Shindler, Ploughshares into Swords? Israelis and Jews in the Shadow of the Intifada (London: I. B. Taurus, 1991), 142–145.

  14 Steven T. Rosenthal, Irreconcilable Differences? The Waning of the American Jewish Love Affair with Israel (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2001); Nathan Gutman, “Israel Not High on Young U.S. Jews Agenda,” Haaretz, June 1, 2003.

  15 Ira Sheskin, “Four Questions about American Jewish Demography,” Jewish Political Studies Review 20, no. 1–2 (Spring 2008); Leonard Saxe et al., Reconsidering the Size and Characteristics of the American Jewish Population: New Estimates of a Larger and More Diverse Community (Waltham, MA: Brandeis University, Steinhardt Social Research Institute, 2007); Chaim Waxman and Ruth Yaron, The Jewish People Policy Planning Institute Annual Assessment, 2008, Executive Report, no. 5, 18; Barry A. Kosmin, “The Changing Population Profile of American Jews, 1990–2008,” (paper presented at the Fifteenth World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, August 2009), http://www.jewishdatabank.org/studies/downloadFile.cfm?FileID=3040; United Jewish Communities, The National Jewish Population Survey 2000–01: Strength, Challenge and Diversity in the American Jewish Population (New York: United Jewish Communities, 2003), 16–19, http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/downloadFile.cfm?FileID=7983.

  16 Kosmin, “The Changing Population Profile of American Jews, 1990–2008”; Jonathon Ament, American Jewish Religious Denominations (New York: United Jewish Communities, 2005), http://www.jewishfederations.org/local_includes/downloads/7579.pdf.

  17 Samuel C. Heilman, Sliding to the Right: The Contest for the Future of American Jewish Orthodoxy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006).

  18 United Jewish Communities, Strength, Challenge and Diversity, 16–19; A Portrait of Jewish Americans, (Washington, DC: Pew Research Center, October 1, 2013), 35, http://www.pewforum.org/files/2013/10/jewish-american-full-report-for-web.pdf.

  19 Steven M. Cohen, A Tale of Two Jewries: The “Inconvenient Truth” for American Jews (New York: Jewish Life Network/Steinhardt Foundation, November 2006).

  20 United Jewish Communities, The National Jewish Population Survey 2000–01, 16–19.

  21 Cited in Steven Cohen and Jack Wertheimer, “Whatever Happened to the Jewish People?” Commentary, June 2006, 33–37.

  22 Steven M. Cohen and Arnold Eisen, The Jew Within: Self, Family, and Community in America (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2000); Jack Wertheimer, Generation of Change: How Leaders in Their Twenties and Thirties are Reshaping American Jewish Life (Jerusalem: Avi Chai Foundation, 2010); Steven M. Cohen, Profiling the Professionals: Who’s Serving Our Communities? Jewish Communal Workers in North America: A Profile (New York: New York University, Berman Jewish Policy Archive, Fall 2010), http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/downloadFile.cfm?FileID=7321.

  23 Wertheimer, Generation of Change; Cohen, Profiling the Professionals.

  24 Theodore Sasson, Charles Kadushin, and Leonard Saxe, Trends in American Jewish Attachment to Israel: An Assessment of the “Distancing” Hypothesis (Waltham, MA: Brandeis University, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, 2008), figures 1 and 2, 11–12.

  25 Jonathon Ament, Israel Connections and American Jews: Report Series on the National Jewish Population Survey 2000–01 (New York: New York University, Berman Jewish Policy Archive, August 2005), http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/details.cfm?PublicationID=2848.

  26 National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS) 1989–90 (New York: Council of Jewish Federations, 1990), http://www.jewishdatabank.org/studies/downloadFile.cfm?FileID=1462 (no longer available). The same picture emerges from the annual AJC surveys.

  27 Ament, Israel Connections and American Jews.

  28 Steven Cohen and Ari Kelman, Beyond Distancing: Young Adult American Jews and Their Alienation from Israel (New York: Bronfman Philanthropies, 2008).

  29 Theodore Sasson et al., Still Connected: American Jewish Attitudes about Israel (Waltham, MA: Brandeis University, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, August 2010).

  30 Ament asd, Israel Connections and American Jews; National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS) 1989–90.

  31 Cohen and Kelman, Beyond Distancing.

  32 Bethamie Horowitz, Connections and Journeys: Assessing Critical Opportunities for Enhancing Jewish Identity (New York: UJA–Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, 2000; revised 2003), http://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/CP/AJP_conf_oct06_files/papers/Benthamie_Horowitz.pdf; Charles Kadushin, Shaul Kelner, and Leonard Saxe, Being a Jewish Teenager in America: Trying to Make It (Waltham, MA: Brandeis University, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, 2000).

  33 Anna Greenberg and Kenneth D. Wald, “Still Liberal after All These Years? The Contemporary Political Behavior of American Jewry,” in L. Sandy Maisel and Ira N. Forman, eds., Jews in American Politics (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2001), 162–193; Lydia Saad, “U.S. Jews Lead Other Religious Groups in Support of Obama,” Gallup, October 2, 2009, http://www.gallup.com/poll/123413/U.S.-Jews-Lead-Religious-Groups-Support-Obama.aspx; A Portrait of Jewish Americans, 96.

  34 A Portrait of Jewish Americans, 96.

  35 Cohen and Kelman, Beyond Distancing.

  36 Cohen and Wertheimer, “Whatever Happened to the Jewish People?”; Cohen and Eisen, The Jew Within.

  37 Peter Beinart, “The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment,” New York Review of Books, June 10, 2010.

  38 Benjamin Phillips, Eszter Lengyel, and Leonard Saxe. American Attitudes toward Israel (Waltham, MA: Brandeis University, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, 2002), 14; Cohen and Kelman, Beyond Distancing, 30. See other evidence from surveys cited in Cohen and Eisen, The Jew Within, 143; Cohen and Wertheimer, “Whatever Happened to the Jewish People?” 34.

  39 Luntz, Israel in the Age of Eminem, 7, 14; author interview with Roger Bennett, vice president of Bronfman Philanthropies.

  40 Phillips, Lengyel, and Saxe, American Attitudes toward Israel.

  41 Surveys cited in Goldberg, Jewish Power, 216.

  42 Steven M. Cohen, “Poll: Attachment of U.S. Jews to Israel Falls,” Jewish Daily Forward, March 4, 2005.

  43 Sasson et al., Still Connected, appendix B, 13.

  44 Theodore Sasson, The New Realism: American Jews’ Views about Israel (New York: American Jewish Committee, 2009).

  45 Cohen and Wertheimer, “Whatever Happened to the Jewish People?” Steven M. Cohen and Gerald Bubis, “Post-Zionist” Philanthropists: Emerging Attitudes of American Jewish Leaders toward Communal Allocations (Jerusalem: Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 1998).

  46 “American Jewish Contributions to Israel, 1948–2004,” Jewish Virtual Library, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/ujatab.html (no longer available).

  47 Sherry Israel, Comprehensive Report on the 1995 CJP Demographic Study (Boston: Combined Jewish Philanthropies, 1997);
Luntz, Israel in the Age of Eminem.

  48 Fred A. Lazin, The Struggle for Soviet Jewry in American Politics: Israel versus the American Jewish Establishment (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2005), 226.

  49 The figure of 100,000 is usually mentioned for this pro-Israel rally, but there is good reason to believe that the number was actually lower. See Jerry Tully, “The Numbers Game, Mideast-style,” MSNBC, April 30, 2002, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3071605/.

  50 The annual AJC surveys of American Jewish opinion are available at http://www.ajc.org/site/c.ijITI2PHKoG/b.846741/k.8A33/Publications__Surveys/apps/nl/newsletter3.asp (accessed June 10, 2010). Similar results were obtained in the National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS) in 2000; see Ament, Israel Connections and American Jews.

  51 Fern Oppenheim, “The Segmentation Study of the American Market, Fourth Quarter 2010,” conducted by the Brand Israel Group and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

  52 Yossi Shain and Barry Bristman, “Diaspora, Kinship, and Loyalty: The Renewal of Jewish National Security,” International Affairs 78, no. 1 (2002): 85.

  53 Carl Schrag, Ripples from the Matzav: Grassroots Responses of American Jewry to the Situation in Israel (New York: American Jewish Committee, 2004).

  54 Marissa Gross, “The Salute to Israel Parade,” Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, June 1, 2008, http://jcpa.org/article/the-salute-to-israel-parade/.

  55 Lawrence Grossman, “Jewish Communal Affairs,” in David Singer and Lawrence Grossman, eds., American Jewish Year Book, vol. 107 (New York: American Jewish Committee, 2007), 113; David Horovitz, “Editor’s Notes: ‘Mr. Reassurance’ Sounds the Alarm,” Jerusalem Post, November 3, 2006.

  56 Theodore Sasson, “Mass Mobilization to Direct Engagement: American Jews’ Changing Relationship to Israel,” Israel Studies 15, no. 2 (2010): 173–195.

  57 Amiram Barkat, “Reaping Their Fruits,” Haaretz, March 6, 2005.

  58 Sasson, “Mass Mobilization to Direct Engagement.”

  59 Chaim Waxman, “Israel in Orthodox Identity: The American Experience,” in Danny Ben-Moshe and Zohar Segev, eds., Israel, the Diaspora and Jewish Identity (Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic Press, 2007), 52–61; Sasson, Kadushin, and Saxe, Trends in American Jewish Attachment to Israel, 13.

  60 Jonathan Rynhold, “Israel’s Foreign and Defence Policy and Diaspora Jewish Identity,” in Ben-Moshe and Segev, eds., Israel, the Diaspora, and Jewish Identity; Sasson, The New Realism.

  61 Sasson, The New Realism, 28–31.

  62 Peter Beinart, “Israel’s Indefensible Behavior,” Daily Beast, June 21, 2010, http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-06-01/israel-flotilla-disaster-gaza-embargo-us-supporters-to-blame/; Eric Alterman, “Israel Agonists,” Nation, June 21, 2010.

  63 Sasson et al., Still Connected.

  64 Cohen and Kelman, Beyond Distancing; Sasson, Kadushin, and Saxe, Trends in American Jewish Attachment to Israel; Sasson et al., Still Connected.

  65 Sasson, Kadushin, and Saxe, Trends in American Jewish Attachment to Israel; Theodore Sasson et al., “Understanding Young Adult Attachment to Israel: Period, Lifecycle, and Generational Dynamics,” Contemporary Jewry, 32, no. 1 (2012): 67–84.

  66 Sasson, Kadushin, and Saxe, Trends in American Jewish Attachment to Israel.

  67 Ukeles Associates, Young Jewish Adults in the United States Today (New York: American Jewish Committee, 2006), table 20, 81.

  68 Theodore Sasson, The New American Zionism (New York: New York University Press, 2014), 104.

  69 Leonard Saxe et al., Generation Birthright Israel: The Impact of an Israel Experience on Jewish Identity and Choices (Waltham, MA: Brandeis University, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, 2009).

  70 Steven M. Cohen and Sam Abrams, “Israel off Their Minds: The Diminished Place of Israel in the Political Thinking of Young Jews,” New York University, Berman Jewish Policy Archive, October 27, 2008, http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/details.cfm?PublicationID=207.

  71 Sasson et al., Still Connected, appendix B, 13.

  72 Sasson, The New American Zionism, 107.

  73 Cohen and Kelman, Beyond Distancing, 17.

  74 Sasson et al., Still Connected, appendix B, p. 13.

  75 Sheskin, “Four Questions about American Jewish Demography”; Jeffrey Helmreich, “The Israel Swing Factor: How the American Jewish Vote Influences U.S. Elections,” Jerusalem Letter / Viewpoints 446, January 15, 2001.

  76 “U.S. Presidential Elections: Jewish Voting Record (1916–Present),” Jewish Virtual Library, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/jewvote.html; Mark S. Mellman, Aaron Strauss, and Kenneth D. Wald, Jewish American Voting Behavior, 1972–2008: Just the Facts (Washington, DC: Solomon Project, 2012).

  77 Greenberg and Wald, “Still Liberal after All These Years?”; Saad, “U.S. Jews Lead Other Religious Groups in Support of Obama”; A Portrait of Jewish Americans.

  78 Helmreich, “The Israel Swing Factor.”

  79 Steven M. Cohen, Sam Abrams, and Judith Veinstein, “American Jews and the 2008 Presidential Election: As Democratic and Liberal as Ever?” New York University, Berman Jewish Policy Archive, October 20, 2008, http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/details.cfm?PublicationID=2444; Cohen and Abrams, “Israel off Their Minds.”

  80 Mellman, Strauss, and Wald, Jewish American Voting Behavior, 1972–2008: Just the Facts.

  81 Natasha Mozgovaya, “Biden: Israel’s Decisions Must Be Made in Jerusalem, not DC,” Haaretz, September 4, 2008; Ron Kampeas, “Obama: Don’t Equate ‘Pro-Israel’ and ‘Pro-Likud,’” JTA, February 24, 2008.

  82 Eric Fingerhut, “Polls Show Obama Making Big Gains with Jewish Voters,” JTA, October 24, 2008; Ron Kampeas, “Jews Looked Past Worries to Embrace Obama,” JTA, November 5, 2008.

  83 Michael Bloomfield and Mark Mellman, “Predicting Jewish Vote More Complicated,” Jewish Daily Forward, November 18, 2011.

  84 Author interviews, 2013.

  85 “U.S. Presidential Elections: Jewish Voting Record (1916–Present),” Jewish Virtual Library, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/jewvote.html; Mellman, Strauss, and Wald, Jewish American Voting Behavior, 1972–2008: Just the Facts.

  86 Cohen, Abrams, and Veinstein. “American Jews and the 2008 Presidential Election”; Cohen and Abrams, “Israel off Their Minds.”

  87 Mellman, Strauss, and Wald, Jewish American Voting Behavior, 1972–2008: Just the Facts; Hilary Leila Krieger, “Poll: McCain More Popular among Religious Than Secular Jews,” Jerusalem Post, July 8, 2008; Cohen, Abrams, and Veinstein, “American Jews and the 2008 Presidential Election”; Lawrence Grossman, “Jewish Vote in Play,” JTA, September 26, 2011; J. J. Goldberg, “Shhh: NY Times Reports on Orthodox GOP Vote,” Jewish Daily Forward, November 25, 2102; author conversations with numerous Orthodox American Jews in New Jersey, Washington, DC, and Florida, 2012–2013.

  88 Schrag, Ripples from the Matzav.

  89 Leonard Saxe, Ted Sasson, and Shahar Hecht, Taglit-Birthright Israel: Impact on Jewish Identity, Peoplehood and Connection to Israel (Waltham, MA: Brandeis University, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, 2006).

  7. American Jews and the peace process

  1 Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land: American Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace (New York: Bantam Books, 2009), 95.

  2 Natasha Mozgovaya, “Biden: Israel’s Decisions Must Be Made in Jerusalem, Not D.C.,” Haaretz, September 4, 2008.

  3 Yossi Shain and Barry Bristman, “‘Diaspora, Kinship, and loyalty: The Renewal of Jewish National Security,” International Affairs 78, no. 1 (2002): 85.

  4 John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007).

  5 Steven M. Cohen, Ties and Tensions: The 1986 Survey of American Jewish Attitudes toward Israel and Israelis (New York: American Jewish Committee, 1987), 44.

  6 Eytan Gilboa, American Public Opinion toward Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (Lexington, MA: Le
xington Books, 1987), 251–253.

  7 Charles S. Liebman, Pressure without Sanctions: The Influence of World Jewry on Israeli Policy (Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1977), 202.

  8 Theodore Sasson, “Mass Mobilization to Direct Engagement: American Jews’ Changing Relationship to Israel,” Israel Studies 15, no. 2 (2010): 173–195.

  9 These polls are generally considered to be reliable, though they probably overrepresent Jews who care about Israel. See Benjamin Phillips, Eszter Lengyel, and Leonard Saxe, American Attitudes toward Israel (Waltham, MA: Brandeis University, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, 2002); Joel Perlmann, American Jewish Opinion about the Future of the West Bank: A Reanalysis of American Jewish Committee Surveys, Working Paper no. 526 (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY: Bard College, Levy Economics Institute, December 2007).