“The problem with the Golden Age of American Zionism was that for far too many Jews, support for Israel became a vicarious faith…”

The problem with the Golden Age of American Zionism was that for far too many Jews, support for Israel became a vicarious faith, a civil religion masking the inadequacies of our actual religion. The only way Israel will learn from, listen to or care about American Jews is if American Jews show themselves to be living energetic Jewish lives. A robust American Jewish identity can weather policy differences with this or that Israeli government and withstand the slings and arrows of campus culture — something a paper-thin Jewish identity cannot do.

Elliot Cosgrove, “On Israel, The ‘Sane Center Must Speak With Passion’”, The Jewish Week (14 October 2016), 21.