A Decade of Jewish Existentialism

 Source: Humans of JNF (www.jnf.org)

Long before the rise of Adolf Hitler, establishing a Jewish state became the rallying cry of Zionists. Subject to the Jewish Question for centuries in Europe and the Middle East, through persecution, exile, pogrom and finally, systematic extermination; it appeared that other remedy could suffice for the Jewish people.

Trouble existed from the beginning. From 1948 to 1967, Jews lost access to their historical monuments and worship sites as Jerusalem came under Palestinian control. The Jewish state was tentative, perhaps a false promise or aberration in the course of history. After Adolf Hitler died in his bunker, many Jews continued to live a psychological holocaust, resulting in secularization, loss of ties to Judaism and the Jewish community.

Survivors of the Holocaust were prolific in writing and thinking in the post-war decade, reviews and analysis of which can be found in the Arts section of The Wall Street Journal. Where was G-d, who let this horrible thing happen? What about the psyche of Jews of America, still excluded from certain neighborhoods, social clubs, and held at an arm’s distance by those in power? Could it happen here, considering the sensational Rosenburg trial that conflated Jewish tenets with communist ideology?

In contemporary evangelical thinking, the Six-Day War of 1967 was fulfilment of a biblical prophecy. Outnumbered by Islamic forces, Israeli soldiers defended and overpowered the assault that was predicted to end the existence of the Jewish state. In the following decades, Israel became a beacon guaranteeing the survival of the Jewish people. The state received persecuted Jews from the Soviet Union, and from Ethiopia.

It has become popular to criticize the existence of Israel. The younger generation of Americans do not know that Israel’s survival was far from certain; or that Israel is merely the size of New Jersey, requiring a strong defensive posture against Hamas’ missiles and guerilla tactics. Nor do they consider that Islamic allies have not offered broad-based residency visas for Palestinians and Israeli Arabs.