Learning to be a diaspora Jew through the Israel experience

Abstract

The expression "diaspora Jewry" is commonly used to indicate all Jews living outside Israel, the great majority of whom are in the United States. This paper suggests that for many North American Jews, any deep emotional or religions connection with the land of Israel has been erased/forgotten. I show how a sense of that lost diaspora consciousness is (re-)created among participants using a case study of an Israel Experience Program. Livnot U'Lehibanot is a three-month, work-study program for North American Jews in their 20s who possess "weak" Jewish backgrounds and education. Such Israel Experience Programs are popular enough to form a kind of rite of passage for Jewish youth. This research explores both the process of developing an emotional/religious tie to Israel, and the actual construction of Israel that participants encounter on this program.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Clifford, James 1997 "Diasporas." In James Clifford, Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century, 244-77. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Cohen, Steven 1991 "Israel in the Jewish identity of American Jews: A study in dualities and contrasts" In David Gordis and Yoav Ben-Horin (eds.), Jewish Identity in America, 119- 36. Los Angeles: Wilstein Institute.

Eisen, Arnold 1986a Galut: Modern Jewish Reflection on Homelessness and Homecoming. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1986b "Off center: The concept of the land of Israel in modern Jewish thought." In Lawrence Hoffman (ed.), The Land of Israel: Jewish Perspectives , 263-97. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.

Elazar, Daniel 1986 "The Jewish people as the classic diaspora: A political analysis" In Gabriel Sheffer (ed.), Modern Diasporas in International Politics. London : Croom Helm.

Katriel, Tamar 1995 "Touring the land: Trips and hiking as secular pilgrimages in Israeli culture." Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Review 17, 1-2: 6-13.

Lavie, Smadar and Ted Swedenburg , eds. 1996 Diplacement, Diaspora, and Geographies of Identity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Liebman, Charles and Steven Cohen 1990 Two Worlds of Judaism: The Israeli and American Experiences . New Haven: Yale University Press .

Lowenthal, David 1996 The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History. London: Viking.

Malkki, Liisa 1997 "National geographic : The rooting of peoples and the territorialization of national identity among scholars and refugees." In A. Gupta and J. Ferguson (eds.), Culture, Power, Place: Explorations in Critical Anthropology, 52-74. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

10.

Safran, William 1991 "Diasporas in modern societies." Diaspora 1: 83-99.