Concerns are growing among Israelis across the political and religious spectrum over a fraying bond with younger Jewish Americans, who place less importance on supporting Israel as part of their identity compared to older generations, a recent AP-NORC survey reveals. "It’s extremely important to us," stated Itai Nixon, the head of the diaspora department at Israel's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs. "We’re the state of the Jewish people, not just Israelis." Lesley Sachs, chair of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism and a critic of the current Israeli administration, similarly views a close working relationship with diaspora Jews as a "strategic asset" for Israel and the global Jewish population.
Consequently, she expresses deep apprehension that Jewish people abroad are losing their feeling that Israel serves as a sanctuary, particularly at a time when growing antisemitism impacts them irrespective of their political or religious beliefs. "That was always really, really important that everybody around the world, especially after the Holocaust, knows that there is a country that will always take them," Sachs remarked while at her Tel Aviv synagogue. "This is already a few generations after, and this is less prominent in their DNA.
And I think that this is really a failure on the part of both Israel and world Jewry, that we have not managed to keep that prominent." Taglit-Birthright Israel has provided free 10-day "discovery" trips to Israel for one million young Jewish adults from the United States and other nations since 2000. According to the organization's chief executive, demonstrating how a personal bond with Israel transcends contentious political debates has become more necessary than ever. "That really increases the importance of my job to expose people to what they give up on," explained Gidi Mark.
"What we give them is a mirror." While Israel and the United States share a historical alliance, President Donald Trump met with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington earlier this week to confer on the conflict with Iran that both nations initiated five months prior. "The United States is perceived as the best friend of Israel in the entire world, and that’s still the case," noted Tamar Hermann, director of the Viterbi Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at Jerusalem's Israel Democracy Institute. However, disagreement surrounding a potential ceasefire in the conflict with Iran has eroded faith among Jewish Israelis that Trump places Israel's security first, falling sharply from 64% in March down to 26% by June, research from the institute indicates.
Against this backdrop of diplomatic strain, Israelis note that the influence of American Jews, who have traditionally advocated for military, financial, and political assistance to Israel, is becoming increasingly vital. This amplifies anxiety that progressive youth in the U.S., including young Jews, view any allegiance to Israel as incompatible with their personal principles. This drop in affinity has grown sharper following the October 7, 2023 attack, in which militants led by Hamas killed 1,200 individuals, predominantly civilians, in southern Israel and seized 251 hostages.
Israel's subsequent military campaign against Hamas in Gaza has resulted in over 73,000 deaths, based on figures from the Gaza Health Ministry. Operating under the Hamas-administered government, the ministry keeps detailed logs that international entities and U.N. bodies generally consider dependable. Its tallies do not differentiate combatants from non-combatants, though it states that women and children constitute roughly half of those killed.
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