This article published in The New York Times in September of 2008, speaks about former Israeli prime minister and leader of the right-wing Likud party, Benjamin Netanyahu. It is explained that because of the failed actions of the current Prime Minister to recreate the government, Netanyahu is likely to win next year's election. He was born in Tel Aviv Israel, and is said to be "Israeli to the core", in that he still holds onto very traditional Zionist ideologies and does not seem open to expanding on his militant points of view. It is for this reason, that some Israeli people are skeptical about him becoming their leader for the years to come. The author states that "the Americanization of Neyanyuha" started when he attended and graduated high school in Pennsylvania and then went on to graduate from M.I.T. Although he received the majority of his education in the U.S, Neyanyuha is still associated with conservative Jews in and outside of America. After reading a lot of materials on the supposed "Americanization" of Israel's government, which is largely feared and contested, it seems that in the case of Neyanyuha being elected,he is the one to steer the Israeli government back to its original ways. It is noted that he is the "election favorite" so only time will tell just how strong the American influence really is.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/n/benjamin_netanyahu/index.html
Sunday, November 23, 2008
In The News: Benjamin Netanyahu
In The News: American Jewry's Challenge
“American Jewry’s Challenge” was published by the “The Jerusalem Post” on Sunday Nov 16, 2008. By line: Manfred Gerstenfeld, page 13, section Opinion. This challenge is actually based on young American Jews. Young Jews are often unprepared for the anti-Israelism, which plagues US-Universities; this is the main point of the article. M. Gerstenfeld asked the question “what are the prospects for American Jewry?” He also mentioned that The United Jewish Communities General Assembly in Jerusalem is an opportune time to address challenges facing the larger concentration of Jews in the world.
“Education is a central element to get anything.”(1) The approximate number of American Jews is between 6-6.4 million according to, Ira Sheskin head of the Jewish democracy project at the University of Miami. Of one million Jewish children, ranging from elementary to high school age, about 20% are enrolled in Jewish day school and another 20% receive some Jewish education in after school programs. Due to the financial crisis Jewish families are not sending their children to the high tuition Jewish schools. Instead they are sending them to American public schools where they are Americanized and influenced by American culture rather than traditional Israeli culture.
When we see another article surveyed, “Young US Jews distance themselves from Israel,” that was also published by “The Jerusalem Post” on Sep 6, 2007. Young Us Jews are far from Israel because of the comfortable life in America. Israel chairman Ze’ev Bielski told the Jerusalem Post a combination of a comfortable life in America and growing materialism was to blame for the detachment from Israel. He also said that it is unbelievable that after only 60 years from the Holocaust so many Israeli people are not connected to the Jewish State (2).
To solve this challenging problem Ze’ev Bielski said “the only way to combat this growing trend was to invest more in such programs as Birthright, which offers a free 10 days tour of Israel to young Jews and Masa Jafi’s flagship program for young adults”(2). He also said “it was also the responsibility of the Israel-government to improve Diaspora relations and connect Jews around the world with people in Israel.”(2)
Another point is that most of the American Jews do not understand their “identity”. Sociologist Steven Cohen observes the word “identity” used for lack of a better term for the complexity of Jewish belief, behavior and belonging. (1)
This multitude of challenges puts great stress on Jewish leadership. Former Provost of Jewish Theological Seminary, Jack Wertheimer says there are no longer any universalized leaders among American Jewry. When they have several head leaders of their organization then they will rise above their own sphere to influence the American issues affecting Jewish life. In a dynamic world, this is the largest single challenge for Israeli Jewish people.
http://www.lexisnexis.com.libproxy.albany.edu/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T5200324333&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T5200324336&cisb=22_T5200324335&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=10911&docNo=4
(2)
http://www.lexisnexis.com.libproxy.albany.edu/us/lnacademic/search/homesubmitForm.do
(3) Israel Insider staff “israelinsider” Israel’s daily news magazine “American Jews” (Nearly half of young American Jews feel uncomfortable with idea of Israel)
Section: Culture (September 6, 2007)
http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Culture/12004.htm