We Stand Divided: The Rift Between American Jews and Israel

Relations between the American Jewish community and Israel are at an all-time nadir. Since Israel’s founding seventy years ago, particularly as memory of the Holocaust and of Israel’s early vulnerability has receded, the divide has grown only wider. Most explanations pin the blame on Israel’s handling of its conflict with the Palestinians, Israel’s attitude toward non-Orthodox Judaism, and Israel’s dismissive attitude toward American Jews in general. In short, the cause for the rupture is not what Israel is; it’s what Israel does.

These explanations tell only half the story. We Stand Divided examines the history of the troubled relationship, showing that from the outset, the founders of what are now the world’s two largest Jewish communities were responding to different threats and opportunities, and had very different ideas of how to guarantee a Jewish future.

With an even hand, Daniel Gordis takes us beyond the headlines and explains how Israel and America have fundamentally different ideas about issues ranging from democracy and history to religion and identity. He argues that as a first step to healing the breach, the two communities must acknowledge and discuss their profound differences and moral commitments. Only then can they forge a path forward, together.

We Stand Divided goes beyond the headlines to explore the core disagreements that define the past, present, and future of the Jewish people:

• Universalism vs. Particularism: An exploration of how America's universalist vision as a nation of immigrants and Zionism's particularist project as a national home for the Jewish people created two fundamentally different—and often conflicting—ideas of Jewish life.
• Returning to History: A look at why American Jews sought a refuge from the "nightmare of history," while Zionists were determined to re-enter it, embracing the messy, morally complex realities of sovereignty and power.
• Judaism as Nation vs. Religion: How the two communities developed opposing views, with American Jews defining Judaism as a faith community and Israelis defining it through peoplehood, language, and land.
• A Liberal vs. Ethnic Democracy: Why Israel was never meant to be a copy of America's "naked public square" and how its identity as an "ethnic democracy" clashes with American Jewish liberal values.
• A Path Forward: An argument that healing the breach requires both sides to move beyond blame, understand the deep-seated origins of their differences, and forge a new relationship based on mutual respect.