Editor’s note
Ask any kid who went to Jewish day school and they’ll tell you that the date they remember most is 1948. More than 1776, the year of US independence; more than 1492, the year of the Spanish Expulsion; more than 1967, the year of the Six Day War.
For Jew-schoolers, 1948 equaled Zionism and more often than not, Zionism equaled Judaism. Every synagogue, school and camp I went to had a stage or bimah flanked by the US and Israeli flags. There was our dual allegiance: our country and our religion.
It’s strange that as a people so steeped in tradition we would let the past century or so of Zionist narrative hijack our identity as a people. I can’t explain why 1948 would be more important than 1492, 1967 or 70 CE‚ when the second temple was destroyed. Even so, that’s what my role models led me to believe. The Zionist narrative has succeeded in co-opting Jewish history, sweeping 2000 years of the Diaspora under the rug.
That’s where New Voices comes in. This issue—the Diaspora Issue—brings out several examples of how the Jewish world outside of Israel is rising from its slumber and reclaiming its identity, making sure that the Jewish conversation remains as diverse and widespread as the Jewish people.
Because that conversation needs to happen and we need to recognize that Judaism encompasses a variety of cultures, beliefs and communities that must be accepted on their own terms. At the same time, we need to conduct that conversation without spite, prejudice or anger, being at once critical and accepting: we can’t debate anyone if they won’t talk to us.
And so we’re talking, not just in print but on www.newvoices.org, where this conversation happens not five times a year on your college campus but every day and everywhere online.
So peruse this site, where you’ll find a Swarthmore student searching for the soul of the collegiate Jewish institution in “The Hillel Monopoly,” a 19-year old experiencing her first summer at Jew Camp and survival tales from Israel’s nationalized health care system.
Or read about how we don’t need to go to Israel to cultivate the land, why Jews love the ghetto and how books are dying, but that’s OK. We’re all over the place, in print and online, and that’s fine.
That’s what the Diaspora is all about.
–Ben Sales
Editor, New Voices
