There Have Always Been Divisions

In David Hazony’s July 27 column, “The Death of Peoplehood,” his lament over Jewish ethnic diffusion and friction is understandable, but only to a point. The fact is that even apparent ethnic monoliths have internal tensions, and can go their own separate ways. One only has to look at America. America was founded by white English Protestants, yet their forbears had fought a Civil War in England and their descendants would ultimately fight another Civil War. As for American Jews, there were anti- and non-Zionists before Israel’s founding, just as there are today. American Jews might be moving away from a sense of “peoplehood,” but the forces of globalization, markets, and assimilation will erode most things. Just look at the Puritans. They conquered the American wilderness, but the American wilderness also conquered them.

Lloyd Green

Mamaroneck, N.Y.

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