Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Back to Opinion

Young American Jews Who Abandon Israel Should Check Their Privilege

Dear Editor,

In her article, Batya Ungar-Sargon argues that young American Jews are abandoning Israel because of its occupation.

I beg to differ.

I became a strong supporter of Israel when I served as a volunteer after the Six Day War. It was then that I realized that most young American Jews are motivated by career and comfort more than sacrificing & serving. I also hold Israeli citizenship and have served throughout Israel, the West Bank & Sinai in the IDF.

The problem for most American Jews regarding Israel is not praying at the wall or the situation in the territories — also known as Judea & Samaria. It is rather a penchant for criticizing that comes from being brought up from a privileged standpoint.

What do young American Jews really know about serving their own country, let alone a country that is surrounded by neighbors that want to annihilate it?

Ungar-Sargon writes, “If moneyed American Jews want to strengthen Jewish continuity, they should stop spending money trying to convince American Jews that they aren’t seeing what they say they are seeing when they look at Israel, and start convincing Israeli leaders to pursue policies that American Jews can be proud of.”

Really? So Israeli foreign policy should reflect the wishes of the diaspora Jews?

Thank you but no. One can disagree with the policies of the current Israeli Government but when you don’t have any “skin in the game” you opinions really don’t carry much weight.

Of course it is a problem for the entire Jewish people when a significant number of young Jews are becoming alienated from Israel. But the solution is not to change Israeli policies, which are based not on the “occupation” but on “survival”. It is to find a way to reach young minds that do not understand the real world because that is not the world they really live in!

Sincerely,

Robbie Michaelson

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.