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.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
-
Letters What Peter Beinart misunderstands about Jewish values
-
Letters After Sinwar’s death, is war really over?
-
Letters Do anti-Zionist Yiddishists see the Hamas massacre of Jews as ‘resistance’?
-
Letters Stating that Palestinians don’t deserve peace due to Oct. 7 doesn’t solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Ye debuts ‘Heil Hitler’ music video that includes a sample of a Hitler speech
- 2
Culture Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
- 3
News School Israel trip turns ‘terrifying’ for LA students attacked by Israeli teens
- 4
Fast Forward Student suspended for ‘F— the Jews’ video defends himself on antisemitic podcast
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture A pocket guide to the Jewish grandmothers of Mexico
-
Opinion I supported Israel’s actions in Gaza in October 2023 — not anymore
-
Fast Forward Police clash with pro-Palestinian protesters in Brooklyn as Columbia library takeover fallout continues
-
Opinion This week proved it: Trump’s approach to antisemitism at Columbia is horribly ineffective
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
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 comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag 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.