Futurizing the Jews: ALTERNATIVE FUTURES FOR MEANINGFUL JEWISH EXISTENCE IN THE 21ST CENTURY Tsvi Bisk Moshe Dror PRAEGER Futurizing the Jews Futurizing the Jews ALTERNATIVE FUTURES FOR MEANINGFUL JEWISH EXISTENCE IN THE 21ST CENTURY Tsvi Bisk and Moshe Dror Foreword by Gad Yaacobi Former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations and Cabinet Minister Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bisk, Tsvi, 1943– Futurizing the Jews : alternative futures for meaningful Jewish existence in the 21st century / Tsvi Bisk and Moshe Dror ; foreword by Gad Yaacobi. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–275–96908–8 (alk. paper) 1. Judaism—Forecasting. 2. Israel—Forecasting. 3. Twenty-first century—Forecasts. 4. Jews—History. 5. Zionism—History. 6. Arab-Israeli conflict. I. Dror, Moshe, 1934– II. Title. DS102.95.B58 2003 909Ј.04924083—dc21 2003042067 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright © 2003 by Tsvi Bisk and Moshe Dror All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2003042067 ISBN: 0–275–96908–8 First published in 2003 Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.praeger.com Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984). 10987654321 This Book is Dedicated in Loving Memory to Mordechai Nessyahu “Z’al” Dr. Haim (Haimi) Nessyahu “Z’al” Yehudit Nessyahu “Z’al” Contents Foreword by Gad Yaacobi ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xiii Introduction: The Task of the Jewish Futurist xv Chapter 1 The World We Live In 1 Chapter 2 The Triumph of Zionism 13 Chapter 3 Zionism in the Twenty-First Century 27 Chapter 4 The Special Case of American Jewry 43 Chapter 5 Israeli Grand Strategy: A Historical Critique 53 Chapter 6 Reinventing Israeli Grand Strategy 69 Chapter 7 Reinventing Israel-Diaspora Relations 89 Chapter 8 The Future of Arab-Jewish Relations 103 Chapter 9 The Future of Ethnic Relations and Israeli Culture 115 Chapter 10 The Future of Jewish-Christian Relations 135 Chapter 11 The Future of Jewish Identity 155 Chapter 12 The Cyber World We Live In 169 Chapter 13 The Future of Jewish Spirituality 179 viii Contents Chapter 14 The Future of Jewish Learning 199 Chapter 15 The Jewish Community in Cyberspace 215 Appendix: A Brief Introduction to the Cosmotheistic Hypothesis of Mordechai Nessyahu 231 Glossary 235 Bibliography 245 Index 251 Foreword This ambitious book, Futurizing the Jews, presents a comprehensive critique of where the Jewish People are at the beginning of the twenty-first century, how they got there, and where they should be going if they want to survive. The book is original, iconoclastic, and in some ways revolutionary. Its analysis treats the Jews as an integral part of what the authors call “the global human ecology.” This approach represents a timely and forthright rejection of what they call the “Nation that Dwells Alone Syndrome” based upon a pop- ulist misinterpretation of the biblical injunction to be “a nation dwelling alone...not reckoning itself among the nations” (Numbers 23:9). Timely because it runs counter to present trends of Israeli isolationism that find ideo- logical justification in this biblical passage. It would be absurd to deny that the Jews and especially Israelis live in hos- tile environments and that many international organizations and countries “judge” Israel by a double standard unparalleled in modern times. This is a given, but Israel and its supporters amongst world Jewry must not give in to the temptation to respond with an emotional indignation that assumes that “the entire world is against us.” Indeed, the emotional anxiety with which we respond to our enemies might be a greater danger to us than the hostility of our enemies. Clarity of mind based upon clarity of analysis has to be the Jewish People’s greatest asset. This book offers us a large portion of clear, realistic analysis in the sense that it deals with the global and Jewish reality as we find them and not with ideolog- ical wishful thinking. But it is also an idealistic book that presents a positive, even heroic, vision of what the Jewish future could be if we choose to apply our rational faculties to the new global reality and not give in to defensiveness. x Foreword The book is so wide-ranging in its scope that I would not attempt to inven- tory here the many original ideas it contains. My short list of its most salient contributions would include: A stress on the Jewish future replacing our preoccupation with the Jewish past A neo-Zionist ideological analysis of modern Jewish life that serves as an alternative to both post-Zionism and classical Zionism. This is particularly important because post-Zionism is essentially nihilistic and classical Zionism is increasingly irrelevant for growing numbers of Jews in Israel and the Diaspora. The conceptualization of Jewish Grand Strategy and a clear delineation between ide- ology, policy, grand strategy, strategy, and tactics. The confusion of these various frames of reference has caused much mischief in Israeli politics and decision mak- ing since the Six-Day War. Clear and compelling proposals for what an all-Jewish Grand Strategy might consist of. An entirely new concept of Israel-Diaspora relations based upon the principles of an all-Jewish Grand Strategy and the potential of the information technology revo- lution. What I have called a “New Partnership.” A description of a Jewish spiritual renewal that could be as appealing to the secular Jew as to the religious Jew. The book is rich with additional ideas, analyses, and proposals. It chal- lenges inherited assumptions and calls for positive action. I believe we have before us a book that must become a reference point for Jewish policymakers as quickly as possible. Gad Yaacobi, former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations and cabinet minister Preface Some words about the style and methodology of this book are in order. For the sake of grace of language we have decided to use the first person “I” throughout much of the book instead of the collective “we.” In those places where we have reverted to the collective “we,” we have no scientific explana- tion, we simply went by what seemed most comfortable and appropriate. The first-person emphasis is fitting both because this book is interlaced with objective analyses and individual experience and anecdote and because this is really two books in one. Chapters 1 through 10 were written by Tsvi Bisk and deal mostly with social and political analyses of the Jewish situation with suggestions for future trends. The methodology for this part of the book is critical and historical. It is a critical analysis of where we are, how we got here, the inadequacies/faults of the present situation and approach and some alternative policies we should be following in light of present world trends and Jewish challenges. Tsvi Bisk also wrote chapter 11 with substantial con- tributions by Dr. Moshe Dror. Chapters 12, 13, 14, and 15 were written primarily by Dr. Dror with sub- stantial contributions by Tsvi Bisk. They deal mostly with the spiritual and practical potentialities of cyber-reality vis-à-vis the future spiritual and com- munal development of the Jewish People. It may seem strange at times that a book on the future should dwell so much on historical critique, but it is our firm belief that unless we anchor our presentation in both historical and current reality we run the risk of Jewish “futuristics” degenerating into Jewish “fantastics.” Indeed this has been the fate of much futurist speculation. xii Preface Similarly, because we want this book to be accessible to the widest possible audience, we have dispensed with all references. Both of us are writing this book after long careers of writing for publication and for our own pedagogi- cal use. Some of our writings were research papers, which included all the academically appropriate references. Including these references would have been cumbersome for the reader and would have destroyed the flow of the narrative. The strategy of writing is telescopic: in other words, a theme or idea touched upon in an early chapter is repeated and or expanded upon in later chapters. This will explain the repetition of certain themes or ideas throughout the book. One last word on style and narrative flow: we use a great many terms that most Gentiles and many Jews find unfamiliar. Instead of explaining these terms in the body of the book, a procedure that might distract the reader, we have decided to define them in a glossary. This way, the Jewishly informed reader can read right through, while the less-informed reader can refer to the glossary when need be. Acknowledgments Tsvi Bisk must, first and foremost, acknowledge his unpayable debt to the late Mordechai Nessyahu, a man of deep spirit and discernment whose intellec- tual life work and loving friendship have framed and stimulated Tsvi’s intel- lectual and human development in their entirety throughout his adult life. Little if any of Tsvi’s contribution to this book would have been possible if not for his long partnership and friendship with Mordechai Nessyahu. Tsvi must also pay tribute to the memory of his adopted “little brother” Dr. Haim Nessyahu, a mathematics prodigy whose premature death and only par- tially realized life work has reminded him of the fragility of human life and has driven him to finish this book. Tsvi regrets the lost opportunity to argue over the contents of this book with both Mordechai and Haimi.