I've been wishing to understand today's jewish diaspora and its relationship to the state of israel in a more historical manner. I've been reading State of Israel, Diaspora, and Jewish Continuity, by Simon Rawidowicz a famous scholar who chaired the dept of New Eastern and and Judaic Studies at Brandeis. In an early essay in the book he takes strong issue (1949) with naming the new state Israel, rather the Eretz Yisrael (land of israel) because it implies that diaspora jews are not part of Israel.
In the last essay in the book he eloquently states the following:
"There is no quarrel here with kubbutz galuyot, the ingathering policy of the new State. It is difficult to predict how this process of kibibutz gauyot presently reduced, will develop in the near future. May that policy one day arrive at its fulfillment. All I am saying is that as long as a complete kibbutz galuyot has nether happened nor is visibly imminent, 'Israel' means nothing less than the totality of the Jewish people. Moreover, the total identification of the State with 'Israel' carries dangers to coming generations of Jews born in the State that we dare not ignore. It can lead to a distortion of the meaning of the Jewish past and present in the world and only serve to intensify the cynical attitude on the part of Jewish youth of the State toward the galut Jew. It must inevitably give rise to an Israelism or native chauvinism, tendencies that are certainly meanacing to the future political structure and spiritual character of the young State."
The essays were published in 1986, but undated. Simon Rawidowicz died in 1957. His unfortunate prediction has proved all too true.
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