“Not Just a Place on the Map”: The Implications of Israel for

American Jewish Communities

An ethnography by

Candace Anthony

Taglit-Birthright

Zionism: an international political movement that originally supported the reestablishment of a homeland for the Jewish People in their biblical homeland. It continues primarily as support for the modern State of Israel (Wikipedia 2008).

Birthright Unplugged

SettlementsSeparation BarrierBy-pass roads Check points

Where is Israel? “Israel is a State that’s borders stretch from the Mediterranean to the edge of the border of the West Bank, and it is currently occupying all the land up to the Jordan River, and the Gaza strip. The Golan Heights, I don’t know if it’s Israel or if it’s not Israel.” -Ezekiel

Contested borders Potential

Borderlands: international bordersnatural borders Green Line armistice line recognized bordersdefendable borders security barrier historic borderbiblical frontiers (Kumaraswamy 2006:xx)

Israel lacks internationally

recognized borders

1967Currently1947-1949

Representations of occupation

Questions• What are the implications of a “birthright”?• Why were Palestinian narratives seemingly absent

from the official story?

• What does both the land and the state of Israel mean to American Jews?

• How do American Jews understand the Israel/Palestine Conflict?

• How do understandings of Israel relate to understandings of the Conflict?

Research Methods

• Travels and Field Notes in Israel and Palestine• Attended Local Synagogues and Jewish Events• Extended Interviews (13)

– 4 College students– 2 Rabbis– 7 Other people

• Miscellaneous Conversations• Miscellaneous Advertisements

Space and Place, Power and Control• Marx: “The ruling ideas are nothing more than the

ideal expression of the dominant material relationships grasped as ideas” (In Hebdige 2002:15).

• Gramsci: hegemony- the naturalization of ruling ideas

• Douglass: Purity, Power and Bodies- “the body is a model which can stand for any bounded system” (Douglas 1979:115).

• Benjamin: Porosity• Said: Orientalism: “us” and “others”

Blurring lines between Israel and Judaism: Locating Identity and Constructing a Homeland

• Mainstream Jewish Education frames Israel as the essence or embodiment of Judaism and the realization of Zion

“Zion is that promised kingdom that some guy is going to come establish, that may or may not be metaphorical[…]. Zion is wherever you want to make it. Israel is a State.”-Ezekiel

Israel as the “body” of Jewish people• Israel becomes a place that represents Jewish Ideals.

• The national subject of the State of Israel encompasses all Jews Internationally.

“This is the homeland, this is the heart of the Jewish people. This is, you know, what we have. All we have, our, we have our community, and we have Israel.” -Pala

Policing boundaries and Ideas• Physical: High-tech

Militarization• Ideas: Producing national

subjects on an International scale

“This particular man writes to me and says ‘You are someone to whom many of us look up to. You are a mentor to this area. You represent Judaism. I would expect from you from now on,’ he says, ‘never to disparage any Jewish organization, never to critique or criticize any Jewish organization’ and that stands for Israel also.” -Oskar

hegemony• Once Israel is the metaphorical “body”

separating it and Israel is difficult. Critiques of the State of Israel are interperated as critiques of the Jewish People and thus Anti-Semetic.

“If not being anti-Semitic means that I have to give up all of my critical factors, then, I think the whole thing is just a mallet to beat people down with. I, I maintain the right to be critical, and not necessarily judgmentally.” -Roland

strength in the Diaspora

“In the Jewish Torah we’re told that the land of Israel is an inheritance of the Jewish people. Um, so, so, that’s that the principle that we go by. The only thing is though, um, and we have to stand up for the Land as being ours, the only thing is, if this comes at a cost, of, of life, life always takes precedence.” -Yaacob.

“Kierkegaard, the great philosopher once said ‘if everybody becomes a Christian, Christianity ceases to exist.’ And that’s true. You know, you need contrast.”-Oskar

Conclusions• The existence of the State of Israel as we know it, depends on

high-tech systems of control, and monitoring.

• The modern State of Israel is being framed as the body of the Jewish people.

• All Jews are all framed as “national subjects” of the State of Israel

• The body, symbolic of the State’s politics, and encompassing International Jewry, requires that information be patrolled to ensure a hegemonic discourse, and ultimately continuity of the status quo.

• It becomes even more difficult for people to on a personal and public level to criticize the politics.

• People who do not agree with the hegemonic discourse and the politics of the State, reconcile their identity by not envisioning the Jewish people as bound by a national body, by separating “the State of Israel” from “biblical Zion,” and by pointing to other strengths.

Other Parts of this Research• The implications of the body of Israel being a “mother” • Israel as a “Light Unto the Nations”• Paternalism, Orientalism and the construction of Others

Potential Future Research•Possible difference in perceptions between men and women

•A closer look at the role of media

•Pro-Israel Non-Jewish American perspectives

•Israeli’s perceptions of American Jews

Works Cited in this Presentation

• Benjamin, Walter 1972 Naples. In Reflections. Pp. 163-173. New York: Schocken.

• Douglas, Mary1979[1966] Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of

Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge.• Hebdige, Dick 2002 Subculture: The Meaning of Style. New York: Routledge• Jhally, Sut, Dir.

2002 Edward Said: On Orientalism. 40min. Media Education Foundation.• Kumaraswamy, P. R.

2004 Historical Dictionary of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, Inc.

• Wikipedia2008 Zionism. Accessed 28 April 2008

Many thanks to everyone who had helped me through this project.

Questions?