David Wolpe: evaluation

Transcript context

…Let’s say you’re talking to someone who is Jewish and who is pro-Israel in a broad sense and would consider themselves as Zionist. But they don’t have a deep theological belief in the content of the Torah or the Hebrew Bible. They may not even believe in God. And they’re posing the question, “Well, should I live in Israel or should I live, say, in the United States, Canada, other places?” And they’re feeling some despair. Israel is a wonderful country — I’ve been several times myself. They might perceive higher danger; I’m not even sure that’s correct. There’s a somewhat lower standard of living. And if they ask you, without invoking theology — which won’t persuade them — what’s the best case for choosing Israel rather than leaving or not going at all? What would you say? I think probably the best non-theological case for choosing Israel is that you would be part of an astonishing experiment — that is, the revival of a people in its land after thousands of years, in an attempt to create something that is important and lasting and a legacy that involves tradition but is not enslaved to it. And if you want to see where your people, since this is a Jew who’s asking, where your people is determining its own destiny in a world that too often determined its destiny for it, the only place where that is happening in a full range of areas is in Israel. Say it’s an American Jew and here she says to you, “Well, maybe that’s begging the question. Is Israel my people or America my people?”…

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