Makom Israel Teachers Lounge

Is There a Future for the Jewish Diaspora? Jews have been living outside of the land of Israel for thousands of years. It is a historical truth that this process started by enemies driving them into exile. But these diaspora communities settled in, expanded, and continued to migrate around the globe for over two millennia. In the 20th century, Jews chose two strategies for building a thriving Jewish future. One approach was to create and live in a Jewish State. The State of Israel was founded by people who believed that ultimately there would be no future for Jews in the Diaspora. The changes of modernity, they argued, meant that the exile must end for the Jews to survive into the future. Only by creating a State of Jews, by Jews and for Jews, could thriving Jewish life and communities be sustained. The other approach was to build Jewish communities in tolerant Western Democracies. This approach assumes that Diaspora Jewish life will be safe as long as minority rights and freedom of religion continue to funct