The Condition Of The Jewish Community One Year After The Rabin Assassination

American Jewish Committee
Friday, 7 March 1997

The American Jewish Committee today released a "written symposium" to examine ways in which to repair communal divisions within the Jewish community and rebuild a sense of common peoplehood. This report comes one year after the release of "Rebuilding Jewish Peoplehood," the booklet based on the AJC symposium which asked leading American and Israeli Jews how to heal the rifts within the Jewish community immediately after the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

The new 112-page publication, "The Condition of Jewish Peoplehood: A Symposium One Year After the Rabin Assassination," includes essays from 27 distinguished Jewish intellectuals and communal leaders assessing where the Jewish community is today as a people. Some, contributors to AJC's publication last year, reevaluate their previous opinions; others are submitting their comments for the first time.

In their forward, Mimi Alperin, Chair of AJC's Jewish Communal Affairs Commission, and Morton Kornreich, Chair of the U.S. Advisory Board of AJC's Institute on American Jewish - Israeli Relations, write:

"A year has passed since the shocking and tragic assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin exposed deep fissures within the Jewish people. Strongly held conflicting visions of Judasim and the Jewish future threaten to drive a wedge between Jews unless ways are found to promote a shared Jewishness and a commitment to discussing our differences in an atmosphere of mutual respect.

"The most important outcome of this symposium is the clear evidence that a 'moderate middle' has developed within the Jewish people that seeks to marginalize extremists and promote greater civility and respect between different groups of Jews. While by no means silencing dissent, this 'moderate middle' wants that dissent expressed through constructive dialogue, not delegitimation."

Each of the contributors to the symposium was asked to address the following questions:

1. One year after the assassination, what have we, the Jewish people, in fact learned, and what have we failed to learn?

2. Much has been said concerning the atmosphere within the Jewish community, in Israel and the United States, immediately preceding the assassination. How would you assess the atmosphere today, and what changes within both communities do you see as necessary?

3. What roles should American Jewry and American Jewish organizations be playing with respect to Israel and the conduct of Israeli policy? Specifically, should American Jews express their views on the peace process? On the Jewishness of Israeli society? If so, how can American Jewish organizations best express their ideas on these and other issues confronting Israel?

4. Do you feel that Israel confronts a problem of Jewish continuity, and, if so, what steps should be taken to ensure that continuity? Will alternatives to Orthodox Judaism help preserve Jewish continuity there, and, if so, which alternatives?

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org