June 7, 2015 — Washington, D.C.
“To leave memory behind is to eradicate Judaism,” declared Daniel Gordis in his State of Jewish World address at the opening plenary of the AJC Global Forum.
Speaking passionately to an audience of over 2,000 participants from across the U.S. and around the world, Gordis, senior vice president and the Koret Distinguished Fellow at Shalem College in Israel, argued that consciousness of the Jewish past is key to addressing the major issues confronting the Jewish people today.
The tendency of younger Jews to sit on the sidelines when matters vital to Jewish security are at stake, Gordis noted, is due to the erosion of tight-knit Jewish communities, neglect of Jewish ritual, and dilution of Jewish education, all of which lead to the loss of Jewish memory.
He applied this analysis to specific current issues. Anyone imbued with Jewish memory, Gordis pointed out, would not shrug off Iranian threats to wipe out Israel. Hitler taught us, after all, that “If your enemy tells you he’s going to kill you, you take it very seriously.”
Similarly, for anyone with appreciation for the past, the resurgence of antisemitism in Europe is clearly no mere opposition to Israeli policies, but rather the reactivation of the virus of antisemitism that had plagued the continent for centuries, the only difference being its new form—opposition to Jewish self-determination.
Gordis argued that insufficient attention to the past also plagues many American Jews who make it “far too easy” for antisemites to operate. The UCLA student leader who asked Rachel Beyda, a candidate for the student judicial board, whether her Jewish identification would prevent her from ruling objectively would never have asked a black or Muslim candidate the equivalent question, he said, for fear of the consequences. But somehow American Jews are fair game because they have forgotten what it was like to suffer prejudice, and refrain from reacting with the appropriate degree of outrage.
Gordis also spoke about the disengagement of some younger Jews from Israel because of their disagreement with the policies of its government or the results of its elections. Just as very few Americans, he said, give up on their country because they dislike one or another president, so, too, Jews must take the long view and value Israel for the way it has totally revolutionized Jewish life, whatever the political identity of the prime minister of the day.
“Our enemies will stick with their plan,” he concluded, “so we clearly better stick with ours.”
