Over the past four years, I've seen how too often we no longer speak with one another but past one another. I've dealt with topics that American Jews view through the prisms of religious freedom and women's rights and Israelis through the lenses of sovereignty, law and public safety.
I've dealt with the illegal immigration from Africa, which Israelis see as threatening to their economic and social fabric and some American Jews see as troubling to their conscience.
I find myself wondering, can we strive to view such issues from one another's perspective? Can we talk with - and not past - each other? I believe the answer is yes. But to succeed we must reexamine some of our fundamental assumptions.
We must revisit the Ben-Gurion-Blaustein agreement.
Clearly, the relationship is far too nuanced - and the world too complex - for the simple formula of "you respect my American allegiance and I'll support you from afar."
As programs such as Birthright have demonstrated, Israel plays a pivotal role in strengthening American Jewish identity. Hundreds of thousands of young Jews have tapped into the joys of being Jewish, the pride of being part of our remarkable people, and the attachment to our ancestral land. Israel Experience programs have also deepened the sense of Jewish belonging among the tens of thousands of Israeli young people who have accompanied them.
AMERICAN JEWS have always backed the US aid so vital to Israel's security, but thousands of young American Jews have not only supported Israel politically, they've served in its armed forces, some of them as "lone soldiers." Many thousands more have strengthened Israel by working in our industries, studying at our universities and volunteering in needy communities.
Israeli young people, in turn, serve as shlichim to American Jewish communities and campuses. I visited a hospital in Cincinnati where young Israeli doctors are pioneering new methods of pediatric surgery. All three of my children have volunteered in American Jewish camps.
In growing numbers, Israelis are inspired by American Jewish pluralism and are seeking to test it in a sovereign Jewish context. The relationship between Israel and American Jewry has become more symbiotic, more organic and more critical to our common survival, both physically and spiritually, as Jews.
Accordingly, Israelis must acknowledge the American Jewish experience as legitimate, permanent, and as a source of enrichment for Israeli Jewry.
American Jews must respect Israel as a polity comprised of human beings who have to make life and death decisions and who, more than anyone, bear the consequences of those decisions. We must participate in more programs such as the Federation's Reverse Mifgash, that bring together Israeli and American Jewish youth, or the Hartman Institute's i-Engage, which seeks to establish a new value-based covenant between Israeli and American Jews.
We must seek to do Tikkun Olam not as isolated communities but as Am Yisrael, through organizations such as IsraAID, where Israeli and Americans Jews join in helping disaster victims worldwide.
Before criticizing, we must pause to clarify, to understand, and, above all, to listen.
I - we - live in one of the most felicitous times in Jewish history. We're blessed with the opportunity to foster a closer and more vibrant kinship. A kinship based not solely on crisis and need but on common interests and care - on peoplehood. We have the opportunity to confront challenges and celebrate our accomplishments not as Israeli or American Jews, but simply as Jews.
We must take advantage of this totally unique moment to sit and speak with one another frankly, intelligently, caringly. We can be a transformative Jewish generation. We can form even stronger bonds that span all distances and blossom from our ideals. Together, we can usher in a genuine Golden Age - an age of unity and of empathy, and, yes, of love.
