Jewish children growing up in America used to be brought up on Zionism and a love of Israel. American Jewish households would have an Israeli flag, a JNF “pushka,” and celebrate Israel’s Independence Day. Jewish children who grew up in the New York area marched annually in the Salute to Israel Day Parade in New York City. There wasn’t a question whether you were a Zionist but how you expressed your Zionism.
While support for Zionism was weak among American Jews before the Holocaust, it grew to almost every American Jewish household after the Holocaust. With Israel’s founding in 1948, its miraculous victory in the 1967 Six Day War, and its close-to- destruction come from behind victory in 1973, American Jewish support kept growing.
The rise of Palestinian terrorism in the late 1970s through the 1980s, the Persian Gulf War in the early 1990s and the second intifada in the early 2000s, bolstered American Jewish support for close to 60 years. American Jewish support of Israel was something that could be counted on.
Today’s American Jewish households do not exhibit the same automatic support and love of Israel of the houses of their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. While the overwhelming number of American Jews still support the State of Israel, parents and grandparents are growing increasingly worried and frustrated over the lackluster support and passion the new generation of American Jews are showing for Israel.
Only a small percentage of American Jewish teens are passionate about Israel. Many are apathetic, and in a fulfillment of some of their parent’s worst nightmares, some are even anti-Israel and anti-Zionist.
Inspiring the next generation
Today’s American Jewish challenge is figuring out how to inspire the next generation to love Israel as much as previous American Jewish children loved Israel. This isn’t just a practical question that stems from fear of the consequences of an American Jewish community 20 years from now that wakes up to find it doesn’t support Israel, but one of a family’s values and passing those values on to the next generation. Many American Jewish parents consider their Zionism and support of Israel an important value they want to pass to the next generation. They are looking for direction on how to inspire love of Zionism in their families.
The most important step a parent can take to inspire love for Israel in their children is to communicate that love to them. There is an irony in parenthood; the lessons of our own shortcomings which parents do not want to impart on their children are imparted by their children witnessing their parent’s shortcomings in action.
The values parents want to impart on their children are often assumed by parents to be absorbed by their children in much the same way but they seldom are taken by their children without explicit direction. Parents must communicate their values to their children if they hope their children will take on those same values themselves.
NOWHERE IS this truer than when it comes to the love of Israel. Parents can not assume their children will understand their values by osmosis. For children to understand their parents’ love of Israel their parents need to tell their children they love Israel. Parents need to talk about why Israel means so much to them. They need to explain why even though they live outside of Israel, the land and State of Israel is a significant part of their lives.
Parents need to learn the words they are comfortable with that will convey their feelings about Israel. Nightly at the dinner table, weekly at the Shabbat table, and on family outings, Israel must be a frequent topic of conversation. It is only by explicitly talking about Israel that parents will imbue their children with their love of the Jewish homeland.
Talking about Israel isn’t enough to inspire the love of the land. Parents must also demonstrate that they love the land in action. This requires American Zionist families to visit Israel.
Children who are told the land is special but never get to see it don’t connect to the land as well as children who experience the land by traveling it, meeting the people and visiting the places they’ve heard so much about in their lives.
Visiting Israel is costly and not every family can just pick up and visit. Parents without the funds to visit Israel can start a small ten-to-fifteen-year savings plan. Imagine how special Israel will seem to a family that together puts $5-10 aside a week for an eventual trip to Israel.
For years the entire family will be dreaming about that eventual trip to their homeland. Families that can afford trips to Israel should take them as frequently as feasible. Nothing connects children and families to the land of Israel like walking its streets and hiking its hills.
Lastly, give to Israel and children understand its meaning to their parents. The genius of the JNF pushka wasn’t the millions in quarters that flowed to plant Israeli forests, but that every family made one of the centerpieces of their home a way to give to Israel. Each nickel, dime, and quarter that was dropped in the blue and white box reinforced the message that there was a magical place the family cares about thousands of miles away.
It’s important that parents don’t just write a check or click a link, but they involve their children in their charitable giving. The amount given isn’t as consequential to imparting the love of Israel as having children involved in giving to Israel. Tell your kids why you feel it’s important to give to the people and the nation so far away and they will get the message.
Love isn’t something you can force upon your children. Love for Israel must be incubated with constant reinforcement. Parents who want to see their children love Israel, grandparents who want their grandchildren to share their passion for the Jewish state, and communities that want to foster the Zionist spirit among their next generation must communicate, visit, and give to Israel. Communicating, visiting and giving to Israel is the “Threefold cord [that] is not quickly broken” of transferring the love of Israel from generation to generation
The writer is a senior educator at numerous educational institutions. He is the author of three books and teaches Torah, Zionism and Israeli studies around the world.