Aleinu in America.

• Author: Bronitsky, Jonathan
• Position: Trouble in the Tribe: The American Jewish Conflict over Israel - Book review

Dov Waxman, Trouble in the Tribe: The American Jewish Conflict over Israel (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016) 328 pp., $29.95.

On April 19, three days before this year's start of Passover, the Jewish holiday celebrating the Israelites' exodus from bondage in ancient Egypt, six protestors were arrested at the Boston office of AIPAC, "America's pro-Israel lobby." They had chained themselves to a mock Seder table. Their group, IfNotNow, claims to "seek an American Jewish community that stands for freedom and dignity for all Israelis and Palestinians by ending its support for the occupation." Fittingly, it was cofounded in 2014 by Simone Zimmerman, the former J Street campus activist hired as national Jewish outreach coordinator by the Bernie Sanders campaign on April 12 and--after a March 2015 Facebook post authored by her quickly surfaced--suspended two days later on April 14. "Bibi Netanyahu is an arrogant, deceptive, cynical, manipulative asshole," Zimmerman bellowed on the social media platform.

What transpired in Boston distressed the American Jewish community. Yet it didn't come as a total surprise. The controversial nature of AIPAC is well known, and the unique ideological proclivities of younger American Jews are rapidly becoming better known. What went down the next day in Manhattan, nevertheless, did shock the community--or rather the vast majority of it. On April 20, If Not Now marched into the lobby of the building that houses the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Around one hundred activists donned shirts reading, "No liberation with occupation," and belted out songs in Hebrew. This was an arrow straight through the heart, for the ADL is possibly the most cherished institution of "mainstream" American Jewry. Established in 1913 in response to Eastern European pogroms, its slogan is "Imagine a World Without Hate" and its agenda involves advocating not just for a two-state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but also for LGBT rights, voting rights, disability rights, immigrants' rights and women's reproductive rights.

Many who want Israel to withdraw from the "Palestinian territories" (which, at the moment, usually means the West Bank, including East Jerusalem) also participate in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS). Jews, it's estimated by various sources, constitute at least 20 percent of the economic-pressuring BDS, which is akin to the campaign once waged against apartheid-era South Africa. Jewish Voice for Peace, a pro-BDS nonprofit based in Oakland, California, "is perhaps the fastest-growing Jewish organization on campuses nationwide," a professor at Brooklyn College posited in the New York Times recently. In a late-March interview on the Michael Medved Show, Sen. Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, went so far as to brand BDS "an anti-Jewish movement." (It's not a stretch to deduce from Booker's remark that BDS is anti-Semitic and, hence, Jews involved with it are "self-haters.")

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

If this wasn't enough to raise blood pressure, mainstream American Jews are realizing that they're vanishing and, as a result, a lot that's precious is being lost. Spend a day at a Reform temple--about 35 percent of Jews subscribe to Reform Judaism, making it the largest Jewish denominational movement in the United States by a wide margin--and you'll discover that baby boomer parents and, especially, greatest generation grandparents are alarmed. The sound of thousands of light switches switching off in cavernous sanctuaries across the country rings in their ears--and hearing aids.

Within several generations, perhaps two or three, it's possible that very few people in the United States not adhering to some variant of "observant" Judaism will readily self-identify as "Jewish." Pew found that 30 percent of American Jews have no denominational affiliation while 22 percent have "no religion." Before 1970, intermarriage was under 20 percent among American Jews of all denominations. Since 2000, it's been over 72 percent among non-Orthodox American Jews. Additionally, and it almost goes without saying, religious ritual, custom and belief drop precipitously in intermarried households. Even Judaism as a "culture," which in the Land of the Free today means hardly more than an affinity for bagels, sarcasm and social justice, will soon be more common among non-Jews than Jews, if it isn't already. From coast to coast, mainstream American Jews reared on a love of Israel and a Judaism of progressive values are despondent and desperately eager to understand what's happening.

Enter Dov Waxman, tripartite professor of political science, international affairs and Israel studies at Northeastern University. In Trouble in the Tribe, Waxman argues that the pro-Israel consensus that once united American Jews is eroding, and Israel...