Brandeis study disputes perception that U.S. Jews are disenchanted with Israel

[bemildred]

Authors of a new study on American Jews argue that the community is more attached to Israel than many pundits assume. Based on a survey conducted in the aftermath of the flotilla incident, the study finds "overall stability in American Jewish attachment to Israel over the past quarter-century." Yet some Jewish sociologists counter that the research clearly showed young American Jews are increasingly disenchanted with the Jewish state.

According to the new study, 63 percent of respondents felt "very much" or "somewhat" connected to Israel. Three quarters said caring about Israel is "an important part of their Jewish identities." While respondents under the age of 45 are "less likely to feel connected to Israel," they "regard Israel as important to their Jewish identities," the study's authors state. Younger Jews are "somewhat less attached in the current survey, but not consistently so," according to the study - entitled "Still Connected: American Jewish Attitudes about Israel" - which was published last week by Brandeis University's Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies.

The study's authors - Theodore Sasson, Benjamin Phillips, Charles Kadushin and Leonard Saxe - explain that while attachment to Israel is lower among younger age groups, this could be attributed to one of two phenomena. "Some researchers," they write, "attribute this tendency to the increasing temporal distance of succeeding cohorts from the Holocaust, founding of the state, and Six Day War." However, the researchers favor an "alternative explanation which views attachment as increasing over the course of life."

The researchers thus suggest "a need to reconsider the popular narrative of declining American Jewish attachment to Israel." While the situation remains "volatile," predictions of a schism between American Jews and Israel "are unfounded based on the current state of American Jewish opinion," they conclude. They survey critically refers to an essay by Peter Beinart in the New York Review of Books that sparked a recent debate over a perceived growing schism between American Jewry and Israel.

http://www.haaretz.com/magazine/anglo-file/brandeis-study-disputes-perception-that-u-s-jews-are-disenchanted-with-israel-1.311847

This is classic "spin". I don't know whether Amurkin Jews are becoming disaffected with Israel of not, I don't do polls, but it one is interested, it's not that hard to get the picture. These polls are done once a week or more, and have been for some time, all one has to do is look at the trends. Break it down by age or degree of orthodoxy or whatever, by pollster is maybe the best avenue, as long as you look at the trend, that's the issue.

[rpannier]

1. Interesting Article

Thanks for posting it

[bemildred]

3. I'm interested in rhetoric and what you can tell from it.

Who uses it, how they use it, what they use it for. This is littered with vague, tortured phrases like: "many pundits assume", "overall stability", "increasingly disenchanted", "somewhat less attached ..., but not consistently so", "this could be attributed", "Some researchers", "reconsider the popular narrative", and my favorite: "attribute this tendency to the increasing temporal distance of succeeding cohorts from the Holocaust, founding of the state, and Six Day War".

And that is just the first 4 paragraphs.

[leveymg]

2. The authors should take a break,get out of the sun at the Kibbutz and have another glass of Kool-aid

Denying the obvious doesn't make everything okay again. It isn't 1948 or '67, anymore.