Ethnic Identity Essay

Despite their origins as penniless refugees, the Jews, endowed with intelligence and industry, proved particularly capable of realizing the American dream. Yet, even while Jewish immigrants quickly scaled the steep hills of the American social strata, they, for the most part, remained steadfast to their ethnic identity. The Jews embraced a dual allegiance of sorts—appreciative towards their gracious American hosts, but dedicated as well to their exiled brethren in the diaspora. The nascent recreation of the Jewish national homeland has now laid bare this schizophrenic disposition. And therein lies a fundamental tension in mainstream American Zionism—We preach loftily the virtues of a multi-cultural, pluralistic society while seemingly preferring for our own people an ethnocentric nation-state.
Zionism posits a bifurcated claim. It declares, echoing Moses Hess, that the Jews are forever alien amongst the gentile peoples, incapable of integration, or even assimilation, into their exilic sanctuaries. The organic
Israel is to have an explicit ethnic identity, bolstered by governmental fiat through legislation favoring racially Jewish immigration and enshrined in Israeli culture in its holidays, art, and public spaces. Yitzchak Rabin, patron saint of the Israeli center and left, a man most would not accuse of racism or rabid nationalism, proclaimed “The red line for Arabs is 20% of the population, that must not be gone over….I want to preserve the Jewish character of the state of Israel not by name only, but also in action, values, language, and culture.” This model appears little different than the nations of the old country. Sure, other peoples are afforded the full amount of safety and the enjoyment of basic rights, but they are to be aware that Israel is primarily a Jewish country, concerned with promoting the Jewish interest and ensuring the cultural and demographical dominance of its Jewish