Tikkun Magazine, May/June 2008

ISRAEL 60 YEARS LATER

New Hopes Are Needed 

by Leon Botstein

ON THE OCCASION OF ISRAEL'S SIXTIETH BIRTHDAY, ALL OF US SHOULD REFLECT ON THE future of Israel by comparing the realities of today with the aspirations that guided the Zionist movement for generations in its various forms before 1948. From my point of view, I hope that during the years ahead Israel can move toward developing the kind of constitutional framework that can secure a genuine secular and open democracy where the separation between church and state can be accomplished. A state where the majority is Jewish and of Jewish descent should be a democracy in a manner that implies a civil constitution that avoids the notion of an established state religion. This should in no way prevent or diminish the prospect that religion can thrive as a matter of personal and private choice. Such a framework would also give a firm legal basis for citizenship for all minorities.

Furthermore, I hope that sixty years of statehood have already successfully achieved one of the dreams of Zionism, to prove to the world that the Jews are just like all other human beings, and not exceptions. Having achieved this goal, I would nonetheless like to see Israel strengthen a commitment to values that were nurtured over many centuries in the Diaspora. These values are a love of learning and a commitment to culture and the arts. Israel should be preeminent as a nation in which public education flourishes at an extremely high level. It should be a nation of universities with international standing. It should be a nation where cultural institutions—including arts organizations (from museums to orchestras, dance ensembles, and theaters) and scientific research institutes—are a priority for public and private support. In Israel there is a residue of the exceptionalism of the past, which should become a cultural norm that protects the country from the drift to mediocrity and vulgarity in cultural and political life that threatens the United States and Europe.

For these goals to be achieved Israel must, for the sake of the lives of its citizens, find a way to diminish the priority that now, of necessity, must be placed on issues of security and defense. The need for peace is driven not only by basic concerns for safety and prosperity, and the interests of the international community in bringing years of conflict to an end. The need for security and peace is perhaps most urgent when one takes into consideration the toll that sustained conflict and violence take on the character of Israeli culture and civil society. One hopes, from the perspective of an individual who is not a politician, that the aspiration, courage, and sacrifice that made Israel possible will result, during our lifetime, in a state in which the military is no longer the central domestic institution in the creation of social cohesion and political leadership.

It would be naive to underestimate the obstacles that face Israel in the task of achieving a viable peace. But at the same time, enlightened self-interest seems to suggest that for Israel to thrive, the political and economic well being of the Palestinian population must be realized so that an end to enmity between Arabs and Jews can diminish, if not ultimately come to an end. Noble hopes are the regular objects of derision by those who consider themselves realists, but for culture and civility to flourish, pragmatic solutions must be based on ideals that mirror the fundamental belief in the dignity of all human beings that is at the core of Judaism as a religion and the Jewish historical experience in ancient and modern times.

Leon Botstein is President of Bard College, Music Director of the American Symphony and The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestras, founding artistic director of the Bard Music Festival, and editor of The Musical Quarterly.

Botstein, Leon. 2008. New hopes are needed. Tikkun. 23(3):32.