Is There a Future for the Jewish Diaspora?

Is There a Future for the Jewish Diaspora?

Jews have been living outside of the land of Israel for thousands of years. It is a historical truth that this process started by enemies driving them into exile. But these diaspora communities settled in, expanded, and continued to migrate around the globe for over two millennia.

In the 20th century, Jews chose two strategies for building a thriving Jewish future.

One approach was to create and live in a Jewish State. The State of Israel was founded by people who believed that ultimately there would be no future for Jews in the Diaspora. The changes of modernity, they argued, meant that the exile must end for the Jews to survive into the future. Only by creating a State of Jews, by Jews and for Jews, could thriving Jewish life and communities be sustained.

The other approach was to build Jewish communities in tolerant Western Democracies. This approach assumes that Diaspora Jewish life will be safe as long as minority rights and freedom of religion continue to function in the modern world.

As time went on, Israeli Jews softened their language about the future of Diaspora Jewry. But are they right? Should we be taking the warnings of the early Zionists more seriously?

Calev hosts this debate between Matt who defends an optimistic view towards the future of Jewish life in the Diaspora, and Mike argues the pessimistic view of classic Zionism.

Let us know what you think about the issue, and who you agree with. Enjoy! Please let us know what you think!

This episode was recorded and edited by the amazing Ben Wallick Studios. Ben is awesome!

Theme music by Akiva Y. Unterberg.

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Definition; A diaspora is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin.The word is used in reference to people who identify with a specific geographic location, but currently reside elsewhere.

Notable diasporic populations include the Jewish diaspora formed after the Babylonian exile...

The term "diaspora" is derived from the Greek verb διασπείρω (diaspeirō), "I scatter", "I spread about" which in turn is composed of διά (dia), "between, through, across" and the verb σπείρω (speirō), "I sow, I scatter". In Ancient Greece the term διασπορά (diaspora) hence meant "scattering"