ABSTRACT
The effect on Israel of negligible American Jewish immigration has been more than merely demographic. It has been more than merely socio-cultural and socio-economic, too, though one cannot but think wistfully of the contribution that a million more American Jews, with their education, talents, values, and dynamism, might have made to Israeli life. Israel is not the Jewish state these American Jews hoped for. Today, if Israel has any effect on marginal Jews in America, it is more likely a negative one. It is possible to think of Israel as the psychiatrist's couch on which the Jewish people has lain down after long centuries of Diaspora life. Israel forces Jews to surrender fantasies and illusions about themselves that have long been part of their character. Israel's strongest non-Jewish supporters, especially in America, are now evangelical Christians.
