ABSTRACT
This minor incident in many ways contains the main ingredients of an increasingly vexing problem. In the past few years, American Jews (many of them students) and Israelis have been encountering each other with growing frequency, and it is becoming increasingly obvious that many of these contacts are producing a mutual recoil. American jews must be made more aware of the long and difficult road which still lies ahead of Israel in getting fully established as nation. They will have to help her on this road, and they must come to a greater realization of their own interest in this effort: ultimately the existence of Israel is quite as vital to the meaningful existence of American Jews as theirs is to hers. Such programs have to come to be regarded ultimately not as luxuries but as vital components of our joint survival as Jewish communities. The common bonds and interests between us are after all still of a transcendent character.
