ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the evolution of Jewish-American-Israeli relations through the prism of Diaspora politics in the US and conflicting Jewish identities. Israeli sociologist Baruch Kimmerling argues that the Zionist 'hegemony' which dominated the State of Israel in its first three decades was able to keep the 'strain between secularism and religion. Peter Novick has argued that in their drive to integrate, American Jews after the Second World War preferred to remain relatively quiet about the Holocaust. The vision of returning to the homeland is built into the very nature of all Jewish communities qua Diaspora. In 1977, Charles Liebman, a leading scholar of Diaspora-Israel relations, observed that 'because Israel is a symbol, its particular policies are not very important to American Jews'. In the last few years Israeli governments have been assessing the Conversion Law in the hope of bridging gaps and healing wounds. The Jewish-American Diaspora is the largest, most active and most significant for Israeli politics and society.
