I don’t think most white non-Jews understand how ethnocentric Jews can be. A FB friend recently devoted a post to arguing that it is not sin for a Jew to love a place outside of Israel. Why would it even be a question? Because many Jews hold that Jews should only love Israel.
If non-Jews catch on to this type of Jewish thinking, they’re going to regard Jews as an alien people in their midst.
My FB friend addresses a common diaspora Jewish attitude of exclusive devotion to Israel. We’re not talking dual loyalties here. We’re talking about Jews living in non-Jewish land who reserve all of their loyalty for the Jewish people and the Jewish state.
My FB friend wrote:
I don’t believe that it is a sin of any sort to love a place that happens to be outside of the land of Israel. One ought to be able to say so WITHOUT being preached at, whether overtly or implicitly, that a Jew “should” only have these feelings toward Israel. When I post something about preferring California over New York, I am not posting anything political or religious, and I don’t want to hear anything designed to guilt me for feeling the way I do. I have earned my Israeli/pro-Israel credentials, and this is evident by my various pro-Israel postings. But I also love the country of my birth – and there is NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT.
Interestingly enough, none of my friends in Israel seem to feel the need to preach to me. It’s only those friends in the USA, perhaps feeling insecure about the situation of the ground underneath their feet, who are the most emphatic about it – yet they stay here, and keep staying here. Perhaps they cannot move to Israel right now due to personal circumstances. Well, guess what: NEITHER CAN I. So please. Just stop it.
