Do Young American Jews Still Support Israel?

Impact

With Palestine’s latest statehood bid at the UN, the Israel-Palestine issue has once again flared up in the mainstream media.

 

But how do young American Jews feel about the conflict? In a controversial New York Review of Books essay written in July 2010, Peter Beinart contends that young American Jews no longer feel deeply connected to Israel in the way their parents do. He argues that particularly in the younger generations, fewer and fewer American Jews are Zionists, those deeply devoted to the State of Israel. More and more consider themselves liberals, devoted to human rights for all people including the Palestinians, and have therefore grown weary of pro-Israel organizations like AIPAC and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

 

Do young American Jews feel as connected with Israel as their parents? Do pro-Israel organizations like AIPAC still have youth appeal? Why or why not? What explains the changing attitudes?

Photo Credit: hoyasmeg