Many diaspora Jews cherish their Jewish identity, yet quietly wonder: is Israel necessary for Jewish survival today? Living in liberal democracies like the United States or the UK—where religious freedom and cultural expression thrive—it’s tempting to see Israel as optional, a beloved heritage site rather than a vital political necessity. I’ve heard thoughtful congregants say, “Judaism is a religion, not a nationality. Why must we tie our future to a nation-state?”
It’s a fair question in theory. But history doesn’t work in theories.
The truth is simple and sobering: Israel is essential to the survival of the Jewish people. It is not merely a homeland or refuge. It is a hard-won safeguard against the fragility of diaspora life—a shield against the whims of history and the failures of morality. Jewish sovereignty is not about power. It’s about survival. Without it, Jewish history teaches us with merciless clarity, we die.
History’s Verdict: Vulnerability Without Sovereignty
For two thousand years, Jews survived in exile—sometimes flourishing, but always vulnerable. The Jewish story in the diaspora is one of peaks of prosperity punctuated by violent collapses. From the Crusades to the Inquisition, from the expulsions of England (1290), France (1394), and Spain (1492), to the Khmelnytsky massacres in 17th-century Ukraine—where over 100,000 Jews were slaughtered—diaspora life offered no true permanence.
Fast forward to the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Pale of Settlement—home to millions of Jews in Tsarist Russia—saw pogroms that razed entire communities. The Kishinev pogrom of 1903 killed 49 Jews, including women and children; thousands fled in terror. These weren’t acts of war. They were mob assaults on Jewish civilians, often aided by indifferent or hostile governments.
Even liberal Europe, the so-called beacon of enlightenment, betrayed its Jews. The Dreyfus Affair revealed the hollowness of assimilation. Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish French army officer, was convicted on forged evidence, and mobs in Paris chanted “Death to the Jews!” Herzl was there. He saw it. And he understood.
Then Came the Holocaust
By the 1930s, German Jews were among the most assimilated and patriotic in Europe. They contributed to science, philosophy, medicine. They were Germans. And yet—within a few years—they were cast as subhuman. Six million Jews were exterminated while the world watched.
America? Canada? Britain? They shut their doors.
The M.S. St. Louis, carrying 937 Jewish refugees, was turned away from Cuba, the U.S., and Canada. Over 250 of its passengers were later murdered in Nazi camps. That wasn’t 1349. That was 1939
The Holocaust was not an aberration—it was the culmination of 2,000 years of statelessness. It was the final verdict: no one will save the Jews but the Jews.
Israel: The Shield and the Home
When Israel declared statehood in 1948, it did not end antisemitism. It ended Jewish helplessness. From Yemen to Baghdad, Jews were expelled en masse after 1948—850,000 Mizrahi Jews fled or were forced out of Arab countries. Israel absorbed them. No one else would have.
When Ethiopia collapsed in the 1980s, Israel airlifted 14,000 Jews to safety in 36 hours. When Ukraine descended into war, Israel sent planes. When antisemitism rises in France, Jews have a place to go. A place that will never shut its gates. A place where they don’t have to beg.
That is the moral and practical meaning of Israel. It is the guarantee that Jewish life will not hang on the goodwill of others.
Diaspora Safety Is Conditional
Some argue: “But we’re safe now. Antisemitism is fringe.” I wish that were true. But let’s be honest.
In 2018, 11 Jews were murdered at prayer in Pittsburgh—the worst antisemitic attack in American history. In 2019, a woman was murdered at Chabad of Poway. In Colleyville, a rabbi and congregants were taken hostage during Shabbat services. In Charlottesville, mobs chanted, “Jews will not replace us.”
The ADL recorded over 3,600 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. in 2022—a record high. Jews make up 2% of the U.S. population but are the target of over 50% of religious hate crimes. In Europe, armed guards protect every Jewish school and synagogue.
And history whispers: it could get worse. It has, countless times.
Herzl and Jabotinsky: Two Prophets, One Warning
To understand Israel’s necessity, we must revisit two foundational Zionist thinkers: Theodor Herzl and Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Their visions diverged, but their diagnosis was the same.
Herzl was a journalist, a product of the Austro-Hungarian enlightenment, who believed initially in assimilation. But the Dreyfus Affair broke that illusion. He saw that Jewish rights, even in the most progressive societies, could vanish with a gust of hatred. Herzl turned to the idea of sovereignty—not out of messianic longing, but as political necessity. His was a diplomatic Zionism: build consensus, appeal to reason, win the world over.
Jabotinsky, by contrast, was fiery and realist. Living in the cauldron of Eastern Europe, where pogroms raged and Jewish blood ran in the streets, he saw no time for patience. “Eliminate the diaspora,” he warned, “or the diaspora will eliminate you.” To him, Jewish sovereignty was not an ideal. It was triage. He preached strength, defense, and urgent aliyah. His critics called him a militarist. History proved him right.
Both men—Herzl with his tailored suits and Jabotinsky with his battle cries—arrived at the same core truth: the diaspora cannot protect the Jewish people forever. Sovereignty is not a theological luxury. It is a survival imperative.
Their legacy, though shaped by different fears and hopes, leads to one conclusion: Israel must exist because no other place will carry the burden of Jewish safety.
Zionism Is Not Colonialism. It Is Return
Some claim Zionism is colonialism. That’s not history—it’s inversion. Jews were not sent by empires to conquer. We were escaping empires. We weren’t colonizers—we were the colonized. There was no Britain backing us; in fact, Zionists had to fight the British to gain independence.
Moreover, half of Israel’s Jewish population comes not from Europe, but from Arab and Muslim lands—from Baghdad, Casablanca, and Tehran. They weren’t settlers—they were refugees. They were driven out, and Israel took them in.
Zionism is not colonialism. It is homecoming. It is the story of an ancient people reclaiming sovereignty in their ancestral land, after 2,000 years of exile. It is return—not conquest.
Israel Is Not a Luxury. It Is a Lifeline.
For diaspora Jews, Israel is not just a homeland in theory. It is the reason we can live with confidence. Knowing Israel exists gives psychological and political strength to every Jewish community worldwide. It is a deterrent. It is a voice at the U.N. It is an embassy when we are in trouble. It is a nation that will never look away from us.
We can and must hold Israel accountable to its highest ideals. But let us not confuse critique with abandonment. To doubt Israel’s necessity is to gamble with Jewish survival. And after 2,000 years, we’ve run out of chips.
Conclusion: A Covenant We Must Not Break
Israel is not the end of the Jewish story. But without it, there may be no story left to tell.
Its existence is non-negotiable—not because it is perfect, but because it is ours. Because history has proven, again and again, that when Jews are scattered, we are endangered. And when we are sovereign, we are safe.
For every Jew living in freedom today, Israel is the silent guardian that makes it possible.
Let us defend it. Let us cherish it. Let us never forget that behind the miracle of Jewish sovereignty lies an ocean of Jewish blood.
And may the memory of those who perished for lack of a homeland—those for whom no one came—be for a blessing.
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