Since Israel’s founding in 1948, American Jews have struggled to reconcile their dichotomous identities and allegiances. The Knesset law enacted in 2011, which prohibits the declaration of a “public boycott against Israel, deepens the rift between American Jews’ Jewish and American Identities. As a “homeland” for those in exile, Israel, in concept does not require Jews to assimilate. Unfortunately for American Jews however, there is no universal definition for “what a Jew is, much less what a Jew believes.” The debate over Judaism as a religion or ethnic identity becomes especially relevant when describing the growing rift between American Jews and Israel. Joan Leegant and Margot Singer both illustrate this potentially mutually exclusive…show more content… Neither in the war zone nor fully engaged in her New York Office, Susan represents Jew who are simultaneously exiled from American society and alienated from her homeland. When recounting her “missed opportunity” with Reid, Susan recalls how he questioned her ability as a Jewish woman to ever “be seriously involved with someone who wasn’t Jewish.” Reid calls out Susan’s inability to fully assimilate into American society. Likewise, when Susan has difficulty accepting Frank’s congratulations, she once more demonstrates, in her distaste for common American mannerisms, her lack of conformity to American social norms, immediately identifying him as “typically American” with his “moral earnestness that irritated her.” Similarly, despite having no military connection, Susan catches herself thinking of Israel as her homeland, questioning “how could we” have “massacred civilians and buried them in mass graves.” Her association with the Israeli cause demonstrates the allure of Israel for the exiled Jew, especially in the United States. Nonetheless, Susan also fails to assimilate into Israeli culture, when she is unable to imagine what life must be like to live in Israel. At the beginning of the story, Susan thinks, on account of her Jewish identity, that she should be living in Israel, instead of Debbie, a friend who married an Israeli. Towards the end of the story however, Susan realizes that she and Debbie should not have switched places, representing the argument that Jewish ancestry is not enough to assimilate into Israel’s society, and Judaism is at its core, a
