TL;DR: A painful encounter on a bus in Israel sparked reflections on the gap between Jewish values of mutual responsibility and the harsher realities of modern life. Andrei Iosef Schwartz, Co-founder of The Jewish Diplomatic Corps, shares how false imagery of Israel can erode Jewish self-understanding and unity. Instead, we must call for renewed commitment to global Jewish connection, empathy, and shared purpose.

I cried in Israel. Not during a terrorist attack, but on a bus ride. I watched as two locals treated another Jew—a woman in her sixties, clearly from abroad (or perhaps a late ola)—with shocking rudeness. She spoke no Hebrew, but what struck me most was that the two tzabarim, her peers in age, seemed to speak no language of respect or kindness either.

Why did my eyes well up? Perhaps because of the sharp dissonance I felt: between the values I absorbed growing up in my small Romanian community in the Galut—that Kol Israel arevim zeh la-zeh—and the reality I saw before me in the largest, original, and ultimate Jewish community.

It’s easy for Jews who come to Israel for a week per year (let alone for those whose experience of Israel is once in their lifetime) to then brand the whole country as an emotionless, tough, hutzpah-dominated society. And to then attach to the same image the bits and pieces we’re all fed via otherwise (eg. Ukraine) decent media in our countries. And then glue onto the same the shredded image of Israel we’re offered by the otherwise decent friends or colleagues (on social issues, on foreign policy, on equality, on racism). By ALL … in places our families have built and we’ve made our homes (cinemas, pharmacies, Academia, law-firms, NGOs etc). That dismantling continues when our children encounter “Israel” in the very institutions we trusted with their education and safety: the universities meant to nurture their passion, skill, and talent.

This false image of Israel, ultimately, helps then in destroying the way we see ourselves, dedicated Jews. Dedicated to both other Jews, via what we do in life, but also dedicated by other Jews (our parents and ancestors) as a tribute to the survival of the Jews and of Judaism. It feels like the perfect storm—destructive and self-destructive. 

So, this is not in defense of Israel. Rather, it is an act of introspection. A reflection on how these thoughts gnaw at my mind, and how easily many other Jews—who have dedicated their careers and lives to the Jewish people and to humanity, inspired by Judaism—can fall prey to the multi-front, multi-sensory onslaught we all face today. Some of us wrestle with these questions consciously, over many years. For others, they linger in the subconscious.

Global Jewry itself is a profoundly ambitious project. From the founders and CEOs of the largest Jewish organizations to entrepreneurs, from Federation executives overseeing communities of millions to those holding together communities barely large enough to gather a minyan—it is a democratic project. And it is ambitious because it is democratic, giving every voice a place.

So, kudos to all of you who ensure that this endeavor continues—within Global Jewry and within your original organizations. The process and the goal are inseparable.

Shabbat shalom, may our brothers return to Israel, and may all Jews everywhere be united and safe!

Andrei Iosef Schwartz, PhD

Co-founder, The Jewish Diplomatic Corps (WJC)

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