After his retirement his tie with the United States took a new direction. Back in Jerusalem he headed the American Jewish Committee’s Israel office, on Ethiopia Street, the family relates.
In 1982 he published “America and Israel” in Partisan Review, on the friendship between the two countries and Israel’s fears of relying on it, and the same issue listed him as a visiting professor at Boston University.
In 1984 ten young Israelis, aged 28 to 38, were selected under his guidance for an American Jewish Committee programme to get to know American Jewry, and on their return they met him to review what they had learned and how to improve the programme.
That year he also sent Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum, with a handwritten note, material he had found in the Foreign Ministry archive: “This is the ‘crop’ after a search in the M.F.A. archive.”
A fork in the road
How do you connect young Israelis to an American Jewry they know only from afar?
Explain it from here
The price: A flat, distant picture.
Send them there
The price: A costly programme, whose participants must be chosen with care.
And what happened?
In 1984 the participants were chosen under his guidance, and on their return they met him to review what they had learned.
Sources (5)
- Mordechai Gazit — America and Israel (1982) Book or article
- Partisan Review 49(3), 1982 — contributors Book or article
- Selma Hirsh — American Jewish Committee report, 20 August 1984 Book or article
- Mordechai Gazit — handwritten note to Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum, 12 September 1984 Book or article
- Mordechai Gazit — Institute on American Jewish–Israeli Relations report, November–December 1985 Book or article
Israel and the world
Two centres, one people
In the 1980s most of the world’s Jews lived in two places: Israel and the United States. Organisations such as the American Jewish Committee looked for ways to bring them closer, and to let young Israelis get to know communities they had seen only from afar.