VOA标准英语2010年-Survey: Young American Jews Less Attac

In June, The New York Review of Books published an article by author Peter Beinart contending that young American Jews think little about Israel, if at all.  The article cited a survey conducted by a conservative pollster. It concluded that many young American Jews want an open and frank discussion of Israel and its shortcomings, including its treatment of Palestinians under occupation.

 

This is the story of a conversation about whether young American Jews are increasingly disillusioned¹ with Israel and if so, why. 

In June, author Peter Beinart splashed his theory across the pages of the New York Review of Books, and it's been reverberating² ever since. "I thought I was hitting a nerve but it re-affirmed to me that there is a deep sense of discontent amongst many American Jews, he said.

There are some five million American Jews, the second largest Jewish community after Israel. American Jews have been a bulwark³ of support for the Jewish state.

But Beinart was referring to a survey of American Jewish college students on why they're not more supportive of Israel.  The poll found the students felt distant from Israel and even angry at what they saw as Israel's abuse of Palestinians' under occupation. "What they wanted to try and connect with in Israel was a country and a people that had liberal democratic values, he said.

Young American Jews surveyed in the poll wanted peace, held the right to question the Jewish establishment and even empathized with the Palestinians.

Dani Stouck is a college student who was raised in a conservative Jewish home near Washington. "Growing up my family was very proud of the fact that we were Jewish.  They tried to instill Jewish values and you know bring us to synagogue as often as we would let them.  We were always encourage to ask questions about our faith and what it meant to be Jewish, she said.

She traveled to Israel several times as a teenager. The tours included trips to the World War II concentration camps in Eastern Europe. "After seeing the devastation⁴ of the Holocaust⁵ I really believed we deserved that land, we deserved a space, we had been through such horrors and we built the land up and we deserved it, she said.

But the drive to question that her parents instilled⁶ in her eventually led her to question Israeli policies. On her latest trip to Israel, she worked with Arab Israeli women and also visited the West Bank where Israel continues to build Jewish settlements.

She says she has sympathy for the Palestinians because, she believes, their rights are being violated.  "If Israel is persecuting⁷ others then there's a problem, there's a major problem, and I am not going to ignore that because it is a Jewish state.  In fact, because it is a Jewish state means to me that it needs to embody⁸ those Jewish values that I grew up with, she said.

It's a conversation Stouck has skirted around with her rabbi Stuart Weinblatt. He says American liberal values are not necessarily Jewish values.  "I need to try and be sure that we convey to these young people that Israel is not something that can be taken for granted. It is only 62 years old and every day it struggles for its existence, he said.

He goes further, saying, "What would happen if all of the Arab armies bordering Israel took a day off? Let's just say they all took a day off and walked away from their post.  The truth of the matter is nothing would happen.  But if all of Israel's soldiers guarding its borders happen to take that same day off, you know as well as I what would happen in terms of the slaughter⁹ and the massacre¹⁰ and the coming across the border that would occur."

He's concerned that the young American Jews criticizing Israel could threaten the nation's existence. 

If American Jews no longer support Israel, analysts¹¹ ask, how will that affect US policy toward that country?

Will the bonds remain unbreakable?

Rabbi Weinblatt says American Jews need to support Israel, no matter what. "I think the fate of the Jewish people is intricately tied up with the fate of Israel, he said.

Stouck thinks the best way to support Israel is to question it.  She read from the journal she kept while in Israel and the West Bank a few months back. "I am proud of our heritage and our traditions. I am proud of our shared values and morals yet I cannot be proud of the state of Israel today and I can't believe God would be completely proud either, she read.

As the summer in America draws to a close and the Jewish high holidays approach, elderly Jews will be filling the synagogues and pledging their support of Israel.

But Jewish students returning to their campuses are the future of the American Jewish community and its link to Israel.

And it's unclear where they're going.

 

1 disillusioned   

a.不再抱幻想的，大失所望的，幻想破灭的

参考例句：

• I soon became disillusioned with the job. 我不久便对这个工作不再抱幻想了。
• Many people who are disillusioned in reality assimilate life to a dream. 许多对现实失望的人把人生比作一场梦。

2 reverberating   

回响，回荡( reverberate的现在分词 )； 使反响，使回荡，使反射

参考例句：

• The words are still ringing [reverberating] in one's ears. 言犹在耳。
• I heard a voice reverberating: "Crawl out! I give you liberty!" 我听到一个声音在回荡：“爬出来吧，我给你自由！”

3 bulwark   

n.堡垒，保障，防御

参考例句：

• That country is a bulwark of freedom.那个国家是自由的堡垒。
• Law and morality are the bulwark of society.法律和道德是社会的防御工具。

4 devastation   

n.毁坏；荒废；极度震惊或悲伤

参考例句：

• The bomb caused widespread devastation. 炸弹造成大面积破坏。
• There was devastation on every side. 到处都是破坏的创伤。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

6 instilled   

v.逐渐使某人获得（某种可取的品质），逐步灌输( instill的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Nature has instilled in our minds an insatiable desire to see truth. 自然给我们心灵注入了永无休止的发现真理的欲望。 来自辞典例句
• I instilled the need for kindness into my children. 我不断向孩子们灌输仁慈的必要。 来自辞典例句

7 persecuting   

（尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的现在分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人

参考例句：

• This endurance made old Earnshaw furious, when he discovered his son persecuting the poor, fatherless child, as he called him. 当老恩萧发现他的儿子这样虐待他所谓的可怜的孤儿时，这种逆来顺受使老恩萧冒火了。
• He is possessed with the idea that someone is persecuting him. 他老是觉得有人要害他。

8 embody   

vt.具体表达，使具体化；包含，收录

参考例句：

• The latest locomotives embody many new features. 这些最新的机车具有许多新的特色。
• Hemingway's characters plainly embody his own values and view of life.海明威笔下的角色明确反映出他自己的价值观与人生观。

9 slaughter   

n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀

参考例句：

• I couldn't stand to watch them slaughter the cattle.我不忍看他们宰牛。
• Wholesale slaughter was carried out in the name of progress.大规模的屠杀在维护进步的名义下进行。

10 massacre   

n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀

参考例句：

• There was a terrible massacre of villagers here during the war.在战争中，这里的村民惨遭屠杀。
• If we forget the massacre,the massacre will happen again!忘记了大屠杀，大屠杀就有可能再次发生！

11 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。