AHRON SHAPIRO

Here are 10 of the most significant stories for Jews in the Diaspora since the start of the millenium.

1. September 11, 2001

WHILE there were Jews who died in the coordinated terror attacks of 9/11, they were not assaults that targeted Jews in particular. However, they did create a unique opportunity for bonding between Jews and western societies over a common scourge -– terrorism.

For perhaps the first time, the attacks -– which downed four commercial aircraft, along with New York’s World Trade Centre and a section of the Pentagon in Washington DC -– created a situation in which innocent people were forced to deal with the implications that they might be targeted by the blind hatred of terrorism.

For the Jewish world, which has always had to contend with a derivative of the same senseless hatred manifest in anti-Semitism, and for Israelis, who had been victims of countless terror attacks over the years, there was suddenly a sense of camaraderie and understanding between them and their non-Jewish neighbours that has rarely been seen before or since.

In light of the aims of the al-Qaeda terrorists that planned and executed the attacks, the result could not have been more of a failure for them: instead of turning the West against Jews and supporters of Israel as they had hoped, it only drew us all closer together.

2. Taglit-Birthright/MASA

ARGUABLY two of the most ambitious programs in modern Jewish communal life, Taglit-Birthright Israel (Birthright) and MASA are also some of the most successful.

Not only have these programs – which seek to bring Jewish youth on sponsored trips to Israel -– immeasurably strengthened the relationship between a new generation of Diaspora Jews and Israel, but they have also brought about an increase in engagement between Jewish youth and their communities back home.

Spearheaded by philanthropists Charles Bronfman and Michael Steinhardt, and sponsored by a consortium of Jewish organisations and the Israeli government, Birthright has attracted more than 200,000 individuals from 52 countries since the trips began in 2000. In the past two years, the program’s capacity has been raised to 37,000 participants a year.

Jewish Agency-run MASA, like Birthright, has brought young Jews to Israel. But instead of a 10-day visit, it focuses on half-yearly or year-long programs that immerse young Diaspora Jews in Israeli life. Increasing steadily from 9200 in its pilot year, 2004-2005, MASA estimates more than 15,300 young Jews will utilise the sponsorship for programs in 2009-2010.

The programs have been considered such a success that plans are underway to launch a new initiative -– Lapid -– for Jewish high-school students in the Diaspora. Israel Knesset Member Danny Danon is also advancing a similarly themed program for Israelis, whereby youths are taken on trips to Jerusalem – a place that a surprising number of young people in Israel have never visited.

3. Darfur

WHAT does Darfur, Sudan, have to do with Jews? Quite a bit, it would seem. In synagogues and Jewish community centres all around the world, Jews have been coming together, especially in the second half of the past decade, to try and help stop what many have characterised as an African genocide.

The Darfur conflict began in 2003, when ethnic African tribesmen took up arms, complaining of decades of neglect and discrimination at the expense of the Sudanese government, which favoured Arabs.

Sudan’s government has been accused of responding by unleashing tribal militias, which have allegedly perpetrated mass atrocities against the rebel villagers.

Jewish organisations have been at the forefront of efforts to put the plight of the Darfurian people high on the world’s agenda, to the point where some Arab media commentators have accused world Jewry of exaggerating the humanitarian crisis in Darfur in order to divert attention from Palestinian concerns, and the United States’ war in Iraq.

However, Jews have rejected the criticism – their keen sensitivity to the issue has often been explained by organisers as a direct result of having endured the Holocaust only a little over 60 years ago.

“We know what it means to be victims of those who want to wipe another people off the face of the earth,” said one New York rabbinical leader in 2006.

Last year, a United Nations official estimated that 300,000 Darfurians had been killed since the conflict began.

4. J Street

FOUNDED in 2008, J Street is certainly one of the most interesting developments of the past decade -– a direct manifestation of the growing rift between Diaspora Jews and Israel. This US non-profit advocacy group, which has sometimes used the slogan “pro-Israel, pro-peace”, was formed with curious aims.

Unlike the traditional pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), J Street does not simply seek to rally support for Israel among US lawmakers.

Instead, the organisation advocates a proactive conditional support for Israel -– using US government support as a lever to pressure Israel into taking certain directions in the peace process that it may not be prepared to take, for whatever reasons. While not a direct threat to AIPAC, J Street has the potential to weaken support for Israel in US government policy in individual congressional and senate races.

Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren last week told Conservative Jews at their biennial convention that J Street poses “a unique problem in that it not only opposes one policy of one Israeli government, it opposes … policies [that have been part and parcel] of all Israeli governments”.

At the risk of making a generalisation – this criticism is legitimate. J Street, by design, is not beholden to any political party or Israeli government policy – Left or Right – and represents a new trend, for better or worse, where Diaspora Jews are increasingly becoming back-seat drivers for Jerusalem.

5. Mombasa attack 2002

IT could be argued that the 2002 attack on an Israeli-owned hotel and an Israeli Arkia airliner in Mombasa, Kenya, should be grouped with the Israeli news stories of the past decade. But the unique character of the attack -– planned and carried out on foreign soil -– makes it appropriate to be discussed in an international framework.

At Mombasa’s Paradise Hotel, 13 people were killed, including nine Kenyans, and 80 people were injured. At the airport, a departing flight filled with returning Israelis was targeted by two surface-to-air missiles, which missed their mark – either by divine providence or with the help of possibly secret anti-missile technology, or both.

Extremist African groups affiliated with al-Qaeda were blamed for the attack, which once again called attention to the risk of terrorism against Jews and Israelis travelling far from home, a theme that would be repeated six years later in India.

6. Mumbai attack 2008

THERE are some similarities between the 2002 Mombasa attack and the 2008 attack in Mumbai, India. Almost certainly, al-Qaeda, or groups sympathetic to al-Qaeda, were involved in both, and some Israelis were killed in both, but that is where the similarities end.

Unlike the African incident, which very specifically targeted Israelis at two locations, the attack on Mumbai’s Chabad House was just one of a slew of attacks perpetrated by a large terror cell throughout the city. Also, an obvious Israeli target -– the consulate -– was specifically not in the line of fire.

What made this attack unique was its choice of a specifically Jewish, and not necessarily Israeli, target, and the shock value of the attack, which took the lives of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg and three of their guests.

It was another reminder that the evil of terrorism is not confined to a geographic area, but requires vigilance everywhere. But yet, as always, and in fact davkah now, normal life must go on.

7. Bernard Madoff

THERE is not much to say about Bernie Madoff that has not already been said. Revelations following his arrest in December 2008 and conviction in 2009 of swindling up to US$65 billion dollars from clients, including charities and non-profit organisations, stunned the world.

For Jews, it epitomised the expression, “a shanda for the goyim” – “a shame before the nations”. It was a shameful embarrassment performed by a Jew where a non-Jew can observe it. Almost overnight, Madoff changed the paradigm of the kind of person that Jewish mothers pray their sons will not grow up into.

8. Murder of Daniel Pearl 2002

THE kidnapping and killing of American-Jewish journalist Daniel Pearl by al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan called attention to the risk to foreign journalists, as well as the ugly face of blind Jew-hatred. For the Jewish community, Pearl will not be remembered for his shocking murder, which was witnessed by many in a video clip that circulated over the internet, but rather some of the words that preceded it: “My father’s Jewish, my mother’s Jewish, I’m Jewish.” He continued to relate Jewish connections in his life that were privy only to his family.

For this reason, far from the “confession” his captors sought to create, Pearl’s words conveyed an air of dignity, courage and inner strength, and will be remembered as a final act of modern-day Jewish defiance in the face of unadulterated anti-Semitism.

9. South African emigration on the rise

EMIGRATION of South African Jewry – whose population is down from a peak of about 120,000 in the early 1970s to about 70,000 today – increased in tempo in recent years and is one of the significant stories of the past decade.

South African aliyah to Israel, which had stabilised in recent years, saw a 300 per cent increase in 2008 – a trend that has continued into this year.

Experts say the new wave of emigration is partly to do with “pull” factors – Zionism and joining family that moved earlier – and “push” factors – worry about the future of South Africa.

However, community leaders say that despite increased emigration, the actual number of Jews in South Africa has changed little recently because of the increased birth rate, emigres returning, and the influx of Jews from Zimbabwe.

Be that as it may, the expat South African communities worldwide continue to grow.

10. Barack Obama elected

THE election of US President Barack Obama was not just an important news item worldwide in the last part of the decade, but also said a lot about the state of American Jewry, including its relationship with Israel.

Obama attracted some 80 per cent of the Jewish vote and many of his key strategists and advisers are Jewish. His choice of a Jewish chief of staff with Israeli ties – Rahm Emmanuel – said volumes, as did Obama’s unprecedented decision to host a Passover seder at the White House.

However, amid the mutual warmth between Obama and the American-Jewish community, there were signs that things were not so rosy. In particular, American Jewry’s willingness during the campaign to overlook a lack of historical pro-Israel credentials from the Democratic candidate -– especially when compared to his Democratic challenger, Hillary Clinton, and Republican opponent, John McCain – was a clear indication that having a track record of support for Israel was no longer the priority for American Jewry that it once was.

Domestic issues took precedence for Jewish voters in 2008, something that has become obvious in US foreign policy changes implemented in the 11 months since Obama’s inauguration.

Moreover, if America can be seen as a bellwether for Diaspora Jewry, the election of Obama may belie a readiness of Diaspora Jewry to create an Israeli policy independent of the express preferences of Israelis themselves to an extent never before seen.

It’s something to keep a close eye on over the next 10 years.