Israel turns 60 on Thursday. American's Jewish community looks at the homeland in a variety of ways, from celebration to caution, and through eyes both secular and religious.
   Six prominent American Jews weigh in on Israel's milestone, and what
the world's only Jewish state can expect in the 21st century. Answers
have been edited for length and clarity.

-- Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism,
the congregational arm of the Reform movement in North America. Q: Is Israel in a better situation today then when it was founded?
   A: In many respects, we are in a much better place. Israel was
established with 600,000 Jews, now there are well over 5 million. If
Israel is a reality, it's a thriving reality, it's rooted in the soil.
On the other hand, we thought there would be peace by now.
   America and Israel have been strong allies for 60 years. That is
rooted, primarily, in a moral case. Geopolitical realities are never
irrelevant, but America is a religious country (and) it responds to
moral arguments.
   Israel is a struggling democracy. I am one of those people who
remain confident that as long as the state of Israel remains committed
to those values, the United States will remain a good and powerful ally.
   

-- Joshua Neuman, editor and publisher of Heeb, a national magazine
for young Jews.  Q: How does Israel impact young Jews today differently from their
parents?
A: It's a more complicated relationship. I think that's also true of
American Jews' relationship with their own Jewish identity in general.
It's less nationalistic, I guess, less "us vs. them." It's much more
complicated, and much more fluid. It's not an all-consuming anchor that
it once was, although it is for some people.
At the heart of the experience, there is a real love for Israel, but
it's a mature love, it's not the love of a child or an infant
worshipping its parents. Maybe that's an irony here -- that the younger
generation might have a more mature love of Israel and a more mature
relationship.
It's sort of like the way they would feel about America -- they
would love some things and hate some others.
  

-- S. Ilan Troen, professor of Israel Studies at Brandeis University   Q: How would you describe Israel to someone who has never been
there?
   A: There are many different types of Israel, and that's the magical
thing. There's a different Israel for the ultra-Orthodox of one kind,
and for the ultra-Orthodox of another kind.
I think that's the excitement of the place -- the inherent variety.
Each group has in its own imagination, a different version of Israel.
Someone will say, "This is the landscape where Abraham walked," and his
neighbors will say, "This is where Ishmael walked."
There is no one story. Everyone is cognizant of his or her own
story, but they are aware that it is just one story of many. To think
that Israeli society succeeds, with all its faults and mistakes, is
miraculous.

-- Rabbi Brian Walsh, executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights,
North America     Q: Israel is a little smaller than New Jersey, yet is claimed as
holy by three major religions. Isn't that asking for trouble?
   A: Maybe that's what God wants us to work out. I think in some way
that Jerusalem is a test case for humanity -- can we coexist with people
of different religious faiths in one small space? I believe we can.
   The test of our time, I believe, is whether we can share a sacred
space. That's really what's up for grabs in Jerusalem. The way to make a
place sacred is by the way you act and what you do, and the creating of
a just society. A place becomes sacred through the actions. The land is
only as sacred as the people upon it.
   The Bible teaches that if the people of a land act cruelly to each
other than the land will throw them out.
 

-- Arnold Eisen, chancellor of Jewish Theological Seminary in New
York   Q: Is Israel a holy land, a vital concept, or something else
entirely?
   A: Israel is a holy land in the sense that it holds the potential
for tremendous acts of holiness -- beginning with cooperation and mutual
understanding among several different peoples and faiths.
   I will never forget once when an ultra-Orthodox Jew, an opponent of
Jewish statehood because he believed only God's messiah could inaugurate
a Jewish state, took me onto his balcony in Jerusalem. He looked out at
the dozens of church spires, synagogues and minarets, and said, "Either
we will all learn to live and worship God in peace or this place will be
Armageddon."
     

-- Hadassah Lieberman, daughter of Holocaust survivors, advocate for
women's health issues and wife of Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn. Q. Can there be peace in Israel?
   A. Even when things are dark and gray and cloudy, we have to believe
in peace. And we need to work towards peace, even with people who don't
agree with us.
  I work with a global initiative for cancer research in 10 countries.
There is a communal language for illness. In the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox)
community, women are teaching each other to test themselves for breast
cancer. It's the exact same problem that the more traditional Arab
community faces. If you had this Haredi woman go to an Arab woman and
talk ... they could have conversation that a secular person couldn't
understand.
   We have a shot at influencing people. I'm a dreamer, but it can be
done.
  

-- Richard M. Joel, president of Yeshiva University in New York.Q. Can Israel have Judaism as its national religion and still be a democracy?
A. Israel is a democracy and a Jewish state. There are lots of states that have national religions. No one is challenging whether Britian is a  democracy, even though the Church of England is just that – the church of England. We won’t even go to a conversation about many Arab states or Muslim states.
I think democracy is always a struggle, but basically what democracy is saying is to teach that people are entitled to human dignity and a share of that democracy. There is nothing in Israeli society that says it should be  a theocracy.