HISTORY THEN AND NOW
259
on projections of existing trends that are unlikely to be fulfilled, simply
because there are so many unexpected and incalculable surprises in histo–
ry.
r
still remember the demographic arguments in internal Israeli politics
in the 1980s between the two major parties, when neither of them
dreamed that within the decade more than a half-million Russian Jews
would immigrate to Israel and completely transform its demographic situ–
ation. Certainly demography is not an exact science. However, I am not
altogether consoled by the thought that this is a wider demographic trend.
For instance, the diminution of Europeans in the U.S. is very obvious:
America, and I'm saying this without any value judgments, is literally
changing from a society that was very white, Protestant, and European,
into something else. There is nothing wrong with that, similar trends can
be observed elsewhere. You alluded to London, Paris, and Berlin. Of
course,
r
agree. But as someone who is not only an analyst but somebody
who also cares deeply about the issue of whether there will still be a Jewish
community in the twenty-first century, the fact that this is happening else–
where does not necessarily make me feel less concerned or better about it.
And
r
don't believe that this is an inevitable fate.
r
think it is very difficult
to reverse these trends, but not impossible. Of course, I don't believe in the
romantic notion of the "eternal mission" of the Jewish people, but
r
do
think that it has a vocation, not to say a unique role in history-which
doesn't mean that other peoples do not have their own special characteris–
tics and gifts. The Jews are the people of the book, who gave monotheism
to the world. I don't think there is another people in history that has had
such a self-conscious, sharply-defined sense of its own vocation. Now,
belief in missions can be a tricky and dangerous business and we have seen
the perversions to which this can lead in the twentieth century. When I see
skull-capped, bearded zealots in the West Bank talking about their god–
given, exclusive right to the Holy Land and the way their eschatology is
framed, I don't want any part of that mission. But I do think there is
another ethical, humanist mission that the Jewish people has historically
embodied and it is desirable that we should continue to be faithful to that
ideal. Whether this is possible under the conditions of the twenty-first
century is certainly an open question. I happen to think it desirable that
Jews continue to contribute something special to the economy of the
world, not only in the material sense, but more importantly, in a spiritual
sense. That seems to me indispensable, and a humanity without the Jewish
people making a distinctive and independent mark on its development is
just not the same.
r
think that by and large we agree on the dangers of assimilation.
However, the contours of the problem have changed significantly, even in
countries which traditionally argued that assimilation in the sense of
accepting and integrating Jews as a group, demanded the abandonment of
