David Kelsey has been published in *Forward*, *Heeb*, *JTA, Jewcy, Downtown Express*, and *The Villager*, is a former editor of *Jewschool*, and has his own blog, *The Kvetcher.

Israel is important to most Jews because she is a Jewish state, on ancient, Biblical land of the Jewish people. As our history proves, even when relatively few Jews were living in Israel, we were still obsessed with this land, and our place there.

On the bus to Jerusalem, I began to rise from my seat to see the landscape better. “Oh, this is your first time to Jerusalem,” said the passenger next to me.

I think in my early years, I believed Israel and the Lower East Side to be the same place.

I am a Diasporist culturally, but none of my close non-Jewish friends are fooled. Perhaps they even more than my Jewish friends know the real score. None ever wore kefiyahs, even when it was a raging fad. One friend actually apologized for saying something nice about Jimmy Carter. I hadn’t said anything or even made a face.

On the other hand, I have always met people who make a point of saying nasty things about Israel to me. Apparently, I am a Zionist complaint box.

What does it mean to be a Diasporist instead of a Zionist, if so many of the former are also supportive of Israel?

I think it is a symbiotic relationship, and that both can and should make the other expression of Jewish identity and community stronger. Supporting Birthright Israel is probably the most important single thing that those concerned with Diaspora “engagement” and “continuity” can do. A trip to the Jewish state is simply a better sell of Jewish civilization than anything else.

Robert Caro wrote that less than power corrupts, power reveals. The choices Israel makes says a lot about who we really are, and what we really stand for. We often focus on the external challenges Israel faces, and for good reason. But we should also look to Israel as the spiritual barometer of the Jewish people.