Tablet Exchange: The Jewish World as the 5th Tribe
- 4 hours ago
- 2 min read
A few weeks ago, Eran Shayshon, founder of Atchalta, submitted an essay to Tablet magazine. As happens with any submission, an exchange developed between Eran and the magazine's editors, most notably Liel Leibovitz: notes, objections, rebuttals. Except this exchange kept evolving into a genuine intellectual debate, the kind you rarely see anymore.
Then something unusual happened: Tablet's editors decided the exchange was every bit as interesting as the essay itself, and in the finest tradition of Jewish disputation, they published the whole thing: the essay, together with the correspondence and the sparring around it.
Eran's argument in "The Fifth Tribe Is the Jewish World" goes like this: after October 7, for one brief moment, the entire Jewish world, in Israel and beyond, functioned as one people. Then the moment passed, and the polarization returned. Why? Because Israel has forgotten what it is. The old Zionist idea of "negating the Diaspora" has curdled over the years into something more dangerous - forgetting the Diaspora: Israel simply stopped knowing world Jewry. And when a state meant to be the nation-state of the Jewish people shrinks into a mere provider of services and security for its own citizens, the sense of shared destiny that binds Israelis together evaporates too. Jewish peoplehood isn't a sentimental add-on; it's a structural pillar of national resilience.
Tablet's Liel Leibovitz, who moves between the Jewish communities of Israel and America, wasn't buying it. In a sharp (and very witty) response, he argues that Israeli culture is overflowing with rich Jewish life, and that no amount of "peoplehood" will win back Diaspora Jews who are drifting away. What's needed, he says, is much simpler: help more Jews be Jewish - Torah, texts, tradition. Eran pushes back, sharpens his case, and concedes where Liel has a point, and the debate between the two becomes a fascinating document in its own right.
Our deep appreciation to the team at Tablet for being willing to hold this conversation out in the open, with seriousness and mutual respect. This is Jewish discourse at its best.