Over the past decades the challenge to Jewish history and the future of the Jewish people has come into focus. The recently concluded conference in Wye Mills, Maryland has sharpened this focus into a clarity which can no longer be denied.
I. THE WYE MEMORANDUM IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
The challenge is the following: Within the continuing expansion of Israel the boundaries of Jewish life in Israel and the diaspora are being drawn. The Wye map of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Ariel Sharon, presented as their vision of the settlement of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, is actually the map of Israel and Jewish life on the …