Optimistic vision of future

RON FRIEDMAN

For those who are concerned that Israel might one day cease to exist, here's some good news. Not only will it still exist, but, by the year 2020, it will have become a world technological leader, will have made peace with its neighbors and solved all of its internal problems.

This calming vision of the future is from Israeli author Zvi Bisk, in his most recent book, The Optimistic Jew.

Bisk is the director of the Centre for Strategic Futurist Thinking, which is based in Israel and provides research and consulting services for individuals, companies and organizations. According to Bisk, a futurist is one who tries to envision achievable, desirable futures and who formulates strategies by which we might achieve such futures. These can range from things like achieving business goals for the next year, to creating a 50-year working plan for sustaining human life on the moon. In his book, Bisk examines the past, present and future of the Jewish people.

The Optimistic Jew is divided into two parts. The first deals with where we are now and what brought us here and the second reveals a possible future.

In the first 150 pages, Bisk examines some of the major concerns of the Jewish world. He addresses topics like Israel-Diaspora relations, Israel's settlement policies, Arab-Jewish relations, Christian Zionism, Israeli culture and trends within Judaism. True to its title, the tone is very upbeat.

Bisk starts off by declaring Zionism triumphant. He writes, "The aims of classical Zionism were to create a Jewish state, concentrate a majority of the Jewish people within that state, integrate peacefully into the Middle East, achieve relative economic stability and build a model society." He reckons that, on most counts, we're already there.

Bisk, who was born in the United States and moved to Israel in his 20s, describes himself as a neo-Zionist. He writes that, while classical Zionism dealt with the physical and cultural society of the Jewish people, "Neo-Zionism must concern itself with the Jewish survival of the individual Jewish person." The way to achieve that, he thinks, is by giving up on the traditional preoccupation with self-sacrifice and focusing instead on self-actualization. He argues that in order for Israel to reach its full potential, it must encourage Israeli and Jewish young people to reach theirs: "Israel must become the tool of Jewish civilization not its aim. Jews do not exist for Israel, Israel exists for the Jews." By changing the focus of Zionism, Bisk argues, not only will we continue to survive, we will flourish.

The second half of the book is written from the imagined perspective of the year 2020. Bisk writes the developments of the intervening years as a history, in which the suggestions he makes today are accepted and carried to their logical conclusions. This technique has been used before for presenting utopian ideals and can be found in such books as Edward Bellamy's Looking Backwards, Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake and Theodor Herzl's Old New Land.

Bisk's prophecies include things like a reassertion of the Jewish Diaspora – an equal partnership between Israel and the Diaspora, which leads to a reverse in assimilation, renewed vigor in Jewish activities, demographic growth and religious pluralism.

Perhaps the most central part of Bisk's vision is something he calls the "Jewish Energy Project."

"Destroying the power of petroleum as an international commodity has benefited everyone, but especially the Jewish people," writes Bisk "from" the future. Aside from undermining the financing of international terror and hostile nuclear threats, it reshaped the world economy and saved the world from the threats of global warming.

Bisk argues that Jews more than anyone have reasons to pursue alternative energy sources and find ways to implement them. In his history, it all starts with a group of young Jews who chose to put their tikkun olam (repair of the world) perspective into action and help change the world – in the process, of which Bisk gives a detailed account, they make Israel a central hub of the new movement.

Overall, The Optimistic Jew is an enjoyable read. For those who love Israel, it provides hope in a usually sombre debate. It pays tribute to our cherished traditions of old and makes them relevant to a new generation in a new millennium. Mostly, it opens a path to combining our aspirations for Israel with our personal ambition. It may seem naive or idealistic, but this is not a book for cynics. Nor is it a book for people who are convinced that they have all the answers when it comes to Israel. Parts of the book may be difficult, because they fly in the face of much of traditional Zionism – indeed, one of its main aims is the reinvention of Zionism to fit a new global reality.

The Optimistic Jew is targeted for young non-Orthodox, university-educated Jews, "Jews looking for reasons to be ambitious about their Jewish identity but not finding reasons to do so." Mostly, it's meant for those who care about the Jewish identity of the future and the future of the state of Israel.

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