except through biblical imagery. Zionism added the thought that we could be“like all other people” with a land we would call our own and in which we could do as we pleased.

Our century, with the Holocaust and various oppressions, brought a critical need for a permanent place of Jewish refuge, and the State of Israel has fulfilled that role. This has gained the support of Jews throughout the world. Many oppressed Jews have settled in Israel , but others have rejected it for a new Diaspora existence.

Our association with the Land of Israel, however, has al­ways been balanced by the idea of a people“chosen” for a broader mission in the world. The aspect of particularism that associated Jews and Judaism with the Land is countered by a universalism that seeks a role in the broader world and that represents an equally majestic dream. The Diaspora has been seen in this light—also as part of the Divine plan, which uses us and our life for a broader

purpose.

The prophets of Israel initially saw expulsion from the Land as Divine punishment but later understood it as part of God ’s plan, and therefore normative. God would resettle the people of Israel in our own land in the Messianic Age, but until this Divine interven­tion occurred we should live out our destiny scattered throughout the world.

Through the ages, economic forces and human inertia kept us in the lands where we had settled. This response began in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah(400 B.C.E.). They received permission for Jews to return to Israel and to rebuild the land as well as the Temple, but the vast majority decided to remain in Persia . In that early period the Temple continued to attract Jews to make pilgri­mages in the land; but later, when the Temple had been destroyed,’

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