Editors Notes: A new generation of pioneers will redefine Israel

Earlier this week, I had a heart-to-heart conversation with a friend holding a crucial position in Israel’s Defense authorities.

As always, I tried to get information out of him about our fragile military situation, but I always got the same answer: No comment. But this time, and during such an intense week, I asked him to give me a positive note. Something that I may not be seeing from my very air-conditioned Jerusalemite office as a journalist.

“The biggest surprise of this war is the young generation of soldiers, officers, and agents,” he said. “This generation has been criticized and made fun of; we used to think the only thing they cared about was TikTok and hanging out in malls. 

But the truth is: They are incredible and essentially, our Dor Tashach,” the generation of 1948 or the generation of the War of Independence.

It refers to the generation that fought in the Israeli War of Independence in 1948 and established a Jewish State in the deserts of the Middle East after 2,000 years in exile and the Holocaust, the worst genocide against Jews in history. 

He further explained that these young individuals, men and women who have experienced the most demanding physical, psychological, and emotional events, will be the ones to rebuild Israel after this dreadful war is over. They will be our pioneers, creating a different paradigm for Israel internally.

Our first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, put it beautifully, “Israel has created a new image of the Jew in the world – the image of a working and an intellectual people, of a people that can fight with heroism.”

The 120 members of the Knesset who have been elected democratically are all irrelevant. Many of the top officials in our security forces are also a representation of the past, of October 6, not October 8. They all need to go. We need new intellectuals, new rabbis, new educators. Why? 

Because the groups that existed before October 7 aren’t and shouldn’t be relevant anymore. There are haredi Israelis who are yearning to serve in the IDF, especially since the October 7 massacre, but feel they cannot do so because of social pressure and the thought of being kicked out of their communities. Some right-wing voters think that the way the judicial reforms were promoted was wrong. 

There are secular Jews who have connected to Judaism, maybe for the first time, but don’t necessarily feel they have a place or a way to learn or practice this type of Judaism.

It's time to start fresh 

We need to refresh. Restart. Reinvent ourselves as a state. As a nation.

Imagine a time in Israel during the 1940s and 1950s, a period rich with change and filled with the echoes of a new beginning. This was when the 1948 Generation of writers emerged, also known as the “Generation in the Land” or the “Generation of the Palmah.”

These were not just any writers; they were a unique group of literary creators who were born in the 1910s and 1920s, the first generation to grow up and write in the Land of Israel. This setting gave their work a unique flavor, unlike anything seen before.

These writers found their voices in a land where Hebrew was their mother tongue, and they were immersed in a culture that was Jewish, secular, and national. Their writing reflected their new reality – a life independent of the old ways of their parents, who had emigrated from Europe.

The historical backdrop of their creativity is compelling. These writers urgently needed to capture the essence of their experiences and the tumultuous times they lived through. They wrote about the Holocaust, the struggle against the British, and the War of Independence. Their literature was a way to express their generation’s new, independent spirit, vastly different from their parents’ world.

This was a generation that, through its literature, told the story of a new Israel, which was finding its place and identity in the modern world.

What does Israel need to do? 

We need to create Generation of the Massacre, a new paradigm of what Israel is as a Jewish state. I’m not looking for a nation of people who agree on everything or display some phony unity but who break down barriers and build this country from scratch.

Another visionary from the generation era that established the State was Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine. He revolutionized Jewish thought by pioneering the integration of secular Zionism and traditional Jewish spirituality. Living during a time of significant upheaval and change, Rav Kook saw the Zionist movement as a political endeavor and a divine mission, stating, “The old will become new, and the new will become holy.” 

This vision allowed him to embrace secular Jews as essential partners in the unfolding redemption of the Jewish people, bridging a gap that had long divided the community. 

His holistic approach to Torah study, which blended traditional Halacha with Kabbalistic mysticism and philosophical inquiry, invited Jews to engage deeply and broadly with their faith, fostering a sense of personal connection and creativity in their spiritual lives.

If we come out of the October 7 crisis in the same place that we were before – divided and populist, only caring for our own community’s needs, whether that’s left, right, religious, not religious, minority groups, or whatever – it will reflect in our policies. We must shift our perspective from “What does my community need?” to “What does the nation need?” and seize this historic opportunity to change the country’s DNA fundamentally. Leaders have always emphasized what society needs; if we don’t adopt this outlook, we’ll fall apart internally. 

As seen on October 6, we were on the brink of civil war, with external adversaries like Iran sensing our internal divisions. 

After October 7, there was a brief moment of unity, but it quickly faded. Now, another opportunity must encompass civil, social, and educational reforms, including changing our textbooks and reassessing how we educate the next generation. 

If we don’t seize this moment to educate for a better future, we’ll revert to our old ways, and risk further trauma and division. Everyone is already traumatized and bitter from loss, and no one wants to fight anymore. 

The war isn’t over, and we must act now to avoid falling apart again.