Epilogue: Summary, Discussion, and Looking Beyond

Abstract

The preceding chapters in this book contribute both individually and collectively to a much greater understanding of world Jewry, pulling together insights from demography, survey research, qualitative interviews, and cultural and historical analyses. Some use sophisticated multivariate analysis techniques to read between the numbers, so to speak. They all call our attention both to shared similarities on a number of levels and in a variety of social arenas, as well as to differences in varied environments, which sensitize us to a nuanced conceptualization of global Jewry. They reach into shared collective memories in Jewish history, while clearly presenting unique factors influencing the different contexts both through perception and through more concrete realities. They rise above the reporting of research to present thematically organized arguments of interpretation, using research to make their cases. Section 1 begins with more general overviews of Israel and the diaspora, and of Latin America and its relations with Israel. Two particular intersections of transnational unification—and divergence—follow: Section 2 focuses on Israeli emigrants in varying places in the diaspora, and Section 3 focuses on antisemitism and anti-Israelism—in particular the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement directed at contemporary Israel—as they manifest themselves in varied parts of the diaspora.