Reactions of Jewish students to the Yom Kippur War

Abstract

Under the pressure of the Arab oil producing countries Israel's isolation, both diplomatically and politically, has reached an unprecedented low point. The relationship between Israel and world Jewry has, in the circumstances, assumed a new urgency. To what extent has the Yom Kippur War of 1973 strengthened this relationship? How did the response of Jewish students outside Israel, and of Jewish youth in general, compare with the response to the Six-Day War of 1967 with its great wave of a re-awakened national consciousness even among circles which hitherto have shown little interest in the fate of Israel? How have the intervening years affected their thinking and attitudes? These are some of the questions dealt with in the following study, based on a paper delivered by the author, a research student in the sociology department of the London School of Economics, at a conference in December, 1973, sponsored by the Institute of Contemporary Jewry of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. A shorter version appea...