For Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, this year’s UN General Assembly meeting, which he is due to address on Monday, is the equivalent of his own debut diplomatic ball.

This event, this “ball” is so important that Bennett attends even if it means spending a religious holiday (Shmini Atzeret / Simchat Torah) abroad – which prime ministers rarely do – and away from his family. Bennett is due to return to Israel on Wednesday, Yom Tov (public holiday) for Jews living in the diaspora, but not for Jews living in Israel.

Bennett should take the opportunity to be in New York not only to introduce himself to diplomats around the world and the international community – he has meetings scheduled with UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the US Ambassador – United with the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield – but also to do maintenance work on the bridges with the American Jewish community, bridges whose foundations are showing more and more cracks.

The Prime Minister is acting wisely by setting aside time for Monday to meet with leaders of the Jewish community at an event hosted by the Jewish Federations of North America. But he should do even more – he should visit the synagogues in the evening or the next day, in Shmini Atzeret.

And not only should he pray in a local Orthodox synagogue, like Kehilath Jeshurun ​​in Manhattan where he attended when he lived in New York in the early 2000s and where his wife became more comfortable and settled. familiar with a religious lifestyle thanks to his “beginner’s minyan”, but he should also visit a conservative or reformed synagogue.

Bennett doesn’t have to fear Haredi wrath, as he’s already incurred it and has nothing to lose – Degel Hatorah and Shas aren’t exactly lining up to join his government. Such a visit by the Prime Minister to the synagogue would send a symbolic message that Israel views Jews of all faiths as equal brothers and sisters whose way of life is respected and whose support is important, valued and not held to be. acquired.

The Bennett-Lapid government came to power saying that one of the things it wanted to change was the country’s relationship with the Diaspora, especially with unorthodox branches of Judaism.

He has made establishing an accessible and visible prayer space at the Western Wall for non-Orthodox branches of Judaism one of his top priorities. This problem plagued relations between Israel and the leadership of the conservative and reformist movements after Netanyahu – under pressure from Haredi parties – in 2017 backed down from a plan to create such a space.

AMERICAN RABBIES of the Reform and Conservative movements hold a group prayer near the Western Wall in Jerusalem. (credit: JIM HOLLANDER / REUTERS)

It is one thing to appoint Nachman Shai as Minister of Diaspora Affairs in an attempt to resolve issues with these communities, and quite another for the Prime Minister to go to a Conservative or Reform synagogue in New York. .

Such a visit, even if it would infuriate the Haredi parties, would send the message that the government will not give in to this anger and want the state – like the coalition itself – to be a comfortable space for all Jews, including the Conservatives and Reformers. those. If the Haredim are not part of the coalition, it is because of their own allegiance to Netanyahu, not because Bennett wanted to prevent them from entering.

There would be more for Bennett to visit a Conservative or Reform synagogue than “just” trying to make Reform and Conservative Jews again feel more comfortable with Israel – a noble goal in itself. Against the backdrop of the anti-Israel noise generated by a small number of vocal representatives in Congress, it also makes political sense for Bennett to make this type of gesture.

Progressives who are anti-Israel often hide from the unfortunate fact that among those most critical of Israel and Zionism are American Jews. Anti-Israel progressives often whitewash their virulent anti-Zionism, and even their anti-Semitism, by saying, “Don’t blame us, the Jews are saying the same thing.

Endless articles claiming, and several polls showing, that American Jews – especially young Jews – are moving away from Israel only lend support to this narrative. Why should Congress support Israel, the argument goes, if so many American Jews don’t?

American Jews who no longer feel an affinity with Israel, or solidarity with the Jews who live there, have not lost those feelings because Israel did not implement the Western Wall compromise plan, or because it does not formally recognize conservative or reformed Judaism. . They might not like it, but that is not the reason for their alienation.

The real reasons for this alienation lie in a lack of Jewish identity, in the desire to identify with and be accepted by the hard left and the progressives of social justice who have made Israel a monster of the apartheid, and – among some – in a real disgust at Israeli politics.

While the lack of acceptance of their mainstream Judaism may not be the reason for their alienation, for some it is a practical cover. It is more comfortable to say “I no longer support Israel because it does not accept my brand of Judaism,” then “I no longer support Israel because I feel nothing at all for my Israeli brothers and find the idea. even one declaring it to be a racist and loathsome idea. It is a practical mask.

A visit by Bennett to a Conservative or Reform synagogue would help tear off that mask. A visit by an Israeli religious prime minister to a liberal synagogue in Shmini Atzeret will say in deed, not just in words: “We accept you, we want you, we need you.

Such a visit will not solve the problem of Israel’s alienation among a band of American Jews, just as the establishment of an egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall will not stop this estrangement. What it will do, however, is tangibly demonstrate that Israel now wants to be a more inclusive place for Jews, regardless of how they pray and who they count in a minyan.