Bulletin: Americans Jews and Israel

Books

• Lawrence J. Epstein, Americans and the Birth of Israel

Articles

• Yehonatan Abramson, Making a Homeland, Constructing a Diaspora: The Case of Taglit-Birthright Israel
• Mordechai Inbari, Jewish and Israeli Pilgrimage Experience: Constructing National Identity
• Shaul Kelner, Israel, the Sociology of American Judaism and the Problematics of Sovereignty
• Stephen W. Litvin and Jill Alison Schancupp, American Jewish Youth’s Attachment to Israel: Implications for Israeli Tourism

Reviews

• Zev Eleff, on Emily Alice Katz’s Bringing Zion Home
• Ari Y. Kelman, on Dov Waxman’s Trouble in the Tribe
• Eli Lederhendler, on Jonathan Rynhold’s The Arab Israeli Conflict in American Political Culture, Theodore Sasson’s The New American Zionism, and Dov Waxman’s Trouble in the Tribe
• Michael Rubner, on Dov Waxman’s Trouble in the Tribe
• Sarah M. Tauber, on Emily Alice Katz’s Bringing Zion Home

New Book: Kreiger, The Dead Sea and the Jordan River

Kreiger, Barbara. The Dead Sea and the Jordan River. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2016.

 

 

For centuries travelers have been drawn to the stunning and mysterious Dead Sea and Jordan River, a region which is unlike any other on earth in its religious and historical significance. In this exceptionally engaging and readable book, Barbara Kreiger chronicles the natural and human history of these storied bodies of water, drawing on accounts by travelers, pilgrims, and explorers from ancient times to the present. She conveys the blend of spiritual, touristic, and scientific motivations that have driven exploration and describes the modern exploitation of the lake and the surrounding area through mineral extraction and agriculture. Today, both lake and river are in crisis, and stewardship of these water resources is bound up with political conflicts in the region. The Dead Sea and the Jordan River combines history, literature, travelogue, and natural history in a way that makes it hard to put down.

 

Table of Contents

• Part I. This Strange Water
  1. Some Early History, Travellers, Myths
• Part II. Nineteenth-Century Exploration
  2. Three Sailors, and a River
  3. Along the Briny Strand
• Part III. Origins and Evolution
  4. The Life of a Lake
• Part IV. Further Exploration
  5. Gentleman from Siberia
  6. A Lake Divided
• Part V. The Twenty-First Century
  7. The River and Lake in Distress
  8. Reclamation, and a Vision of the Future
• Afterword

 

BARBARA KREIGER is Creative Writing Concentration Chair and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program at Dartmouth College. Her other publications include Divine Expectations: An American Woman in Nineteenth-Century Palestine. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Smithsonian Magazine, and other publications.

New Book: Feldman, A Jewish Guide in the Holy Land

Feldman, Jackie. A Jewish Guide in the Holy Land. How Christian Pilgrims Made Me Israeli. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2016.

 

 

For many Evangelical Christians, a trip to the Holy Land is an integral part of practicing their faith. Arriving in groups, most of these pilgrims are guided by Jewish Israeli tour guides. For more than three decades, Jackie Feldman—born into an Orthodox Jewish family in New York, now an Israeli citizen, scholar, and licensed guide—has been leading tours, interpreting Biblical landscapes, and fielding questions about religion and current politics. In this book, he draws on pilgrimage and tourism studies, his own experiences, and interviews with other guides, Palestinian drivers and travel agents, and Christian pastors to examine the complex interactions through which guides and tourists “co-produce” the Bible Land. He uncovers the implicit politics of travel brochures and religious souvenirs. Feldman asks what it means when Jewish-Israeli guides get caught up in their own performances or participate in Christian rituals, and reflects on how his interactions with Christian tourists have changed his understanding of himself and his views of religion.

 

Table of Contents

• 1. How Guiding Christians Made Me Israeli
• 2. Guided Holy Land Pilgrimage—Sharing the Road
• 3. Opening Their Eyes: Performance of a Shared Protestant-Israeli Bible Land
• 4. Christianizing the Conflict: Bethlehem and the Separation Wall
• 5. The Goods of Pilgrimage: Tips, Souvenirs, and the Moralities of Exchange
• 6. The Seductions of Guiding Christians
• 7. Conclusions: Pilgrimage, Performance, and the Suspension of Disbelief

 

JACKIE FELDMAN a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He is author of Above the Death Pits, Beneath the Flag: Youth Voyages to Poland and the Performance of Israeli National Identity. He has been a licensed tour guide in Jerusalem for over three decades.

 

 

 

New Article: Meydani, Tour Guides Policy: Law or Political Culture?

Meydani, Assaf.”Tour Guides Policy: Law or Political Culture? The Case of Pilgrims in the Holy Land.” International Journal of Public Law and Policy 5.3 (2016).

 
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/IJPLAP.2015.075028

 
Abstract

The role of tour guides has not been widely discussed in the literature, and neither has the policy that governs the place of tour guides in relation to the pilgrimage in the Holy Land. The Israeli Supreme Court (1987) has enabled pilgrims to guide without a licence, in clear opposition to the position of the Israeli Tour Guides’ Association. This led to a public ‘storm’, as a result of the tension between law, tourism, religion and state. It seems that the pilgrims’ debate is not over yet in Israel. This paper will try to analyse the court decision within a neo-institutionalism approach emphasising non-governability and alternative political culture as explanatory variables.

 

 

 

Conference Paper: Andits, Israeli Activists Narrate Conflict Zone Tourism

Andits, Petra. “‘Whose Conflict Is It Anyway?!’ – Israeli Activists Narrate Conflict Zone Tourism in Palestine.”3rd ISA Forum of Sociology, July 13, 2016).
 
URL: https://isaconf.confex.com/isaconf/forum2016/webprogram/Paper83101.html
 
Abstract

Several Palestinian villages are sites for weekly non-violent protests which are regularly visited by both Israeli activist and foreign tourists/activists. While these protests are intended to be non-violent, military actions, such as arrest, tear gas, rubber coated bullets and live ammunition are commonplace. Based on ethnographic research, this paper investigates the perception Israeli solidarity activists hold about foreign protesters. Some Israelis see them as justice tourists who could potentially play an important part in achieving justice and respect for human rights in Palestine. Others however, take a more cynical view and regard them as conflict-zone or dark tourists, who are fascinated with danger, and participate in the protests for indulging in a thrill. More specifically, I examine the emotional interactions between the Israeli and foreign activists and look at the ways in which specific emotions such as suspicion, anger or care towards the foreigners play out in an already tense and emotionally loaded space. Considering emotions and affects experienced and performed during the protests facilitates a more critical understanding of danger-zone and justice tourism and advocates the emotional turn in tourism studies. In addition, I also offer a so far missing academic critic about the seeming virtues and effectiveness of justice tourism by investigating the ways in which peace-building and tourism are interconnected. The major originality of this paper is attempt for a cross-fertilization between studies on conflict and peace, emotions, social movements and tourism.

 

 

 

New Article: Vyas et al, Differences in Travel Behavior Across Population Sectors in Jerusalem

Vyas, Gaurav, Christina Bernardo, Peter Vovsha, Danny Givon, Yehoshua Birotker, Eitan Bluer, and Amir Mossek. “Differences in Travel Behavior Across Population Sectors in Jerusalem, Israel.” Transportation Research Record 2495(2016).

 

URL: http://trrjournalonline.trb.org/doi/abs/10.3141/2495-07

 

Abstract

The population of Jerusalem, Israel, can be divided into three distinct ethnic sectors: secular Jewish, ultra-Orthodox Jewish, and Arab. Not only do these population sectors tend to inhabit and work in different areas of the city, but they each have unique household structures, activity patterns, mobility tendencies, and, ultimately, travel behavior. These substantial variations in behavior, largely driven by differences in culture and lifestyle that are not captured by other personal characteristics, are essential to representing travel behavior in the Jerusalem travel model. In this paper, sector differences were traced through the activity-based travel demand model framework by using the 2010 Jerusalem Household Travel Survey. Significant variations in behavior were seen both in direct relation to the population sector and in interactions with other socioeconomic and demographic characteristics such as income and gender. This is the first known travel demand model in practice to incorporate ethnic differences so extensively in its application.

 

 

 

New Article: Collins-Kreiner and Kliot, Particularism vs. Universalism in Hiking Tourism

Collins-Kreiner, Noga, and Nurit Kliot. “Particularism vs. Universalism in Hiking Tourism.” Annals of Tourism Research 56 (2016): 132-137.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2015.10.007

 

Highlights

• “Particularism vs. universalism” adds a useful dimension to the tourism and leisure of hiking.
• Hiking is composed of two different systems: universalistic and particularistic.
• The dominant features of hiking the Israel National Trail are ‘communitas’, and ‘place attachment’.
• The varied multi-dimensional aspects of hiking could be located on a scale.

 

 

 

Dissertation: Aronson, Ripple Effects of Taglit-Birthright Israel on Parents of Participants

Aronson, Janet Krasner. Leveraging Social Networks to Create Social Change: Ripple Effects of Taglit-Birthright Israel on Parents of Participants, PhD thesis, Brandeis University, 2015.

 

URL: http://search.proquest.com/docview/1729173165

 

Abstract

In the present accountability-oriented policy environment, funding and replication of educational and public health programs are contingent upon evidence-based evaluations and demonstrable outcomes. In many cases, resource constraints preclude the delivery of interventions to all potential beneficiaries. It is possible, however, for program reach to be extended through consideration of the effects of the program on secondary groups in the social networks of the targeted population. Using a single case of a targeted educational program, this dissertation examines methodological issues in the explicit identification and measurement of such effects, referred to here as “ripple effects” and defined as the dissemination of indirect outcomes of a program through the social network ties of targeted individuals. Specifically, the study assesses the impact of the Taglit-Birthright Israel travel program for Jewish young adults on connections to Israel among parents of participants.

This three-paper dissertation utilizes a mixed-method approach, drawing on semistructured interviews as well as pre- and post-trip surveys of parents conducted between November 2013 and May 2014. The first paper describes the theoretical social network framework within which ripple effects operate and recommends methods to incorporate the measurement of ripple effects in program evaluation. The second paper utilizes a framework of emerging adulthood and focuses on the process of persuasion through which emerging adults influence the views of their parents. This paper concludes that changes in the parent attitudes appear to result from the persuasive efforts of their children. The last paper shows that, for Jewish parents, the primary impact of Taglit is on increased interest in visits to Israel and reduced concern about the safety of Israel travel. The effect of the program was most pronounced for parents who had never been to Israel themselves.

Policy implications of this research include findings specific to Taglit as well as to other programmatic interventions in education and public health. Evidence of ripple effects on secondary groups can lead to the design of programs to maximize and capture those effects. By ignoring these indirect effects, the actual effects of programs might be underestimated.

 

 

New Article: Cohen and Ram, Tourism is not only the vector of biological invasion but also the victim

Cohen, Oded, and Yael Ram. “Tourism is not only the vector of biological invasion but also the victim: Evidence from Israel.” Tourism Recreation Research (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2015.1086130

 

Excerpt

Using the case of Israel, We shall attempt to show that tourism is the victim of biological invasion rather than its vector. The choice of Israel is purposive because it is situated on the crossroads of three continents (Asia, Africa and Europe) and has been the epicenter of human mobility for thousands of years, and thus it became the habitat of many alien species. The worst cases of biological invasion in Israel concerning species that were introduced via land/ocean use changes were intentionally introduced for ecological purposes (e.g. dune stabilization) or accidentally introduced via infested shipments.

 

 

 

New Article: Kreiner et al, Understanding Conflicts at Religious-Tourism Sites: The Baha’i World Center, Israel

Kreiner, Noga Collins, Deborah F. Shmueli, and Michal Ben Gal. “Understanding Conflicts at Religious-Tourism Sites: The Baha’i World Center, Israel.” Tourism Management Perspectives 16 (2015): 228-36.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2015.04.001 [PDF]

 

Abstract

This article analyzes a conflict stemming from the construction of a religious-tourism site —The Baha’i World Center, in Haifa, Israel and contributes to the literature on the relationship between religion, tourism, and conflict. We first propose a framing typology based on literature of conflicts, as well as analysis of empirical data, using Grounded Theory. We then apply the typology on the conflict around the construction of the Baha’i World Center in Haifa. Our main findings fall under three main themes, or super-frames: ‘Process,’ ‘Values,’ and ‘Issues’ — of which the ‘Process super-frame’ was found to have the dominant role in the Baha’i case study. Beyond that, we offer a method that may be useful in understanding the conflicts stemming from the construction of tourism at religious-tourism sites elsewhere and, at times, shed light on possible approaches to reframing disputes over tourism sites.

 

 

New Article: Alon-Mozes, National Parks for a Multicultural Society

Alon-Mozes, Tal. “National Parks for a Multicultural Society: Planning Israel’s Past and Present National Parks.” In Landscape Culture – Culturing Landscapes: The Differentiated Construction of Landscapes (ed. Diedrich Burns et al; Wiesbaden: Springer, 2015): 173-83.

 

 

Extract

Both case studies demonstrate the power of the landscape as an agent fostering first national and later communal identity. Early planning of Gan HaShlosha and Zippori national parks emphasized the role of the biblical/Hellenistic pastoral landscape in reinforcing a common national identity among the Jewish settlers of Israel. Consequently, the Palestinians’ past was erased from Zippori grounds, as in other places in Israel, and their narrative was silenced.

Due to the failure of the melting pot policy and the emergence of Israel as a multicultural society, contemporary Israeli national parks are designed and managed in order to address the needs of various communities of visitors, and not solely the hegemonic ones. The new clientele includes veteran Jews and new immigrants, various Jewish ethnic groups, ultra-orthodox Jews, Christian pilgrims, and the Palestinians Currently, panning strives to increase the profitability of the parks by recruiting new communities, by enabling mass gatherings and communal cultural events, and by mitigating conflicts among participants. Various stakeholders promote parallel narratives within and surrounding the parks, advancing the parcelization of the area based on time or space zones. Within this relatively enabling system, even the Palestinian narrative of Zippori is marked on the land, in spite of objections based on nationalistic considerations.

 

 

New Article: Schnell et al, Entrepreneurship in the Periphery and Local Growth: The Case of Northern Israel

Schnell, Izhak, Zeev Greenberg, Sara Arnon, and Shmuel Shamai. “Entrepreneurship in the Periphery and Local Growth: The Case of Northern Israel.” GeoJournal (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10708-015-9676-9

 

Abstract

Entrepreneurship in the northern periphery in Israel should be viewed as a response to the crisis in rural agriculture during the 1980’s. Most entrepreneurs left their farms for salaried employment for a few years and they took professional courses in order to learn necessary skills before they opened their enterprises. They have developed new small entreprizes using local resources at times informally as means to reduce risks and they specialize mainly in internal tourism and construction related branches. While Jewish entrepreneurs develop mainly tourism activities oriented toward the national market, Arab entrepreneurs develop mainly construction related branches to local and home regional markets. Both represent two styles of peripheral activities. It seems that both styles has only limited potential to overcome their marginality.

 

 

New Article: Ghermandi et al, Jellyfish Impacts on Recreation in the Mediterranean: A Socioeconomic Pilot Survey in Israel

Ghermandi, Andrea, Bella Galil, John Gowdy, and Paulo A.L.D. Nunes. “Jellyfish Outbreak Impacts on Recreation in the Mediterranean Sea: Welfare Estimates from a Socioeconomic Pilot Survey in Israel.” Ecosystem Services 11 (2015): 140-147.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2014.12.004

 

Abstract

Jellyfish outbreaks in the Mediterranean Sea are part of an anthropogenic alteration of the marine ecosystem and have been documented as health hazards and threats to tourism. Their impacts on human welfare have, however, been poorly quantified. A socioeconomic survey, carried out in summer 2013, captures the impacts of an outbreak of Rhopilema nomadica on seaside recreation in Israel. Welfare losses are estimated based on per-visit value and expected change in visits patterns. We estimate that an outbreak reduces the number of seaside visits by 3–10.5%, with an annual monetary loss of €1.8–6.2 million. An additional 41% of the respondents state that their recreational activities on the beach are affected by the outbreak. Through a contingent valuation, we find that 56% of the respondents state a willingness to contribute to a national environmental protection program with an estimated annual benefit of €14.8 million. These figures signal an opportunity to invest in public information systems. A pilot study for adaptation was conducted in Barcelona, whose results confirm the importance of the welfare benefits of real-time public information systems. This study provides a benchmark against which the economic impacts of jellyfish outbreaks on coastal recreation and potential adaptation policies can be evaluated.

New Article: Mansfeld and Korman, Conflict Heritage Tourism along Three Israeli Border Areas

Mansfeld, Yoel and Tally Korman. “Between War and peace: Conflict Heritage Tourism along Three Israeli Border Areas.” Tourism Geographies 17.3 (2015): 437-60.
 
 
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2015.1036916
 
 
Abstract

The construction and evolutionary processes of conflict-heritage tourism sites in border areas in transition between war and peace can be understood through a comprehensive study of the functional, spatial, political and tourism processes along three border areas between Israel and its neighbors. Using a qualitative approach, conflict-heritage sites are shown to represent a relatively large component within the overall tourism supply in the studied border areas. The essence of this type of tourism site is an outcome of equilibrium between actual historical locations of conflicts along the border, their cultural-national importance, their perceived level of security, and their proximity to the borderline. The pace of development of such sites is relatively slow and incorporates their tourism opportunities as well as the physical-social-security challenges faced by tourism stakeholders in those areas. The developmental character of such sites depends primarily on security, economic and planning factors. Based on the Israeli study, it can be concluded that the development of a larger variety of conflict-heritage sites in border areas requires a distance from the frontier, as a result of the security-political situation. In addition, the more time passes since the last conflict in that area, the more sites will be developed, offering complementary tourism activities, often functionally connected to other types of tourism in such areas. Lastly, the study supported the postulate that conflict-heritage attractions do not disappear – but they change only slightly in terms of function when the security situation in those areas calms down. Based on the above insights, the paper proposes further research to better understand processes of heritage tourism development in dynamic border areas.

 

New Article: Singh and Krakover, Israeli Domestic Tourism

Singh, Shalini and Shaul Krakover, “Tourist Experience at Home – Israeli Domestic Tourism.” Tourism Management 46 (2015): 59-61.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2014.06.007

 

Abstract

Having engaged with domestic tourism, scholars have reported resident’s reluctance in admitting to being tourists in their home country. This research note is intended to report an exploratory study on Israeli holidaymakers, which was undertaken to understand citizens’ sense of being a tourist in Israel. The findings reveal that while the participants did not perceive themselves as tourists in their ‘own’ country, they admitted to feeling like tourists in specific circumstances encountered during their domestic travels.

ToC: Journal of Jewish Education 81.2 (2015): special issue on Israel Education (Part 2)

Journal of Jewish Education, Volume 81, Issue 2, April-June 2015 is now available online is now available online on Taylor & Francis Online. Special Issue: Israel Education, Part II This new issue contains the following articles: Editor’s Note Approaching Israel Education: New Agendas Helena Miller Pages: 97-100 Articles What’s in a Name? In Pursuit of Israel Education Shlomit Attias Pages: 101-135 Mature Zionism: Education and the Scholarly Study of Israel Hanan A. Alexander Pages: 136-161 Harnessing Teacher Potential as Israel Education Curriculum Developers Meredith Katz Pages: 162-188 The Educational Mission of the Shaliach: A Case Study in Australia Yosef Aharonov Pages: 189-211 Educational Travel to Israel in the Era of Globalization Elan Ezrachi Pages: 212-225 Book Reviews Erik H. Cohen, Identity and Pedagogy: Shoah Education in Israeli State Schools (Academic Studies Press, Brighton, MA, 2013) Daniel Osborn Pages: 226-230 Jack Schneider, From the Ivory Tower to the Schoolhouse: How Scholarship Becomes Common Knowledge in Education (Harvard Education Press, Cambridge, MA, 2014) Miriam Heller Stern Pages: 231-235

Lecture: Hilton, Patterns of Bar and Bat Mitzvah in Israel (Manchester, March 5, 2015)

The Zigzag Kid: Patterns of Bar and Bat Mitzvah in Israel

Rabbi Michael Hilton (Leo Baeck College, London)

4pm on Thu 5 March in A113, Samuel Alexander Building (Building 67 on the campus map, see directions).

ABSTRACT: Bat Mitzvah in Israel has been in the news with the first public ceremony for a girl with a Torah at the Kotel (the Western Wall). This talk will concentrate on trends in bar/bat mitzvah throughout Israel’s history, including ceremonies for visitors to Israel, and will link these with the history of the whole ceremony.SPEAKER: Michael Hilton has been Rabbi of Kol Chai Hatch End Reform Jewish Community since 2001 and has recently brought out Bar Mitzvah: A History, the first full study in English on the origin and development of both the bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies. Michael is an Honorary Research Fellow of CJS and a Lecturer and Governor, Leo Baeck College, London

Further information about the Israel Studies research seminar programme and other Jewish Studies events at the University.

New Article: Kohn and Cohen-Hattab, Tourism Posters in the Yishuv Era

Kohn, Ayelet and Kobi Cohen-Hattab. “Tourism Posters in the Yishuv Era: Between Zionist Ideology and Commercial Language.” Journal of Israeli History (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13531042.2015.1005858

 

Abstract

This study examines the complex national messages conveyed, both verbally and visually, in Zionist commercial advertisement posters produced in the Yishuv during the 1930s and 1940s. It focuses on posters promoting tourism and vacationing in Palestine, representing the growing perception of the country as an attractive destination for modern tourism that is not only religiously motivated. The posters are examined as historical documents that shed light on the ways in which the foundations of tourism in the country were laid and imbued with ideological meaning through the verbal and visual language of the posters. The article seeks to contribute to the study of Zionist visual culture in the Yishuv era by employing an interdisciplinary approach that combines textual-linguistic and contextual-historical analysis.

New Article: Avni, Homeland Tour Guide Narratives and the Discursive Construction of the Diasporic

Avni, Sharon. “Homeland Tour Guide Narratives and the Discursive Construction of the Diasporic.” Narrative Inquiry 23.2 (2013): 227-44.

 

URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/jbp/nari/2013/00000023/00000002/art00001

 

Abstract

By analyzing the constitutive role of tour guides narratives, this article addresses the recruitment of tourism as a means of forging transnational ties between diasporans and their ethnic homeland. Combining theoretical frameworks from linguistic anthropology and the sociology of tourism, it examines the narratives told to American Jewish youth at three graves at a military cemetery in Israel and analyzes the discursive, linguistic, and rhetorical strategies in the narratives, including stancetaking, reported speech, and pronominal usage. Attending to the growing phenomenon of diaspora homeland tourism, it analyzes how tour guide narratives about the past work as a form of social action in constituting present day transnational identifications.

New Book: Sasson, The New American Zionism

Sasson, Theodore. The New American Zionism. New York: New York University Press, 2013.

 

Click here for Table of Contents.

Is American Jewish support for Israel waning?

As a mobilized diaspora, American Jews played a key role in the establishment and early survival of the modern state of Israel. They created a centralized framework to raise funds, and a powerful, consensusoriented political lobby to promote strong U.S. diplomatic, military, and economic support. But now, as federation fundraising declines and sharp differences over the Israeli-Palestinian peace process divide the community, many fear that American Jews are distancing themselves from Israel.

In The New American Zionism, Theodore Sasson argues that at the core, we are fundamentally misunderstanding the new relationship between American Jews and Israel. Sasson shows that we are in the midst of a shift from a “mobilization” approach, which first emerged with the new state and focused on supporting Israel through big, centralized organizations, to an “engagement” approach marked by direct and personal relations with the Jewish state as growing numbers of American Jews travel to Israel, consume Israeli news and culture, and connect with their Israeli peers via cyberspace and through formal exchange programs.

American Jews have not abandoned their support for Israel, Sasson contends, but they now focus their philanthropy and lobbying in line with their own political viewpoints for the region and they reach out directly to players in Israel, rather than going through centralized institutions. As a result, American Jews may find Israel more personally meaningful than ever before. Yet, at the same time, their ability to impact policy will diminish as they no longer speak with a unified voice.