Free Stars of David by Abigail Pogrebin

Cole has spent the last decade exploring his heritage, he hasn’t wanted his Jewishness to classify him. “I rarely accept invitations to speak or make an appearance somewhere because I’m Jewish. I just haven’t done that. I’ve accepted invitations because of what I do and why. And the fact is I’m a Jewish person doing it, for which I’m proud, but I’m reluctant to make the case that the reason I’m doing it is because I’m Jewish.”
    Is he comfortable being an emblem of success for “The Jews” in general? “I’ve been uncomfortable doing that,” he acknowledges. “I don’t know if the success I’ve had (to the degree you call it that) is because I’m Jewish, or despite the fact. Also, it doesn’t feel right for anyone to just assume that mantle. One should keep in mind that if they do choose that course, they might at one point stumble, or even worse, fall (maybe to get up again or maybe not), and then what?” He then qualifies this: “I’m certainly not quiet about being Jewish.”
    Ever since his third trip to Israel, however, he has been “coming out”—or inching out—as a Zionist. In 2002 he returned with his brother-in-law, Andrew Cuomo. “It was a day after the Passover massacre [when nineteen Israelis were gunned down at a communal seder], and I got a call from Andrew, who was running for governor of New York. He said, ‘Let’s go to Israel tomorrow.’ Just when the State Department was putting out an announcement saying that all unnecessary government officials should return home and a warning to all Americans to stay away.”
    Cole says the people close to him told him not to go. “
Nobody
was supportive of this trip,” he says. “They said, ‘Andrew has to go, it’s good for him politically, but you’re a lunatic, you’re out of your mind, who do you think you are?’ But I thought this was an important time and that the effort we could make at that moment would have so much more significance than the same gesture made at another time. Israel’s existence seemed as much in jeopardy as it had ever been; there was this little island of about five million Jews amongst a nation of six million people, surrounded by over a billion Muslims in the world, many of whom were united by a single common goal: the annihilation of the state of Israel and the Jewish people.
    â€œWhat is frighteningly noteworthy is that somehow over the last several years, Israel, in the world’s eye, has gone from being viewed as the vulnerable David to the intrusive and aggressive Goliath. Upon our arrival in Tel Aviv, I should add, beyond even our greatest expectations, we were embraced and given access typically reserved for heads of state.”
    It appears Cole has gone from dipping a toe into Israeli politics to an ankle-high commitment. “It can’t be just about writing checks,” he clarifies. “I wouldn’t join a club once because part of the ritual was that every year you had to make a contribution to the UJA. Not that I didn’t support them, I did, but I didn’t feel that it should be an obligation. And I believe sometimes that just writing a check (although often necessary) is too easy, and is often the course of least resistance. There are so many resources we all have that can yield much more value.
    â€œI do believe strongly in many fundamental Jewish principles: the importance of
tzedakah
[charity], for instance, which we are taught is an obligation and a responsibility, and learn later is actually a blessing and a privilege. And
tikkun olam
[healing or repairing the world], which means that our job on this planet is to finish the process of creation; God gave us what’s here and our job is to finish it in a morally just way. But I don’t necessarily believe that one has to do it with a yarmulke on.”
    He uses his