Why Israelis Are So Happy

by Gil Troy
April 10, 2024

Original posting on Wall Street Journal

Amid domestic division and war, our families and community give us a sense of purpose.

You might have seen reports that America has fallen out of the top 20 countries on the 2024 World Happiness Index. They probably didn't mention that Israel finished fifth, behind Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Sweden.

Don't confuse "happiness" with "comfort" or "self-indulgence." Israelis began 2023 polarized politically - only to be united by Hamas's invasion. Amid unspeakable suffering, Israelis have found comfort in one another and a higher calling. Too many Americans feel lonely and lost.

Israelis pursue happiness through family and community, by feeling rooted and having a sense of purpose. My son Yoni got married in Jerusalem midwar, while serving in the military reserves. He notes that "Israelis grow up with many outside influences, many adult role models, not just their parents. It starts with our large weddings, when you're blessed to 'build a faithful home in Israel.' "

That dance between the individual and the collective begins long before birth. It spawns Israelis' high levels of "trust, benevolence, and social connections," which, as the 2023 happiness report emphasized, nurture "well-being," even "in times of crisis." Alexis de Tocqueville called families the backbone of healthy democracies. Family inculcates loyalty, commitment and self-sacrifice. Belonging to communities - extended families - teaches citizens to care about and cooperate with others.

Despite disagreeing passionately, Israelis live in an intimate society that runs on trust and generates hope. Israelis feel they're never alone, and that their relatives and friends will never abandon them.

Living in what Zionism's founder, Theodor Herzl, called Altneuland, old-new land, Israelis don't count in days and decades but in millennia and eternity. They feel part of a bigger story, Jews' historical saga reaching back 3,500 years. The pain punctuating this story helps transcend passing traumas. Even as most Israelis experienced Hamas's Oct. 7 killing spree as a Jewish event, powered by centuries of Jew-hatred, Israelis recall many redemptive moments too. Israelis' favorite holidays, including Hanukkah, Passover, and Independence Day, re-enact this reassuring oppression-to-liberation arc.

Compare anti-Israel progressive students with their Israeli soldier peers. Many protesters are the avatars of America's lost generation. Their pinched ideology deems the U.S. systemically racist and is intent on sorting everyone by "gender identity" and skin color. Rather than optimistically expand America's economy for all, they pessimistically compete for reparations and indulgences - their "restorative justice" is often more vengeful than just.

These illiberal liberals trash traditional families, religion and America's noble story of a flawed nation becoming "a more perfect union." These campus commissars are among the unhappy Americans the surgeon general sees in the depths of loneliness and despair.

Israelis didn't seek this war - but when attacked, they unleashed a patriotism, idealism, self-sacrifice and grit that today's regressive progressives scorn. Israelis' resilience, duty and love of life explain how this often polarized and besieged society remains such a happy place. Rather than demonize these heroes, protesters could learn from Israelis about the art of living - not only for their sake but for America's too.

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Mr. Troy is an American presidential historian and senior fellow in Zionist thought at the Jewish People Policy Institute. He is the editor of the new three-volume set "Theodor Herzl: Zionist Writings."