Great Miracles are Happening Here and There!

Recognizing both Israel and the Diaspora as Equal Partners in Building the Jewish Future

Every Hanukkah, Jews around the world spin a dreidel. It’s a simple children’s toy. Four sides. Four Hebrew letters. 

But the letters on your dreidel may be different, depending on where you’re playing.

In the Diaspora, the dreidel reads:

נ ג ה ש

Nes gadol haya sham: A great miracle happened there—referring to Israel.

But in Israel, the dreidel reads: 

נ ג ה פ  

Nes gadol haya poh: A great miracle happened here.

It makes total sense. And yet, when you stop to think about it, it’s a strange concept. We are one people, celebrating the same heroes, lighting the same candles, telling the same tale, yet we spin it – the dreidel, not the tale – differently depending on where we live. If that doesn’t capture the core tension of Jewish Peoplehood today, I don’t know what does. 

Diaspora Jews, living as minorities, often learn not to rock the boat.  Meanwhile, Israeli Jews are the majority in Israel, so their worldview comes from a place of captaining the boat. Naturally, this results in friction and very different perspectives and experiences.

Understanding this led us at the Z3 Project, to create the five-sided Z3 dreidel.

Rather than either a peh OR a shin, it has all five letters:

נ ג ה ש פ

A great miracle happened here AND there. 

But this isn’t about redesigning a toy; it’s about reimagining Jewish Peoplehood.

Z3 is short for Zionism 3.0, a recognition that we are in the third era of modern Zionism. The first era was the Zionism of Herzl, of a quest for Jewish sovereignty, the need to escape Jew-hatred, to mobilize world Jewry to embrace a return to our homeland. 

Zionism 2.0 began when Ben Gurion declared statehood on May 14, 1948, and this era was epitomized by the upbuilding of the state. Unfortunately, it was also exemplified by “Diaspora negation,” the notion that there was no future for Jews outside of the Jewish State. Zionism 2.0 said we should move to Israel, and if we chose not to then we should support Israel unequivocally. Diaspora Jews were treated as the “rich American uncle,” while Israelis built the exit plan for the rest of us “in case they ever come for us again.” 

In this era, we did not engage with each other as equal partners. Instead, we judged one another, wagged our fingers at each other, and thought one could save the other. Some Diaspora Jews argued that Israelis are mistreating Palestinians, disrespecting non-Orthodox Jews, and implementing policies contrary to their own values. Meanwhile, some Israelis argued that Diaspora Jewry will be gone in a generation due to assimilation, inter-marriage, and antisemitism. 

For three quarters of a century, we have talked past each other. We’ve been spinning our different dreidels wondering why the outcome of the game never changes.

The Z3 five-sided dreidel is our way of saying dai, enough!

Zionism 3.0 recognizes we are in a moment when there are two strong centers of Jewish life—in Israel and in the Diaspora—and both are making invaluable contributions to the Jewish future. This is a new phenomenon, and so we need a new model for how to engage with each other – and a new dreidel. 

Although we created the five-sided dreidel nearly 10 years ago, today it is more relevant than ever. While many in the world seek to rewrite our history, delegitimize our homeland, silence our voices, intimidate our children, and to outright destroy us, we rise up strong and proud. And it’s become undeniable how much we need each other. When Israel is isolated, Diaspora Jews feel exposed. When Diaspora Jews feel abandoned, Israel is diminished. But when one is empowered, it strengthens the other.

We are one people, living in different places, speaking different languages, eating different food, even spinning dreidels differently. The five-sided dreidel doesn’t ask us to erase our differences, but to embrace them. It asks us to recognize that “here” and “there” are not opposites; they are part of the same story. Indeed, we are the people of here and there.

So, when you light your Hanukkah candles this year, take a moment to think about the miracles happening where you live and the miracles happening far away. About the people you agree with and the ones who drive you a little crazy. About the fact that Jewish history has never been written from a single perspective. And try spinning a five-sided Z3 dreidel. You may not get it at first, but you’ll quickly learn to love it. That, after all, is what Jewish Peoplehood has always been about.