Moving to Israel

I mentioned last week how people have begun thinking about moving to Israel not only in return for the rich spiritual existence it provides but for, recently, for the financial benefits as well. Here’s more to strengthen that argument as Arutz Sheva reports on a recent interview of Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer with Fox News where Fischer says that Israel remains relatively free from severe damage in the worldwide financial crisis and stands to be one of the world’s safest places for investors.

“I feel much, much better that if there’s any [future] crisis, we are in a very strong position, much stronger than a year ago, because of our currency purchases,” Fischer told Fox.

The interview is filled with more optimistic statements about Israel’s financial situation and, while he was probably embellishing for the sake of the public at least a little, it’s clear that Israel has once again, with the help of G-d, shocked the world in remaining strong and vibrant through another world calamity - this time in the face of a world wide recession.

Ari

This has not been the easiest of weeks in the history of the Jewish people in general and the country of Israel in particular. Basically, a “tradeoff” of hostages was completed where several live, swearing-to-do-more-evil terrorists were released from Israeli prisons while, in return, Israel received the bodies of two young soldiers kidnapped and killed two years ago (with another “wrinkle” on Israel’s side: noone even knew whether the soldiers were dead or alive).

For a country and a people that has known its share of pain through the centuries, for many, this was a particular lowlight. Here we have a determined nation with G-d behind it and one of the most powerful armies in the world being led by the nose by a sworn enemy now returning the dead bodies of two soldiers for whom we once swore we would not rest until they returned home. The outrageous details could go on for hours but, needless to say, it has not left Israel with the greatest impression around the world and, even more needless to say, is certainly not something that is going to encourage new potential immigrants to make Aliyah. That is why this article by Go´el Jasper is such a fantastic read. A snippet:

But we are still the Jewish people. We are still the nation that has survived - and thrived - throughout the centuries against all rational calculation. We are the nation that won an un-winnable war in six days, and we are the nation that rescued the hostages from Entebbe, and we are the nation that bombed Iraq’s nuclear reactor.

The article is filled with inspirational messages such as the above and was really the first time all week I was able to look at my country and my own personal Aliyah with pride. These are some very dark times and with many people in full ”I’ve had enough” mode, it will take people with spirit such as Go´el to keep us on the right path of belief of our attitude in general, and our love and desire to move to Israel, in particular. This is still a wonderful, miraculous country that has accomplished an unprecedented amount of achievements in its short history. We need to continue to push on and encourage every Jew to come home and not let the terrorist, murdering ways of our enemies, as well as some woeful decision making by those in power, discourage us.

Thanks for the message Go´el.

Ari