Moving to Israel

As we continue through the time of year where our Nation collectively “remembers” some of the most dire times in our history, begining from Erev Pesach / before Passover when we remember our bondage and our redemption from Egypt and continuing through our Holocaust Memorial Day when we remember the persecution of our people while the world watched indifferently, we now gear up for the Memorial Day for our fallen, those of our loved ones who fell in battle during the establishment of our State, or in battles since then and also our loved ones who were murdered by terrorists simply because they were Jews.

This time period and the circumstances surrounding them makes this article by Yehudit Tayar particularly excellent. She talks of how every day is Memorial Day for her when she grieves our beautiful brothers and sisters who have perished through the years simply for being Jewish and how remembering itself is not enough. She talks about how we must also fight while we remember. Fight for our survival, fight for our independence as a Nation, fight by insisting that the world accept our inalienable right to live in Israel and live as Jews and fight in the IDF and send our sons and daughters to fight proudly and with the human values that they inherit as Jews that are so  integral a part of our heritage.

This is but a small list of the some of things we must continue to fight for, but the message from Tayar is clear. Read this stirring article and let it help you feel the power of this week’s Memorial Day, when we mourn our fallen and prepare to fight for our future.

Ari

One of the most common arguments used to delegitimize Israel (and by extension, the Jewish people as a whole) is the claim that they are a racist state. Beyond the irony of who the people are that are doing the accusing is a further irony that not only is Israel not the discriminating monsters they are made out to be but that the country is, in fact, one of the ultimate models of equality and fairness. This point is driven home wonderfully in a fantastic article by Dr. Alex Grobman entitled “Keeping Israel on the Defensive.”

The article reminds us that “Significantly, Arabs living in Israel are guaranteed equality. Israel’s Proclamation of Independence declares that the state ‘will promote the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; will be based on the precepts of liberty, justice and peace taught by the Hebrew prophets; will uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of race, creed or sex; will guarantee full freedom of conscience, worship, education and culture… and will dedicate itself to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.’ Under Apartheid South Africa, Blacks were not citizens of the country and were not permitted to vote.”

In complete contrast to what the many anti-Semites out there would have us believe, the country’s fair and just treatment of all its citizens should be another reason to admire the Jewish state and want to move to Israel, as opposed to another reason to hate and despise it.

Ari

While this blog attempts to encourage moving to Israel and to let go of the places we now call home, it sometimes astonishes me how the leaders of these very places make it so very clear to us that we are not particularly welcome anyway.

The latest example of this comes courtesy of the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who has recommended that non-Muslims take the opportunity of the month of Ramadan to fast, along with their Muslim neighbors, in order to promote “understanding between cultures.”

Johnson told members of a London mosque that with Muslims so much a part of London life, it would be befitting for non-Muslims to get to know their fellow Londoners’ customs and religion better.

The implications of such a statement are extremely dubious. For one thing, as a local English Democrat leader Steve Uncles so wisely put it, “the indigenous culture of this country is based on Christianity and Paganism. Of course, as an open and tolerant society, if people want to practice other religions, then good luck to them. But the state should not be funding them because otherwise we will lose our culture.”

This is a great point but, what should be even more disturbing amongst the Jewish people is, as the author of the article, David Lev, puts it, “there was no word on whether London Mayor Johnson was planning to suggest that Muslims and Christians fast on Yom Kippur in order to better understand their Jewish neighbors.”

As we all know, this should not be expected to be happening anytime soon and the attempted appeasement of the Muslim population will likely, if history is any indication, come back to haunt the U.K. in the future.

Again, we need to come home. There is really no place for us in countries around the world whose leaders call for the further pandering of the Jew’s (and the West’s) most ruthless enemies. Let’s continue to make Aliyah, call Israel home and make it Hashem’s laws that we practice and celebrate.

Ari