Please please sign up with Nefesh B’Nefesh even if you don’t see a way for you to move. Don’t listen if they hesitate, tell them you cannot take no for an answer. This may become a lifeline to rescue in the future. Do your utmost to live in the planning stage of moving. Don’t worry about language, money, where to live, how to support yourself. Your job is to start the process, HaShem will finish the job.
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After typing the above, I turned to the Jerusalem Post and saw this headline. After reading the article I found the proposal just a foretaste (or a V'NaHaFochHu) of an even larger situation: the eventual rescue of Jews from foreign lands. As Israeli citizens, living in a foreign land, they are Israeli citizens worthy of being flown to Eretz Yisrael in such an event.
Israeli Citizenship for Every Jew All Over the World.
This could be the solution for those who feel and are trapped.
If Israel is the country of all Jews, why should that double affection not express itself in the form of a right to dual citizenship without people having to leave their current homes? JPostThe coronavirus epidemic has swept the planet, society, the individual and the economy into its drama. This drama has indiscriminately seized all nations, north and south, rich and poor, developed and developing. The implications for their populations differ from country to country, and it will be up to each citizen to form an opinion of the specific government’s decisions.
The Israeli government has been considered one of the best at confronting the epidemic, with a low death toll per million residents. The economic support provided to prevent Israeli society from collapsing will certainly be a topic for future evaluation. But Israel confronts one matter that the rest of the world does not.
This crisis has destabilized the position of the Law of Return as a cornerstone of the Zionist endeavor. Israelis were permitted to enter Israel even if they had no homes there, but Diaspora Jews… No!
Israel, the state of the Jewish people, where Jews throughout the world believe that they will always be welcomed in time of danger, did not agree to grant them refuge during this deadly epidemic.
I recall that in July 2005, when prime minister Ariel Sharon called for the Jews of France to come on aliyah in response to an upsurge in antisemitism, there were many who considered his speech an insult and an interference in France’s affairs. It even led to a diplomatic confrontation between the countries. As president of the European Jewish Congress at that time, I initiated a discussion among Diaspora Jewry with an emphasis on the topic of dual loyalty, sensitive as it was.
Some people observed that they felt torn in two directions by the unique situation, and others considered it a dual disloyalty that must be resolved by choosing. Our feeling of belonging to the Children of Israel could not and should not be actualized only by aliyah, because since the creation of Israel in 1948, only those Jews who have settled in Israel have all automatically obtained citizenship. And even if the great majority of Diaspora Jews have two loves, two homelands – the one where they reside and Israel – that double appreciation ultimately comes to resemble a rupture more than a rapport.
This fact of psychology must be addressed in terms of administration and of practical politics. If Israel is the country of all Jews, why should that double affection not express itself in the form of a right to dual citizenship without people having to leave their current homes?
There are three advantages to that solution:
The first advantage concerns the relationship between Diaspora Jews and the countries where they reside. There will be an end to accusations of hypocrisy based on impaired solidarity and dual loyalty. A French Jew is constantly suspected of facing a choice between his land of citizenship and his land of spiritual heritage. An American Israeli has dual citizenship, which is simpler, clearer, easier and fairer overall than dual loyalty.
The second advantage concerns the relationship between the Diaspora Jews and their land of heritage. That solidarity, that affection gripping the hearts of Jews who feel attached to Israel, will finally be printed on paper. And it will be more than a mere symbol!
The third advantage concerns the relationship between the Diaspora Jews and themselves. No longer will a British Jew need to decide whether to root for Israel or England in a soccer match. Instead, equal pride will go into singing “Hatikvah”
Dual citizenship will bring the clarity and peace of mind that is often missing among Diaspora Jews.
The proposal that Israeli citizenship become easy for such Jews to acquire, and not conditional on aliyah, is one that I had the privilege of raising with Sharon some days before his health failed.
I reminded him that if the Jewish people has survived for centuries, it is principally thanks to a unique pillar of support, once the synagogue but today the State of Israel.
He showed genuine interest, and we had agreed to continue the discussion, but unfortunately...
Realizing that new challenges await the Jewish people, and valuing its unity, the new government should reaffirm the principles of Zionism by granting Israeli citizenship to every Jew who desires it.
The writer PIERRE BESNAINOU is the former president of the European Jewish Congress.
Imagine this tidalwave of surging protesters united against a “people”? And with the mayor and governor doing NOTHING to prevent disaster.
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In a recent interview, Rabbi Daniel Asor warned that “the United States and China will go to war against each other.” He explains this war was predicted by the secret tzaddik (saint) Rabbi Yehuda Lefkovitch. Rabbi Lefkovitch predicted that the third World War will start between China and America over 20 years ago before the tensions were at the level that they are today. According to Rabbi Lefkovitch, this war will be the Biblical war of Gog and Magog. (BreakingNews)
3 comments:
Interesting, with several issues to overcome:
- no voting rights without residence
- only for halachic Jews, not for every reform convert etc.
- weeding out all the missionaries etc who will try to jump on the bandwagon.
Btw, it was possible to make aliya during the virus, people were arriving. Harder, but still possible. For years I have been encouraging, begging, pleading, and here it is. Aliyah SOS. And still there are Jews who are not interested. What can we do. I am most worried about Jews in vulnerable situations who truly can't pick up. My suggestion is that everyone who makes aliya "adopts" a Jew in a vulnerable situation, and bring them with you. Help them physically, financially, practically. There are Jews who live alone, in nursing homes etc, etc. Please seek them out and bring them too. It is unconscionable that they should be left behind.
Regarding the fact that diaspora Jews were denied entry:
1. If only they had been clamouring in their masses to be allowed to make aliya. If they did I was unaware of it.
2. Aliya was possible.
The main problem is that the vast majority of Diaspora Jews have little interest in coming to Israel. I hope that that changes very soon and that they will all come.
They believe and trust their (era rav) Rabbis that say it is not time yet! or that they are waiting for Mashiach to take them and their homes/shuls with them to Eretz HaKodesh.
What they don’t realise and what Reb Dov pointed out, is that the Aliya can and should be a “community or shul” “EVENT”, all members going together as a group (which is the ref to shuls going along, not the bricks) and those with the funds to make it possible for those w/o those funds to come along also.
This is not vs the warning “against mass aliya” because it would be on a Shul by Shul or Community by Community basis. Still, if people heed the warnings, and get up and make aliya, even if they amount to thousands of souls returning to Eretz Yisrael, it will be ok because it is voluntary.
Let’s hope this is part of the 800 that are successful.
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