My Story 24

The centrality of the Land of Israel cannot be questioned. In all of Jewish religious literature, the Land is praised. Whether we possess it or not depends on our faithfulness to the Torah. One of the features of the Messianic Era is the return to Zion. In most Jewish communities, a small bag of earth from Israel is even sprinkled on the remains of the dead before burial. The oath from Psalms "If I forget thee O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget her cunning" has come down through the ages as the pledge of the Jew. Would you make such an oath about Washington, D.C.? But when the Zionist movement began in the nineteenth century, it was opposed by rabbis across the spectrum. It was secular. Even more, it was anti-religious. Reform rabbis were also opposed, as it contradicted their view of Judaism as a religion, and not as a nationality. Until the 1970s, the American Committee for Judaism (not to be confused with the American Jewish Committee), a largely Reform group, protested that Zionism was anti-American, and tainted American Jews with at least dual loyalty, if not disloyalty. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, that began to change. Few countries would do anything to help the Jews, including the United States. Perhaps we DID need a country of our own. Especially after the 1967 Six Day War, Zionist fervor spread throughout the Jewish world. Because Israel had survived where almost no one expected it to (including the Israeli leadership), it was widely seen as a miracle. That started the Teshuvah movement. It also started a movement towards "aliyah" ("going up" to Israel). The teachings of the late Rabbi A.I. Kook, were now taught in virtually every Jewish Day School, and preached from nearly every pulpit, albeit in an overly simplified and Pollyanna form. Those who were still opposed to Zionism, whether from the Orthodox Right, or the Reform Left, were cast as pariahs. Sure, reports abounded of great atrocities committed by the Zionists; the kidnapping of children from religious families, placing them in secular homes, and even using them as laboratory animals, the non-availability of employment, unless agreeing to send one's children to secular schools, the murder of some religious Israeli politicians, and perhaps most shocking, the involvement of some Zionist officials in stymieing the rescue of European Jewry during the war, in order to increase sympathy for a Jewish State (read "Perfidy" by Ben Hecht). These reports were either forgotten or disbelieved.  Sadly, these "stories" proved to be all too true.Yes, the statistic that 70% of American Jews who went on aliyah returned within five years. was pushed aside by idealism; "it won't happen to me". (This is now ameliorated by not keeping 5 years statistics, but only 3. At that point, most are still there. Read "Lying With Statistics"). Moreover, those who went on aliyah and return, find themselves seen as traitors by other Jews. Therefore, one always hears "Israel is wonderful! But I failed!". If spoken to in private, on condition of anonymity, one gets a different story. Sima and I really felt that we had accomplished as much as we could accomplish in the American Jewish community. Our time had come to "go home". True, we broke our parents' hearts, but we owed it to our kids. (Excuse me as guilty tears well up in my eyes). Yes, we were warned that the aliyah officials would lie, in order to increase their "body count", but we naively ignored those warnings. Friends who had previously made aliyah encouraged us greatly. Only when we arrived did they share their horror stories. One former friend, who had urged us repeatedly to drop everything and come, now told us "You have come to a police state...run by the Keystone Kops" (a silent movie era series of films, about bungling policemen.) This proved to be a pattern, with those who had moved there urging all their friends and family to come, while they were actually bemoaning their fate, and usually planning to return to the States. Often, they could not return, as all of their professional connections had been lost. If one returns after three years...maybe. After five, few can put their lives back together again. I stayed for seventeen years. My connections were mostly dead. That is the primary reason I now live in poverty, largely forgotten. An article surfaced recently called "When the dream becomes a nightmare". Many were shocked, but it barely scratched the surface. Benjamin Franklin once said "a ship has all the confinement of a prison, with none of the security". That is how I see Israel. There is little personal security, but numerous forces that confine and kill one's hopes and dreams. I could write a book about the horrors and injustices that I endured. But it would be untrue to say that I didn't get anything positive out of my experiences. Many will protest that I am "speaking lashon hara against the Jewish people". But I feel it would be a great injustice not to speak. My ideology has been very much shaped by my experiences, both positive and negative. Disillusioned? Of course. But, I hope, a lot wiser. There is a Midrash that  G-d said to Abraham that his children would be like the stars of Heaven, and like the sands of the seashore, He was actually saying "When they rise, they rise to the stars. When they fall, they fall to the dust." I have witnessed and experienced both. I will be sharing with you both phenomena.