Where, oh, Where?
Safety, and security
Israel, a country that I do love, but it is not always the answer for every Jew in the world. Now don’t get me wrong. If we need to go there, we will go. I keep our passports up to date for a reason….and quite frankly the average American should feel ashamed that Jewish Americans feel the need to do this.
But, while I love my Jewish heritage, and feel pride in everything my ancestors have been through and how strong they were to survive, I know for a fact that I love the US and do not want to leave. Yes, my forbearers chose the goldena medina over Eretz Yisrael. Heck in fact, my grandfather, his mother and siblings resided in Jaffa for quite some time after fleeing Kiev, back at the turn of the last century. They ended up in NYC because my great grandfather finally got a job where he could take care of them and so he sent money for boat passage. In fact, because my grandfather came on a British visa (it was the Mandate of Palestine- easy for Jews to leave not so easy for Jews to get into) he never went through Ellis Island. He and his family entered the US through the port of Rhode Island.
It’s funny you know, I always wonder what my life would have been like if they had stayed in Jaffa. Well, I actually wouldn’t have to wonder, I just wouldn’t be here, since my grandmother was already a 1st generation American, her parents having immigrated here before the turn of the 19th century. (No, I do not think you are only destined to meet that 1 person no matter where they are on the globe) But whomever, I would have been, life would have definitely been different in so many ways.
My parents tell a story that after the Six-Day War my father was actually looking into getting a job so we could make aliyah, but much to their chagrin the job fell through. My parents were very heavily invested in the Jewish philanthropic world at the time, and one of their Israeli friends who worked for the Israeli foreign office consoled them telling them Israel needs friends in the US to stand up for her. Well that did do the trick. Dad went on to do bigger and better things in his life not just for the Jewish people, but for his country, the USA. (I suppose the rational is still the same. If every friend of Israel left the US, who would there be to lobby to try to save the US-Israel relationship? Even if democrats think we are UnAmerican for lobbying to protect that partnership.)
(And no we do not know all that dad did- we know a little bit, and yes he risked his life. Interestingly, one day the FBI did show up at my parent’s house and asked my father to stop requesting information about whatever it was he did, because they have no way of protecting him if what he did ever got out. To the day he died, he never told anyone what it was. Married over 50 years, and he never even told my mother. Honestly, I think whatever it was is still classified. PS had nothing to do with Israel or Jews, it had to do with the safety and security of the United States.)
But I figure in some ways, all these missed opportunities was a sign, or what hashem was trying to tell our family. You belong here. In the US. For some reason, unbeknownst to us she wants us here. I can deal with that. I am just not sure she thinks we have to stay in the north atlantic area, that is all. So I look to see where else in the US we can move where the hubby can actually work. Not too many places as he would need to take the Bar exam again in most other states. And at 67 he doesn’t need to study for a test. So we are here for the time being at least. (By the way, the hubby’s family goes back to living in the US before the Revolutionary War. So getting him to leave is going to take something really, really, really bad happening.)
Besides, you tell me where Israel is going to put another 6 million Jews, feed them, house them, find them jobs, and provide healthcare and education. Well maybe over a period of several decades, sure. But nothing like what happened when the Mizrachi Jews, almost 1 million of them, were expelled from the Arab countries within a matter of months (monies seized, goods confiscated, property stolen, and interestingly some of that property is being used by the French government without paying the Jewish families for the use- shocked, just shocked you say that today’s French government is more Vichy than Free French).
Countries, by the way, in which these Jewish families had lived long before the Arab/Muslim colonization and imperialist conquests of the 7th century. Refugee camps were set up all over Israel to accommodate the influx. You tell me what Beverly Hills millionaire is going to go live in a tent…even in Israel. Ok, they would insist it be more like glamping. Yes, yes, the Beverly Hills brigade probably already have second homes in Netanya or Bat Yam. The really rich ones have pied-a-terres in Jerusalem.
I will let you in on a secret, that is my dream, by the way. I would love to have a 2nd home in Jerusalem. Some place to spend summers and holidays. Of course, you also need to be able to afford a 2nd home…but it gives me joy to think one day when I win the lottery this is what I am going to do with my windfall (well after I establish trust funds to take care of the boys after we die, and depending on the amount of money won- if it is one of those billion dollar drawings, a charity of some sort. You have your hopes and dreams, and I have mine.)
On that note, one of the most enjoyable shows that I used to watch was House Hunters International. I loved seeing people move half way around the world and what culture they moved to. The shock of different ways of life was interesting. I always enjoyed the trips to Europe or Australia, Cambodia and other parts of South East Asia that people took. Never really enjoyed the Mexico stories though.
Those moves, sat poorly with me. Don’t ask why, I simply don’t know. But other parts of Latin and South America to move to were just fine in the back of my head. (we all have our weird shit- and no I’ve never been to Mexico.) And yes every once in a while they had a story about moving to Israel, but maybe in several decades of watching the show they had 2 stories about moving there.
Not that I really cared. My goal was to live vicariously through strangers and see their excitement in their new adventures. I honestly can say I would grab a glass of wine and binge watch an entire season once HBOMax started streaming the stories.
But I can’t watch it anymore.
Every time I watched a show, I wondered if it was safe to live there if you were Jewish. Funny really. My inner happiness for the families involved in the moves didn’t change. I loved seeing the adventures.
But a part of me no longer enjoyed the show.
All I thought every time a show aired, was how hard it would be to live there if you were Jewish.
Actually, the same happens when I seek out places to move to in the US.
The New York Times (I know, I know it has gone from simply being a Jew-hating rag, to openly promoting people like Hasan Piker who celebrated 9/11 and October 7, and is an AntiAmerican-Jew-hating-commie-anarchist- limousine-nepo baby-murder supporting- theft aligning-entitled-animal abusing-hypocrite) had an article about how the young Jewish Americans and Israeli expats are moving to Miami. I could do Florida- I think. At least that state has laws that will protect Jews and the Florida state government understands what a terrorist is, unlike here in NY.
But honestly, I have come to the conclusion that among the reality of our lives as Jews, we have learned that the joys that others take for granted, including moving to a foreign country as an adventure, are not necessarily in the cards for us.
Every step we take, we need to calculate our safety reality. From synagogues, to Jewish schools, heck to schools in general- apparently its ok for students in NYC schools to harass, endanger, and attack Jewish students and teachers according to that shitbag Mamdani. He may have signed the law creating cordons around synagogues, most probably because the law said “places of worship” and if he vetoed it, that meant that mosques could be protested the way his friends protested outside Park East synagogue last year. But schools, heck it’s open season on Jews in the NYC public school system now. (Ok it was before too. But this new law was supposed to stop that. Hopefully, there is enough votes to override the veto, but I wouldn’t count on it considering the boroughs that voted for Mamdani in the first place.)
As far as the exponential explosion of Jew-hatred worldwide, I blame spineless world leadership. I blame alot of American leadership as well. Instead of standing up to the antisemitic bullies of the Islamo-Nazis-Left, they indulged them. They gave in to them. They embraced them. European and western leadership especially have led the charge to make Jews not welcome in the world….again. Medieval vibes are rearing their ugly heads.
And then there are the Jews who vote along side the Jew-haters to ban arm sales to Israel, like Bernie Sanders, Adam Schiff (the failed truth teller of Russian Dossier fame- he had files proving the dossier the way McCarthy had files of communists in the government), Jon Ossoff, Brian Schatz, and Elissa Slotkin. Bernie, of course, is the chief instigator, but he was always an antisemitic Jew, honeymooning in the USSR and telling everyone that Jews were not persecuted there- despite the treatment of Soviet Jewry being a world wide cause celebre. Its the others that are just as, if not more, despicable. And of course Rahm Emanuel, that duplicitous snake, on Bill Maher trying to make it out that Israel is so rich it shouldn’t get US aide, as if that is what the vote was all about instead of the blood libel that Israel violated US use laws during the war in Gaza. Josh Shapiro isn’t much better either.
By the way, if you are in Georgia this is not the first time Ossoff voted to end arms to Israel. It seems he is a Bernie Sanders kind of Jew. Just remember that if you are proIsrael and get to vote in November for Georgia’s upcoming Senatorial election.
Its interesting really. My great grandparents ran from Europe to escape the kind of Jew hatred we now see coming to the forefront here in the US. The kind of Jew hatred that has me even examining which cities in the US I might retire to.
I wonder if this is what my father risked his life for.
And no Israel is not the answer…..well yet…..not just yet….
******
May Hashem keep all those brave civilians fighting to Free Iran from the grip of evil safe.
May God Bless the US Armed Forces and the IDF.
Leave a comment but remember the rules. Anything nasty will be deleted.
Note something new: I have activated paid subscriptions. But essays and commenting will be open to everyone who subscribes always. Simply subscribe if you would like to support what I write.
I also have created a tip jar if you don’t want to subscribe, but like one particular essay. HERE
On the other hand, if you feel that I have reached you in some way, please give to your local food bank or local animal shelter.
This resonated. I was nodding along in agreement as I read. A Jewish liberal acquaintance asked friends on FB for hotel recommendations in Paris. I thought, Why in the hell would you go to Paris? I’ve saved a lot of future money by crossing off many countries on my bucket list.
I suspect that the demographic shift of American Jews to Israel will accelerate over the rest of this century if this explosion of antisemitism does not subside. In the absence of a Hitler type though, it will be a slow but steadily growing process. American Jews who are of a certain age and are vested in retirement and healthcare systems will likely live out their lives in the US. The younger generation though, at least those who have a strong Jewish identity, will begin leaving in progressively larger numbers. Eventually, demographic change will do the rest as the older generation passes and the younger one thins out. My prediction, by the end of this century, Israel will have a population that is roughly double what it is now while the American Jewish community steadily declines.