April 10, 2008
As the State of Israel approaches its 60th birthday, the celebrations are being accompanied by soul-searching on the part of Israelis, as well as by many of its friends elsewhere, who wonder if it can continue to survive amid the hostility of an Arab and Muslim world that appears to be not much less dedicated to its eradication than they were on the day of its birth.
Just as worrisome for some is the fact that it appears as if the era of mass aliyah appears to be over. As we look around the world, there appear to be no current prospects for any large part of the Diaspora needing to be transported to the Jewish state to assure their safety. While no one can predict the future of Europe, where anti-Semitic agitation continues to grow, it still seems, as a Jewish Telegraphic Agency report this week shows, unlikely that Israel will be seen as a safe haven destination for the foreseeable future.
It must be acknowledged that this development is a result of the success of Zionism, not its failure. With the financial assistance of Jews in free lands, Israel has become home for vast numbers of Jewish refugees from the Arab world, as well as from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia. If no other large Jewish population is endangered and in need of evacuation to Israel, that is a good thing, not something to lament.
Promoting immigration to Israel remains something that the Jewish Agency for Israel and the government ought to support, but barring a crisis, it will remain -- as it has always been in the absence of danger -- the act of a few ideologically committed individuals. If we in the Diaspora do our job to educate our children Jewishly, those numbers might grow. But our priority is to promote Jewish education here while supporting Israel, not worrying about aliyah numbers.
The genius of Zionism has always rested on the basic logic that the Jewish people needed a place to call their own. While we have no fears for the future of North American Jewry, can any other portion of the Diaspora be as confident?
For now, let us celebrate Israel's strength and do our best to make sure that should any other large Jewish population need to find safe haven there, that it will still -- always -- be there for them.