By Shmuel Sackett, ZEHUT INTERNATIONAL
Dearest American Jews; I will be direct in my words and not politically correct. What are you still doing there? Years ago, when the modern State of Israel was declared, life was indeed very difficult. For several decades, most people lived in cramped apartments, didn’t have a telephone, car, television or even an air conditioner. Very few people spoke English, medical care was not what someone from America was used to and milk came in weird bags. The economy was a mess, inflation was out of control and the Lira changed to the Shekel and then the Shekel changed to the New Shekel!
However, for the last 30 years, Israel has become the most modern country imaginable. Street parking is via an app on a smart-phone, shopping malls are everywhere, medical centers are in every city and most Israeli’s have large plasma tv’s in every room! Today, you can speak English anywhere you go, take the light rail all over Jerusalem, eat in the fanciest restaurants on the planet, swim in the cleanest beaches and enjoy free Wi-fi in most cities. Our milk is now in boxes, our economy is in better shape than the USA and most people who made Aliyah live in nicer and newer homes than what they had in America!
All of the above is on the physical and material side of things but there’s much more than that. Today’s Israel is heading in the direction of becoming the proud Jewish state we all dream about. Although you won’t read about this in the “fake news”, let me tell you what’s really happening. The shuls on Friday night – across Israel – are packed! Many people, wearing jeans and t-shirts, come to shul to welcome the Shabbat Queen and they sing “Kabbalat Shabbat” next to Jews wearing white shirts. It’s a display of Jewish unity that is growing more unbelievable every week. In addition to that, there are more Yeshivas today in Israel than ever before in Jewish history! But wait… there’s also more Ba’alei Teshuva today in Israel than ever before as well! People across the country are coming closer to Torah and Mitzvot by the thousands.
Do you remember visiting Israel in the 70’s and 80’s? Outside of Jerusalem, you could barely find a kosher place to eat. Today, most of the restaurants in Tel Aviv, Herziliya, Ashkelon and Netanya are kosher while most of the restaurants in Eilat are Mehadrin!! (I’m not joking – I was there 3 weeks ago and couldn’t believe my eyes!!) Do you know why there are so many kosher places to eat? Very simple… because millions of Israelis want kosher food! In addition to that, there are shuls in every major shopping mall, in every Ikea and 9 shuls – yes, 9 – in Ben Gurion airport!
I know what you are going to say; what about the gay parade in Tel Aviv and even Jerusalem? And how about the movement to begin public transportation on Shabbat? Believe me, I know about all those things and yes, they are true, but that is exactly what happens in the days before Moshiach! On one hand, people come closer to Hashem and strive to be better and stronger in their devotion to our King. Yet, on the other hand, during these exact days, the forces of evil are strengthened, and they work overtime to spread hate, dissension and anti-Torah values.
This is why I can’t understand why Jews in America – and the other countries listed above – stay away at this time. Jewish history is being written every hour in Jerusalem. How can you still live in New York and Chicago? After 2,000 years of exile, Hashem returned us to our land. We have an army – Baruch Hashem! – a government (well, not really… but you know what I mean…) and we are building the land. We are farming, building houses and establishing communities. We are starting businesses that compete on an international level and we are world leaders in medicine and technology. How can you stay away during these times?
I promise you – yes, I believe this to the bottom of my soul – that in 100 years, nobody will be able to explain how Jews stayed in Miami and Baltimore during these days. Our national dream is being fulfilled… our prayers are being answered… what more will it take??? (Note: For those who still need a push, I am happy to inform you that Amazon now ships to Israel so there’s really no excuse!!)
Dearest friends; please don’t make Aliyah because of a shooting in Jersey City or a vandalized shul in Beverly Hills. Come here for the positive reasons, not the negative ones. Move to Israel simply because you are Jewish and your neshama can’t live outside the land. This is your home, your nation and your destiny! Help us build this country, fight the forces of evil and make Israel the strong and proud Jewish State it was destined to be. We are so close, but we need your help to finish the job. Don’t be another Jewish tribe that disappears… come home now. We’re waiting for you.
Do occasionally be humble enough to give the Socialists of the 30’s to 70’s inclusive some credit for national organising!
The Green Line hangs on the Tower and Stockade operations of the late 30’s and mid 40’s.
They spread the population across the territory to hold it with development towns now flourishing, and reinforced frontiers with Nahal.
Despite the Ma’Abarot they got up housing for everybody with all modern utilities and mains and drains and eventually paved sidewalks. Just take a look at Nairobi in Kenya, Lagos in Nigeria and Indian towns or Latin American favellas for unregulated explosion of under regulated and under serviced towns.
They found schools for a million children despite shortages of everything and got enough of them through more than primary in order to seize advantage of the modern World. If Israel has now become a World research centre it is because of national investment in Higher education and R and D. Socialist collective thinking backed national ambitions with public money and Diaspora gifts for the future when there was no private money in Israel. From Moscow to Frisco gentile farmers say, “You can’t fatten the pig on market day.” Similarly it takes at least half a lifetime if not a lifetime to build a society and culture with established education and economy.
It was collective social thinking that gave Israel its national water carrier and JNF forests and now the 400 reservoirs to catch and hold rain.
The Likud decades have surfed on the lucky fluke that in all the military burden of the opening decades of the State of Israel there was a silver lining of the incubating and now flourishing computer revolution which has given Israel a niche in the cutting edge of the World economy for which the World would suffer if Israel sank.
All credit to that but there are still social gaps to fill with something more substantial than charity – and that needs a collective responsibility and awareness which since the economics went Gradgrind, Scrooge and bottom line leaves it to Socialism otherwise the secular equivalent of religion to repair gaps.
Occasionally please be humble enough to give some credit to the Socialists of the Mandate and first forty years of the State for national organising!.
The Green Line hangs on the Tower and Stockade coherent planned operation of the late 30’s and 40’s.
They spread the population across the territory. founding the development towns that are at last blossoming and securing frontiers with Nahal.
They made sure that with all the initial austerity of the 50’s when there was no big export to earn foreign exchange, all towns were properly paved and sewered;
and all children given an educational opportunity.
The recent rich Israel has been a function of all the hard work – blood toil tears and sweat – of the post independence generation coming to fruition: and the supreme fluke of good luck that the silver lining in the military spending meant Israel could be “in on the ground floor” of the computer age which has given her a niche in the World so that the World needs her and would suffer if the Arabs rubbed her out. .