Israelis in LA urged to come home
Minister of absorption says up to 200,000 expats living in Los Angeles, urges them to return to Israel. Weekly Diaspora press roundup
"We want you to come back," Boim told over 100 ex-pats at a Los Angeles synagogue, the Journal said.
"Boim, who should know, estimated that there are 700,000 to 1 million Israeli ex-pats in the world, of whom some 600,000 are in North America, including 150,000 to 200,000 in the Los Angeles area. Some local Israelis maintain there are as many as 300,000 of their compatriots in Los Angeles , which would represent more than half of all Jews here," the report added.
It said Boim considered anyone with an Israeli passport, including those with dual nationalities, to be ex-pats.
"In Los Angeles , you are physically detached from other people, and even more detached emotionally; you really don't have deep friendships," one expat told the Jewish Journal, adding, "The upside is that you have your private space, people don't constantly pry into your business. But, then, sometimes you feel alone."
UK Jewish group against Israel
"A concerted drive among Diaspora Jews to challenge openly their communities' instinctive support for Israel is causing intense debate this week from Britain to America and Australia," the Jewish Chronicle reported this week.
The group, called Independent Jewish Voices, has is made up of over 100 British Jewish "intellectuals and prominent figures," that have "publicly dissociating themselves from mainstream Jewish support in the UK for Israel," the JC added.
One of its members was quoted as saying that the group was formed "out of our frustration with the widespread misconception that the Jews of this country ( UK) speak with one voice and that this voice supports the Israeli government's policies," the report said.
According to the JC, "similar movements are gaining ground" in the US and Australia.
The new anti-Semitism
Meanwhile, an American Jewish English Professor at the University of Indiana has published an article in the New York Times's Art Section criticizing "progressive" Jewish critics of Zionism, the Jewish Week reported.
The article, "Progressive Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism," authored by Alvin Rosenfeld, sought to advance debate without smearing "Israel with a Nazi brush or a South African apartheid brush," Rosenfeld was quoted by the Jewish week as saying.
While the report said his work was applauded by some scholars, others condemned it.
Anti-Israel radio host Esther Kaplan, who is included in Rosenfeld's paper, was quoted as saying, "Israel will become a punching bag for every good reason and maybe a couple of bad ones, too. And so what? This new wave of activism has healthy roots."
