Opinion
What Israel owes to Diaspora Jewry
Shlomo Pyuterkovsky
Published: 22.05.19, 08:18
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24 Talkbacks for this article
1. Author obviously has an agenda, but it's not ours! Seriously
(05.22.19)
: Diaspora should be center/front?!
If we must be honest, we're interested in two things only:
their money and their youth, as potential olim..., that's about it.
It is their free choice to lead lives they have mapped out for themselves, our State does support and defend their rights to the extend it is possible or desirable.
Otherwise, there's absolutely no need for diaspora to take part in our political processes.
2. In two words: not much.
(05.22.19)
3. Diaspora Jews
Yehuda ,   Melbourne   (05.22.19)
Living outside Israel I have no right to tell Israel what to do on any topic. If I wanted to influence things in Israel I would go and live there.

Let's also deal in facts. 90% of the Jews in America that are regularly involved on a weekly basis in any type of Jewish community activity are Orthodox. I'm sick of hearing the myth trotted out that all the Jews in the US are reform or conservative. The number of Orthodox Jews in the US has surpassed 1 million. That makes them around 20% of the total of Jews with a Jewish mother. Most of the rest are assimilating rapidly.
4. Most Israelis see self inflicted extinction for US Jews
Avi Israeli ,   Tel-Aviv   (05.22.19)
There's a popular joke in Israel that doesn't go over very well with many US Jews.
"What's the difference between President Trump and Reform Jews? All of President Trumps grandchildren are Jewish!".
5. Why Jews are in Israel in the first place?
b   (05.22.19)
Because during the the first half of the 20th century the American and British Jewish brethren did nothing (actually NOTHING) to help the other Jewish brethren to get into the America or the UK and indiffirently watched them being dispatched from all over the Europe to the notorious places in Poland in the pre-war and war time and from all over the Europe, North Africa, Iraq etc into the post-war Palestine under the unfriendly British mandate.
So, maybe they have a legal right to settle in Israel and to join the Israeli nation, but if they stay where they are, Israelis can care about them just as much as they do about Tutsis and Huties (I even don't who of them are the good guys and who are the bad ones)
6. Over 30,000 Jews died in Israel since 1948 ! it makes....
theWaĺl   (05.22.19)
...it makes ISRAEL The MOST Dangerous place for Jews to LIVE in !!!
7. Diaspora Jews are largely irrelevant...
קרבי זה הכי אחי ,   T.A. All The Way   (05.22.19)
to the internal affairs of the Jewish State. Don't tell that to the Diaspora Jews. The NY ones tend to think they are the center of the universe.

Some Diaspora Jews may have monetary influence in Israel, and in rare occurrences, one of them will marry a president's pretty blonde daughter and attempt to punch way above his weight diplomatically...

But on the balance Diaspora Jews are either marrying out, not marrying at all, getting beat up in Paris, or voting for Leftist parties that will eventually, ironically, lead to the Jew needing to vacate his home country and move to Israel to save his life.

When they get to Israel they move to the Oleh Bubble, insist in speaking English, and pull from trust funds established decades ago.

They're a curious specimen, those Diaspora Jews.
8. wrong
victor ,   rome   (05.22.19)
wrong question.

the question has to be reversed !!!!!

And the answer is very simple: survival
9. The core global number of Jews is
Naor ,   Jerusalem   (05.22.19)
Around 15 million so the number that actually send their sons and daughters to fight for Israel and the number who financially help is low.However being Jewish the number who feel they can open their mouths and have a say in how our country is run is high.The average US or UK Jew(I am originally from the UK) believes Israel owes them but is reluctant to put their "money where their mouth is" but will be the first to come running should they need a bolthole and believes Israel should welcome them with open arms.They generally come from that "naive" number who like the Jews of Germany thought they were safe from persecution till it was too late.No Jew in Israel or in the Diaspora should look at Israel as "owing them something".
10. The U.S.
(05.22.19)
gives a lot of money to Israel, billions, and therefore that makes it a concern for Americans. It is difficult for American Jews when there are bills in Congress that target human rights abuses, Betty McCullom's for example, court decisions to overturn anti-BDS laws as unconstitutional. Israelis seem not to care one bit about the impact its government's policies have, here, and in time,
if the U.S. lessens its support the positives Israel takes for granted, could dry up, too. Trump won't be in power forever. We are One people and we both should be mindfully aware of how our actions impact the other.
11. Repeal Teudat Yahadut Rabbinical letter for immigration.
NYC   (05.22.19)
12. ISRAEL DOES NOT NEED THEM.SOME RUIN THE ISRAELI ECONOMY.
OLEG ,   florida   (05.22.19)
THEY BUY REAL ESTATE IN ISRAEL THAT AN AVERAGE WORKING ISRAELI WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO AFFORD.BECAUSE OF THEM PRICES GO UP GO UP WITH NO END IN SIGHT. MAJORITY OF THEM NOT NICE PEOPLE ESPECIALLY AMERICAN JEWS THEY CARE ABOUT NOBODY AND THEY ARE NASTY. MONEY IS GOD.
13. Foolish article
Bar Pinchas ,   Jerusalem   (05.23.19)
As a Jew who made himself Aliyah from Europe, I can tell you that I totally disagree.
A Jew who doesn't want to live in Israel has nothing to say what happens in Israel, in a totally similar fashion as a Jew with an European-citizenship who lives in France can not tell the country Germany or Holland what to do in their politics, army, taxes, etc.

If you are living in our Holy country as a resident, you make your living there, you are a part of it's society, you serve in the army, you pay your taxes, etc.... then you can speak up and speak out by voting.

If you refuse to live in the land of Israel but you are big-mouthing and full of arrogant sh#t , then you don't belong here. It is a privilege to live in Israel and be a part of it's society. If you refuse yourself this privilege you should be refused the other privileges as well.


btw for example: most of US-Jews are not Jewish any more but part of the Reform-movement (with over 60% intermarriage rate and non-Jewish kids/spouses). Do you really want these assimilated non-Jews to tell us how to live our Jewish lives while they have no clue what being Jewish means?

How we can improve Hasbarah (as this how it is called in Hebrew terms):

-Send modern-orthodox and Chabad Rabbi's into these countries in multitudes,
-teach these people about Israel, it's importance, it's culture, about Judaism, etc...
-And cause these people to love Israel and make Aliyah.

It needs a lot of money and a lot of highly motivated Rabbi's, but we can supply. It will take years too, but patience will yield.
14. Many of these “diaspora Jews” are your enemies
David ,   New York   (05.23.19)
reform and reconstructionist is essentially a batch of the radical left wing of the Democratic Party. Their leadership HATES Israel (and America too) and everything it stands for.
They will stop at nothing (including using the western wall for their pep rallies)
Do NOT give these activists anything, they will destroy Israel the same way they are working to destroy america.

Rather, work with identified religious American Jews who love Israel and will do anything to help it.
15. Mr.
Din ,   Rehovot   (05.26.19)
Perspective: Chinese and Japanese consider all Jews in the Diaspora as "Overseas Israelis." Conservative, Reform, and Reconstruct movements were founded to accommodate living conditions in Germany and the United States. As such they diluted Jewish identity. Socialism and the Haskala were attempts from Odessa and the old Czarist Empire. These have morphed into the Progressive Left which likes Palestinian Arabs more than Israeli Jews, and both fails to realize and not care, or worse that this is still an argument of two peoples over one land rather than about Human Rights.

For its part, Israel is still a work in progress, with a need for societal and political reforms, just like many other places on the Globe. Then there is the Jewish religious aspect, where Religious Courts and Institutions must better understand how to wield power to the benefit of the Jewish population, without compromising Judaism. .
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