Portland Chabad Jewish Center Fire
Portland Chabad Jewish Center FirePCJC

Arson has destroyed a Chabad House on the Delaware University campus in Newark. Two fires, have damaged a Chabad House in Portland, Oregon, the first possibly an electrical fire. A fund has been launched to raise money to rebuild..

My dear friends – don’t waste your money. They will only be burnt down again.

The campaign fund declares that the Chabad House was the place that made the Jewish students feel they were home.

That is a delusion. A Jew can only feel at home in Israel.

The campaign fund declares that the students are heartbroken, lost, and confused. Of course they are. All of their young lives their parents told them, “It can’t happen here in America.”

When will Diaspora Jews get the message?

Jewish life in the Galut is destined to come to an end. The Exile is a curse. A punishment. By definition, it’s not meant to last forever. We are not supposed to make exile in foreign lands into our permanent home. So if Hashem burns down a Chabad House, or sends forest fires in Northern California to chase Jews from the mansions, or if He huffs and puffs and hurls devastating winds and raging flood waters to flatten Jewish communities in Louisiana and Texas, why rebuild them? So that the next hurricane, or earthquake, or pogrom can smash them down once again?

Brothers and sisters in foreign lands – rebuild your ravaged and washed-out communities in Israel! Hashem has many messengers. The Almighty can use Corona, or anti-Semitism to shatter the illusion of the good life in Exile, or He can use fires, hurricanes, or floods to drive Diaspora Jews back home to Israel.

The destruction that the conflagrations have left in their wake, and the staggering number of homeless, make the evacuation of Gush Katif seem like peanuts. And the fires are still raging. Brothers and sisters, we have been saying it all along. Life is much more dangerous in America and France than it is in Israel.

Wake up! Get the message! Read the writing on the charred and crumbling wall before it is too late. Your bastions of Yiddishkeit, Chabad Houses, country-club memberships, and Jewish Federations won't help you. Not in California, nor Texas, New Jersey nor New York. The long arm of Hashem will reach you even in your guarded Boca communities.

Don't make the mistake of pretending that the ongoing inferno in California, and the hurricane in Louisiana are merely freak outbursts of nature, and that arsonists won’t dare to burn down Chabad Houses, synagogues, and Jewish homes again.

Everything that happens in the world is from G-d, and it's all for the sake of the Jews. So take some good advice and sell your houses now before it is too late.

Tzvi Fishman was awarded the Israel Ministry of Education Prize for Jewish Culture and Creativity. Before making Aliyah to Israel in 1984, he was a successful Hollywood screenwriter. He has co-authored 4 books with Rabbi David Samson, based on the teachings of Rabbis A. Y. Kook and T. Y. Kook. His other books include: "The Kuzari For Young Readers" and "Tuvia in the Promised Land". His books are available on Amazon. Recently, he directed the movie, "Stories of Rebbe Nachman."