My heart is broken. I am very sorry to say that Diaspora Jewry has not learned the lesson of Corona and the wave of violent riots.
- Friends in America and Canada have informed me that the initial panic in the Jewish community has calmed now that they know how to guard themselves from the virus.
- Also, the intermission in the rioting has presented them with an opportunity to return to “business as usual,” and to the illusion that Jewish life in the Exile will last forever.
- Diaspora Rabbis have returned to their old cobwebbed sermons, synagogues have hired armed guards, Jewish op-edders are continuing to op-ed in New York, and kosher travel agencies are preparing attractive Corona packages for the day the skyways are reopened.
The masses of new olim that the Jewish Agency and Nefesh B’Nefesh have been forecasting are not going to arrive – at least for now – until the Almighty gives Diaspora Jewry another nasty wake-up call.
In other words, the masses of new olim that the Jewish Agency and Nefesh B’Nefesh have been forecasting are not going to arrive – at least for now – until the Almighty gives Diaspora Jewry another nasty wake-up call. Corona 3, or a widespread, “Let’s Get the Jews” pandemic, may come in a few months or a year, but it is surely on the way.
In the meantime, Diaspora Jews will bury their heads in the mudslide of Galut once again, and continue on with their mass denial and fantasy lives. Some will make Aliyah, probably a few hundred more than last year, but, sadly, there isn’t going to be an Aliyah explosion. Now that things seem more stable in America, and now that Israel has ongoing Corona and unemployment troubles of its own, the majority of frightened Jews who rushed to fill out Aliyah-registration forms will throw them into the wastebasket. And unfortunately, a large percentage of those who do come will decide to return to the sweet-smelling swamp pits of Boca, Brooklyn, and Beverly Hills, even though the stink of burning homes still wafts in the air, because their motive for coming to Israel was not founded on ideological reasons, such as fulfilling the Zionist dream or getting closer to G-d, but, instead, on fear.
In truth, Diaspora Jewry missed the boat decades ago when the State of Israel was founded. That was the time to come. Certainly for the religious Jews who had been praying to return to Zion for almost 2000 years, the historic event was a clear shofar-call from Heaven to come home.
The Haredi Jews failed to come because of their mistaken understanding of the Torah's view, and the religious Zionists didn’t come because of the good life in America. As their lives in America prospered, their love and attachment to their foreign Gentile land became as strong as super-glue.
Rabbi Meir Kahane warned them, but no one wanted to listen. He was banned from speaking in their shuls. By and large, in the then Modern Orthodox world, Rabbis paid lip service to the Jewish State in their sermons, with declarations of support and pride, even going so far as to encourage young people to visit the new Jewish Disneyworld in the Holy Land, and to spend a year learning in the Land of our Forefathers, but they failed to encourage Aliyah.
When the young people grew up and the time came to establish families of their own, they chose to follow in the footsteps of their parents, and not those of Avraham Avinu, choosing the material life in America. By and large, embarking on a new life in the Promised Land, the dream of generations, couldn’t compete with the promise of high salaries, houses with swimming pools, and Empire chickens.
From the beginning of Jewish History, from the first conquest of the Land to the annals of Modern Zionism, brave Jews, religious and secular Jews alike, were willing to sacrifice their lives in order to build a Jewish Future in Zion, but for the spoiled Jewish youth of America, with their Audis paid for by mom and dad, the possibility of having to serve in the Israel Defense Forces (except for the handful of oddball idealists who actually believed in the Torah), was so far out of the question that it wasn’t even a question at all.
Instead of making Aliyah and taking part in the rebuilding of the Jewish Nation in the Chosen Land, Diaspora Jewry chose to ignore HaKadosh Baruch Hu and help to build synagogues and Jewish community centers in America. Instead of educating their children to become proud Jews in the Jewish Homeland, they educated them to become make-believe goyim in Christian America. Yes, they wrote generous checks and donated a portion of their dollars to many worthy causes in Israel, but self-sacrifice? Practically none.
Now, tragically, the gates to the Promised Land are closing. Ben Gurion airport may remain open to half-empty flights of olim, but the gates of the minds and hearts of Diaspora Jews are so imprisoned by the spiritual darkness of foreign lands, by the relentless pursuit after material comfort and the America dream (even as it crumbles before their disbelieving eyes), that Zion has been forgotten, and “Next year in Jerusalem” has become a meaningless mantra that no one really believes.
But not all is lost. As our Prophets teach, “Surely the arm of the L-rd is not too short to save.” No doubt, He has something up His sleeve. May it come with mercy – and soon. Amen.