In the near future, the Jewish Agency will be appointing a new Chairperson to head the organization. All of the candidates on the list are dedicated public servants, but all are gripped with the same “Strengthen the Diaspora” mindset which has plagued the Jewish Agency for the past two decades.
In place of the aggressive “Make Aliyah” philosophy which characterized the Jewish Agency throughout the initial decades of Medinat Yisrael, today’s post-Zionist orientation is an acceptance and even legitimization of the Exile. Thus the focus of Jewish Agency programs is to strengthen the connection between Israel and Diaspora communities and to promote educational programs designed to strengthen Jewish Identity.
Unfortunately, all of these programs, no matter how eloquently they are presented, and no matter how “hi-tech” and “media savvy” they may sound, have one thing in common – they are all doomed to failure. The simple truth is that no educational programming can stop the tsunami of assimilation which haunts the Jews who continue to live in Gentile lands.
The Jewish Agency needs more than a new Chairperson to head the organization. It needs a “new head.” A new mindset. The Jewish Agency as a whole needs an ideological overhaul. It needs to adopt a bold new orientation, not designed to strengthen Jewish communities in the Diaspora, but rather to uproot the Jews from the spiritual and cultural quicksand that threatens them there. In the simplest of terms, HaRav Tzvi Yehuda HaKohen Kook, of blessed memory, the head of the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem, summed up the problem and clearly stated its solution:
“The time has come to return home. Whether we want to or not; whether we recognize this truth, or whether we want to run away from it. The Prophet declares: ‘And I will bring them back to their Land,’ (Ezekiel, 36:22). Hashem has decided that the time has arrived. Even if this requires the most unpleasant means, Heaven forbid, with Hashem’s anger poured out, as with a rise in anti-Semitism, Heaven forbid, and the threat of violence against Jews, the time has come to return to our country, and to our special air.
“Because of our long Exile amidst the impurity of the Gentile nations, we have become accustomed to think that our life of Exile is normal, and we forget that Eretz Yisrael is our natural, healthy, Divinely-intended place. We need to foster the understanding and the feeling that we must live in Israel, that this is our normal place, in terms of religion, and in terms of our Nationhood. If we are not here, we are unhealthy. And from time to time, the Gentiles forcibly remind us that we are living in their domain, in an alien land.
"We must not forget that the Gentile nations do us a favor by allowing us to stay in their lands – until they expel us. One must realize that we are on foreign soil there. It is not our society, nor culture, nor government. Nothing is ours. Only in Israel are we at home, with family, living according to our own customs, and our uniquely Jewish year; living in the holy place designed for our Kedusha, for our psychological health, and even for our physical wellbeing.
"We must return to health, and turn away from unhealthy, polluted places, from environments which are sometimes so polluted and disorientating that one forgets who he truly is, and thinks that it is normal to live among the Gentiles. Today, as it was with the establishment of our Statehood, the first obligation before us is the ingathering of the exiles, from all of the lands of the Diaspora, and the ingathering of every Jew, whether he is healthy or ill, whether he believes in the Torah or denies it."
"Being a Jew today comes with the basic requirement to be in Eretz Yisrael.”
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."