Posted on 11/12/2006 5:31:38 PM PST by avile
Bielski: US Jewry has no future By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER AND AMIR MIZROCH
Jews have no future in America and should all move to Israel, Jewish Agency Chairman Zeev Bielski said Sunday.
"One day the penny will drop for American Jews and they will realize they have no future as Jews in the US due to assimilation and intermarriage," he told The Jerusalem Post while in the United States to participate in the world's largest annual gathering of Jewish leaders.
"Assimilation is unstoppable and inevitable in a country of this size and with such a mobile population," he said. "We have to get them to move to Israel, and then Ariel Sharon's vision of one million olim from America will come true."
Asked if American Jews were fighting a losing battle to stay Jewish, Bielski answered in the affirmative. But he urged the American Diaspora to continue to fund Jewish education and renewal efforts.
"I want them to spend all this money on Jewish education and outreach because they're providing me [the Jewish Agency] with quality aliya material: 'more-Jewish' olim who are more aware of Jewish history, traditions and rituals," he said in New York Friday.
The General Assembly, a 4,500-strong gathering of the United Jewish Communities of North America, opened in Los Angeles Sunday and will run through Wednesday. A record number of Israeli cabinet ministers will be attending, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Tourism Minister Isaac Herzog and Education Minister Yuli Tamir, as well as opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu and Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer.
This year's conference, titled "Together on the Front Line: One people, one destiny," is dedicated to strengthening ties between Israel and US Jewry. It comes on the heels of this summer's war in Lebanon. The UJC raised close to $350 million to help reconstruction efforts.
Eran Lerman, director of the Israel office of the American Jewish Committee, said aliya could play a role in enhancing the connection between the Diaspora and Israel. However, he took issue with Bielski's negative assessment of the future of American Jewry.
"There's a good, strong core of American Jews for whom their Jewish identity is a cause for celebration, which is not always understood by Israelis," Lerman said.
AJC executive director David Harris put it more strongly.
"American Jews face their share of problems, no doubt," he said. "But we're not disappearing any time soon. These kind of periodic pleas from Israelis have no resonance with American Jews."
Harris said US Jewry largely believed in "American exceptionalism," where Diaspora Jews were not only safe but flourish. "It negates the Zionist narrative that there is no future in the Diaspora," he said.
Harris called Bielski's comments "fear-mongering" and "counterproductive." He said they were more likely to turn off Jews from making aliya rather than encourage them, since Americans immigrate to Israel because of the positive "pull" of the place rather than the "push" of negative circumstances.
Harris acknowledged that assimilation was a concern for American Jews, but also pointed to trends of Jewish renewal and greater involvement with the community.
The AJC's centennial celebration was the scene of controversy in Washington in May, when author A.B. Yehoshua said, "Judaism outside Israel has no future. If you do not live in Israel... your Jewish identity has no meaning at all."
Even many in Israel criticized him for his remarks, which espoused the classic Zionist line. At the time, Bielski told the Post the renowned writer had "made a mistake."
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Well, maybe they should, I dunno, support Israel??
Huh?! Who ever said deli's serving corned beef sandwiches are going the way of the blacksmith? Who will run the movie studios?... :)
I think Jews have been in America from the beginning. So now, suddenly they should go back to Israel because they are not welcome?
Why would they move to Israel? They don't support the country ...
A lot of US jewry doesn't like Israel because they are too liberal. They support a Palistinian "Right to return"(AKA the virtual destruction of Israeli soverignty).
Sorry, I'm not giving up my lawyer, Cohan the Barbarian, for nobody.
If only all immigrants behaved this way.
Makes them a lot harder to kill, too.
As a gentile, I think America has been the promised land for the Jewish people. Where else have they succeeded and prospered so well? Not even in Israel.
I wish America had taken all Jewish people from Europe in 1938. The world would be a much better place today. Even if they ended up voting Democratic.
Following US 2006 results, the number of Jews in the Senate rose from 11 to 13 and in the House of Representatives from 26 to 30. Jews here are not going anywhere.
OK, 87%ers get going!
well, Bielski has the obvious agenda: to drum up immigrants. The agenda shows. Thus his words are either to be dismissed outright, or to be taken with a good pound of salt.
So let me get this right, this fellow is complaining that Jews are accepted in the US?
Jews have been in the US for over 2020 years. Financing by the Jews was crucial to the Continental Army surviving at Valley Forge. America should never forget how important the Jews were to us when we were poor, weak, and struggling for freedom.
Of course we should accept Jews. We are much the better for their presence in the US.
Ah, yes, if all move back to Israel, makes them easier to kill.
The auhor seems to be worried that Jews' grandchildren often grow up to be indistinguishable from other Americans.
Have you packed your bags?
The author is freaking over assimilation.
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