WHY ISRAEL MATTERS - I

Over the centuries, the wandering nature of the Jewish people – mostly forced – has left a trail of unconnected contributions to a variety of civilizations. Jews built thriving institutions in Babylonia (today Iraq). They built colleges, hospitals, welfare centres, etc. only to be dispersed around 1,000 C.E. and have to start over again in a different place. The story then repeated itself  in England, where Jews were expelled in 1290, and France in 1394. To be repeated in the Spanish expulsion in 1942……and then again and again.

In extolling Zionism, the Yiddish writer and Nobel Prize Laureate Sholom Aleichem, compares sovereignty of land to ownership of property, and the wandering Jew as, at best, renting. An apartment building composed entirely of owners is always kept in better condition than a similar building occupied only by renters. When a group pursue collective objectives, these will be more successfully achieved when such efforts are concentrated in, and from, a central place.

A community of owners can also build on the successes and contributions of previous generations. Rather than building on the physical accomplishments of their ancestors, Jews have had to expend valuable and limited resources recreating them.

In Los Angeles, today, many of the beautiful and grand synagogues built by its Jewish population less than 100 years ago are today Korean churches! This abandonment when taken across the whole of America and over a century of time, represents  billions of dollars.

America is, of course, the second largest concentration of Jews in the world. The majority of American Jews who feel more American than Jewish, should consider the Jews of Spain.  Before the expulsion, the Spanish Jewish community flourished throughout Spain for more than 800 years. It was arguably the strongest, most important and privileged Jewish diaspora community ever.

Making a life in Israel is good for the individual as well as for the community. The individual is able to shape his own destiny and express his creativity. In Israel, the Jew is the owner. What he invests now he will be able to reap the benefits, through his descendents, hopefully even 1,000 years later. He will invest exactly as he wishes, consistent with his values and vision, and not dependent on the cultural, or political demands of his host community. He will build a hospital open to all; serve in an army concerned with ethics and protecting his/her people; erect an educational network concerned with advancing the entire population.

In Israel, 4,000 years ago, Abraham introduced the world to the holiness of Jerusalem. A thousand years later, King David made it the capital of the Jewish people. Jewish life is as alive today in Jerusalem as it was then and some of the buildings erected way back are still used today – for the same purposes!