Anyone who wants to stimulate public discussion on a topic is
faced with a dilemma. On the one hand, if he speaks politely
it is doubtful that the media will bother reporting it to the
public. Today when people constantly chase after favorable
media coverage, anyone speaking in a matter of fact, well-
bred manner is of no interest to the newspapers, television,
or radio.
Almost the only way to attract attention is by using some
trenchant off-key remark which, however, brings mixed
blessings. It is liable to divert the argument from the main
topic and focus the discussion instead around the comment
itself. Usually an incidental comment made in the heat of an
argument is utilized to deflect the discussion from the main
topic to the correctness of this or that comment.
This is what happened when Rabbi Shmuel Halpert, a UTJ MK,
referred to the non-Jewish immigrants from the former
U.S.S.R. countries as being a "fifth column" and this is
likewise what happened in the middle of November at Beit
Shemesh when chareidim protested against the opening of
stores selling pork for Russian immigrants. Instead of
examining the problem at hand, the media concentrated on how
the spokesmen in each case expressed themselves about Russian
immigration to Israel.
The non-Jewish immigration to Israel utilizes the loopholes
in Israel's Law of Return. In addition, certificates of
Judaism are routinely forged and other ruses are used to gain
entrance to the Holy Land and to receive the financial
benefits included in the governmental absorption package.
Even the leaders of the immigration parties are working to
end immigration based on false documents.
There is almost no debate among the various political parties
about the need to amend this state of affairs. The Law of
Return has become a laughingstock and because of it dangerous
"hitchhikers" who ruin the social fabric of the State of
Israel have entered the country. In the first waves of
Russian immigration in the 1990's authorities disagreed
whether 30% or 40% were non-Jews. Recently, however, the
figures are 50% to 60%, while reliable sources claim that
even these numbers are optimistic and the true figures are
closer to 80%.
For some reason, it is mainly chareidim who are worried about
the plague of assimilation because of the expansion of non-
Jewish immigration and they are interested in airing this
issue publicly. All efforts to gain attention about this
issue have been unfruitful. Certain elements of society are
consciously interested in increasing non-Jewish immigration
to Israel. Their aim is clear: uprooting any connection to
Judaism from the State of Israel. They attacked some of the
most flamboyant remarks in Beit Shemesh, and have fully
utilized them to distract attention from the main issue.
On the other hand, without such a caustic remark it is
doubtful whether anyone in the country would have known that
the Knesset had even discussed the problem of non-Jews
flooding the land.
It is well known that Maran the Brisker Rav ztvk'l,
HaRav Yitzchok Zeev Soloveitchik, said when the Zionist
Movement began that it is a mistake to believe that their
objective was to found a State and while accomplishing this
they also were uprooting Judaism. On the contrary, Zionism's
true objective is to uproot Judaism, and establishing the
State is only the best means they found of doing so.
Doubtless, when Maran said this several decades ago his
remark seemed almost baseless, a sort of "fanatic" comment
lacking any content. Although, it was difficult to overlook
the harm being done to Judaism during the years of Zionist
activity, at the time it seemed a sort of fallout and
incidental effect that sometimes happens when a new ideology
gains the heart of the populace. The National Religious camp
certainly saw things this way and they gave the religious
backing for this process. They disregarded all the sins of
Zionism against Judaism and even went so far as to picture
this process as being a part of the aschalta dege'ulah
(beginning of the Redemption). Even the brutal shmad
campaigns to make the immigrants irreligious, that were
carried out forcefully and deceitfully by some of the
founders of Israel did not destroy their faith.
Parenthetically, since we are talking about the sins of
Zionism, let us point out a ludicrous bit of news lately
printed on the first page of a major Israeli newspaper. This
newspaper reported that special agents sent by the State of
Israel carried out a "secret campaign" and saved several
Jewish families from the cruel future waiting them. These
unfortunate Jews would have remained captured in an enemy
country. Anyone who read the bright-red sensational headlines
and the highly emotional article was moved by the typical
Israeli resourcefulness that once again succeeded in saving
Jews from captivity and thus seemed to justify the existence
of a Jewish state in which Jews from all parts of the world
can find refuge.
If the readers of my article did not hear about the
brilliant, secret Israeli campaign it seems they are missing
something basic in their Zionist education. According to the
earthshaking news, Satmar Chassidim in the U.S.A. gained
control over dozens of families of Yemenite Jews who were
taken out of their homeland and brought to the U.S.A. to
prevent them from immigrating to Israel. The Satmar
Chassidim, according to that article, are holding those
Yemenite Jews in a state of almost captivity. They prevent
them from immigrating to Israel, force them to study Yiddish,
and imbue them with abominable anti-Zionist attitudes. In a
top-secret campaign, agents of the State of Israel succeeded
in rescuing some of these families from their dismal
captivity and brought them to the land they so desired to
reach. The pictures of the smiling children, with curled
payos, who arrived in Israel after their amazing and
heroic rescue, adorned the article.
Much more than chutzpah is needed to publish such an
article. The State of Israel that set up shmad camps
for the Yemenite olim, the country that imprisoned
these immigrants in the infamous Ein Shemed Camp and did not
allow them any contact with Torah-true Jewry some fifty years
ago, the country that fought against chareidi activists who
tried in all sorts of inventive ways to enter these camps to
bring them the word of Hashem, the country that barred those
olim who were imprisoned in the camps from enjoying
normal Jewish life and acted in every possible manner to
sever the youth from their parents (and in one incident its
agents even killed a Yemenite oleh who took part in a
protest against the organized Zionist shmad), is
surely the last to have any right to talk against a chareidi
Jewish organization that for many years has worked hard and
maintained close contact with the remnants of Yemenite
Jewry.
After much effort, Satmar succeeded in transferring many of
these Jews to the U.S.A. where they live in a traditional
Jewish lifestyle as their fathers lived for thousands of
years. Indeed, it is true they are learning to speak Yiddish,
but do the critics want them to continue speaking Arabic in
the U.S.A.?
At present since the Zionist approach to uprooting Judaism
has failed, the vision of several politicians holding key
positions in the Israeli government is to confine Torah
Judaism into a sort of "reservation" in which those
interested in anthropology will occasionally take sight-
seeing tours, similar to the tours being conducted on Shabbos
nights in the Mea Shearim neighborhood. To accomplish this an
emergency plan is being put into action to save the country
from being taken over by mitzvah observers. Accordingly the
more non-Jews brought to Israel -- either from the countries
of the former U.S.S.R. or legal and illegal foreign workers --
will diminish the power of the religious. Consequently, the
State of Israel must adapt itself to the demographic changes
that will occur.
If someone seems to feel that the above is only theoretical,
I believe the following quote from what Arye Kaspi, a
reporter for Ha'aretz, a Left-leaning newspaper, wrote
will be quite convincing: "If I could, I would change the Law
of Return so that not only those who are half or eighth Jews
can immigrate to Israel, I would happily bring to Israel full
non-Jews. The non-Jewish immigrants are our Foreign Legion
and our Southern Lebanon Army. They are allies of the secular
Jews in the campaign for this country's secular image. In the
same measure that the chareidim exert themselves to force
their lifestyle on the secular, the non- Jewish men and women
become important soldiers in this campaign. They cannot be
brought to teshuva or be softened by memories of their
grandparents. They want to eat pork with milk, take buses on
Shabbos and have a secular education.
"As one whose pedigree extends to Mea Shearim, I can say that
I feel that I have more in common with pork-eating
Provoslavs, kein yirbu, than with my cousins with
curled payos. As much as the chareidim try to control
our lives, so will this connection [with non-Jews]
strengthen."
The tens of thousands of non-Jews who arrive each year to
Israel, part of them within the framework of the perverted
"Law of Return" and part not, some carrying forged documents
and false declarations, receive generous assistance from the
State costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of shekalim
each year. They are serving the Zionist aim that Arye
Kaspi pointed out. But where is the country going to get the
money for all this financial assistance? One does not have to
exert oneself to arrive at the "correct" answer. On the same
page of Arye Kaspi's column appears a proposal of the
Ha'aretz editor. Of course you guessed correctly:
slashing Torah culture.
Please notice how those who are always in the fore of fights
against Judaism head the campaign for the illegal foreign
workers who are overrunning the country. Their eyes are full
of tears when they see the hardships of these workers who
lack the elementary rights of humans. These humanitarians
constantly demand that the State help the workers and their
families who immigrated with them either legally or
otherwise. These are the same public defenders of the law who
are so particular about each detail of the law so that no one
should dare undermine its authority. These are the people who
should naturally demand the eviction of all foreign intruders
who deceived the State and managed to enter it with forged
documents and false declarations. Why does the State of
Israel need to give a hechsher to such grave acts? Why
does it need to finance the medical services or schools -- as
these distinguished humanitarians demand -- for those who
entered the State illegally?
One obvious answer presents itself. To these "benevolent"
people, there is no difference between those from the former
U.S.S.R. who utilize the loopholes in the Law of Return to
deceive the government and the illegal foreign workers, of
which hundreds of thousands have become semi-citizens in
Israel.
They feel that the chareidim are endangering the secular
hegemony in the State of Israel. They therefore support pork
stores that are spreading throughout the country. They are
the ones who assist the circumvention of the law to allow
more and more non-Jews to immigrate to Israel so that in a
year, two or ten, the plague of assimilation will also be in
the State of Israel. This time too they enjoy the assistance
of those who establish fictitious conversion academies that
make a joke of the Jewish concept of conversion (according to
the Ha'aretz newspaper, these special schools have
issued some 11,000 conversion certificates during the past
five years).
We hope that those who have true common ground with us and
are aware of the true common denominator that binds Jews
throughout the world and throughout the ages -- our Torah --
will finally wake up and promote Jewish unity on the basis of
the basic values and principles that we all accept.
