Does Israel Need Diaspora Jewry?

In the wake of the terror attacks in Paris, some Israeli politicians have called on French Jews to move to Israel. Critics argued that it was not the place of Israel’s leaders to make such an appeal and, furthermore, that it is in Israel’s interest to have the continued support of Diaspora communities. Taking a more nuanced view, Yaakov Amidror stipulates that, on the one hand, Israel’s “situation would be better in every way if twice as many Jews lived” there:

It would be easier to deal with internal issues such as preserving the state’s Jewish character. It would be simpler to develop the economy, since it is hard to base a national economy on just eight million citizens. A potential enlistment pool twice as large would make it easier to deal with security problems, to name just a few examples. . . .

In addition, Israel must not base its relationship with the U.S. or with other democratic countries on the “Jewish connection” alone. It is better for future relations . . . if it is clear that the relationship is based on mutual interests and on the support that stems from shared values, which Israel promotes in a challenging region.

On the other hand, Amidror writes that “Of course, as long as Jews live in those countries, mutual involvement must be nurtured seriously and the connection between those communities and Israel must be strengthened.”

Read more at Israel Hayom

More about: Aliyah, Diaspora, European Jewry, French Jewry, Israel & Zionism

It’s Time for Haredi Jews to Become Part of Israel’s Story

Unless the Supreme Court grants an extension from a recent ruling, on Monday the Israeli government will be required to withhold state funds from all yeshivas whose students don’t enlist in the IDF. The issue of draft exemptions for Haredim was already becoming more contentious than ever last year; it grew even more urgent after the beginning of the war, as the army for the first time in decades found itself suffering from a manpower crunch. Yehoshua Pfeffer, a haredi rabbi and writer, argues that haredi opposition to army service has become entirely disconnected from its original rationale:

The old imperative of “those outside of full-time Torah study must go to the army” was all but forgotten. . . . The fact that we do not enlist, all of us, regardless of how deeply we might be immersed in the sea of Torah, brings the wrath of Israeli society upon us, gives a bad name to all of haredi society, and desecrates the Name of Heaven. It might still bring harsh decrees upon the yeshiva world. It is time for us to engage in damage limitation.

In Pfeffer’s analysis, today’s haredi leaders, by declaring that they will fight the draft tooth and nail, are violating the explicit teachings of the very rabbis who created and supported the exemptions. He finds the current attempts by haredi publications to justify the status quo not only unconvincing but insincere. At the heart of the matter, according to Pfeffer, is a lack of haredi identification with Israel as a whole, a lack of feeling that the Israeli story is also the haredi story:

Today, it is high time we changed our tune. The new response to the demand for enlistment needs to state, first and foremost to ourselves, that this is our story. On the one hand, it is crucial to maintain and even strengthen our isolation from secular values and culture. . . . On the other hand, this cultural isolationism must not create alienation from our shared story with our fellow brethren living in the Holy Land. Participation in the army is one crucial element of this belonging.

Read more at Tzarich Iyun

More about: Haredim, IDF, Israeli society