Yair Melchior, the chief rabbi of Denmark, has said that for Danish Jews to flee in the wake of a deadly attack on a Copenhagen synagogue would be to grant a victory to terrorism, and he has criticized Benjamin Netanyahu for reminding European Jews that they have a home in Israel. Jonathan Tobin weighs the issues:
There is some truth to Melchior’s argument. . . . But does he really think the decline in the population of European Jews and the vast increase in aliyah in recent years is a statistical anomaly? As the Pew Research Center’s latest data report, Jews are fleeing Europe. That is not just because of the alarming increase in violence against Jews but [because] anti-Semitism has once again become mainstream in European culture after decades of being marginalized, or at least kept under wraps, after the Holocaust. . . .
Under these conditions, it is the duty of any prime minister of Israel to remind the world, as well as those faced with such a difficult decision, that Jews are no longer a homeless people that can be abused with impunity. The rebirth of Jewish sovereignty in the land of Israel not only gave the Jews a refuge that would have saved millions during the Holocaust. It also gave every Jew around the world, whether Zionist or non-Zionist, religious or non-religious, a reason to stand a little taller. Jews may choose to stay where they are, whether in an increasingly dangerous Europe or in a place like the United States where, despite the existence of anti-Semitism, they can live in unprecedented freedom, acceptance, and security. But the existence of a home for Jews helps make them more secure.
Read more on Commentary: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/2015/02/15/the-copenhagen-attacks-and-zionism-netanyahu-israel-anti-semitism/