American Jews Listen Up

by Hillel Fuld
2.5K views

Dear my brothers and sisters, Jewish people living in America,

We have to clear some things up.

I have recently been very vocal about antisemitism in America, and I have called for my brothers and sisters in America to come home, to come back to Israel.

To say that I received a lot of heat from American Jews is a laughable understatement. They have responded in one of a few ways.

Either they’ve said I am overreacting, and antisemitism in America isn’t really that bad.

To them I respond, according to the FBI, 60% of all religious hate crimes in America are targeting Jews. Does that sound safe to you?

Numbers don’t lie.

Another response I get is that Israel is so hard to live in and it’s no better in Israel than it is in America.

To them I respond, there has never been a 75 year period in the history of the Jewish people since the destruction of the temple in which so few Jews have been killed.

Read that sentence again. There was always something: the Spanish inquisition, the pogroms, the Holocaust, there was always something.

So while there is indeed terror in Israel, and living here is far from easy, this country is protecting us, the IDF is defending us.

So yes, you can, and should come home, and we will welcome you with open arms and we will protect you.

Another response I received is that people can’t move here because it is impossible to make a living here, and that they should stay in America because it is comfortable there.

To them I respond, while I respect your opinion, you sound awfully like the German Jews before the Holocaust. They were comfortable, they were making money, until they weren’t.

Now, I am not saying that getting on a plane and coming here will be completely seamless and without challenges, far from it. There are challenges here, just like there are challenges anywhere, but this is your home.

You don’t need to tell me about terror, I think we both know I know the dangers of Arab terror in Israel. Having said that, how we respond to our enemies is in our hands, and only our hands. Outside of Israel, we are at the mercy of everyone else, and we all know how that turns out.

You coming here will actually advance our cause and our strength in this conflict.

One more thing that I’ve heard is that people should not be making aliyah, a.k.a. moving to Israel, out of fear. Meaning, I should stop being an alarmist and convincing people to come here because of the antisemitism in America. To them, I respond, you are right.

One should not move here only out of fear, but out of a desire to come back to their ancestral home land.

That being said, the antisemitism in America and its rapid growth, that should be a trigger for you to begin the process of coming home.

Now, as I’ve said many times, I am a big talker. My parents brought me here as a teenager, so it’s easy for me to say to come home. I didn’t have to make that decision. I didn’t have to sacrifice anything (although coming here mid high school was far from fun!).

Having said that, if you are interested in learning more about life in Israel, if you are reading the writing on the wall, and are worried about American jewry, please reach out. I mean this genuinely, this is a real offer.

If you want to come here and you are worried about your livelihood, and you are afraid you won’t get a job, be in touch, and I will do my best to help.

Again, this is a real offer.

There are people in this ecosystem like Michael Eisenberg who are working tirelessly to bring people back to Israel and help them get employed in the Israeli tech world.

But I would not be honest with myself if I didn’t explain the following point.

Anybody who studies the Bible is familiar with the famous story of the spies.

If you are not familiar, before the Jewish people entered the land of Israel in the Bible, they wanted to send spies ahead of time to look at the land and see how hard it would be to settle in the land of Israel.

What ended up happening is that 10 of the 12 spies came back, speaking badly about the land, and explaining how hard it would be to settle in the land of Israel.

The Jewish people were punished severely for this transgression, a.k.a. speaking badly about the land of Israel.

Two spies came back and said, “We can do this.”

Here’s the thing, if you want to find reasons to not come here, the list is long. But if you want to change your lenses, clean your glasses, what you will notice is that Israel is a dream come true for Jewish people (and non Jews by the way but that’s a topic for another time!)

When I was growing up, you had to lower your quality of life in order to move to Israel. When I was growing up, you could not get deodorant, tunafish, or orange juice in this country.

Movies came a year after they came out in other countries. Electronics were five times the price in this country than they were in other countries. It was not easy to move here.

Today? Today, I fundamentally believe that you can come here and increase your quality of life.

Yes, increase!

I don’t believe that my friends in the US are living a higher quality life than I am.

Now, yes, I’ve made a career for myself here, and I realize not everyone can do what I do.

Having said that, I am no magician, nor do I have any hard skills as an engineer, doctor, lawyer, investment banker, or anything else.

All I ever did was follow my passion and work hard. There is no reason that a person can’t come here, find their niche, work hard at it, and achieve greatness.

Some people think that once they hit an advanced age, they cannot find a job here.

Again. False.

Not belittling the struggle but it’s a challenge you can overcome.

I have personally helped at least five individuals past the age of 60 land a job in Israel. Nothing is impossible. In fact, if you know the right people, you can definitely move forward here in Israel from an employment perspective.

I’m happy to be the “Right people” for you. I mean it.

The bottom line is, I am not judging you, and I understand that your family is there, your elderly parents are there, your children are there, and it would be hard for you to get on a plane right now. Truly, I understand.

Fine, but at least open your eyes, and realize that your situation there is temporary, and that it is not your home. At least understand that Israel is your home as a Jew, and at least start planning for the future.

No one said it was easy, but then, again, you do many things in life that aren’t easy. You make sacrifices for your kids, for their future, right?

Cars are expensive here, Israelis are very different than Americans culturally speaking (understatement), there is a language barrier, and more challenges. I am not belittling those challenges, far from it.

But now is the time to look around you, realize the Jews are now being beaten in the streets, antisemitism is in Congress, pop artists are going full-blown Hitler lovers, NBA players are sharing antisemitic blood libels, Netflix joined the party and is promoting a movie that depicts Jews and Israelis as a people crueler than the Nazis, and one of the most iconic TV shows in America, Saturday night live, is normalizing antisemitism.

Just because it is hard for you to come here, does not mean you need to tell yourself that America is safe and good for Jews.

You might very well be comfortable there with your fancy car and big house, and again, I am not belittling that. But that comfort is coming to an end and it’s happening faster than you or I could have imagined.

If all of that was not enough to convince you to start thinking about your future, do you understand that 8 out of 10 Jews in America will not have Jewish children or grandchildren in a matter of a generation or two?

80% assimilation, does that not worry you?

It all comes down to looking at history, and not kidding yourself that history won’t repeat itself. It always does. It already is.

In every generation, they come after us, and we try to out German the Germans, to out Greek the Greeks, to out Roman the Romans, and now today, to out American the Americans.

But here’s the thing, we can try to be like them, to assimilate, and we can hope that if we do that they won’t hate us, and antisemitism will go away.

Unfortunately, the history books tell a different story. There is actually a direct correlation between assimilation and antisemitism. The more we try to be like them, the more we assimilate, the more they hate us. It’s just a fact, and it repeats itself over and over again. Sorry if that offends you. Sorry if any of this offends you.

So, all I’m saying, I’m not judging you, I love you. You are my brother and sister. And I want what’s best for you.

What’s best for you, especially in 2022 with the antisemitism growing so fast in America and in other places, is to come home, to come back to Israel.

Looking forward to having a cuppa coffee or a steak with you, and helping you land a job in this incredible country, hopefully in a company that is changing the world, like so many Israeli companies are.

I will just end with one more point, because I can already predict the responses I’m going to get.

Like I’ve said a few times now, I am not judging you, nor am I looking down upon you and saying that I am better than you in anyway. I am just concerned for you, and I want what’s best for you and your children.

What’s best for you and your children is to come home to Israel where you can flourish and thrive because you’re Jewish and not despite your Judaism, which is the case outside of Israel.

Your concerns about life in Israel are very real and very legitimate. The issue is that you are not concerned for what’s happening right before your eyes, and that scares me.

Throughout our history, we forgot who we were, we forget today who we are, and we have antisemitism to thank for reminding us that we are indeed different, and no matter how hard we try we can’t unJewish ourselves.

Hitler didn’t care how religious you were, how assimilated you were, and neither does Kanye or anyone else.

Do you know what’s even sadder than Jews going to the gas chambers? Jews going to the gas chambers who don’t even realize why they’re going to the gas chambers, and in some cases, who don’t even realize they’re Jewish!

So, if you want to make Aliyah, even if you’re just considering it, reach out, and I will introduce you to other people who have moved to Israel. They will guide you through the process of what it was like to come here, find a job here, and make a life here in this unbelievably historic and miraculous country.

Looking forward to our steak. How do you like it? Medium rare?

Done. It’s on me.

Originally posted on facebook.


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