Jewish World: The oleh: Go West

American aliya has never been high, but recently it has enjoyed a renaissance of sorts.

By HAVIV RETTIG GUR
aliya 224.88 nefesh (photo credit: Nefesh B'Nefesh)
aliya 224.88 nefesh
(photo credit: Nefesh B'Nefesh)
In 5768, no other Jew so occupied the consciousness of the Jewish mind in all its diverse manifestations as the oleh. Across different Jewish cultures and communities, from France to Russia, the US and even northwestern India, among Orthodox, Conservative and Reform, everyone was talking about aliya. And for nearly all of them, talk of aliya brought more questions than answers. In Russia, aliya emptied the country of its affiliated and active Jews. Now witnessing a delicate renaissance of Jewish activity, Russian Jewry continues to live in the shadow of that great exodus. Can a new, organized and thoroughly modern Russian Jewry be self-sustaining? Can the great-grandchildren of atheists create anew a world devastated by communism and then abandoned for the better pastures of Israel and the US? For other communities, aliya retains its defensive character. Both the French and Argentinean Jewish communities recall the waves of aliya following growing anti-Jewish violence on French streets and the economic collapse in Argentina. The waves may have subsided with the stabilization of both crises, but the communities remember well the sense of security that the possibility of aliya offered. In the peculiar case of American Jewry, which makes up nearly 80 percent of the Diaspora, aliya holds another meaning altogether. American aliya has never been high, but recently it has enjoyed a renaissance of sorts - if not in practice, at least in intent. As the American community searches for a strategy to engage young Jews with the diverse possibilities of Jewish life, the encounter with Israel has emerged as a key piece of the puzzle. In facing their fears about continuity, American Jews of every denomination and movement, in nearly every federation and synagogue, have begun to view aliya as an educational opportunity, a tool for strengthening identity and belonging. For another tiny group of Jews, most visibly in Iran, aliya is rejected (at least publicly) along with Zionism itself. While communities contemplate the meaning and possibilities of aliya, the trend is toward decline. Out of less than 20,000 olim annually, the majority still come from the former Soviet Union. This part, however, is shrinking, so Western aliya is quickly becoming half of all aliya - a larger piece in a shrinking pie. The Oleh's Challenges Nearly every Jew today lives in a free society and to a large extent can choose the direction of his or her life. The question of aliya, and the nature of the olim, is thus changing from "Israel as refuge" to "Israel as meaningful home." This is the challenge of aliya - not the oleh's challenge so much as Israel's - and it is not being met. Even among America's Orthodox, the aliya rate is less than 0.5 percent annually. For Western Jews, being a Zionist does not equal moving to Israel. As for Israel, the signs are not encouraging. Asked earlier this year how he planned to encourage aliya, then-immigrant absorption minister Ya'acov Edri expressed confidence that America, too, would one day turn on its Jews, leading them to seek refuge here. There is no indication that Israeli officials have understood that aliya from the West is a new animal which will require a new set of assumptions and new tools.