"While the politics of their choice are open to discussion, one reality is not: The Jaspers have deliberately moved their five young children into harm's way. Certainly, as adults, they have the right to make that move themselves, but I think taking their children is unconscionable."
You see, at the time, it was considered dangerous to live in Yehuda and Shomron, even though more people were being killed by terror attacks inside the "green line" than outside of it.Well, I responded by writing that this woman was putting her descendants into harm's way far more than I, given the astronomical intermarriage rate among non-Orthodox Jews in America. In other words, she was killing her family's Jewish future by staying in America.So when I heard that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu bowed to pressure from American Jewish "leaders" to scrap the billboard ads, I was not only disappointed. I was downright concerned.And I remain so.Because those billboards may have seemed like they were designed with yordim in mind. But that's not the case for any Jew who is willing to look at him/herself in the mirror and honestly ask the question of what the future will be for his/her descendants if they remain in America.The truth is that those billboards are for all Jews. If you remain in America, the odds are that your grandchildren will celebrate Christmas and not Hanukkah. If you remain in America, the odds are that your children will marry non-Jews and end the Jewish line for your family.It's so backward. When it comes to buying shares in a company, buying a home or even selecting a car for one's family, Jews in America do a tremendous amount of research. What existing problems does it have? Does it suit my needs? And, of course, will I receive a return on my investment long-term?But when it comes to where Jews in America live, and what kind of future it will mean for their children and grandchildren, they don't ask those questions.Put more simply, if I told you that I had one stock guaranteed to go up long-term and another guaranteed to absolutely tank long-term, which would you buy?Jews in America continue to ignore the rising stock of Israel and continue to purchase more and more shares of the plummeting (as high as a 75-80% intermarriage rate among non-Orthodox American Jews) US Jewry "fund."When leaders like National Director of the Anti-Defamation League Abraham Foxman and the Jewish Federations of North America leadership respond in panic, like they did to this campaign, it is clear to me that they heard the message of the campaign loud and clear – and that they want that message to go away as soon as possible.So here's the bottom line – just because it was done in a heavy-handed manner that some might find insulting does not mean it was incorrect. And it seems as though Foxman and Friends are hoping the whole issue will go away if they focus on the method of message delivery, when the message itself was absolutely correct.And that is a great disservice that they are providing to millions of American Jews.But more than that, it's a great disservice to those American Jews' descendants.The writer is managing partner of Finn Partners/Israel, a member of the US-based Ruder Finn Group. He also is host of The Aliyah Revolution on IsraelNationalRadio.com. He made aliyah with his wife and their children in 2004.
A great disservice
American Jews have been hurt by the removal of a controversial ad campaign targeting expats.
