Most yeshiva students have things somewhat mapped out. Spend a year or two learning in yeshiva in Israel, return to the states, often to a place like Lakewood or Monsey, spend 6 months in the "freezer" focusing on only learning and then start shidduchim, dating for marriage.
However, sometimes these guys end up staying in Israel for another year, and another year etc. And sometimes they settle in Israel and build their lives here in the holy land. Other times they set their sights on returning sometime in the not so distant future…which seems to ebb further and further away with each year that passes. Every so often, there are those who ask the question, "Why aren’t more people staying here after yeshiva?"
Its never easy being an immigrant. Everyone knows Israel has changed over the decades. We hear how difficult it was for the immigrants of political Zionism in the mid 1900’s. We can’t imagine what the Vilna Gaon, the father of the yeshiva movement had to endure in the late 1700’s during his failed attempt at making aliyah to the Holy Land. He made it as far as Odessa and then literally missed the boat. It was the students and children that eventually actualized his vision and moved to Israel to build what became known as the Hayishuv Hayashan, the old settlement. However, this is often forgotten or buried deep within the collective consciousness of today's yeshiva world.
The students of the Vilna Gaon and the students of the Baal Shem Tov should be our role models. They experienced unthinkable hardships and were happy. This is what G-d intended: for the Jewish people - to live here, keep his Torah and flourish.
Just because its easier for us to just hop on a plane and go to Eretz Yisrael doesn't mean it should be any less important. If they were willing to go through unthinkable hardship in order to come here and to live here and they were happy doing it, then it doesn't make sense for us to ignore all that.
The Generation that didn't make it
Yehoshua Bin Nun also didn't have it easy in the times of Moses leading the Jewish people out of Egypt. In fact, due to lack of confidence, faith and trust in G-d an entire generation was sentenced to die in the desert and not enter the land. Entering the land only happened 40 years later when that next generation was able to go in and conquer the cities of the morally bankrupt Canaanites living here several thousands of years ago.
Today's Aliyah?
Today, not only does Israel have modern day amenities such as sewage, running water, hospitals, but it also has economic opportunity, a hitech industry of world renown, a booming economy, as well as a diversity of communities for nearly any immigrant in any language. There are new haredi English speaking communities and schools popping up all the time and in places such as Ramat Bet Shemesh, many of these schools are vibrant and flourishing.
Demographics of a Religious Jewish State
According to a 2016 study by the Pew Research Center, about 62% Haredim said that the term Zionists does describe them accurately. But Pew was probably asking the wrong question. If the question is about living in the Holy Land, they may have answered differently. It is strangely ironic that many may find it astonishing that today, religious Jews also have a deep yearning and passion for living here.
In fact, as we saw in 2021 approximately 75% of those making aliyah from North America were Orthodox, hands down the largest group in 2021. According to the Israel Democracy Institute, Haredim alone (not including other Orthodox Jewish groups) will comprise 32% of Israel’s population by the year 2065. Although the politics of the 20th century may have been confusing, there's no question that the future of Israel looks more religious than the early founders of the modern state could ever have dreamed.
This short film by J.P. Katz from the TRIBE Group zooms in on Avraham Shusteris from Nachliel and Yoel Berman from Kedushas Tzion who are building programs to restore the purpose of living in Eretz Yisrael to the hearts and minds of those living here and stateside.
JP Katz from tribejournal.org is a film producer and video blogger living in Bet Shemesh, Israel focusing on documenting, filming and sharing an Israel untold.
Parts of this article were remarks by Yoel Berman and Avraham Shusteris, as can be seen in the film..
6 comments:
I spend one Shabbos in Lakewood and was shocked at the absence of anything "Israeli".
I recall a wealthy man in a shul I used to go to in Toronto talking about buying a retirement property in Florida. Israel just wasn't on his radar.
You have to remember that Modern Chareidism(tm) is reactionary. It is, in a lot of ways, defined by doing the opposite of what everyone else does simply to be able to say they're doing the opposite. So if the rest of religious Jewry prioritizes Israel, they will do the opposite and turn Lakewood into Jerusalem.
Rav Avigdor Miller did not advise American Yeshiva students to move to Israel with their young families. He felt that this would deprive their parents the connection with their children and their well deserved Nachas. Having lived in Europe for the first 25 years of my live and now living in North America, I realize now that the technicalities between the two localities are totally different.
Flying from Europe to Israel takes you 3 - 4 hours and you fly basically within the same time zone. Flying from NA to Israel (or back) is a 24 hour ordeal, jetlag and the works.
Moving to Israel with a growing family means your family will not be able to come for Yomim Tovim or for family Simchos without leaving some of the children behind.
Garnel, I don't like your comment. All it does it badmouth Jews. If one must love the land of The Jews, one must certainly love The Jews themselves. Maybe those who don't like to live in Israel are somewhat like the meraglim, but remember that to badmouth Jews is like meraglim on steroids. We have differences and even character flaws, but we must still love one another. We are family.
I am Charedi living in Boro Park. As far as living in Eretz Yisroel, I do think about it sometimes and it is certainly on my radar. I love it there. But the reasons I am still here are several. Many might disagree with them and they may be right but these are my reasons none the less.
1. Every society has it's style, and there are things about the style of current day Israelis that I don't like and I don't want myself or my progeny to become that way.
2. I am afraid of the goyim there who are much more antagonistic to Jews than the goyim here. There is nowhere here where I would feel that if I mistakenly made a wrong turn I might be lynched ch"v.
3. I fear that the danger of kids going OTD is worse there.
4. I fear the trouble the anti-religious government could make, more so than here.
5. Here I make money doing investment businesses. I don't know what would be there. I guess this part is likely just the fear of the unknown.
Having said that, I do hope to end up living in Eretz Yisroel, and I don't mean davka with the coming of Moshiach BB"A.
Well Anonymous, I'm not thrilled with your comment either.
Three times a day we pray that God give us the chance to return to Tzion. Until 1948 that was a pipe dream for most. Now it's a true opportunity which means choosing to be more comfortable out of Israel makes one's prayers into empty lip service.
1. Every society has its style, yet when Eliyahu and Yirmiyahu wanted to abandon their corrupt societies (which, sorry Satmar, were way worse Jewishly than Israel is today) God told them to go back because Israel is the centre of the Jewish world and the ultimate home for all Jews.
2. You're a lucky man, considering how many Jews have been lynched in the last year in New York.
3. The difference is that if your kid goes OTD there, they still speak Hebrew, still live in a society that mostly shuts down on Shabbos and still likely marry another Jew which means they maintain a connection that might bring them back one day. In New York, they just disappear.
4. The government isn't anti-religious, it just isn't giving in to the temper tantrums of the Chareidi political parties. The Chareidi community doesn't have a monopoly on Torah observance and how its practiced.
5. You can run your investment business from Israel. There's these things called computers now...
Bottom line: no, not all of us can or are ready to live in Israel but while we have to accept that, we also have to be upset about it. We are living as lesser Jews in golus and instead of creating a fiction about how wonderful Jewish life is here, we have to realize it's the same shmutz as it was in the alte heim, just with better doughnuts.
Garnel, I don't disagree with your comment here, except for your opening statement which needs correction. We pray 3 times a day not that we get the chance to return but that Hashem returns to Zion with the rebuilding of the Bais Hamikdosh
והשב את העבודה... ותחזינה עינינו בשובך לציון
and sometimes we include
השב שכינתך לציון עירך וסדר העבודה לירושלים
And by the way, I happen to be one of those people who feel this prayer to the depths of my soul and often can't control crying when I say it.
The yesivish world has "lost sight"!
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