Diaspora Jews Are Begging: Let Us Enter Israel
Makor Rishon, Israel, February 17
For a year now, Jews from all over the world have not been able to enter the borders of the State of Israel, except for exceptional and extraordinary cases. The decision to prevent them from entering has many consequences, including barring people from meeting their family members in Israel. For the first time in history, the Jews of the world feel that Israel is far and closed off, and they cannot reach it. The psychological and personal consequences of this new reality are grave. Here in Israel, we see the light at the end of the tunnel or at least we think we’re seeing it in recent days. But in the rest of the world – certainly in Western countries with large Jewish populations such as the United States, France, and Britain – people see no light and no tunnel. They are very deeply immersed in the coronavirus crisis and do not know when, and how, they’ll get out of it. “Send my people (to Israel),” writes Rabbi Shaul Robinson of Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan on Facebook. He called on the Israeli government to consider allowing Jews from around the world to enter Israel. Rabbi Robinson went on to write, “I read in the news about discussions taking place between Israel and Greece, about allowing vaccinated Israelis to visit Greece and vaccinated Greeks to visit Israel over the summer holidays. In my opinion, the Israeli government should give such priority to Diaspora Jews interested in visiting Israel, before anyone else.” I believe Rabbi Robinson referred to Jews from the Diaspora who have already been vaccinated, and even if not, to those who would be willing to enter the required quarantine upon arrival. “For a year now we have not been allowed in,” he writes dramatically, “and I see no prospect that this will change. We have daily ties with Israel: financial, cultural, religious – and more importantly, family ties. We send our children (or our parents) to immigrate to Israel, with the expectation that we can see each other often.” He addressed the Israeli government and said: “I hope someone in the Israeli government will see our relationship as no less important than a trip to Greece.” Robinson concludes that “we are fighting for Israel. We are the lobby of Israel. We are sending hundreds of millions of dollars of charity to Israel. Just let us enter the borders of Israel.” Various videos are shared on the social networks of immigrants who painfully talk about “the State of Israel allowing 600 athletes from around the world to come to Israel for sports competition, but not our Jewish families from the world.” In interviews conducted on some of the Jewish sites, it is said that the ban on entering Israel is an “existential danger” to the Jews of the Diaspora, certainly the Zionists among them. On the other hand, the question arises: How can the State of Israel allow people to enter the country merely on the basis of their religion? Such a process would probably be impossible and extraordinarily expensive since we’re not talking about investigating one’s Judaism before allowing immigration to Israel; rather, we would be required to investigate one’s Judaism before boarding a flight to Tel Aviv. –Zvika Klein (translated by Asaf Zilberfarb)
