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Israel Must Take Care of Diaspora Jewry in Time of Peace as Well
Jewish Ukrainian refugees planning to immigrate to Israel en route from Lviv to the border crossing with Poland on February 26, 2022. (The Jewish Agency for Israel)

Israel Must Take Care of Diaspora Jewry in Time of Peace as Well

Ma’ariv, Israel, March 13

Amidst the incessant flow of news surrounding the war in Ukraine, one story in particular caught my attention: that of Tatiana, a 78-year-old Holocaust survivor, who fled Ukraine and decided to immigrate to Israel. “I know that if I come to Israel with an open heart, Israel will open its heart to me,” Tatiana told a local report. As a veteran immigrant myself, I know that the absorption of Jews coming from the Diaspora is not easy, but I want to believe that this time we will be able to accommodate the new immigrants in a better way than we have in the past. Israel, the nation-state of the Jewish people, is home to only half of the Jews in the world. The second half, about eight million Jews, still live in the Diaspora. We must ask ourselves: who are the Jews of the Diaspora? What is their connection to Israel? What is the mutual responsibility between us? For the past two and a half weeks, Ukrainian Jewry has been in big trouble. There is no need to explain the immense difficulty associated with the plight of war and the attempt to survive. The state of Israel has not remained indifferent to the situation and has opened its gates to Ukrainian Jews. In my view, this is our commitment as a state, with the understanding that the Diaspora is an integral part of the Jewish people. The current war threatens the Jewish community in Ukraine – and the Ukrainian people in general – and we must take action. This is what we have done and will continue doing out of complete faith that this is our role – not only toward the Jewish community, but toward all Ukrainians who are in distress. Israel has to help in any way it can: with humanitarian aid, the establishment of emergency field hospitals that will serve the entire Ukrainian population, the absorption of asylum seekers, or assistance to Jewish communities. The state of Israel and its government, civil society organizations and business world must all join hands to support Ukraine in every way they possibly can. Some of the Jews of Ukraine are seeking, as part of their campaign to escape the terrible war, to come to Israel, temporarily or as a permanent solution. Their journey will not end with a landing at Ben Gurion Airport. Our attitude toward the Diaspora will also be measured by our ability as Israelis to accept the Ukrainian population, to absorb it. The Jewish Diaspora in Ukraine is not alone: it has a solid backing for the Jewish people in the world, especially in Israel; a backing that Jewish communities did not have before the establishment of the State of Israel. I do look ahead and wonder about what will happen the day after the war: what will be our attitude here in Israel to the Jewish communities that remain in the Diaspora, and how will we treat the Diaspora members who have chosen to be a part of our lives here in Israel? The responsibility is on each and every one of us, the citizens of Israel, to make sure that we protect them and that our sense of concern, care and solidarity is realized not only in times of war and distress, but also on a daily basis, when there is peace. – Ziona Koenig-Yair (translated by Asaf Zilberfarb)

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