Orthodox aliyah
This letter appeared in the Jerusalem Post letters column May 2, 2011:
Sir:
It is amusing that some of your correspondents (Letters 29 April) believe that it is incumbent on Orthodox Jews to make aliyah. However, one should note that the State of Israel was founded by the sacrifices of mainly secular Jews, and that Orthodoxy in the Diaspora was mainly anti-Zionist. It is only lately that they have changed their minds and now think that aliyah is mandated by God.
Yours
Jack Cohen
Netanya
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Here is a reply from Robert Klein:
Dear Jack,
I read your recent letter in the Jerusalem Post and was surprised to learn that you view orthodox Jews as Johnny-come-latelies to the concept of aliya as a mitzva. In point of fact, the divine mandate to live in the Holy Land has been a constant in Judaism, whether one looks at the Tanach, the Talmud, the Rishonim, the Acharonim, or the modern poskim. For that matter, even the Satmars believe aliya is a divine injunction. The whole disagreement within orthodoxy regarding the obligation to make aliyah has always been an issue of timing and circumstances only. Ironically, rejectors of God-centric Judaism are the Johnny-come-latelies, because for the past three milennia, Jews who stopped believing in the divinity of the Torah quite logically felt n! o obligation to keep any of the mitzvot, including yishuv ha'aretz. It's only in the last 5% of Jewish history that Torah deniers changed their minds and now think that aliya is somehow mandated by biological or self-proclaimed membership in the Jewish nation.
It should also be duly noted that while the vast majority of political activists in early Zionism were indeed secularists, these were generally not the ones who made "sacrifices". As I'm sure you know, the first Jews to build up the land by the sweat of their brow were the proto-Zionists (such as the followers of the Gra) and then later the Zionist members of the First Aliyah and the Chovevei Tzion. These groups were comprised almost entirely of orthodox Jews. I'm sure you also know that all of the earliest settlements were established by orthodox Jews. So while the contribution of the secularists to Zionism was (and remains) prolific, it is not accurate to portray the nascent State of Israel as a country built almost entirely by secularists.
Respectfully yours,
Robert
------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Robert:
Thanks for your considered opinion, but it certainly is biased. Just because the holy writings supported the concept of aliyah made little difference to those who were comfortably making a living in the galut. Historical accuracy requires that you recognise that Orthodox and indeed many secular Jews were anti-Zionist prior to the Holocaust. They regarded Zionism as a threat to their acceptability in their comfortable galut, the "divided loyalty" syndrome.
Only after the Holocaust had demonstrated conclusively that there was no place for Jews in the Diaspora did they come around and become supporters of the Jewish State. Furthermore, most of those who founded the kibbutzim, that was the backbone of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel, and who fought in the War of Independence, were secular and even anti-religious Jews. Also, most of the political and military leaders were certainly not Orthodox themselves. The Orthodox did settle many villages that later blossomed into towns after the Holocaust, such as Petach Tikva, Kfar Saba, Binyamina, Zichron, etc. But, as I said that was a later development.
Sincerely
Jack
-------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Jack,
First, I certainly hope my opinion is biased, for if it weren't, it would mean that I'd lost my faith! I hope you are equally comfortable with your secular humanist bias. Of course, I suspect you were trying to imply that I allowed my bias to cause me to misinterpret the facts, and that I certainly deny. Let's look at those facts again.
You wrote that I do not acknowledge the failure of orthodox Jews to make aliya. I'm not sure how you got that misimpression. The articles in the Jerusalem Post which you found humorous and I poignant were precisely about the moral failure of frum Jews to live up to their own standards. That was true both before and after 1948. I fully agree that way too many frum Jews have allowed their economic and communal comfort in the West to blur their halachic values, though your second explanation was incorrect: religious leaders did not use the divided loyalty argument. They did have halachic problem! s with mass aliya ("dechikat haketz" and "aliyah k'choma"), but no one claimed that there was no individual mitva per se of yishuv ha'aretz. So while support for Zionism within Orthodoxy has indeed grown over the past century, as I wrote before, Orthodoxy always viewed individual aliya as divinely mandated.
Re the participation of religious Jews in the War of Independence, I have always read that there was full participation, even by the chareidim, because of the immediate sense of danger and the need for self-defense. Have you read differently?
Now as for your history of pre-State settlement, it wasn't clear what your point was. Are you arguing that the founding of all the original yishuvim was a negligible contribution because their populations were only bulked up after the Holocaust? Please clarify.
Yom na'im,
Robert
--------------------------------------------------------
Robert:
Yes, of course we are each biased in our opinions, but then there are the facts. As a scientist I firmly believe that our opinions should be based on the facts. It is a fact that the majority of Orthodox Jews in the Diaspora in the period prior to WWII, notwithstanding any halachic argument to the contrary, were anti-Zionist. This was reported in Morley Sachar in his "History of the Jews" and I recall that Solomon Dubnow devotes a discussion to this in his famous history. But, then again it was also true that a majority of secular Jews (non-Orthodox, socialists, assimilated) were also anti-Zionist. As I say, it was only the Holocaust that made the argument for Zionism persuasive. Also, the fact is that the vast majority of Jews who fought in the Haganah and the IDF in the early days of the State were non-religious, in fact members of kibbutzim made up a large proportion of the officers.
Certainly Orthodox Jews made an important contribution to the development of the Yishuv, by settling such places as Rosh Pina and those others I mentioned, but they were a minority and a minor factor until after the Holocaust. The percentage of Orthodox Jews in Israel has usually been between 20-30%. If you have statistics to refute this I would be pleased to see them.
Best
Jack
Sir:
It is amusing that some of your correspondents (Letters 29 April) believe that it is incumbent on Orthodox Jews to make aliyah. However, one should note that the State of Israel was founded by the sacrifices of mainly secular Jews, and that Orthodoxy in the Diaspora was mainly anti-Zionist. It is only lately that they have changed their minds and now think that aliyah is mandated by God.
Yours
Jack Cohen
Netanya
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is a reply from Robert Klein:
Dear Jack,
I read your recent letter in the Jerusalem Post and was surprised to learn that you view orthodox Jews as Johnny-come-latelies to the concept of aliya as a mitzva. In point of fact, the divine mandate to live in the Holy Land has been a constant in Judaism, whether one looks at the Tanach, the Talmud, the Rishonim, the Acharonim, or the modern poskim. For that matter, even the Satmars believe aliya is a divine injunction. The whole disagreement within orthodoxy regarding the obligation to make aliyah has always been an issue of timing and circumstances only. Ironically, rejectors of God-centric Judaism are the Johnny-come-latelies, because for the past three milennia, Jews who stopped believing in the divinity of the Torah quite logically felt n! o obligation to keep any of the mitzvot, including yishuv ha'aretz. It's only in the last 5% of Jewish history that Torah deniers changed their minds and now think that aliya is somehow mandated by biological or self-proclaimed membership in the Jewish nation.
It should also be duly noted that while the vast majority of political activists in early Zionism were indeed secularists, these were generally not the ones who made "sacrifices". As I'm sure you know, the first Jews to build up the land by the sweat of their brow were the proto-Zionists (such as the followers of the Gra) and then later the Zionist members of the First Aliyah and the Chovevei Tzion. These groups were comprised almost entirely of orthodox Jews. I'm sure you also know that all of the earliest settlements were established by orthodox Jews. So while the contribution of the secularists to Zionism was (and remains) prolific, it is not accurate to portray the nascent State of Israel as a country built almost entirely by secularists.
Respectfully yours,
Robert
------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Robert:
Thanks for your considered opinion, but it certainly is biased. Just because the holy writings supported the concept of aliyah made little difference to those who were comfortably making a living in the galut. Historical accuracy requires that you recognise that Orthodox and indeed many secular Jews were anti-Zionist prior to the Holocaust. They regarded Zionism as a threat to their acceptability in their comfortable galut, the "divided loyalty" syndrome.
Only after the Holocaust had demonstrated conclusively that there was no place for Jews in the Diaspora did they come around and become supporters of the Jewish State. Furthermore, most of those who founded the kibbutzim, that was the backbone of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel, and who fought in the War of Independence, were secular and even anti-religious Jews. Also, most of the political and military leaders were certainly not Orthodox themselves. The Orthodox did settle many villages that later blossomed into towns after the Holocaust, such as Petach Tikva, Kfar Saba, Binyamina, Zichron, etc. But, as I said that was a later development.
Sincerely
Jack
-------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Jack,
First, I certainly hope my opinion is biased, for if it weren't, it would mean that I'd lost my faith! I hope you are equally comfortable with your secular humanist bias. Of course, I suspect you were trying to imply that I allowed my bias to cause me to misinterpret the facts, and that I certainly deny. Let's look at those facts again.
You wrote that I do not acknowledge the failure of orthodox Jews to make aliya. I'm not sure how you got that misimpression. The articles in the Jerusalem Post which you found humorous and I poignant were precisely about the moral failure of frum Jews to live up to their own standards. That was true both before and after 1948. I fully agree that way too many frum Jews have allowed their economic and communal comfort in the West to blur their halachic values, though your second explanation was incorrect: religious leaders did not use the divided loyalty argument. They did have halachic problem! s with mass aliya ("dechikat haketz" and "aliyah k'choma"), but no one claimed that there was no individual mitva per se of yishuv ha'aretz. So while support for Zionism within Orthodoxy has indeed grown over the past century, as I wrote before, Orthodoxy always viewed individual aliya as divinely mandated.
Re the participation of religious Jews in the War of Independence, I have always read that there was full participation, even by the chareidim, because of the immediate sense of danger and the need for self-defense. Have you read differently?
Now as for your history of pre-State settlement, it wasn't clear what your point was. Are you arguing that the founding of all the original yishuvim was a negligible contribution because their populations were only bulked up after the Holocaust? Please clarify.
Yom na'im,
Robert
--------------------------------------------------------
Robert:
Yes, of course we are each biased in our opinions, but then there are the facts. As a scientist I firmly believe that our opinions should be based on the facts. It is a fact that the majority of Orthodox Jews in the Diaspora in the period prior to WWII, notwithstanding any halachic argument to the contrary, were anti-Zionist. This was reported in Morley Sachar in his "History of the Jews" and I recall that Solomon Dubnow devotes a discussion to this in his famous history. But, then again it was also true that a majority of secular Jews (non-Orthodox, socialists, assimilated) were also anti-Zionist. As I say, it was only the Holocaust that made the argument for Zionism persuasive. Also, the fact is that the vast majority of Jews who fought in the Haganah and the IDF in the early days of the State were non-religious, in fact members of kibbutzim made up a large proportion of the officers.
Certainly Orthodox Jews made an important contribution to the development of the Yishuv, by settling such places as Rosh Pina and those others I mentioned, but they were a minority and a minor factor until after the Holocaust. The percentage of Orthodox Jews in Israel has usually been between 20-30%. If you have statistics to refute this I would be pleased to see them.
Best
Jack
posted by Jack Cohen at 9:26 PM
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