Why do people move here?

Warning--May be better if you're Jewish.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When I left Hachshara, it was clear that I had (and more or less still have) no intention of making Alliya and it appeared, that I was a little disgusted with the country, my Madricha decided to give me the question. "Michael, here, I want you to think about this one. If this country is so 'miserable,' then why do people move here?"

"Well, according to a lot of people, they are doing it because they'

re rejecting the American way of life, and just seem to hate the U.S., so they leave it."

"No, I like America. It's clean, there's lots to do, many television stations, and discount stores." She was born in rural New York. "But I'd rather live here. Now, next time I see you, I want you to tell me why people move here."

See, this isn't such an easy question. I don't even think she had an answer. I mean why does anybody want to live anywhere? Either friends, or they know the place, they feel at home, they have a future for themselves, etc. But I suppose generally, it involves comfort, right? But in this country most people are less than two generations Israeli.

The whole thing is difficult. On the same hand, most Americans are also under four generations Americans. But they clearly moved to a "better way of life." Europe, Asia, Northern Africa, or wherever they came from, it was, according to how we're taught, there was a better way of life waiting for them in the New World where they had been told the streets were paved with gold. For the Ethiopians, Russians, and well, a lot of people, making alliya also is moving to a better economic place. But for most Americans, Western Europeans, South Africans during Apartheid, etc., they are reducing\have reduced their standard of living to come here.

So, is that it? It comes to the question of Zionism? The feeling the Jew is said to have to come back, and settle the land? Perhaps, but that is a bit of an easy answer. Ben Gurion said that anybody now in chutz la'aretz could not really be a Zionist. Interestingly, here in Israel, the word that we use, "Zion," pronounced the same way as the seventh letter of the Hebrew alphabet, means "penis." I don't think that we Americans have a clue what "Zionism" is, or perhaps better, was. It might not be the racism that it was identified as, but on the other hand, I don't think we can claim to have it short of an extremely good reason for not being there.

I think it's a way of saying that our feelings of Tzeeyone (Hebrew pronunciation) are out of whack. In any case, it doesn't make that much sense. Non-religious Jews move here. Granted, they have a great deal of company if they move here, but the reason that they're here doesn't make sense. It isn't because "God told them to," many don't believe in him, and, of course, if they do, it obviously isn't what religious Jews believe, and it is not (generally) simply following the written Torah telling them to settle the land..

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Maybe they want to be with other Jews? Why? If the majority of the people are here because they love their fellow Jew, they sure have a funny way of showing it to their fellow Jews. It could perhaps be the History of the place. This is one of the oldest places in the world. But, people aren't flocking to St. Augustine. And Sumeria is relatively unoccupied, as is Jericho.

So, I couldn't come up with the answer. So, I asked people. They gave me sugared answers, but I asked, and I think I finally reached a conclusion.

"This country needs all the help it can get." ^I suppose being a tour guide at a museum was a monstrous help to the nation,^ but I decided not to insult him.

"Another Holocaust is getting ready in the States." I've heard this one a lot. I don't understand how an American can be convinced of this. Maybe he was beaten up everyday and called "Jewboy." Maybe he is extremely paranoid. Maybe he looked at Jewwatch too often. I really don't know. However I don't get it. If somebody were to want to destroy Jews, and they had a choice of five million Jews spread out over the US, or six million scrunched together in Israel, which makes more sense?

"Don't you want to live alongside your fellow Jews?" I frankly don't see a difference. It isn't as if by us segregating ourselves together we'll get along. That's mildly ridiculous. We still have a great deal of conflicts. I don't see a difference between living among Jews or Gentiles. Perhaps they do. Fine. But then why would they leave New York or Goulder's Green?

"What's there to do out there?" I take it as a sign that I am maturing and don't need to argue, and that I let that one pass. Perhaps I missed out on The Answer, but there seems to be a few to many leaps of faith for that understanding.

"Why live there when you can live here?" Well, it's easier there. And I'm not sure to where the extra effort on my part to live here would be absorbed.

"What do you hope to change there?" What do I hope to change? Well, presumably what I can...

However, I think that last one was the answer...sort of. I have come to the conclusion that people move here because they'll look like bigger fish when they're in a smaller pond. OK, you can say they want to help for other people, you can call it humanitarianism, or philanthropy, but the people go to Israel because they think it will make their lives more significant. They want to be remembered. They want to feel important.

Israelis move to America to make money; Americans move to Israel to give themselves a significance. It's a lot easier to get into Trivial Pursuit: Israeli Addition, which has fifty years of history and six million people, then the American version which has almost two hundred twenty five years of history with nearly three hundred fifty people.

I reported back with my answer to Devorah. She said it wasn't the right answer. She didn't tell me what the right one was, but she said that mine wasn't it.
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Get me outa here!!!

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Michael Kadish

"Some programs have been theatrical masterpieces, but all we're seeing is the negative side of nuclear war." -- Barry Goldwater
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