Americans are supposed to have a series of inalienable rights. Sometimes, they help people. They did not help me.
I was a victim of that system. Was that the reason that I made Aliyah? Well, the push-pull theory is certainly an issue, and it is certainly at play here. Would I have made aliyah without these issues? Probably. However, it seems that I was getting signs from all over that the time had come to move on.
Some people believe that America offers advantages in many areas, such as religious freedom. The five-day work week offered a magnificent advantage, since there was no longer a reason to work on Shabbat.
However, I'm not sure when or if those freedoms or that five-day work week really helped the Jews as much as some people may think. I'd like to give a personal story.
Back in the Seventies I was hired as a teacher in a public school in the largest Jewish population center of the United States. I was assigned a class that ended late on Friday. By November, the daylight hours were too short for me to be able to teach my last classes. My request to the (Jewish) principal for a change in my schedule was rebuffed with a not-very-kind suggestion that I "ask my rabbi for a dispensation." No appeals to any of the major Jewish organizations were of any help, although many of them did acknowledge that I had a legitimate claim. Some organizations suggested that I take the issue to court, but they refused to get involved. Still others offered to review their options to kick in after the proceedings were well under way. I could fight on my own, but they clearly wanted to take credit if I won.
I wrote the principal that he would have to find somebody else for my last two classes on Friday, and then I left early. Close your eyes and try to imagine the scenario the following Monday.
My plans for Aliyah were finalized shortly thereafter. Since arriving in Israel after leaving the country that offers unlimited freedom of religion (!) I must say that I have never - never - never experienced a situation in which anybody has noticed or cared whether I am Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform. My own practice has been totally irrelevant in all of my personal, business, consulting, teaching, writing, and other relationships and contacts.
Yes, I appreciate American freedoms and rights. However, my own bitter experience limited me to the right to join that melting pot (and I picture some cheerful American cannibals dancing around the Jews melting in that pot) rather than presenting viable choices, freedoms and rights.
In my own experience, America offered me the questionable freedom to join the five-day work week - but I was entitled to my "rights" only if I agreed to abide by the straitjacketed American definition of those rights.
My own bitter experiences with shameful American rejection of religious freedom thus differ strongly with the lovely declarations presented by some people on this group.
One more point: These events did not take place in the dark past of our grandfather's generation, as others have written. They occurred in the relatively recent past.
I vas dere, Charlie.
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