Disappointment - Golus Mentality - Articles about Israel

See how many letters from the word "Diaspora" you can find in the word "disappointment." Linguistically speaking, what does that mean to you?

There may be a good reason for this problem. Things are perceived differently in Israel and in the Disappointment � oops, I meant the Diaspora. Let's try to look at similar things from the eyes of the tourist as well as the eyes of the Israeli.

Jews from abroad see Israel as a quaint nature preserve with nice tourist sites, like the Kotel. They feel that it's good to visit Israel and have their picture taken there. It's also nice to have a pushkeh at home in order to help with the country's maintenance. After all, there's a lot that needs to be fixed. It's something like paying dues for being Jewish. They realize that it's expensive for a little religion to have a country of its own. However, it's "in" to tell everybody that you were there last summer � and next year in the Bahamas.

Israelis see their country differently. Like Abraham, we open our modest little home on all four sides, so that people can visit. Unfortunately, most of the people on those sides don't like us. We also like to do our own complaining by ourselves. We get upset when people remind us of our shortcomings. We're fixing things up as fast as we can.

Israelis see America as a luxurious hotel run by rich people. It's expensive to live there, but Americans also make much more money than we do, so it all evens out. Money is obviously important to you. You talk about it all the time, even though your wallets are much fatter than ours. Since we don't have money, we have to complain about other things, like politics. We do have a lot of that.

We can be Jewish in Israel without giving it a great deal of thought. American Jews who think have to give their Jewishness a great deal of money.

Our talk is Jewish. It's an updated version of the same Hebrew that many Jews have spoken throughout the generations, and the same language used to write those beautiful but unopened Jewish books that decorate your shelves.

American Jews use the language of the Anglican Church.

As we walk through Israel, we see archeological evidence and reconstructions of Jewish life throughout the generations.

Ancient American artifacts represent the life of the Indians.

Committed Jews from the Disappointment (oops, I goofed on the word again!) have plenty to criticize about Israel, but they don't move to Phoenix. They keep coming here. As a result, Israel now boasts a plurality of the world's Jewish population, and it will reach a majority in our own lifetimes.

Jews in the rest of the world are sometimes accepted or tolerated as minorities. That means that they have to show gratitude to the Gentiles for allowing them to exist.

We will continue to look up at your Empire State Building, look down at your Ground Zero, and we will give your Statue of Liberty our tired and poor. We�ll make shopping trips and we'll visit our relatives and friends who still remain where the money is at. We'll let you take us out to eat at your Kosher, Israeli-style restaurants. We'll visit your neighborhoods that "used" to be Jewish, before "they" came along. We'll gasp at your vast, sprawling expanses of land and wealth.

After our visit, we will show off the tchatchkes that we brought back. Our friends will marvel at the wonders of America.

We'll wait for the next American complainers, who will spend a good deal of time and energy explaining How Bad It Is. However, we won't return your favor. We won't complain about any inconveniences that we face in America. We know our place. We know that you're almost as touchy about criticism as you are about your limited single-language skills.

We don't have that problem back home. In Israel, we can complain. Nobody will tell us, "If you don't like it here, go home." We are home. We can kvetch without worrying about "what the goyim will think!"

We'll make the most of our privilege to complain. We have to make up for lost time, since we weren't able to do so when we were tolerated in other countries.

However, each time another square centimeter gets fixed, we have another poor-man's treasure. You in the Diaspora don't have that pleasure. After your fat bank account swells, you'll be able to do no more than to survey the luxurious and temporary Diaspora that you have built.

What a Disappointment.

Where do you want to go now?