Continuing to Regather
(Signs of the Time - April 2002)
There is a word used in Hebrew, “Aliyah, (pl. aliyot).” This word is used to describe the arrival of Jews to live in the land of Israel. Those who go up for this purpose are known as olim, a term used in the Bible when the children of Israel went up from Egypt and for the exiles who returned from captivity in Babylon (Ezra 2:1,59 and Neh. 5-6). The call of Cyrus, King of Persia, in 538 B.C.E., “Who is there among you of all His people? his God be with him and let him go up…” (Ezra 1:3), has been used as a watchword for aliyah.
It was aliyah that re-created the Jewish Commonwealth in the land after the Babylonian exile, provided the community with some of its prominent spiritual leaders during the Second Temple and subsequent periods, preserved and repeatedly renewed the Jewish presence in Israel. And it was the aliyah that helped rebuild the land after World War II. Yet the word has not been used for some ten years, since the Ethiopian Jews returned to the land. Recent events in two very different parts of the world, however, have led Jews back to the homeland and thus continue the dramatic aliyah of these latter days.
Argentina
One doesn’t have to look very hard in the daily newspapers to understand the
terrible economic plight facing the nation of Argentina. Since the
economic downward spiral late last year, countless Argentines have been
plunged into poverty. As a result many Argentineans are trying to
emigrate. The New York Times reported, February 25, 2002,
“Lineups form at dawn outside foreign embassies. Italy and Spain have
been besieged by Argentines claiming Italian or Spanish ancestry. Even
tiny Slovenia’s embassy has queues.
The difference for Jews is that they don’t have to stand in line. Israel will take any Jew who wants to move there. The plight of Argentina’s Jews has produced what the Jerusalem Post calls “a macabre form of excitement” in the Jewish State. What is a tragedy for Argentina’s Jews is an opportunity for Israel.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said last week he wants one million Jews to move to Israel over the next 10 to 15 years, most of them from France, South Africa and Argentina. He personally showed up to shake the hands of 62 arriving Argentines in January. “You are at home now,” he told them. “We will give you all the help we can.”
Israel took in 1,500 Argentine Jews in 2001 and hopes to take 5,000 to 7,000 this year, adding to the 80,000 from that country.
Upon their arrival, Argentinean Jews receive free Hebrew classes, health care and schooling for the children, as well as money for food and clothing. As a special lure to Argentine Jews, they will get an extra $20,000 (U.S.) grant to help them settle in the town of Kiryat Bialik, near the coastal city of Haifa.
Despite the turmoil in Israel, many Jews are electing to move to Israel over North America, with the financial incentives being a reason for this decision. As reported in the New York Times: “Israel’s ambassador to Argentina, Benjamin Oron, concedes that this is not a quiet time in Israel and makes no excuses for offering immigration incentives. If Jewish people want to leave Argentina, we’d prefer them to go to Israel and not to some other place, so you have to compete.”
Anti-Semitism in France
It is interesting to note that Sharon indicated in his comments that most of
the immigration of Jews to the homeland would come from South Africa,
Argentina and France. Why France?
The New York Times reported, February 26, 2002: “The French government has acknowledged a sharp increase in anti-semitic incidents since September, 2000, when fighting between Israelis and Palestinians intensified. One government report says acts of violence against Jews have increased from one in 1998 to nine in 1999 to 116 in 2000, the most recent figure available. Other anti-semitic incidents, ranging from threats to arson, went from 74 in 1998 and 60 in 1999 to 603 in 2000. But some Jewish groups say that even those numbers fall far short of the actual situation, with many Jews afraid to report incidents and some officials quick to classify attacks as misbehavior by young toughs.”
The regathering of the Jews is a steady refrain in the prophets (Isa. 11:10-11; Ezek. 36:22-28). This remarkable regathering from the four corners of the earth has occurred and continues to occur in our lifetime. World War I prepared the land for the people as the control of Palestine was transferred from a nation that hated the Jews (the Turks) to a nation initially sympathetic to their return (Britain). The Holocaust of World War II motivated millions to return. Today, we continue to see that the land is accepting Jews back to their homeland and proving once again that the aliyah is alive and well in this new millennium.
George Rayner