To Make Aliyah

Why do Jews make Aliyah?

Why do Jews not make Aliyah?

Today we had a class with a man who did the Shnat program we are all on, and he made Aliyah.  We were expecting a class on the merits of Israel, why we should make Aliyah, and the basic how-to of becoming a citizen.

We couldn't have been more wrong.

He started off by asking us a few questions about ourselves, and then played out an activity/experiment.  The useful leadership technique 'stand on this side if you believe X, stand on the other side if you believe Y' creates a spectrum and gives you an overview on what your participants are thinking.  For our first question, 'sure to make Aliyah' was on the left side of the room and 'sure not to make Aliyah' was on the right side of the room (disclaimer: these have nothing to do with political affiliations).

Three of us ended up far left, two in the middle, and the rest far right.

The next question, "Do you feel as an American/Brit/South African/German/Australian that other Americans/Brits/South Africans/Germans/Australians are your brothers and sisters?"  Left meant no and right meant yes.  To our surprise, all we did was shift to the right.  The three ultra-left ended up in the middle, and the rest were squashed in the far or middle right area.  No exceptions.  When asked "do you feel a Jew that all other Jews are your brothers and sisters," left meaning yes and right meaning no, we shifted to the right and squashed ourselves against that wall, with a few exceptions.

After, we went into a discussion that left some of us in a whirlwind.  He took of through a thought process that had us ending up questioning each and every reason we thought we wanted to or to not make Aliyah.  The Zionist lies, the Diaspora lies.  The lies your community and movements tell.  The myths we all believe in.  The falsities we base our lives on.  Although this is just a bit of an exaggeration, we really forced to rethink all we thought.

The only fact he told us that I don't know if I believe is that Israel would be completely fine without the help of Diaspora organizations like AIPAC.  Everything I have seen proves that although maybe Israel could survive without them, it would be less certain.   All the aid and help the American government has given Israel because of AIPAC more or less proves that Israel would not be as well off (understatement? overstatement?) as she is now without it.

In the end, the overall point was to choose whether or not to make Aliyah based on our own personal wants and needs.  Not whether the diaspora needs you or the Reform movement in Israel needs you or what your community or movement wants, but what you want.  For a lot of people, this was a game-changer.  For me, it didn't change my mind so much but inspired me to think critically of all the accepted truths I thought.  An interesting thought-provoker.