No place like home --the latest:
Israeli outposts
On the other hand, the struggle against Chechen terror promoted cooperation with Israeli security and restrained Moscow's criticism of Israeli action against Palestinian terror. More importantly, the collapse of communism opened the gates of the former Soviet Union for more than 1 million Jews to immigrate to Israel. Synagogues and Jewish schools have flourished, mainly encouraged by Chabad, and there is a renaissance of Jewish culture. President Putin has frequently condemned anti-Semitism, and, in a special gesture, visited a synagogue to participate in the lighting of Hannukah candles.
Renewed anti-Semitism apparently does not frighten all Russian Jews: A significant number of Jews from the former Soviet Union - some say 100,000 - have returned to Russia and Ukraine. But most of them continue to retain their Israeli citizenship. They see themselves as having temporarily left Israel, and even create "Israeli outposts" in major cities. Many work in Jewish organizations, teach in Jewish schools, and are central members of new synagogues. The emigrants say that they left for two reasons: financial difficulty and the fact that they felt like second-class citizens in Israel. But "in Israel they learned not to fear" to be Jews, say synagogue officials. There are Jewish schools in which a third, or more, of the pupils have returned from Israel. They speak Hebrew and encourage other pupils to do so.
Thus, a paradox has been created, in which Jews return to the Diaspora despite anti-Semitism, and emigrants from Israel are the backbone of the renaissance in Russian Jewish life.
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We all already knew about the so-called "self-hating Jews" but the "self-hating Israelis" top it all --LOL.... |
