Why are we doing this?

I’ve had some people asking me this lately.  So I thought I would lay it out here in a little more detail.  And I thought it might be nice to get it out there before we move and then we can all see how it goes once we get there. Then we can revisit this “from the other side.”

I can break down the reasons into secular reasons and Jewish reasons.

1) Secular reasons

     A. Having a foreign experience is simply fun/interesting/adventurous

     B. We in America, perhaps because of our physically isolated location, tend to be insular and self-centered, and it will be an eye-opening cultural experience to live in a foreign country.  

     C. Our children will be better positioned to compete in a global marketplace with a robust foreign experience

    D. Mastering a foreign language has mental benefits that go beyond just being able to read/write in that language.
     E. You only live once

I know that all the Jewish readers out there are rolling their eyes now, saying, “Yeah whatever.  That all sounds nice, but nobody actually picks up and moves to Israel because of that.  Read a few books and go learn another language if its that important to you!”  And yes, I get that.  These clearly aren’t the only reasons.  Or even the main reasons. I’m just pointing out that there are other reasons besides the “I’m a Jewish radical” reason that most people assume. 

So let’s list the Jewish reasons.  There are two categories of Jewish reasons – personal and cultural/national

2) Personal Jewish reasons

     A. Ensuring the Jewish continuity of my own family
               Like it or not, it is hard to ensure that your grandchildren will be Jewish when you live in America.  Jewish education in America today with few exceptions is either ultra orthodox with poor secular studies, or reasonable secular studies but with Jewish studies watered down to the “lowest common denominator” resulting in a nice feeling of “Jewiness” with very little primary text study or usable Jewish knowledge.  Further, in American society it is very hard to assume that your children will not end up marrying someone who is not Jewish and therefore raising their children in a mixed household with very tenuous Jewish roots.

     B. Helping move our family line back to its roots
               Theoretically, all Jewish families if you go back far enough can be traced back to the Land of Israel.  For the past two thousand years diaspora Jewish communities the world over have been praying and longing to return to Israel.  This obviously includes our own family.  The few generations immediately preceding us were (thankfully) pretty comfortable living in Canada and the United States.  But if I look back only two to three generations earlier, they were living in Europe where they would have given anything for the opportunity to get back to their own land in Israel.  Now that I finally have the ability to do that, I feel that in some small way I am fulfilling the dream that many of my specific ancestors may have had.  If I look at my family line stretching back in time as a very long cable that stretches way back through time, all the way back to the Land of Israel, I see that the cable got pulled away from that land two thousand years ago.  Its been continuing forward in time but in a variety of other lands.  I feel as if I am lifting that long cable of my family line and dragging it back into The Land of Israel.  If I imagine going forward in time a hundred years (assuming my family is still in Israel at that future time), and then I look backward at that cable of my family line, there will be a curious bend in the cable about a hundred years back, in the year 2019 – an inflection point where the cable turned back to Israel.  How cool would it be if I were the one who did that?  If I were the one that took our family line back to the source?

     C. Taking part in a more robust and varied Jewish experience
               Living here in America, I listen to some Jewish podcasts and I go to shul on Saturday.  The rest of the time I’m basically American but not really Jewish.  I think we all compartmentalize ourselves this way – we’re Jewish (or catholic, or muslim, or hindu, for that matter) sometimes in certain circumstances, and just plain-old American the rest of the time.  It will be interesting to live in a culture which is by its nature mostly Jewish.  That’s not to say its religious all the time, but the cultural and historical references which inform the daily discourse are mostly Jewish.  I am looking forward to having a larger variety of learning opportunities, study groups, shuls, community groups, etc from which to choose. And even perhaps a larger variety of friends and co-workers with whom to discuss Jewish issues of all types – political, religious, societal, etc.  Don’t get me wrong, and I mean no offense to my current friends and “discussion groups;”  its just that I wonder if it will be different over there.  OK, I better stop now before I dig myself into too big of a hole!  Hopefully you understand what I’m saying.  I also know my time will be limited and like I said, we’ll see how this goes and re-evaluate it “from the other side” once I get there. 

3) Cultural/national Jewish reasons

     A. Being a part of “the story”
               One of the amazing things about the Jewish People is the simple fact of our continued existence despite all that has befallen us.  In addition to the miraculous fact of there simply being a State of Israel in our time, it just recently became true that a majority of the world’s Jews are now living in Israel.  The bottom line is that going forward, the Jewish Story will be written in Israel.  That’s not to say that diaspora communities like America are not important – but I feel that the overall arc of Jewish history will be shaped more and more in Israel rather than in America.  If I look at my individual life, then yes, I have all I need here in America.  I have a great job, my kids go to a Jewish day school, we belong to a nice shul, we have awesome friends, etc.  For me personally everything is fine.  But when I think that the Jewish Story is unfolding mainly somewhere else, it makes me want to be a part of that.  

     B. Helping to shape a new country in its infancy
               OK, maybe adolescence, not infancy.  After all, moving now in the age of texting, voip free phone calls, netflix, etc, is not quite the same as moving there in the 1950s.  Nevertheless, there are not many countries that are only 71 years old and which have accomplished so much yet which are still growing, still figuring things out.  It seems exciting to be able to be a part of that.  

     C. Walking the walk, not just talking the talk.  living embodied rather than theoretical Judaism.  

               Judaism for the past 2000 years has had a robust diaspora culture, replete with values, ethics, laws, etc.  It has focused a lot on the individual since there has been no political entity, no state, to worry about.  It seems that we have gotten used to talking about our “Jewish values” a lot.  I see that phrase pop up even in our political discourse.  But so long as we’re living basically in someone else’s country, its all theoretical.  And psychologically useful as well, since when bad things occur we can disavow ourselves, blaming it on the secular world around us.  When things occur that we like, on the other hand, we can take credit for it.  However when the whole country is yours, then metaphorically there is nowhere to hide.  No one else on whom to blame things.  Its where the rubber meets the road in terms of our theoretical Jewish values.  Being a part of working out the messy details of how an actual society runs utilizing our Jewish values seems like an exciting endeavor to me.

So there you have it.  A brief answer to the question – why in the world are we doing this?  If you have any comments you can let me know.  I don’t really know if any of this is true, as I’ve never done this before.  But I’ll let you know how it goes…..