Letter to the Editor: Toby F. Block

As I read this letter, Hillel’s dictum popped into my mind. “If I am not for myself, who else will be for me?”

The nation-state of the Jews needs to maintain its Jewish majority. Israel has a right to privilege immigration of Jews over immigration of non-Jews.

“If I am only for myself, what am I?” Yet, Israel also has an obligation to help people, Jewish or not, who are fleeing war and persecution.

People suffering persecution as Jews are not necessarily Jewish according to Halacha. The language of the Law of Return recognizes that fact, and further recognizes that Jews might hesitate to make Aliyah to escape persecution, if that meant they needed to leave their “non-Jewish” loved ones behind.

Israel should be offering “Introduction to Judaism” classes to olim, even those born of Jewish mothers may have received little-to-no Jewish education in the rigorously secular and antisemitic lands of the FSU. Non-Halachic Jews among the olim, who seek to convert, should be helped to do so.

What about people with no connection to Judaism? It is cruel, and impractical, to tell people who’ve fled their homes with little more than the shirts on their backs to put up a substantial bond and to find themselves a new home within a very short time period.

Non-Jews have been entering Israel seeking asylum for a long time and will probably continue to do so. Israel needs to set up an agency dedicated to finding new homes for non-Jewish refugee transiting the country, perhaps partnering with Israel’s new allies in the Abraham Accords.

Toby F. Block, Atlanta