בס”ד

A long list of Israeli politicians participated in a conference held today in the Knesset to commemorate the contribution of American Jewry to the State of Israel. The politicians taking part included Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Yitzchak Hertzog.

Netanyahu spoke about the connection between American Jews and Israel:

“I am certain we will continue to see young Americans making aliyah to Israel. They have a huge contribution to make to Israel and not only because of the economy, but also because of the intellectual contribution and Zionist fervor. There is much more knowledge about Israel among American Jewry than the opposite, but we have to recognize that Israel is the home of every Jew. This must be our policy. In another years, Israel will be here and American Jewry will help her.”

Of course, JTF members would note the hypocrisy of Netanyahu claiming that “Israel is the home of every Jew” while he has barred Chaim Ben Pesach from making aliyah for 20 years now.

Additionally, Netanyahu speaks about American Jews helping Israel 100 years from now. In other words, Netanyahu sees nothing wrong with Jews living outside of Israel – which is a betrayal of true Zionism and of Torah Judaism. Furthermore, Netanyahu’s view that there will be a meaningful American Jewish community in another 100 years goes against the statistical evidence that assimilation and intermarriage will wipe out the vast majority of the community if not virtually all of it.

What was surprising was the speech of left-wing Labor party leader Yitzchak Hertzog at the conference:

“The main challenge for American Jewry is assimilation. This is an enormous challenge. We have to prevent the disappearance of American Jewry.”

About 60% of American Jews intermarry and at least 80% know little or nothing about Judaism. Entire Jewish communities in the U.S. are completely disappearing.

While the Knesset event was taking place, the American actor Michael Douglas announced that he would contribute $3 million to organizations that promote more assimilation, intermarriage and spiritual suicide in the Jewish community. Douglas’ Jewish father intermarried. Therefore Douglas is not Jewish because he has a non-Jewish mother. But Douglas refuses to accept G-d’s commandments in the Torah regarding who is a Jew.