Dvora Waysman
Jerusalem Post, Apr. 28, 2022
“We sing it standing straight and proud, and usually with tears in our eyes as we remember the broken people who found a safe haven here, and those who never managed to reach its shores and died with the dream of Zion in their hearts.”
Jews all over the world celebrate Israel’s Independence Day – even those who have no intention of ever coming on aliyah, and many of whom have never even visited Israel.
“It’s a kind of insurance policy,” one overseas friend told me. “By supporting Israel financially and emotionally, I know that its sanctuary is available to me or my children or grandchildren, should the need ever arise.”
I find this kind of thinking very sad, because Israel is so much more than a refuge for persecuted Jews. Not every immigrant who has built a life here was escaping from the horror of the Holocaust, the tyranny behind the Iron Curtain or the cruelty of life in an Arab country.
Many of us (the ones Israelis refer to as “Anglo-Saxim”) lowered our standard of living significantly when we settled in Israel, yet found something here that enhanced the quality of life even as we struggled with inflation, mortgages and trying to make minuscule salaries stretch to the end of the month.
The writer is the author of 14 books. Her latest novel is Searching for Sarah.
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