Last week Mishpacha offered its readers a wide-ranging presentation on the topic of American aliyah to Eretz Yisrael.

As an Israeli Jew whose acquaintance with Jewry in America is limited I have nothing to add to the words of wisdom and experience spoken by the interviewees who expressed their views on the complexities and difficulties and despite it all the benefits of taking the step of aliyah leaving behind the country that has long been known as a malchus shel chesed a land unparalleled in its kindness toward the Jewish People.

Yet as one looking on from outside of the box as the popular expression goes I will permit myself to make a few comments from my vantage point on this vital subject.

1. Undeniably a war is taking place here in Eretz Yisrael a war over this country’s national identity. It is a difficult continual struggle revolving around the question of how the State of Israel will look in years to come: will it have a Jewish face or will it be just another Mediterranean country strongly spiked with imitation-Western flavors? This being the case frum American olim can have a positive effect both directly and indirectly on the strength of the Torah-observant population here not necessarily by doing anything newsworthy but by their mere presence in communities around Eretz Yisrael. Their positive influence can extend to the Jews living in the Diaspora as well. I refer specifically to American chareidi olim who with their self-confidence and their impressive presence make an ongoing contribution to the trend toward a more religious more Torah-observant Israel. In this struggle every immigrant to Eretz Yisrael counts every family of olim has its contribution to make. And thus aliyah is a way of taking an important share of responsibility for klal Yisrael.

The secularists are well aware of this aspect of the struggle. When the Soviet Union fell and its gates opened Israel decided to allow as many non-Jews as possible to join the ensuing wave of aliyah even with the flimsiest connections to the Jewish people. A chareidi politician who was close to Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir asked him why he was knowingly supporting the immigration of non-Jews to Eretz Yisrael. Only recently that politician told me how Shamir answered him: “ I want to reduce the strength of the chareidim.” It was that simple.

A solidly-based population of chareidi olim from America constitutes a counterbalance to that trend.

2. In my humble opinion chareidi aliyah from America can also have a salutary effect on the chareidi community itself in Israel. The mentality that they bring with them from the great yeshivos of America the difference in their way of thinking about life in general are like a refreshing breeze. No one is contending the fact that the meeting of two communities two cultures is not easy. There is no need to list the array of problems that crop up in the realm of education and in adapting to a new milieu.Yet at the same time these olim inject new life into the old mainstream of chareidi society in Israel offering a different point of view and new ways of coping with the outside world while remaining anchored in a Torah outlook. And while there is a certain polarity both sides can be changed for the better through the differences.

The interviewees spoke well in their discussion of the million dollar question of whether one should make aliyah. The considerations on both sides are weighty and it certainly isn’t my place to lay down a decision for anyone.

I remember the days following Israel’s victory in the Six Day War while I was on shlichus in Brazil. The local Jewish community was fired up with enthusiasm for Israel and many were enraptured with thoughts of aliyah. It was David Ben-Gurion who cooled down the fires when he visited Sao Paolo and met with a group of engineers who came to consult with him about whether or not to immigrate to Israel.

He answered them with a bon mot that would be equally fitting for an American audience contemplating aliyah: “Come slowly so you won’t run away in a hurry!”

3. On the other hand when visiting the United States (and in fact I encountered this problem in South America and Europe as well) I have often met chareidi Jews who as a matter of principle would not make aliyah. I’m not referring to the ideologically-motivated chassidim of the Satmar Rebbe but Jews from the mainstream of chareidi life in America. Their reason? The secularism of the State of Israel and the prevalence of discrimination against chareidim. “The Mashiach will come ” they tell me “and then we’ll make aliyah. Meanwhile I live here in a free country with nobody bothering me or interfering with my life. What do I have to live under a Zionist regime for?”

This attitude is painful and for those who think this way let’s look at the Chazon Ish’s stand on the issue.

Forty-five years ago when I was a member of the Ponovezh kollel I had the privilege of interviewing more than a thousand people who had known the Chazon Ish ztz”l in order to compile their memories of him the anecdotes they’d heard and more. The material I collected formed the basis of the first biography of this gadol of modern times. One of the many people I interviewed was the Rav of Moshav Komemius the gaon Rav Binyamin Mendelson ztz”l who told me the following anecdote about the Chazon Ish’s position on the question of Eretz Yisrael.

Those were very stormy days. The threat of military conscription of girls hung over the chareidi community. It was feared that Prime Minister Ben-Gurion might succeed in his designs to assault the integrity of the Jewish home. Some voices in the chareidi community were even calling for mass emigration.

The Chazon Ish stood on the front lines in the fight against that decree. This is not the place to describe the atmosphere of fear that prevailed and the Chazon Ish’s own statement that the threat was shortening his life.

Rav Mendelson one of the Chazon Ish’s regular visitors had asked him years earlier how to answer a couple that wanted to make aliyah from England. He had of course replied in the affirmative.

Now in the midst of the storm over conscription of girls Rav Mendelson once again asked Maran about another couple who were considering the move. The Chazon Ish raised his eyes to look at him and replied “Since I first gave you an answer to this question nothing in Eretz Yisrael has changed.”

Rav Mendelson took the hint. He understood what the Chazon Ish was thinking: he was asking again because perhaps with the current state of affairs while a struggle was being fought against Ben-Gurion’s government on such a crucial issue it might not be wise to come and settle in Eretz Yisrael. But the Chazon Ish was telling him that it made no difference.

The struggle against the designs of the secularists was a separate issue. It did not affect his previous instruction in favor of aliyah. As one interviewee Rav Chaim Zev Malinowitz of Monsey-Ramat Beit Shemesh affirmed the biblical words Tovah ha’aretz meod meod.

Food for Thought

“World world how radiant you are to one who is tired of you and departing from you.

And how much darkness and gloom you bestow upon one who pursues and craves you”

(A disciple of the Baal Shem Tov on his deathbed gazing out the window at the blue sky and the green trees)