Off the rails aliyatism

Get a hold of this piece of deception by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir on the OU website:

"Nowadays, the aesthetic beauty of Israeli cities compares favorably with those of cities abroad, every major Israeli city is mostly Jewish, and Israel has one of the highest life expectancies of any country in the world. Outer and inner considerations concur that this is the perfect place for any Jew to live."

I almost fainted when I read that pile of propaganda. Here I'll give you one of the better streets in Israel:

Rothschild Blvd. Tel Aviv:

Compare to a boulevard in Paris:

Another boulevard in Paris:

There are hundreds of lovely streets like this:

Tel Aviv is more like this:

More typical Tel Aviv:

Paris:

Haifa:

Prague:

Zurich:

Much of Tel Aviv looks like this:

Compare to London:

 Petach Tikva:

Manhattan:

The Central bus station in Tel Aviv:

Victoria Bus Station, London:

Central bus station in Lublin, Poland:

Savidor Center railway station  Tel Aviv:

Paris Gare du Nord Train Station:

Union Station Washington DC:

Inside the Savidor train station in Tel Aviv:

Inside Union Station Washington DC:

Israeli opera house in Tel Aviv:

Opera house Vienna, Austria:

Tel Aviv Museum of Art:

Metropolitan museum of art, New York:

Rabin Square, Tel Aviv:

St. Mark's Square, Venice:

Town Square, Salamanca, Spain:

I want to stress, I am saying nothing about the land of Israel. It is quite lovely. I'm talking about the cities because this author is making a false claim about the cities built by secular Zionists. 

This not my view alone. Here's an article in Haaretz entitled: "Streets Behind: Why Israeli Buildings Are So Ugly." (Mar 31, 2016) The subtitle is "Will Israeli architecture ever rival the cities of Europe? Leading architects and planners suggest ways to improve urban construction."

The article begins:

Why are Israeli buildings so ugly? Unlike in, for example, Europe, the buildings on the country’s streets are never uniform: All manner of structures are scattered in seemingly random fashion, some balconies sticking out more than others.

While in Europe the shape of the building is planned first, with apartments and offices then designed based on that outer form, in Israel the interiors are planned initially and then stacked one atop one the other to create a tower.

 

The author Naama Riba identifies many sources of the problem including how architects play only a small role in building design in Israel:

Architects may have signed off on every tower, but their influence on the actual buildings themselves remains minimal. Indeed, many architects are, in reality, nothing more than construction engineers. The role of architects in Israel has diminished to that of generating increased profits for the developer. The money is more important than the aesthetic.

She interviews architects who discuss the matter. Architect Daniel Zarhy says that “In Europe, it is less common among professionals to submit a proposal that is a third of the [standard] price, because then it’s clear the work will be worse." In Israel the primary consideration is cost. 

To say that Israeli cities rival the best cities in the world for architectural beauty is delusional. How could these new cities that were developed in a struggling country compare to cities that were built up over hundreds or thousands of years by empires through the periods of great architecture? And we have a posuk, "G-d will beautify Yefes, but He will dwell only in the tents of Shem." Bereishis 9:27. 

So if you want to say that Eretz Yisrael contains the shechinah but Rome does not, that's fine. But to say that Tel Aviv is as lovely as Rome, that defies the posuk, the opinion of architects, and what the eye clearly sees. 

And my point is not that one shouldn't move to Israel because it isn't as pretty as Paris. My point is that the aliyah evangelists will say anything to get you to move there, to get you to risk your life for their cause.  

I consider that the author is an economist so his sense of aesthetics may not be highly developed but he's the one using the word. And a child can see that Tel Aviv is not Vienna. If he's this dishonest about the aesthetics of the cities, how can you believe him on anything on this topic? 

"Rabbi Ḥanina said: The seal of the Holy One, Blessed be He, is truth." (Shabbos 55a) So here we have Haaretz telling the truth, and an Orthodox rabbi doing the opposite. 

Incredibly, the author spent time in Boston which is a lovely city.

Tel Aviv University:

Harvard University in Boston. The author studied here:

Here's an apartment block in Givatayim, near Tel Aviv:

Most of Israel looks like that. Be'er Sheva, Lod, Kiryat Gat, Kiryat Malachi, Rishon Litzion, Afula, Tiberias, Caesarea, Herzliya. I have been to all of them. That's how nearly all Israeli cities look for the most part. Most of Sefas looks like that. 

But that's not the only deception that goes on in this article. The Rabbi Doctor's article on aliyah in which this quote appears is all aliyah propaganda. Over and over he talks of moving to Israel as if it's an obligation as these guys usually do so they don't actually have to prove that moving to Israel is a good move. He starts his article with "In our parsha, the spies were punished for not showing sufficient desire to enter Eretz Yisrael. Let us study one of the many halakhot which express the importance of moving here."

That's not the standard reading of the incident. Their sin was exaggerating their fears and not having faith in Hashem's promise that He would bring them in safely. As Rabbi Avigdor Miller explains, “When we consider the entire episode of the Meraglim, their sole sin was that of excessive fear.”  (Journey into Greatness,  pp. 162–63.) But aliyniks don't talk much about faith in HaShem. They talk about love of the land. 

The author then writes, "The Mishna at the end of Ketubot states, 'All may compel aliyah to Eretz Yisrael'. The main message of the Mishna is that either husband or wife may compel the other spouse to move to Eretz Yisrael." 

Again and again, he speaks of aliyah as an obligation. He just keeps throwing that word out there any way he can. 

I see this approach in aliyah propaganda article after article because an approach of discussing the facts wouldn't work so well for the cause. The approach of discussing a person's life circumstances and whether aliyah will be good or bad for the family will lead many away from aliyah and wouldn't work so well for the cause of getting everyone there no matter what. Or as the Lubavitcher Rebbe phrases it "aliyah at any cost." 

The writer says, "Outer and inner considerations concur that this is the perfect place for any Jew to live." Really, I didn't know life works like that, that there's one perfect thing for everyone. I'd like to take this author on a tour of my little city where many off-the-derech teenage olim roam the streets on Friday night, phones in hand. Israel wasn't the perfect place for them. Oftentimes they are drunk. 

Nor is it perfect for people with health issues, those with close family in chutz, those who don't come with lots of money because a 3 bedroom apartment costs $750,000 here. It's not the perfect place for people who don't speak Hebrew or don't acquire languages easily (as he might have). It's not good for polite Canadians or people with sensitive natures who can't deal with screaming Israelis. It's not good for those whose job skills don't transfer over and for whom working in a sweat shop for minimum wage will fill them with anxiety and money woes. 

It's not good for Haredim because the society insists that they serve in an army which gadolim tell us is poison for them. It's not good for Modern Orthodox people because the extremes in the society bring most of their children to the point where they are barely religious. 

The writer's only effort at presenting a balanced view is this, "For one thing, this halakha is brought down by many authorities who nowhere mention that moving to Eretz Yisrael is a mitzva — for example, the Rambam and the Shulchan Arukh."

But he feels compelled to comment, "In other words, even according to those opinions which hold that there is no actual obligation to move to Eretz Yisrael, it still holds true that from an inner perspective, Israel is the most beautiful, the most healthful, and the most Jewish place in the world." He never cites any names of people who hold aliyah isn't obligatory for that would weaken his case, names like HaGaon HaRav Moshe Feinstein, the posek HaDor.

His approach is straight out of the Rabbi Hershel Schachter playbook: exaggerate the chiyuv and exaggerate the benefits of life in Israel. Either one by itself wouldn't work. The two work together like book ends. 

I suppose when he calls Israel the most Jewish place in the world he has never seen the gay pride parades in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. I suppose he's never been to an army base where Jewish 20 year old men and women frolic together in goyish green army pants and hear about how only the army protects us. I suppose he's never been to an abortion clinic. Israel has some of the most liberal abortion laws in the world and over a million Jewish babies have been aborted here. 

I suppose he's never seen Tel Aviv or the non-religious parts of Jerusalem to see the cars being driven on Shabbos. I suppose he's never been to Tel Aviv at all. I was there yesterday. In six hours I saw maybe three people with any indication of religious observance. I saw one Haredi person at the main train station, probably passing through on his way to the airport. I passed probably a thousand people. You wouldn't know that they were Jewish. Last time I checked, driving, cooking, and smoking on Shabbos is not a Jewish thing to do. That's what most people do in Israel. How about when one of the political leaders says, "We are in favor of a Jewish state, we are against a halachic state.” (Liberman) Is that what the writer means by being Jewish? How about streets that are named after atheists?

I suppose he's not talking about Israelis screaming at each other or cutting in line or being one of the world's most egregious places for financial scams. I suppose he's not talking it about it being the #1 arms dealer per capita. 

I suppose when he calls it the most healthful place in the world he is forgetting about the 30,000 Jews that have been killed here via war or terrorism and the hundreds of thousands that have been wounded. I have been to five shivas of oleh soldiers this year. I suppose he is forgetting about Israeli's health care system which is significantly inferior to that of the USA. (I can't speak about Canada or Europe). For example, the number of hospital beds per 1,000 people was 3.0 while the average for OECD countries was 4.8 and for countries with managed-competition health funds like Israel it was 5.6. In 2022, the USA spent $12,474 per person for healthcare, while Israel spent $3,444 per person. According to the Taub Center, waiting time for dermatology was 37 days in the first quarter of 2024. For endocrinology and neurology, it was around 50 days. 

I suppose he's forgetting about the pollution in Haifa. "Although heavy industries in the Haifa Bay area have in recent years been forced to clean up or close down and move elsewhere, the air is still known to be polluted. In fact, the amount of pollution released in Haifa Bay is still among the highest in Israel."

At the end of the article he offers a thought from Rabbi Soloveitchik, "I have heard in the name of Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik ztz"l that this is one meaning of our prayer in the grace after meals that HaShem should bring us "upright" (komemiyut) to our land."

If he is going to quote Rabbi Soloveitchik, he might mention that Rabbi Soloveitchik held that the decision of whether to make aliyah was a personal one, dependent on many factors. 

It is ridiculous to tell a young man, who does a good job, or has prepared or trained himself to do a good job [here in the U.S., that he must instead go to ארץ ישראל]. ‘Good job’ means to spread Torah, or to lead an exemplary life which serves as an example to others through personal contact—there are many ways to convert and educate Jews. I am not giving up on American Jews. If I feel that in my town, or in my village, I will accomplish a lot, and when I come to Eretz Yisrael so I or my influence will be reduced to zero, my place is here, not there. Some who went to Eretz Yisrael achieved the same objectives they would have in the Diaspora. But only some! I know of many who fail. They don’t admit it. It’s nice on their part not to admit it.  (Holzer, The Rav Thinking Aloud, pp. 242–43) 

Generally, he told those who asked not to move to Israel. In the words of Professor Marc Shapiro, "everyone who told him I want to go on aliyah, he said don’t, stay here." (Letters from The Rav (Part 1) || Dr. Marc Shapiro - YouTube 29:00.)

In other words, Israel is not the perfect place for every Jew.

Like Rabbi Feinstein, Rabbi Soloveitchik held that “This mitzvah is not absolute, as far as its mandatory character is concerned. It’s not absolute." (Loc. cit., p. 241) 

But Rabbi Dr. Meir, who attended Harvard and earned a Ph.D from MIT doesn't tell you that. It's astounding to me that a man who is intelligent enough to earn a Ph.D. from MIT can write an article that is so imbalanced and prejudiced that it reads like a proclamation from the Soviet Politburo. That's the power that Zionism has on people.

It pains me to talk so harshly about another Jew, but he's endangering people. 

Likewise the OU who published this foolishness. This lunacy about aliyah is rampant in the Modern Orthodox world. It's the modern version of Sabbateanism, a madness that has taken hold of them. 

With this deception about the beauty of Israeli cities, we get a visual presentation of just how crazy they have become. As for his other statements, anybody with a brain in his head knows that there's no perfect place for everyone.