On my tour of Ukraine and Lithuania, I visited the graves of major Jewish spiritual leaders and saw monuments to major Jewish cultural leaders. I saw and learned where and how Jews lived for many generations. They’re not there anymore.
Then I encountered the Jews that do live there. In Kiev and in Odessa as in most major Eastern European cities, there are Jewish communities made up of people who never left when they had the chance and even those that returned when they did. These encounters upset me most. I ask them: Why? Why stay there, live there, keep re-planting roots where entire forests were felled, into dirt hardened with the bones and soaked with the blood of their ancestors? They tell me it’s better today. They tell me it is their home. I tell them they are near-sighted fools living in someone else’s land. They tell me they can’t leave their parents. I tell them to think of their children. They tell me anti-Semitism is everywhere, even in America, even in Israel. I agree. I hate to, but I agree.
There is a difference, however, that they do not see; maybe they’re incapable, maybe they just don’t want to. Israel is a new nation founded by and for the Jewish people, theirs are nations of Christians that inherited the Jewish Problem from dynasties long gone. America is a nation founded by and for immigrants, oppressed minorities and
refugees seeking to make their fortunes, their futures, or just a place to call home; even if it doesn’t live up to it, America is founded on the promise and principle of equality. Theirs are founded by ancient peoples brewed in nationalism and steeped in legends of Christ-killing, blood libel, and vile conspiracies.
Today, some prosper, others get by just fine. All too many rely on the support of American Jewish organizations. They rely on the money that I donate to the Jewish Federation / UJA and the like. Why should they leave? We give them everything they need to be just comfortable enough to live a life better than the one they were used to 20 years ago. We, the comparatively wealthy Jews of the Western world enable their complacency. I enable their complacency. Why should they uproot themselves and start over in search of a better life and more secure future when we make it easy for them to stay there, easing our thriver’s guilt by bestowing charity on those poor, beaten-down-but-look-how-they’re-surviving-anyway-thanks-to-us Jews of Eastern Europe. I won’t do it anymore.