A country that doesn’t welcome its own

In his attempt to draw a parallel to the 3,000 Israeli doctors who have expressed an interest in the possibility of relocating to another country as a result of the dreaded reforms that their government aspires to enact, Herb Keinon’s personal aliyah story nearly brought me to tears.

Keinon, a writer for The Jerusalem Post recalls how, in 1986, when he left the U.S. with his family, he had the misfortune to encounter a disgruntled clerk in Israel's Interior Ministry, who made the immigration process difficult and uncomfortable. When he complained about the run-around he was getting, Keinon threatened to go back to America, immediately followed by the clerk’s nasty response: “Then go.”

The feeling of being unwelcomed and unappreciated experienced by Keinon was what he likened Israeli doctors to surely be feeling, as they are confronted with massive changes to their jobs and the health system, which will be affected by the reforms which are being pushed by this coalition. 

With the recent passage of a law that strikes down the Reasonableness Clause, allowing for the courts to make decisions that could affect the health ministry, doctors are justified in believing that so many of their rights could soon be negatively impacted in terms of their salaries, employment conditions and general work policies. It is due to that great uncertainty that they are contemplating a pre-emptive move, believing that things can only get worse.

However, these doctors are not the only ones who feel unwanted and unappreciated. They, at least, are here, either through the coincidence of being born in Israel or having immigrated from their country of origin. In fact, you could say, they are the lucky ones.

Sadly, that is not true of so many others who had dreams of returning to their ancestral homeland, but who, instead, were met with much resistance and oodles of bureaucracy prior to or after their arrival.

While it used to be that a person, eligible for citizenship (one having Jewish parents or even one Jewish grandparent), could hop on a plane and show up at the doors of the Interior Ministry with their required paperwork and proof of ethnicity, expressing their desire to immigrate, that is no longer the case. That process came to a grinding halt nearly ten years ago, and such applicants were, from that point, expected to either go through the Jewish Agency or Nefesh b’Nefesh, a non-profit organization which, according to their website, was supposedly set up to promote, encourage and facilitate aliyah.

Sadly, rather than being a true facilitator of the process, the organization has sought to “weed out” those who they consider undesirable, in accordance with the parameters of the Interior Ministry. That criteria would include anyone who has intermarried, observed another faith, those who are suspect, just by failing to be unaffiliated or closely connected to their Jewish community and individuals who claim eligibility through the grandfather clause of the Law of Return.

Such applicants, rather than being embraced and appreciated for their desire to more closely connect to their people and their homeland, are generally met with the heavy hand of bureaucracy, flooded with questions about their background, told that their documents are insufficient, even if their paperwork is in order, and consequently, tend to have their applications slow-walked.

This has often resulted in months, or even years, of waiting to receive an answer that they are finally able to come and start their life in Eretz Israel (the land of Israel). 

Of course, nothing puts a damper on one’s excitement of beginning a new chapter than feeling as if you’re not really wanted.

Shockingly, this kind of treatment has even been experienced by affiliated Jews with stellar documentation as I wrote, in a previous article entitled, “Let Jews Into Israel, a plea to the Interior Ministry.”

In that article, I outlined the unimaginable story of Robert Roth, a Jewish man who was president of his local synagogue, as well as founder and president of a Jewish high school in his hometown. No one had more impeccable credentials! This man was beyond reproach, but, nonetheless, waited one full year before he was finally approved for citizenship. Needless to say, he never anticipated having to “jump through bureaucratic hoops,” as he described it, to realize his dream of moving to the Jewish homeland.

I wish I could say that Roth's is the only case, but there are, unfortunately, so many others who have either been turned down, forcing them to incur great legal costs in order to legally fight for their right to immigrate, or others who have just lost hope and decided that it simply wasn’t worth it.

The message, which is all too loud and clear, is that Israel is a country that doesn’t always welcome its own. It has carefully erected roadblocks and barriers, which require a protracted and costly battle as well as a person with a will of iron, who is determined to fight to the end, if living in Israel means that much to them.

There is no justification for this nor does it represent a country whose raison d’etre was supposed to be the creation of a safe and secure refuge for the people who suffered hardship, exile and scorn by the nations for millennia. Not only that, but the bureaucrats, who work on behalf of the Interior Ministry, fail to display any compassion, kindness or warmth towards those who so eagerly arrive with the hope of fulfilling what often has been their lifelong dream. It’s almost as if the first words that they hear are: “There’s no room at the inn.”

Given the very sad history of the Jewish people, what they suffered and all that they’ve been able to accomplish, despite so many hardships, one would expect them to be the most generous of spirits when it comes to welcoming their own people to share in the blessing of their ancestral homeland. But that will not change until Israeli leaders and politicians demand that newcomers are met with graciousness, goodwill, tenderness and the warm welcome which they so deserve.

If Nefesh b’Nefesh stands by the claim they were established to facilitate immigration, then they should understand what that entails. The word “facilitate” means to make the process easier, to help, to alleviate the difficulty, to expedite, promote and simplify.

Shouldn’t every Jewish person be afforded those considerations – especially when claiming you’re there to assist them? Israel’s leaders need to make sure that their country opens its doors to the very people that are supposed to be granted access to her. Otherwise, for what reason are we here, except to serve as our very own exclusive club!