Netanyahu Government Suggests Israelis Avoid Marrying American Jews

[Pirate Smile]

Netanyahu Government Suggests Israelis Avoid Marrying American Jews

The Netanyahu government's Ministry of Immigrant Absorption is sponsoring advertisements in at least five American communities that warn Israeli expatriates that they will lose their identities if they don't return home.
The Ministry is also featuring on its website a series of short videos that, in an almost comically heavy-handed way, caution Israelis against raising their children in America -- one scare-ad shows a pair of Israeli grandparents seated before a menorah and Skypeing with their granddaughter, who lives in America. When they ask the child to name the holiday they're celebrating, she says "Christmas." In another ad, an actor playing a slightly-adenoidal, goateed young man (who, to my expert Semitic eye, is meant to represent a typical young American Jew) is shown to be oblivious to the fact that his Israeli girlfriend is in mourning on Yom HaZikaron, Israel's memorial day. The Jewish Channel, which broke the story of what it calls a "semi-covert national campaign," suggests that the Ministry does not differentiate between the "dangers" of marrying American Jews, and American non-Jews, and I have to agree. But let's lay that aside for a minute and watch the video:

-snip-

I don't think I have ever seen a demonstration of Israeli contempt for American Jews as obvious as these ads. I understand the impulse behind them: Israel wants as many of its citizens as possible to live in Israel. This is not an abnormal desire. But the way it is expressed, in wholly negative terms, is somewhat appalling. How about, "Hey, come back to Israel, because our unemployment rate is half that of the U.S.'s"? Or, "It's always sunny in Israel"? Or, "Hey, Shmulik, your mother misses you"?

These government-sponsored ads suggest that it is impossible for Jews to remain Jewish in America. How else are we supposed to understand the "Christmas" ad? Obviously, assimilation and intermarriage are issues in America in ways they aren't in Israel. Israel has other problems of course, such as the fact that many of its rabbis act like Iranian mullahs. (I'm not even going to try to unpack my complicated beliefs about intermarriage and assimilation and life in the Diaspora here; that's for a book. But let me just say that intermarriage can also be understood as an opportunity.)

The idea, communicated in these ads, that America is no place for a proper Jew, and that a Jew who is concerned about the Jewish future should live in Israel, is archaic, and also chutzpadik (if you don't mind me resorting to the vernacular). The message is: Dear American Jews, thank you for lobbying for American defense aid (and what a great show you put on at the AIPAC convention every year!) but, please, stay away from our sons and daughters.

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/11/netanyahu-government-suggests-israelis-avoid-marrying-american-jews/249166/

[no_hypocrisy]

1. "America is no place for a proper Jew, and that a Jew who is concerned about the Jewish future

should live in Israel."

Meaning more residents who need places to live, to displace non-Jewish Israeli citizens (Palestinians) from their homes, more families to defend Israel through its military. It sounds as though Israel wants American immigration the way it wanted Russian refugees in the Seventies and Eighties.

[Ken Burch]

6. And insulting American Jews will achieve this goal HOW, exactly?

The ads come pretty damn close to saying that American Jews aren't actually Jewish at all.

Even shira should find THAT unacceptable.

[no_hypocrisy]

9. The desired motivation is guilt, Jewish guilt, to get Americans to move to Israel.

It seems the message is you're not Jewish "enough" until you live in Israel.

[Ruby the Liberal]

2. Well, if they are going to sponsor these ads in the US

they may want to think about recording them in English with Hebrew subtitles as opposed to Hebrew with Hebrew subtitles...

Just a suggestion.

[bemildred]

3. Desperate times call for desperate measures. nt

[Ken Burch]

8. But do they call for measures that make the times MORE desperate?

n/t.

[bemildred]

38. Apparently some politicians think they do.

"de l'audace, encore de l'audace, et toujours de l'audace"

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/de%20l%27audace,%20encore%20de%20l%27audace,%20et%20toujours%20de%20l%27audace

[Ken Burch]

4. This would be the Binyamin Netanyahu who spent years LIVING in America

And still speaks English with an American accent?

:eyes:

[LeftishBrit]

19. Though it's government-sponsored, there is no evidence of Netanyahu being *directly* responsible

for the content of the ads.

[Ken Burch]

20. He did have to sign off on the funding for the ads, though.

And he knew these ads were going to be put out.

[Ken Burch]

5. Israelis shouldn't marry people from the Jewish community that gave more support to Israel

than any other group in the whole Diaspora?

Oh no...no ingratitude at all in this...none at all...

:eyes:

Why would Bibi want to give American Jews this good of a reason to break with Israel? Has the man finally and completely LOST it?

[King_David]

10. I am sure American Jews are all cut up about this.

Ha Ha.

I will let you in on a secret.

We are all Bnei Israel . ( one family )

;)

[Ken Burch]

15. This ad is an insult to American Jews

And the "one family" thing doesn't get helped by ads that disparage one part of this family.

There was no excuse to do these ads.

[shira]

22. Ken, are you hoping American Jews end their support for the evil, Zionist regime? n/t

[Ken Burch]

24. No, of course not.

I'm not against Israel's existence myself, for that matter.

And you know perfectly well that I neither say or even think phrases like "evil Zionist regime".

I just can't understand why the Israeli government would do something that is this insulting to its strongest support base in the whole Diaspora.

It doesn't make sense to YOU that they'd do something like this, does it?

[shira]

27. Great article by Goldberg. It's as if clowns put those ads together. n/t

[Ken Burch]

17. An "American Jew" wrote this article.

That should tell you something.

And why SHOULD everybody who happens to be Jewish be made to feel obligated to actually MOVE to Israel? It would be a horrible thing for Zionism to create a world in which every OTHER country was Judenrein. Would YOU actually want that to happen?

[azurnoir]

7. well I knew that in the past Israeli Jews had sort of 'looked down' on American Jews

mostly for remaining American Jews but I thought it was all good now oh well

[King_David]

11. Really?

I never heard that before.

Ever.

We must mix in different Jewish circles.

You heard that at Shul? Camp? JCC? Birthright? Ulpan? ZOA meeting?Young Judea? Habonim? The Y? BBYC ?

[azurnoir]

14. I was born in 1956 you? 1990 or so? different times dear

but no I did not attend ProIsrael indoctrination camps as a child, they weren't that predominate in the 60's but thanks for giving us your background and to think with all of that you've never heard of GIYUS {Give Israel Your Support) amazing really amazing

[Scurrilous]

12. Gawker: Israel Warns Jews That America Will Turn Their Kids Into Christmas-Lovers

<snip>

"The conservative Israeli government is pretty convinced at this point that the greatest threat to the Diaspora is not necessarily from Iran so much as it is from lazy American Jews, who have no discipline and are always spreading around liberal nonsense like "maybe we should try to make nice with the Palestinians" and so on. It has now gone so far as to create ads showing what terrors will befall Israelis who raise their children in America: Specifically, that their kids will end up celebrating Christmas!

The Netanyahu government, which has chosen to mire itself in deep cultural battles back in the homeland, is running Ministry of Immigrant Absorption ads in several American communities that "warn Israeli expatriates that they will lose their identities if they don't return home." And its website is running short propaganda videos, like the one above, about the dangers posed to Judaism by stupid America culture. Here we see a young girl Skypeing with her Israeli grandparents, seated before a Menorah, who ask her what holiday she's celebrating. "Christmas!" she says. That just does not fly.

The government apparently thinks that this ad will be just terrifying enough to bring all expats back to Israel. But it's possible that it will be laughed off."

http://gawker.com/5863912/israel-warns-jews-that-america-will-turn-their-kids-into-christmas+lovers?autoplay

[King_David]

13. Ha Ha

:thumbsup:

[Ken Burch]

16. How can you say these ads are acceptable?

They insult an entire national Jewish community for no good reason at all.

It's disgusting, for example, that they would imply that American Jews wouldn't understand the significance of the Israeli "Memorial Day". It goes without saying that American Jews care just as much about the Holocaust and the deaths of other Jews as Jews in Israel do.

How can you defend the stupidity behind these ads? There's no way that telling Israelis not to marry American Jews(or implying,as these ads do, that you aren't a real Jew UNLESS you live in Israel) is going to lead to a stronger Israel. There's never going to be a time when every Jewish person on the planet leaves their home country and moves to Israel anyway, and there's no good reason for Israel to want such a thing.

[King_David]

25. You seem more outraged than any Jew nt

[Ken Burch]

28. The ads just started. I think you'll see the outrage start to grow.

n/t.

[Ken Burch]

29. Check out post #26

n/t.

[LeftishBrit]

18. Ugh. Just ugh.

And it's not specifically about American Jews; it's about Diaspora Jews in general.

[Ken Burch]

21. The ads are only being run in the U.S., though.

Have you seen them running on tv in the UK, for example?

[LeftishBrit]

23. No; but I think there simply aren't enough Israeli expatriates in the UK for them to bother.

[Jefferson23]

26. U.S. Jewish groups furious over campaign to bring expat Israelis back home

VIDEO: Israeli absorption ministry releases campaign warning Israelis living abroad against assimilation; ADL calls videos demeaning to American Jewry.
By Barak Ravid

An Immigration and Absorption Ministry campaign in the United States to convince expatriate Israelis to return has raised the ire of American Jewish groups.

The campaign warns Israelis that if they continue to live in the United States, they or their children are likely to become assimilated.

The drive began at the end of September with billboards in cities with large concentrations of Israelis, including New York, Los Angeles and Palo Alto. The messages included "Before Hanukkah turns into Christmas, it's time to come back to Israel," and "Before Abba turns into Daddy, it's time to come back to Israel."

The ministry then posted videos on its website and other websites with similar messages. One shows a set of Israeli grandparents, a menorah lit behind them, Skyping with their children and granddaughter in the United States. When the grandmother asks the girl if she knows what holiday it is and she answers "Christmas!" the four adults give each other worried looks.

remainder: http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/u-s-jewish-groups-furious-over-campaign-to-bring-expat-israelis-back-home-1.399057

[azurnoir]

30. the ad campaign is kind of 'biting the hand....'

but the foreign ministry say it's not aimed at American Jews we really appreciate your mon you it's only Israeli Jews who may become American Jews

[shira]

31. PM pulls ad campaign luring expats back to Israel

NEW YORK – Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is canceling an ad campaign aimed at luring Israeli expatriates home that some American Jews have found offensive.

http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?ID=247915&R=R1

[azurnoir]

32. Lol I'll bet he is at that after Abe Foxman publicaly took offense to it n/t

[Jefferson23]

35. Oh yes indeed, lol. n/t

[Ken Burch]

33. Good.

A little sanity from a public figure anywhere is such a rare thing.

[Scurrilous]

34. Heh.

:thumbsup:

[Scurrilous]

36. Why Israel's expat campaign offended so many U.S. Jews

This ad campaign - while having the right intentions - was completely disrespectful and a huge waste of money.

<snip>

"The Immigration and Absorption Ministry campaign to return expatriate Israelis created a firestorm in the American Jewish community.

The idea that Israelis could give up on Israel and live their lives in another land has always been an anathema to the Zionist movement, and poses an existential threat to the country. This is evident in its simplest form in the language used to describe people who emigrate from Israel, "Yordim" (going down), which has clearly negative connotations, as opposed to the term given to Jews who immigrate to Israel, "Olim" (rising up).

The Immigration and Absorption Ministry's ad campaign was intended to pull at the heartstrings of expatriate Israelis. The ads were posted on billboards across the United States, mainly in communities where there is a high concentration of Israeli expatriates, such as Los Angeles and Miami. In addition, the Immigration and Absorption Ministry put up videos on their website for the campaign. These ads extol the viewers that they will always be Israelis while their children will not be, and that they will lose their Jewish roots in the melting pot of assimilation. These ads - while having the right intentions - portray the message in a way that was completely disrespectful to American Jews, while being a huge waste of money.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to pull the ad campaign as well as the YouTube videos associated with them was the right decision to make. The advertisements blatantly insulted American Jews and should never have been published in the first place. In announcing the pulling of the ads, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren, acknowledged the hurtful nature of the ads and the reasoning behind why they were pulled."

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/why-israel-s-expat-campaign-offended-so-many-u-s-jews-1.399292

[bemildred]

37. I notice Obama is being allowed back in the fold too now.

IIRC, this sort of campaign caused annoyance in Germany a few years back too, the German rabbis resented having their congregations raided. I posted a couple pieces about that back then and got chewed out for it.