Philip's posts with tag: immigrants
| It's the Land of Israel, Stupid | Manhigut Yehudit Weekly Update (July 3, 08) Issue: 6839  "And why did you bring us up from Egypt to this bad place?" (Numbers, 20:5)
The above complaint, voiced by the Israelites in the desert in this week's Torah portion, Chukat, highlights a simple fact. For the Jews, everything begins and ends with the Land of Israel. When the spies could not detach themselves from life in the desert and the top positions that they had acquired there, they direct their poison arrows at the Land of Israel. When Korach challenges the leadership of Moses for his own leadership aspirations, he points to the Land of Israel. And when there is a lack of water in the desert - it's all because of the Land of Israel. The Torah portions of these three weeks seem to delineate the fundamental issues that distance the Jewish People from their land: Economics, power and refusal to connect to the Jewish destiny that the Land of Israel represents.
People often wonder how the debate between Right and Left continues, when it is plain to see that the Right was right. After all, everything that the Right predicted has happened - so where are all the converts to the Right? The answer is that neither the Left nor the Right has ever told the truth about the Land of Israel. The Left says 'peace' and really means ridding ourselves of the land. The Right says 'security' and really means settlement. Neither side admits that the Land of Israel is a vital tool that the Jewish people need to fulfill their destiny.
If there is relative calm in Israel and Arafat is rotting in Tunis, the Left insists on destroying settlements and giving him the Land of Israel, calling it a 'window of opportunity.' And if there is war, then obviously the conclusion is that Israel must destroy the settlements and flee the Land of Israel. It makes no difference what the current crisis is. The bottom line will always be the Land of Israel. That is because the Land of Israel is the place on earth from which Israel heralds its universal message. Those people who desire to escape their nation, Jewish identity or destiny will always fight against the Land of Israel. Even if they are religious.
Shabbat Shalom,
Moshe Feiglin
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May 15, '08  Why Israelis Love Life by Hillel Fendel (IsraelNN.com) An Asia Times article, explaining why Israel is the "world's happiest country," cites statistics showing that Israel leads the world in the national gap between fertility and suicide rates. The author, identified only as Spengler, compiled and compared the fertility rates and suicide rates of 35 industrial countries, and found that Israelis "appear to love life and hate death more than any other nation." Spengler explained that he compared "the proportion of people who choose to create new life, against the proportion who choose to destroy their own. Israel stands alone, positioned in the upper-left-hand-quadrant, or life-loving, portion of the chart." Israel's fertility rate (births per woman) is 2.77, according to Spengler, while its suicide rate is 6.2 per 100,000 people. In the U.S., however, the numbers are only 2.1 and 11, respectively, and in France they are 1.98 and 18. The gaps in the numbers of many of the other countries are on the chart are even wider. "It's easy for the Jews to talk about delighting in life," Spengler wrote in another Asia Times article, because "they are quite sure that they are eternal, while other peoples tremble at the prospect impending extinction. It is not their individual lives that the Jews find so pleasant, but rather the notion of a covenantal life that proceeds uninterrupted through the generations." "Israel is surrounded by neighbors willing to kill themselves in order to destroy it," Spengler writes. He notes that Muslims teach, "As much as you love life, we love death" - a formula found in a Palestinian Authority textbook for second graders as well. Oil-rich Saudi Arabia ranks 171st on an international quality of life index, Spengler writes, while "Israel is tied with Singapore on this index, although it should be observed that Israel ranks a runaway first on my life-preference index, whereas Singapore comes in dead last." Spengler suggests traditional Jewish faith in G-d as the reason for Jewish joy. Muslim faith, however, is of the type that encourages a form of fatalism, he feels: "Arabs did not invent suicide attacks, but they have produced a population pool willing to die in order to inflict damage greater than any in history. One cannot help but conclude that Muslim clerics do not exaggerate when they express contempt for life."
So, How Diverse Is Israel? Posted: 15 Apr 2008 08:30 AM CDT (Hat Tip: IsRealli.org)  (Image Credit: IsRealli.org)In the US, Jews are often perceived to be mostly religious, Caucasian and wearing black hats with curls hanging from the side of their head. But when it comes to reality, Americans may find Israel to be a place of diversity that rivals (if not surpasses) New York City itself. (Haaretz.com) But there is a fairly significant paradox involved in defining the Jewish people as an ethnic group. The Zionist view of a people that includes all Jewish communities around the world (an outlook that merits trendy opposition from the left) is certainly one of the most multiethnic and multicultural national attitudes in history. When you see the Jews of Poland and the Jews of Yemen, the Jews of Germany and the Jews of Morocco as members of one people, and establish a country based on this national view, that is essentially a multiethnic and multicultural enterprise, whether or not the participants think in those terms. After being fortunate enough to visit the holy land years ago, the item that struck me most about the Jewish state was how diverse it was. While I did encounter Jewish citizens who wore both the hats and the curls, they were often a rarity, unless of course one was able to visit the Old City of Jerusalem. In Jerusalem I met Ethiopian Jews, European Jews, and yes, even Chinese Jews! This encounter helped break down my previous perception of Israel, as I noticed how friendly the people were, regardless of their national, religious and/or ethnic background. Hopefully more Americans will be able to visit Israel in the future, as it is a multicultural testament on how people from different backgrounds can live together in relative peace.
February 22, '08 Shekel Gets Stronger, No Change Expected in Prime Rate 
(IsraelNN.com) Analysts expect that Bank of Israel Governor Prof. Stanley Fischer will leave the interest rate for March unchanged when he announces next week the level of borrowing costs. Exporters and Histadrut leader Ofir Eini have demanded that the rate be cut as a way to weaken the shekel, which has been the world's strongest currency against the dollar. Fischer has said he is adamantly against using the interest rate as a means to intervene in the exchange rate, which he pointed out has benefited manufacturers by reducing the amount of shekels they have to pay for imported items. Expectations of an unchanged rate have strengthened the shekel to less than 3.6 shekels to the dollar.
| Posted: 27 Sep 2007 07:32 PM CDT IsraGood
It looks as if Israel will (in the future) be ramping up their Aliyah campaign for Jews living in North America (which probably refers to Jews living in the United States and Canada, as I am not too sure what the Jewish society is like in Mexico).
A new study has recently come out highlighting that a Jew who commits Aliyah (or immigrates to Israel) may be worth up to $200,000 a piece! |  | | | (Globes Online) A study on the economic impact of immigration from North America found that the value to the Israeli economy of an immigrant from there was $200,000. This estimate is based on level of education, professional experience, participation in the labor force after immigrating, and financial assets. The study found that immigrants from North America had a 90% rate of participation in the labor force after one year in Israel.
This rate of participation is far greater than the participation rate of Israelis and of immigrants from many other areas. In addition, the average output of an immigrant from North America is $24,000 a year. Two-thirds bought a car within a year of arrival. Although there have been many reports of Jews making Aliyah from North America, this part of the word seems to be the hardest when it comes to marketing the promises of the holy land.
So my fellow Israeli (or pro-Israeli readers), how can Israel do a better job of convincing Jews from the US or Canada to cross the ocean and put their stake in American soil? | |
Link: http://www.holyland-inc.netHallelujah, Holy Land Inc. has finally migrated to a free domain hosted by Bravenet. This was made possible by my online friend Darren (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/forhisglorynewsletter/ ), paying $11 into my PayPal account that enabled me to register the domain for a year.
Hopefully this progress will soon be followed by Holy Land Project Host coming down to Israeli terra firma from cyberspace to function as a fully fledged corporation.
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