Israel To ‘Anti-Semitic’ United States: Send Us Your Jews
Isaac Herzog, the leader of the opposition Zionist Union Image by getty images
By Naomi Zeveloff February 28, 2017
Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog said that Israel should plan for a massive influx of diaspora Jews after security threats against American and French Jews.
“I call on the government to urgently prepare and draw up a national emergency plan for the possibility of waves of immigration of our Jewish brothers to Israel,” Herzog said at a Zionist Union Knesset faction meeting, reported Haaretz.
Herzog also said he had faith in the American government “to harshly and aggressively eradicate this phenomenon.”
Herzog was responding to recent reports of anti-Semitism in the United States, where dozens of Jewish Community Centers have been evacuated over bomb threats and headstones at two Jewish cemeteries have been destroyed, and in France, where two Jewish men were attacked with hacksaws.
After 2015 attacks against Jews in France and Copenhagen, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on European Jews to immigrate to Israel.
Danish chief rabbi Jair Melchior said he was “disappointed” by Netanyahu’s invitation. “People from Denmark move to Israel because they love Israel, because of Zionism, but not because of terrorism,” he told the Associated Press.
Contact Naomi Zeveloff at [email protected]
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Dive In
-
Fast Forward From ‘October 8’ to ‘The Encampments,’ these new documentaries illuminate the post-Oct. 7 American experience
-
Fast Forward Jews at Tufts are furious over ICE seizing a pro-Palestinian grad student. But they’re wary of joining protests for her.
-
Fast Forward Federal spending cuts could affect aid for Holocaust survivors and kosher Meal on Wheels deliveries
-
Fast Forward Pennsylvania Jewish groups condemn ‘genocide’ slogan on Gisele Fetterman’s charity
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 3
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
- 4
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion I co-wrote Biden’s antisemitism strategy. Trump is making the threat worse
-
Fast Forward From ‘October 8’ to ‘The Encampments,’ these new documentaries illuminate the post-Oct. 7 American experience
-
Fast Forward Jews at Tufts are furious over ICE seizing a pro-Palestinian grad student. But they’re wary of joining protests for her.
-
Film & TV How Marlene Dietrich saved me — or maybe my twin sister — and helped inspire me to become a lifelong activist
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.