Yordim
Stop Worrying About Yordim
Israelis spend plenty of time fretting over their countrymen leaving for greener pastures. One demographer says the phenomenon has been vastly overblown.
'Help Them Go Back Home': The Response
For my money, the response to the Israeli absorption ministry’s “Bring ‘Em Home” video campaign was a tad overblown. It’s not like tenuousness of the next generation’s Jewish identity and the fraying of ties to Israel haven’t ever come up before. Be that as it may, some of the replies have been particularly entertaining. Here’s one that’s circulating on YouTube:
A Piece of Hasbara Aimed at Alienating Me
Usually when another blogger sufficiently channels my own anger about something that has me piqued, I tend to just try and let it go and give them the last word. And that was my first reaction this morning when I read, with increasing agitation, Jeffrey Goldberg’s post about a new Israeli ad campaign targeted at yordim, those ex-pat Israelis who have made their home in the States. He managed to capture the utter absurdity of its scare mongering approach. Even if you marry an American Jew, your children won’t know the difference between Chanukah and Christmas! They will never call you Aba! Goldberg also pointed out something that should have been apparent to the geniuses who came up with this idea: that these ads might just alienate American Jews a bit. And, also, if Israel is concerned about losing its citizens to the West — not an illegitimate concern — then maybe they could think of a more positive way of calling them back home than telling them they will be responsible for erasing the Jewish people.