Choices and Consequences

Many times, during the long existence of the Jewish people we have stood before many dilemmas. Since the second exile, we have lived as minorities in most of the countries in the world. Some experiences have been better than others. There have been countries in which the Jews have been able to freely practice their religion and have prospered. The Jews were generally under the protection of Kings, Emperors, Dukes, Popes, Bishops and other rulers. However, this was not a stable situation. Political or economic turmoil or even a plague could make the Jews’ situation precarious. The Jews would then have to make a choice: whether to stay under uncertain circumstances or make their way to new destinations. For example, in Spain, during the Inquisition, Jews who chose to remain there as hidden Jews were persecuted for it. For each choice that we make, there are consequences.

In the modern era, my great-grandparents also faced a dilemma – whether to stay in Eastern Europe or move to a new country. My mother’s maternal grandparents were from a small town in Southern Poland with a population of around 14,000, approximately half of which was Jewish. The Polish name of the town was Oswiecim, the Germans called it Auschwitz. The Jews had a name in Yiddish for the town – Oshpitzin – which means “welcoming”. Jews had lived there since the second half of the 17th century, and it was a good place for Jews to live, living up to its Yiddish name. Until it didn’t.

The Jews had initially been invited into Poland to help the Polish economy, which mostly benefited the nobility. The Polish peasantry, and later the Ukrainians who were occupied by Poland, came to resent the Jews who moved there and were seen as the representatives of the Polish nobility. This led to the 1648-1649 uprising in the Ukraine and subsequent pogroms in which maybe up to 100,000 Jews were killed.

Modern nationalism left little place for Jews, who were somehow seen as alien. In the early 1900s, Oswiecim was under Austrian rule and Polish nationalism was on the rise. Fearing Polish nationalism, my mother’s maternal grandparents decided to emigrate to England, even though, as German speakers, it would have been more logical for them to emigrate to Austria or Germany. My great-grandfather’s brother chose to stay in Poland, believing in safety in numbers and his cousins moved to Berlin, seeing Germany as a good option due to its culture. My mother’s paternal grandparents came from Russia. They also feared Russian nationalism and new discriminatory laws in the 1880s helped them to make the choice to emigrate to England. My father’s grandparents came from Lithuania and Poland. They too, made the choice to emigrate to England in the 1880s.

The family members who remained in continental Europe mostly did not survive the coming Holocaust. England, therefore, was a good choice. Indeed, England was good for my family. They worked hard, first in manufacturing, and afterwards, having achieved higher education, in the professions. But England, too, had a less welcoming aspect: antisemitism existed there as well.

In 1966, when my parents bought their first house, the neighbor from over the road knocked on their door to politely tell them to go back to Israel. Later, the argument would be “get out of Palestine”. Both the phrases though had essentially the same meaning: “You are not welcome here”.

In my youth, I was very well-read about the Holocaust and Judaism and Israel. I too made a choice. I decided that I wanted to live in a Jewish country, where we would live according to the Jewish calendar and not have to ask for permission to take the holidays off from school or work. I wanted to live in a Jewish country, where people could be proud of being Jewish and live without antisemitism.

I made Aliyah to Israel in 1989 and finally, here, I felt at home. I got married in 1998 and my son Meiron was born in 2002. My son was an only child, and he too made a choice. He decided that he was going to defend his people and serve in an elite army unit. It was necessary for me and my wife to give our permission for Meiron to serve in a combat unit. We had a choice to make. We decided to let Meiron fulfil his dreams. Choices have consequences. Meiron served in Yahalom, the elite combat engineering unit, becoming an expert in tunnel warfare. He was killed in Gaza, in January 2024.

I came home to Israel, and I ask myself did I make a good choice. As a people, we have paid a terrible price for coming home to live in this sliver of land called Israel. And even though I, personally, paid a very high price for the privilege of coming home, I deeply believe that I made the right choice. And I do still think that Israel is the future for the Jewish people. To anybody who is debating within their family whether to stay where they are, or to come to Israel, I hope you make the right choice.