Finally a Prime Minister from the East
By Tuesday night we may have, for the first time in our modern history as a Jewish State elected a Prime Minister from the so-called “Eastern Jewish Communities”.
This should be the opening of an effort by all of us to finally unite, not politically, but as members of the renewed Jewish People in their Homeland!
The cultural differences between Polish Jews and German Jews and Moroccan Jews and Yemenite Jews and Russian Jews and Iraqi Jews and Sephardic Jews and Ashkenazi Jews and ….. has created social tensions in our country since its founding, in spite of the intermarriage of members of different groups. These differences in culture have been used by politicians of many parties to create tensions as if there were not enough tensions naturally created by the mixing of all these different cultures. And yet we must always remember that we have the same history book -the Tanach- and until a few hundred years ago, the same religion, with slightly different prayer-books. Now, after the loss of religious observance amongst many of us, even the question of “Who is a Jew?” is a very complicated question. We here in Israel have over the past eighty or so years have basically divided up into the so-called European Jews and the Eastern Jews with all kinds of tensions and prejudices on all sides.
And yet now after so many years if you look carefully, you will see all of the present Jews living here, in almost every part of our life-even those parts of our life which were once dominated by the Jews from Europe. But the fact is that we have already had a few heads of the army who were from Eastern Jewish Communities and a few Foreign Ministers from the same community. Our universities and hi-tech companies are filled up with students from all communities. I have been an eye-witness to this progress over the past fifty years.
But until now there has never been a Premier from the Eastern Community!
And so tomorrow could be the end of the last major office never held by a Jew of the Eastern Community and it will be held by someone whose choice is based on quality and not background!
This should be a sign to all of us that Israeli society is open to all (of course including non-Jews as well) and their advancement is based, and should be based, on talent and quality and not origin of birth of their parents or grandparents.
It is time we, all of us, as a modern Jewish Society, in our modern sovereign Jewish State, approach the future to meet the challenges – even immediate challenges – TOGETHER!
