The nightmare that is the Jewish Agency
Over the years, there have been many activists, both inside and outside the Israeli government, who have called for Jews to make aliyah to Israel. Especially nowadays when it seems that all of Europe is burning, and Jews are being attacked. And not just European Jews, but American Jews as well. With the sharp rise in anti-semitic attacks in the US, like in Europe, Nefesh b’Nefesh has noticed a slight increase in those inquiring about settling in Israel.
Many moons ago, years before the current situation worldwide, but when anti-semitism was, once again, just beginning to rear its ugly head, even I myself, now writing from the comfort (for the time being) of the United States of America, have considered making aliyah because, after all, American Jews have been making aliyah since the mid-19th century. But in the end, I chose to opt out because of 2 reasons – 1) and I readily admit, is my own fault, I had a severe bout of homesickness. Had I made aliyah, I would have been the only one in my family to have done so. (That’s a story in itself.) My parents, my sister, my cousins, my friends, would all be thousands of miles away in the States and it would have been just me, alone, in Israel. And 2) and this one’s not my fault, and I’m not the only one to feel this way – the overwhelming bureaucratic nightmare that is the Jewish Agency. That body has done more to discourage aliyah than all the anti-Semitic propaganda spewed out by Al Jazeera, the BBC, The Guardian, and The New York Times combined.
But this article isn’t about me. I’m actually writing on behalf of a friend of mine – let’s call him “Sam” – not his real name. I want to protect his privacy. Beginning last year, “Sam” decided to make aliyah in order to connect more to his Judaism, and he contacted Nefesh b’Nefesh for that purpose. As instructed, he began to gather all the necessary paperwork for which he had to pay hundreds of dollars in total, including $65 to Nefesh b’Nefesh, in order to facilitate the aliyah process. “Sam” is not rich and for him, that was a lot of money, and at times, it caused him a lot of financial hardship. But he did it anyway for the sake of his aliyah. Eventually, he completed gathering the paperwork, submitted it, and then suddenly, he was told that he would first have to be interviewed by the Jewish Agency after they review his paperwork. Now in all fairness, he doesn’t have any complaints against Nefesh b’Nefesh, but the frustrating thing is, there are certain things that Nefesh b’Nefesh can’t do that only the Jewish Agency can. So now the ball’s in the Agency’s court. It has been about a month as of this writing and he hasn’t heard back from anybody. What are the bureaucrats in the Jewish Agency trying to find? I suppose some would say that they want to be extremely cautious, especially since the atrocities of October 7th. But then again, the Agency has been notoriously known for dragging their bureaucratic feet and unnecessarily prolonging the process since its foundation in the early ’20s.
It doesn’t take weeks and weeks to find out if someone is a terrorist, or a terrorist sympathizer, or a provocateur wanting to cause trouble for the Jews in Judea and Samaria (like many American and European activists have a habit of doing), or if he will be a financial drain on the Israeli economy. It doesn’t take so many weeks to check on someone’s background to find out if he’s a good guy or bad guy.
Perhaps there is discrimination involved here. There are three things in “Sam’s” life that he believes are acting against him: 1) He wasn’t born in the US. 2) He was divorced. And 3) he converted to Judaism, by a conservative rabbi, not orthodox. None of these things should make a bit of difference. “Sam” has admitted to me that now, his motivation for making aliyah has been lessened. The paperwork that Sam had gathered is only good for six months. If the Jewish Agency drags its feet until next month, that will be the sixth month, and then he’ll have to start the paper gathering process all over again.
Should Israel find itself in a situation where thousands of European Jews flee Europe as refugees, and many of those refugees decide to settle in Israel, I dread to think of all the bureaucratic BS they’ll have to go through once they set foot in Ben Gurion Airport. So I’m asking the Jewish Agency, DO YOU WANT JEWS TO MAKE ALIYAH OR DON’T YOU?!
