Sanctuary Cities Now

I mean sanctuary cities along the lines of the biblical sanctuary cities. There, perpitrators of involuntary manslaughter could find a safe place to be protected from the avenger from the victim’s family. In our case, the Jew, wherever he or she may be found in the world, would be escaping the reinvigorated antisemitism of our times.

It is not realistic to expect Jews whose lives are based in the Diaspora to simply pack up and leave for Israel. Everything they know, everything that they own, even their offspring who may or may not be intermarried; everything in their lives holds them to their host country. This cannot be expected even from those Jews who proclaim “Next year in Jerusalem!” at their Passover Seder. As we know from history, there is little chance that most Jews will decide to leave the Diaspora until it is too late. It seems that it is not in the power of Zionists to change the minds of their Jewish brothers and sisters of the Diaspora.

Will it come to that? Are we looking at a situation where it will be “too late” for the Jews of the Diaspora? How bad can it get? It is hard to imagine sanctioned internment of Jews, let alone sanctioned killing of Jews, though it is not as hard to imagine as it was even a short while ago.

Today, thank God, the Jews are not without a place to turn for sanctuary. Zionist Israelis need to be understanding of the uncertain reality of our Diaspora brothers and sisters. But the fact that we may believe them to be misguided does not release us from out duty to prepare for the worst.

This can easily be done by Israel. Sustainable pre-fabricated housing can be mass produced to create networked villages, each home provided with solar panel roofing and energy efficient appliances, as well as a private yard covered with artificial grass, a fig tree and a grape vine planted by the Jewish Agency to provide prophecy-inspired shade. These can be leased to new immigrants at subsidized cost, and after 10 years of continuous occupation would become the property of the immigrant. Free modular expansions would be provided to couples for every two children after the first three that they bring into the world. Free fertility treatments would be provided when neccessary. The idea being to infuse the new immigrants with a sense of Zionist purpose by incouraging them to participate in the national project to increase the Jewish population of Israel to 50 million within 30 years.

The other, essential, thing that Israeli Zionists must do is to find a way to come together. It would seem that the fact that Israelis are all in the same boat would be enough to bring about a basic unity out of which the Redemption could continue to flourish, but we have learned that it is not enough. There needs to be more. And there is. I know of two significant grass-roots projects that are platforms for the meeting of the Zionist left and right. The reports that I have heard point less towards the appearance of new political parties and more towards the appearance of a new Israeli politics, one that must take into account the desire of a large part of the Jewish nation to be like all other nations, as it must take into account the desire of the opposing part of the nation to adhere to the traditional Jewish belief that it is the Jews’ nature to be apart from othe nations, and must continue to be so. Once we work this out, Diaspora Jewry may find it easier to make Aliya.

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The uninvited dilemma facing the Jews of the Diaspora is this: If and when to jump ship. These real-life decisions are part and parcel of the Jewish psyche today, while another part of that psyche remains strangely detached and unaffected in some sort of Jewish limbo, watching and wondering: how low can this Jew-hatred go?