מים חיה
There is No Other Land (For Jews) Consider this post a balm for the Shaiel post claiming he can’t celebrate July 4th because of, uh, reasons? As an American in America on the 4th of July, who benefits from all the good this country has to offer, I don’t let a day go by without seeing the good this country does for me and all of its citizens. I have opportunities and privilege being from this land that many others around the world don’t. I can walk outside in a sundress with my hair uncovered, I can speak freely, I can receive healthcare and I have a safe home. I just can’t imagine taking any of that for granted. America is still the land of the free, even if it doesn’t look the way it used to. Some of it is progress, some of it is taking ten or one hundred steps back. I can condemn its faults while remaining grateful for its blessings. Unfortunately, there is one thing this country can never give me: peace as a Jew. I will never again be able to wear my Magen David without being stared down and given dirty looks. I will never again be able to speak Hebrew in public without disgusted faces staring back at me. I’ve even had long time physicians on my medical team change their attitude toward me after October 7, 2023. These were physicians I trusted with my life, to care for my terminal illness. These same physicians made it clear they cannot separate their person views from the medicine. That is terrifying. My choice to make Aliyah was borne of a dozen factors: my future spouse is making Aliyah and I go where he goes, the medical care in Israel is some of the best in the world, I have dozens of friends in Israel so I won’t be alone as Olim. Mostly, though, it came down to one thing: my safety and the peace I need as a Jew in my soul. Argue it all you want, but the only place Jews are safe now is home in Eretz Yisrael. We have No Other Land. There is No Other Land for Jews to feel safe speaking Hebrew among friends. There is No Other Land where we don’t have to worry about hate crimes inflicted upon us simply for being Jewish. There is No Other Land promised to us by Hashem, that offers us Law of Return, because the land has been ours for 3,000 years. When I step off the plane at Ben Gurion, I walk the land of my ancestors. The first night in my new home, won’t be new, because the land my home is built on was always my ancestral home. So, to subvert the use of No Other Land the way it has been, to suggest the people currently occupying the land who refuse to leave have any claim to it, that we should feel any empathy for the murderous traitors that walk where our Jewish ancestors walked, upon what they built for their children, for Hashem’s children, is an insult. Muslims have 52 other options for a land of their own; they can even assimilate in America where they’re welcomed with open arms. Jews seem to be unwelcome now in America. The antisemitism and chants for our death has reached fever pitch. So we return to Israel amid hateful calls for us to “go home to Poland”. We are not from Eastern Europe. We have Israel. We have No Other Land. And that, that alone, is all Zionism is and ever has been. The cry of our ancestors saying “we have no other land!” The wish to come home to Israel, because it’s the only home we have. The Only Land we’ve ever had is under threat, it probably always will be, but we are strong. We are resilient. Nothing can part us from the land Hashem created for us to raise generations on. We will always return home. Am Yisrael Chai 🇮🇱 Happy 4th of July 🇺🇸 📷Image credit: Israel/instagram
