My Jpost Letter On Migration (pub. 9/7/17)

Submitted by Dave (United States), Sep 12, 2017 at 15:02

Shmuley Boteach ("The disappearing kippot of European Jewry," No Holds Barred, September 5) wants to maintain a thriving Jewish presence in Europe, but this would require an unsentimental look at the factors that could derail such a worthy goal.

There is, of course, the antisemitism of native Europeans, which is seldom expressed as outright violence, but often sublimated as sympathy for the Palestinians. In addition, add in the flood of Muslim migrants, many of whom hail from cultures that have social attitudes toward women, gays, free speech and religious minorities that are far to the right of what would be acceptable in the West. Should their numbers exceed a certain threshold, it would be logical to assume that Jews, as well as others, would come under similar pressures that were experienced by minorities in the Muslim countries the migrants fled.

Despite these dangers, most European Jews have not turned to anti-immigrant parties. Some reasons are moral: Judaism teaches us to love the stranger.

Others are experiential: Jews identify with refugees. The net effect is that Jews are undermining their own well-being in order to appease their conscience.

It would be one thing if the European governments were taking time to vet the refugees for extremism, selecting only the truly decent and persecuted. But they are not. Instead, they have thrown their doors open to any and all from some of the worst places on Earth. It is a kind of cultural suicide driven by the best "road to hell" intentions.

And let's face it, George Soros is a major enabler.

Many of the eastern European governments, like that of Hungary, want none of it. Neither do savvy Israelis like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It's time to get real and look out for ourselves.

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