What has to happen?

GET OUT!!!

I say this with tears in my eyes and trepidation in my heart.

I beg of you, my brothers and sisters outside of Israel, get out now!

I’m so sorry to write this and I understand that uprooting your life is anything but easy. I understand you have kids, parents, a life where you are, and saying “Get out” is easier said than done.

But please open your eyes.

The antisemitism has reached a new level, a Germany, 1940s level. No, there is no holocaust but what happened before the concentration camps is absolutely happening now.

The presidents of some of America’s top educational institutions just testified before congress that calling for the genocide of Jews doesn’t violate their code of conduct unless it leads to action.

Let me translate that for you.

“It’s ok to call for the murder of the Jewish nation as a whole and we won’t say a word. But if you commit the genocide, if you kill Jews, like actually KILL Jews, then we’ll have to get involved.”

When the rhetoric was bad in Europe before the war, Jews didn’t leave because they genuinely didn’t think anything was going to happen; that it was just words.

Until it wasn’t. Until the Nuremberg laws. If you’re not familiar, “The Nuremberg Laws were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on 15 September 1935.”

What was their excuse then? Actual laws against Jews? Why didn’t they leave?!

Because it’s not so easy to uproot your life and they were comfortable there.

Why did only 20% of Jews leave Egypt after the 10 plagues? Because it’s not so easy to uproot your life and they were comfortable there.

“My parents were born here in Egypt/Rome/Greece/Germany/America. My grandparents were born here in Egypt/Rome/Greece/Germany/America. This is my home. I am Egyptian/Roman/Greek/German/American.”

In hindsight, you see how crazy it was in Egypt. You see how crazy it was in Germany. Please, I beg of you, see how crazy it is in America to stay. And Europe? Europe has been done for a while. But now it’s America’s turn.

I fully recognize that many of you are going to come at me with one of two arguments:

- Jews are no safer in Israel.

- Stop being an alarmist. It won’t happen to me. You’re creating hysteria unnecessarily.

Jews are safer in Israel. Here we can defend ourselves.

Here we can, and are obliterating the enemy. Here, I sit in my house and I know that the IDF is guarding me with God’s help.

Please don’t ignore the direction of America as it pertains to Jews. It’s getting really bad, really fast.

It took years for Hitler’s rhetoric to turn into action. Here it took two months.

I also fully recognize that I am offending many American Jews reading this right now. “It’s easy for him to say this. He built his life in Israel. His family brought him to Israel. He didn’t have to sacrifice everything.”

I am sorry I am offending you. I really am. I mean that genuinely. I don’t want to offend you. I don’t want to, but I am willing to because I love you and want you to be safe.

Imagine a child being bullied horribly and his parents pulling him out of the school against his will to protect him from further bullying. That kid might be super angry at his parents for doing this and the parents are willing to live with that anger as long as their kid is safe.

I am not your parent. I have no authority over you. You don’t owe me anything.

But you are being badly bullied and you need to get the hell out of that school!

A statistic I heard from my dad and have quoted hundreds of times:

There has never been a 75 year period in the history of the Jewish people in which so few Jews have been killed. Read that again. Yes, I said “Few”.

It was always something.

Inquisition. Pogroms. Crusades. Holocaust.

Every life that’s lost in Israel to wars and terror is a whole world and a terrible tragedy for our nation. You don’t have to tell me that.

Nothing I am saying belittles that. But also, perspective is necessary. These have been the safest 75 years in our history. This country is protecting us. Hashem is protecting us. The IDF is protecting us.

I am aware and totally ok with you saying I’m an alarmist. I am also ok with you telling me to stop using the holocaust in my arguments. I understand and respect your opinion.

I was also always against comparing anything to the holocaust.

Until October 7th.

There are just too many similarities to stick my head in the sand.

There won’t be concentration camps in America, you are right (I hope, although in today’s insane world, who knows anymore?), but there will be systematic antisemitism, which will, and already has led to physical violence and even murder.

I won’t stop apologizing to you for writing this post. I am not writing this from a place of judgement. I am writing this from a place of concern from one sibling to another.

You are my brother/sister and guess what, if things were reversed and you were here and I was there, I know for a fact that you’d be writing this post to me and I’d be on your side also upset at you and offended by your post. I get it.

But please ask yourself what has to happen.

What has to happen for you to leave or at the very least, make a plan to leave?

What hasn’t happened already?

- Artists declaring their support for Hitler? ??

- NBA players proudly and openly supporting a rhetoric calling for the genocide of Jews? ??

- Full blown antisemitism in congress and an entire party not willing to denounce it? ??

- Rules in leading academic institutions that fully support antisemitism? ??

- Jews being verbally bullied in public spaces? ??

- Physical violence against Jews? ??

- The first murder of a Jew for being a Jew? ??

Is there anything, any event, that will get you to drive to the airport and get on a plane? If the answer is no, that no matter what happens, you won’t leave, then you can stop reading here. I mean it. This post is not for you.

To you, I say, I hope I’m wrong and I wish you success. Also, never forget that we all love you over here and you can always change your mind.

But if there is such an event. What is it? What has to happen?

Because based on history, our “It won’t happen to me” mentality transcends generations. We say it every time and then guess what happens. Those people who said it won’t happen to them? It happens to them.

We’ve had a good run in America, Europe (not so much, and around the world. We had liberty, equal rights, and freedom of religion. But those days are over.

This is a new era, an era that has been in the making for a while now, but has just entered the final faze before it reaches a point of no return. There are no more fazes between now and then.

Again, in Europe, it took years. Here it took months. Things are progressing very quickly. Please open your eyes.

Don’t just dismiss this post and throw your hands up in the air thinking that moving to Israel is simply impossible for you and your family.

Let me ask you this.

If someone put a gun to your head, an actual gun, a gun to your head and to the heads of your parents, children, and loved ones, and told you, you either get on a plane or they pull the trigger, would you still say it’s impossible or would you order a cab to bring you to the ELAL terminal?

This is a gun to your head. It’s not a physical gun yet so it’s harder to recognize but please don’t kid yourself, you have a gun to your head.

Every time I write a post like this or talk about this in a lecture, I get some pretty angry people in the comments. I am willing to risk that, if one, ONE of my millions of siblings reads this and reconsiders their safety outside of Israel.

If I wanted to, I could list the reasons not to move here too.

- My kids need to finish school.

- My parents are elderly. I can’t leave them.

- I can’t move to a war zone. It’s dangerous.

- I am more religious here than I will be in Israel. I worry about my kids abandoning Judaism.

- How will I get a job there?

- I don’t know Hebrew well enough to move there.

Should I go on? What did I miss?

All legitimate reasons. I mean it. And still, a gun to your head is a gun to your head.

I am reading this post over, and I truly hate the tone, because I do not believe anyone should move to Israel because of antisemitism. But speaking of guns and triggers, this should be a massive trigger, a catalyst, for you to come home.

In Israel, we are strong, we are united, we will win, we will come out of this stronger, and we will build.

How do you envision Jews getting out of the situation they are in in the diaspora now? Will it magically disappear? Will the educational institutions change their mind about this issue? Will the marches stop? Will the violence magically stop? How can this possibly end well?

But that’s not why you should come home.

You should come home because this is your home.

You should come home because living in Israel today is easier than it’s ever been.

You should come home because Israel is a beautiful country, one of the happiest countries in the world.

You should come home, because whatever lifestyle you lead, Jews are successful here because we are Jews, and not despite the fact that we are Jews, like in the rest of the world.

You should come here because this is a country that is making the world a better place. You should be a part of that.

You shouldn’t come home because you are running away from something but because you are running TO something and that something is your home, your home and your family.

Please try to put aside your instinctive defensiveness to this post. Try to take a step back and look at history.

Please come home. We are here with open arms waiting to welcome you.

Your concerns are all valid and legitimate. No one is saying otherwise. But those concerns would take the back seat if you had a gun to your head. They should take a back seat now.

This testimony given by the presidents of the leading universities in America in congress is truly a new level. Calling for the genocide of Jews is totally legit. How does that not frighten you?

It’s not even 10 am and I am totally devastated by that testimony. This is why I don’t watch any of the atrocities. I have such a low tolerance for tragedy ever since…

As sad as I am, a part of me is happy I watched it. We can’t ignore this any longer. We cannot afford to stick our heads in the sand anymore.

I am out of words here. Just please come home.

I am sorry I had to write this. I am sorry if it offended you. But I am also not sorry because if I didn’t use my platform for this, I’d never be able to forgive myself when…

Not if, when.

Come home. Your family is waiting.

Like I said, history keeps repeating itself. The script has already been written. Here is how it goes down time, and time again.

I am not a prophet, I just simply know how to read history books.

There is an empire, a very strong world leading empire. The Roman Empire. The Greek empire. The Soviet empire. The Nazi empire. The American empire.

It keeps getting stronger and stronger, until its strength goes to its head, and then morality starts going out the window.

Whether it’s an emperor putting people in a colosseum to fight till their death, a government legislating against an entire nationality, or a culture that confuses facts for feelings, whether it’s on gender, terrorism, or countless other things we have seen transpire in Western civilization of the 21st-century

As soon as that happens, the empire begins to fall, but not before they find a scapegoat to blame for their demise: The Jews.

The Jews then spend time trying to convince that empire that they are just like them. They assimilate and try to prove to the empire not only that they are just like them, but they can actually outdo them.

They are more Egyptian than the Egyptians, they are more Roman than the Romans, they are more Greek than the Greeks, and today, they are more liberal than the most liberal people in America.

But then, the empire has to remind the Jews that they are not just like them, and they do that with a tool called anti-Semitism.

Anti-Semitism begins to show its ugly face, the Jews refuse to see it, and keep yelling, “No, you don’t understand! We are just like you. We no longer have loyalty to our heritage. Forget Judaism! We are American. I’m telling you. We are just like you!”

The empire continues to fall, anti-Semitism continues to skyrocket, and then comes the worst of all, extermination of the Jews. Over and over and over again. Exile or genocide.

Now look at the American empire and tell me you don’t see the same script repeating itself!

I can’t believe how quickly this all happened. I really can’t. I watch that testimony and just can’t believe what I’m hearing.

It’s all happened. Come home. Now. Please!

What has to happen?