jerusalem (jps) | Returning from an intensive two-month trip throughout Europe, Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, former chief rabbi of Israel and a Holocaust survivor, declared last week that Jews should leave Europe.
“In the past months I’ve traveled to Austria, Britain, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands, and I’m telling you there is no future for European Jewry,” said Lau.
“I see the end of the exile for European Jewry.”
Lau said he received the impression from the European Jewish families he had met that they live in fear.
“I’ve met parents who tell me that when they send their children to B’nai Akiva (a religious-Zionist youth movement) for evening activities they are in constant fear that something terrible will happen, God forbid, until they return.
“Once Jews had no choice but to live with anti-Semitism. Now they do.”
Lau said that outward signs of anti-Semitism are not a new phenomenon and since the resurgence of Palestinian violence four years ago there has been a sharp rise.
But the anti-Semitic violence has spread to include the burning of synagogues, the desecration of graves, attacks against Jewish schools, and anti-Semitic propaganda spread via the Internet and on university campuses.
“Israel has to prepare itself for European aliyah by investing in housing, a chain of ulpans [Hebrew classes] and job training for those who need it. Everything should be done to encourage European Jews to make aliyah.”
He ruled out the possibility that a solution for coexistence between Jews in Europe and the communities in which they live could be found.
“Here in Israel a Jew can proudly speak the holy tongue in public places without being embarrassed. Why bother looking for a solution in Europe?”