Rabbi: Aliyah Debate Should Be 'When, Not If'
A religious leader argues that Jewish families must treat relocation to Israel as a scheduled decision rather than an open-ended question, citing historical and political figures.
By Christopher Singh ·
Rabbi Efrem Goldberg issued a direct call to action on October 30, urging Jewish families to stop treating the move to Israel as a hypothetical. He argued that while there are valid reasons to delay the decision, there are no valid reasons to avoid the struggle of determining a specific timeline.
Goldberg drew a distinction between honest delays and disguised refusals. He stated, 'There are legitimate reasons not to make aliyah at the moment. But there are no legitimate reasons to not be struggling and wrestling with when, not if, to move oneself and one’s family to Israel permanently.' According to the Rabbi, this approach protects real obstacles such as a parent who cannot be left or a child who needs a particular school, while refusing a pose of indifference.
The argument for active engagement in the decision is rooted in religious text and political history. The Torah commands Avram to 'Go forth from your land,' naming the cost of the move in the same breath as the destination. This order of events, where the direction is given before the full prospectus, challenges those who want complete certainty before taking a step.
Political leaders have long emphasized the personal nature of this commitment. Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion described the second major task of Zionism as linking the revival of the homeland with the personal fate of every single Jew. He noted that states can be declared, but lives must be actively linked to the nation's fate to move beyond abstraction.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon addressed new immigrants and Jews worldwide with a specific inventory of needs. He told them, 'We always needed you but we need you now more than ever. Come to Israel. We need you here.' Sharon framed this need not as panic, but as a requirement for a country made of nurses, engineers, teachers, and neighbors.
Goldberg suggests that wrestling with the 'when' requires concrete steps. This includes visiting with a notebook rather than just a camera, asking employers questions that might alter a career, and telling children that the discussion is about a permanent move rather than a vacation. Families who engage in this work may conclude that this year is not the year, a conclusion reached after struggle.
The column argues that a decision reached after active debate is honorable, whereas an unfought question hollows out a life. The goal is to end the pretense that the father's house is the final horizon and to allow a Jewish household's ordinary fate to meet Israel's revival.
Goldberg concluded that if the reasons to wait are real, they should be named without shame. The remaining hiddenness is personal, determined by whether a family treats aliyah as a rumor about other people or as a date that has not yet been circled.
