Memo to Israeli leaders: the Torah says welcome the stranger, Jewish or not

EETTA PRINCE-GIBSON: Destitute refugees will not destroy the Jewish fibre of Israel. But xenophobic politicians trying to guard the ‘Jewish character’ of the state will do just that

MY GRANDMOTHER WAS a refugee.  Alone, with two sets of twins under the age of five, she left Tuchin, Ukraine, for Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, to escape poverty and oppression. Most of the family she left behind was murdered in the Holocaust. My father, a scholar and a rabbi, left Ludmir, now in Ukraine, for Halifax, Nova Scotia, to try to find a life of freedom as a Jew. From his family, only he and his sister survived.

Jacob fled to Egypt to escape famine. The Israelites left Egypt to be free. Jews have fled from the Inquisition, run from pogroms, tried to escape from the Nazis, and, after the Holocaust, built new homes and lives in other places.

Today, some three million people are fleeing Ukraine. Worldwide, according to the World Migration Report 2022, there are close to 300 million displaced people in the world who are crossing oceans, deserts, and mountains to find safety, freedom, the right to be who they are and to feed their families and themselves.

The Torah commands us to collectively remember that we were once strangers and to bring that memory into the present as a religious and moral obligation to show kindness to those who are fleeing and compassion to those in need. 

Some of the leaders of the Jewish state seem to have forgotten that to be Jewish is to remember. Some can only understand population statistics and future election results. While we are instructed to treat the stranger as if they were one of us, these officials can only see demographic threats.

Admirably, the State of Israel has organised to take in as many Jews as possible. Many of these prospective immigrants, like many of those from the former Soviet Union (FSU) who came before, have only a tenuous, if any, connection to Judaism, and they certainly do not meet any religious definition of Judaism.

But if they meet the criteria for being Jewish according to the Law of Return, they are considered immigrants, and the State of Israel accepts them automatically and welcomes them warmly. For the Jewish Ukrainians coming here now, the State has already made provisions to provide them with housing, social welfare and health benefits and even arrangements for their children to go to school.

But non-Jewish refugees are not welcome here. Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked is worried that taking in "too many" non-Jews will overwhelm Israel's Jewish demographic majority and destroy the "Jewish character" of the state.

Accordingly, Shaked initially announced that Israel would not take in any non-Jewish Ukrainian refugees; then she capped the number at 5,000 but stipulated that the refugees, or Israeli sponsors, would have to put down a significant deposit to guarantee that they would leave when told to do so.

In the face of public and political pressure (some of it even from the more-right wing parties within the coalition), a petition against the restrictions to the High Court supported by the Ukrainian Embassy in Israel, and belated legal advice that she is violating Israel's no-visa-required agreement with Ukraine – Shaked has gradually, and resentfully, relaxed her decisions.

As of today, Ukrainians coming to Israel must have a relative in Israel who is a citizen. That relative must sign a guarantee that the Ukrainian refugee will only stay for them "for a month or two". Most of these arrivals from Ukraine will be granted, at best, a three-month tourist visa, with no work permit, and only basic social or health benefits, if at all. There will be a cap on Ukrainians who want to come but don’t have relatives who are Israeli citizens, but the number remains of unclear.

Taking in Jewish refugees is Israel's responsibility; providing a safe refuge for all Jews is one of the raisons d'etre of the State of Israel. And indeed, to look out for your own is a just and moral responsibility.

But to look only after your own is wrong and immoral. The Torah tells us some 70 times how we are supposed to treat the stranger; it even commands us to love that stranger, especially if they are seeking refuge among us. It doesn't say anywhere that this applies only to the Jewish stranger.

Supporters of Israel's stingy policy argue that since Israel is not capping the number of Jews fleeing from the Ukraine, Israel will probably proportionately take in more refugees than any other country. After all, they say, Jews fleeing Ukraine are refugees, too.

But there's a terrible flaw in that logic: these Jews are not fleeing Ukraine as Jews. They are fleeing for the same reasons that their non-Jewish neighbours are. So the implication of the preference for Jews is not that Israel is a state for Jews, but that we value Jewish lives more than other lives.  

With these grudging decisions, Israel is in violation of numerous international conventions and codes, including the 1951 Refugee Convention that entitles refugees to an official status. It is a particularly bitter irony that that convention was initiated by Israel, motivated by our own memories of suffering as refugees.

In 1951, Israeli leaders still remembered the St. Louis, which, in 1939, carrying some 900 Jewish refugees, was turned away from ports all over the world and sent back to Germany; nearly a third of them were murdered by the Nazis.

Our politicians have forgotten. Yet Israel claims the moral high ground when we demand international support. We demand that they remember and that they promise "Never Again!" Maybe we should let the world know that when we say, "Never Again!" some of us mean "Never Again for Jews only."

Of course, every country is entitled to its own immigration policies, based on its own needs and priorities. But Israel doesn't actually have an immigration policy for non-Jews, and now isn't the time to invent one. Now is the time to welcome all of the refugees from Ukraine, to comfort them and to help them recover. Afterwards, we can apply regulations.

We don't have to worry – they are not likely to stay that long. These "demographic threats" are in need of temporary shelter. Most of them are women, children and the elderly; their male relatives are back in the Ukraine, and they will want to go home.

And if not, they will probably want to go somewhere in Europe, where they are being offered much more generous conditions and have a much lower cost of living. And if there are those who do want to stay, that is when we will be able to enforce our laws, while making the necessary humanitarian exceptions.

In the interim, Israeli civil society does remember our obligations. Lawyers are providing pro bono legal services; synagogues and social groups are collecting toys, clothing, and hygienic products; spontaneous WhatsApp groups are collecting money; volunteers are comforting wives and playing with children; ordinary people are opening up their homes.

Demographics do not threaten our Jewish future and destitute refugees will not destroy the Jewish fibre of our nation. But self-righteous xenophobic politicians who have appointed themselves guardians of the "Jewish character" of the state will.

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Photo: Ukrainian refugees wait for a private jet to fly them to Israel from Chisinau, Moldova, on March 13 (Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/Sipa USA)