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After Israel plunged into war, these Jews moved there anyway

TEL AVIV (JTA) — When Yona and Mikhael Benichou decided over the summer to move to Israel from their home in France, they set a target date of around a year later — in time for their eldest son, David, 15, to begin his studies for Israel’s matriculation exams.

But after Oct. 7, they sped up their plans to immigrate, known in Hebrew as making aliyah. The straw that broke the camel’s back, Yona Benichou said, came a week after the attack when the family, who wear identifiably Jewish symbols, were spat on by a group of rugby fans while walking down the street in their hometown of Marseilles.

“I was in total shock, I didn’t know how to react. Lots of other people saw what happened but no one tried to help us,” she told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

“The antisemites were always there. But after October 7, we felt like they have a platform to do whatever they like and that no one — and definitely not the French authorities — can stop them.”

The Benichous landed in Israel on Oct. 31, arriving in a country still reeling from Hamas’ devastating attack on its southern communities and in the early stages of a grueling ground war that has reshaped society. They are among the more than 2,600 people whom Israeli authorities say have chosen to move to Israel over the last two months despite the crisis.

Almost all of the new arrivals had been planning to move to Israel for some time, though a handful, like the Benichous, have accelerated their immigration.

Aaron Gold, 26, had planned to move next year and was in the country visiting when the war broke out. His parents, alarmed by the emergency evacuation of American citizens and by the fact that Gold did not live in an apartment with a safe room, pressured their son to return to the United States. He flew back to Philadelphia on Oct. 18 but said he “despised” being there and returned to Israel as a new immigrant on Nov. 16.

Gold, a product manager at Deloitte, said making aliyah had “always been a dream of mine” and said he felt waiting to see how the war played out would not make any difference.

Aaron Gold poses with his mother before flying to Israel from the United States in November 2023. (Courtesy Gold)

“Hezbollah could attack now, they could attack in six months, they could attack in six years,” he said. “You can’t plan it.”

According to Israel’s Immigration and Absorption Ministry, 2,662 people have made aliyah since Oct. 7, including 1,635 from Russia, 218 from the United States, 128 from Ukraine, 116 from France, and 106 from Belarus.

The numbers are smaller than the average in recent years and dramatically lower than the same period for 2022, when 16,400 new immigrants arrived, propelled by people escaping the war in Ukraine. They also come at the end of a year when political discord in Israel had already depressed immigration beyond the usual rate.

Still, the new immigrants, known as olim, demonstrate that during challenging times, some Jews will still choose to move to Israel. And the organizations that support them say they anticipate a flood of arrivals in the near future, once the war ends but while concerns about spiking antisemitism are still fresh.

The Benichous reached out to the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which has helped 317 people make aliyah since Oct. 7. The organization purchased flights for the family and donated around $2,000 toward the cost of furniture for the family’s new apartment in the central Israeli city of Beit Shemesh.

According to the group’s president, Yael Eckstein, fewer new immigrants have arrived in Israel since Oct. 7 than other years due to a combination of canceled flights and decisions to put plans on hold until the security situation stabilizes. But she said she has seen an “increase in the number of requests for information about the immigration process from countries where cases of antisemitic incidents have risen.”

Nefesh B’Nefesh has facilitated aliyah for 384 people from the United States and Canada since the start of the war, mostly for people who had begun the process long before Oct. 7, the group’s vice president of communications, Yael Katsman, told JTA.

Still, like Eckstein, Katsman pointed to a “vast surge” in interest since the attack, marking an “an unprecedented increase” of more than 100% in aliyah applications compared to the same timespan in 2022. She attributed the spike to an increased “commitment to building Israel” by Diaspora Jewry during “difficult historic events.”

Many people who initiate aliyah applications, required for new immigrants to secure a range of benefits, do not end up completing them. But the chair of the Jewish Agency, which facilitates immigration, recently told an Israeli news station that he expects 1 million new Jewish immigrants in the coming years — a number that would dramatically reshape the country of about 10 million.

The agency’s head of international relations, Yigal Palmor, was more circumspect in comments to JTA but likewise said signs pointed to a rise in new arrivals. One thousand people initiated applications in France in October and November, according to agency data, marking a 470% increase over the previous two months.

“We’ve witnessed a dramatic rise in aliyah applications since the outbreak of the conflict, most notably in France and the U.S.,” Palmor said. “We will probably see the results in the coming months, but it’s premature to predict numbers.”

People get information about moving to Israel at a Jewish Agency fair in France in December 2023. (Courtesy Jewish Agency for Israel)

Immigration Minister Ofir Sofer told JTA in a statement that his ministry was preparing for a surge in immigration as a result of the war.

Since Oct. 7, there has been “a lot of interest [in immigration] from young people, students and young couples from western countries, including those from western European countries where people in the past did not show much interest in immigrating,” Sofer said.

The two main reasons, he said, were “growing antisemitism around the world, and solidarity with Israel.”

Gold said antisemitism in the United States redoubled his commitment to move to Israel permanently.

“You kind of realize you’re afraid to go to work, not only of physical violence but just emotionally,” he told JTA about his return in October. “I was with coworkers who told me that from their office they were able to hear people saying, ‘Restart the Intifada, death to the Jews’ and things like that.”

Israeli Immigration Minister Ofir Sofer poses at Ben-Gurion Airport with some of the 25 new immigrants who arrived from New York on Oct. 19, 2023, less than two weeks since Israel was thrust into war. (Courtesy Nefesh B’Nefesh)

Daniel Bleiweiss, 51, made aliyah with his 14-year-old son Emiliano this fall from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He had made the decision years ago, but postponed it because of the pandemic as well as bureaucratic issues related to Emiliano’s adoption, a yearslong process that was resolved only in 2019. Bleiweiss, a physician, planned on arriving in Israel on Oct. 10 with his wife Natalia and her teenage daughter, Lucia, from a previous marriage. The war threw a wrench into their original plan and the flights were canceled. Ultimately, the family decided that Daniel and Emiliano would move immediately, while Natalia and Lucía would join them in the future when conditions become more stable.

Bleiweiss cited several reasons for wanting to make aliyah, including Argentina’s economic crisis and the South American country’s inadequate resources to support his son, who has learning and social difficulties. But like the other new immigrants JTA spoke to, the main impetus was a rise in antisemitism coupled with a strong desire to live in the Jewish homeland, which he described as a “historic responsibility.”

Bleiweiss recounted a recent incident in which his wife had tried to check into a hotel where she had a reservation. The clerk saw the Israeli visa in her passport and subsequently refused to allow her to stay at the hotel, Bleiweiss said, adding that his wife chose not to press charges. He also said that his son had been bullied at school for being Jewish.

“It is painful, but it reinforces our conviction that Israel is the safest place to be Jewish right now, and it is perhaps the only place where we can express our identity proudly and in peace,” he said.

Daniel and Emiliano Bleiweiss’ immigration flight was canceled after Oct. 7 but they rescheduled and now live in Israel. (Courtesy International Fellowship of Christians and Jews)

Bleiweiss said that another reason he didn’t want to delay his aliyah again was because he felt compelled to be in the Jewish state in its time of need.

“If a friend is in trouble, you shouldn’t wait for a better time to go see him,” he said. “That’s the time you should be there.”

Meanwhile, in Beit Shemesh, life isn’t without its challenges for the Benichou family. Because of how suddenly they left France, they didn’t have time to save up money or sell their belongings.

“We never thought in a million years we would come within a month. We came without any money,” Yona Benichou said. “It’s not easy to build yourself anew.”

But there are no regrets for Benichou or her children, who she said were understanding of the fact that this Hanukkah they wouldn’t be receiving gifts on every night of the festival as they were used to from previous years. “My 8-year-old son told me, ‘Mommy, we don’t need Hanukkah presents this year. The biggest present is that we’re here.’”

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The post After Israel plunged into war, these Jews moved there anyway appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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Conspiracy Theories Blame Israel for Charlie Kirk’s Assassination

Charlie Kirk speaking at the inauguration of Donald Trump in January 2025. Photo: Brian Snyder via Reuters Connect

On September 10, a loud voice in American conservative politics was silenced after he was assassinated at an event at Utah Valley University.

Charlie Kirk, 31, was an outspoken supporter of Israel, the Jewish people, and freedom of speech.

As of September 11, the murderer is still unknown, with American authorities pursuing a manhunt. Despite no public information being available as to the background, whereabouts, or motives of the killer, in the immediate aftermath of the assassination, large numbers of so-called activists posted online claiming that the assailant was not a lone individual, but rather a body determined to silence Kirk.

Their scapegoat? Israel and the Mossad.

By stringing together entirely unrelated “evidence,” a false narrative about Israel as the perpetrator began to take form.

These conspiracy theorists insisted that Kirk’s views slowly evolved to become anti-Israel, and that he had started questioning the actions of the state. This, despite his consistent defense of Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorism and the threats that it faces.

In portraying Kirk as a rising critic of the Jewish State, voices online attempted to rewrite his public record, fabricating a motive for Israel to silence him.

These conspiracists pointed to his followers’ anti-Israel views and twisted them as “evidence” of Kirk’s own “shift” where he began a “JQ question” journey. Shorthand for “Jewish Question,” these individuals peddle the theory that the Jewish people are secretly controlling politics, the economy, and the media. Anyone who questions or challenges this alleged control is said to be punished by the Jews who supposedly wield it.

Of course, this conspiracy is not based on any factual evidence, but on recycled antisemitic myths. It became yet another way of turning a tragedy into a vehicle for scapegoating Jews.

The internet claimed Israel as the perpetrator, assassinating Kirk solely to advance its own agenda, even if at the expense of the Israel-US relationship. The accusation is entirely unfounded, but it still garnered support from accounts with over one million followers.

As a result of Kirk’s support for Israel, Israeli politicians, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, rushed to offer him support upon hearing the news that he was in critical condition, praying that he would recover.

Yet voices online quickly concluded that Netanyahu’s well-wishes could only mean one thing: Israel was behind the assassination.

Naturally, terrorist supporter and conspiracy theorist Jackson Hinkle jumped on the conspiracy theory bandwagon.

This is not the first time conspiracy theories blaming Israel for the death of innocent people have been created.

The tragic events of September 11, 2001, were also made into a conspiracy theory, claiming it was the result of a Mossad operation, alleging that the Mossad carried out the terrorist attack to advance the agenda of the Jewish State.

Because Kirk’s assassination happened the day before 9/11, the same conspiracy theorists who push the Mossad narrative found an easy opportunity to link the two events. They claimed that Kirk’s death was part of a broader, coordinated plan by Israel to manipulate global events and public perceptions of the country during a time of war.

The pattern of speculation being transformed into “evidence” is not new. However, the speed with which these false narratives can spread certainly is.

By diverting attention away from actual facts, conspiracy theorists can succeed in luring their audiences into believing dangerous tropes that fuel antisemitism. The exploitation of Charlie Kirk’s horrific assassination demonstrates how quickly a tragedy can be weaponized to fuel age-old antisemitic tropes by blaming the Jewish people for a tragedy in which they had no part.

The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.

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In Memory of My Personal Friend, Charlie Kirk

A memorial is held for Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed in Utah, at the Turning Point USA headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, US, Sept. 10, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Caitlin O’Hara

Words cannot express the depth of our grief at the tragic murder of my dear friend, Charlie Kirk, at the hands of an evil gunman. Charlie was not only a national leader; he was also my neighbor here in Scottsdale, Arizona, with whom I shared a special bond.

We often spoke about G-d, whom he loved; our Judeo-Christian values, which he championed; America, which he adored; Israel and the Jewish people, whom he deeply cherished; and the state of our youth, for whom he cared so profoundly.

Beyond Charlie’s profound wisdom and unquenchable curiosity, he had an uncanny ability to engage in every exchange — even when disagreements grew heated — with respect, humility, and grace, along with an unrelenting desire to find common ground. A few months ago, he proudly shared with me that he too “observes the Sabbath.” From then on, we would often wish each other “Shabbat Shalom” every Friday.

Unlike many in positions of power, Charlie never felt threatened by the success of others. He lifted people up, opened doors, and rejoiced in their growth. Over a year ago, he encouraged me to join our mutual friend Seth Leibsohn on the radio, where I now appear regularly every Friday on 960AM The Patriot. Charlie often introduced me to his many friends and influencers, always eager to connect people and help them thrive.

Charlie loved his family fiercely. His beloved wife, Erika, and their children were his crown jewels. He hugged them tightly every day, and often reminded me to do the same with mine. Their well-being was always on his mind; his family was both his source of joy and his greatest mission. Just recently, while I was praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Charlie asked me to “pray for my family, my wife Erika, and our children, Genevieve and MacArthur.”

Charlie was also a true believer in the United States of America, in the Constitution, and in the Divine principles upon which this country was founded. He worked tirelessly to reach everyone — particularly students on campuses across America — engaging them in dialogue and reminding them of our sacred values.

He was a stalwart supporter of Israel and of the Jewish people. Just a few weeks ago, I wrote in the Times of Israel that “Charlie is one of the most stalwart and consistent fighters in this war for truth, faith, and moral clarity… one of the shiniest ambassadors of G-d in our world.” Indeed, he lived with courage, with clarity, and with uncompromising faith.

Charlie’s sudden passing is not only a colossal loss for his friends; it is also a profound loss for America, for the nation of Israel, for all people of faith, and for the world.

To his amazing wife, Erika, to his precious children, Genevieve and MacArthur, and to all of Charlie’s loved ones: We send our deepest love, our fervent prayers, and our endless blessings. Know that we are with you today, tomorrow, and always.

And to all of us, I beg you: In Charlie’s memory, please consider the following:

  • Hug your spouse and children tighter today and every day, as Charlie did.

  • Embrace G-d and His values uncompromisingly, as Charlie did.

  • Add more and more good deeds to your everyday life, as Charlie did.

  • Debate ideas but never demean people, as Charlie did. As the seal of our great nation proclaims: E Pluribus Unum — out of many, one. May we live by it.

May Charlie’s light continue to guide us and illuminate our world. And may we soon see the day in which “G-d will swallow up death forever … and wipe away the tears from all faces” (Isaiah 25:8). Amen.

Rabbi Pinchas Allouche is the founding Rabbi of Congregation Beth Tefillah and the founding Dean of Nishmat Adin Hihh School in Scottsdale, Arizona.

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There Is Still Time to Pull Ourselves Back from the Edge

A Torah scroll. Photo: RabbiSacks.org.

The 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil — who served as British Prime Minister three times at the turn of the 20th century — was not exactly a cheerleader for progress. But he was honest. Brutally honest. His most remembered quote says it all: “Whatever happens will be for the worse, and therefore it is in our interest that as little should happen as possible.” 

Salisbury was the ultimate conservative. He sincerely and genuinely believed that change always makes things worse — and that the status-quo, with all its flaws, is preferable to whatever chaos change might unleash, which it most certainly will. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it — and if it is broken, best not to touch it. Because you’ll only make things worse.

There’s a certain bleak wisdom to Salisbury’s worldview, and it sounds exactly like the sort of thing you’d expect from a 19th-century European aristocrat with a hereditary seat in the House of Lords. But Salisbury’s fear of change isn’t just a relic of the past. It’s a recurring force throughout history. 

Change terrifies people. And when that fear metastasizes, it becomes a pathology — and bad things tend to happen to those who spearhead change, and to challenge accepted norms. Because when someone comes along and quietly unravels the lies, dismantles the illusions, and gently questions the reigning orthodoxy — not with rage, not with violence, but with cold, logical reason — the system panics.

We’ve seen this before, time and again. Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t call for violent revolution — he preached nonviolence and the reconfiguration of a broken system. But he threatened the status quo with something far more destabilizing: clarity. And for that, he was killed. 

Robert F. Kennedy wasn’t storming barricades — he was addressing poverty, race relations, and the Vietnam War, trying to find a way forward that was different. But his calm conviction rattled too many cages. And for that, he was killed. 

Yitzhak Rabin attempted to create peace and hope for Israel — and for that, he was killed. 

Donald Trump also had a brush with death in Butler, Pennsylvania, during the 2024 election campaign, when a would-be assassin fired a bullet that grazed his ear — a few millimeters from changing history.

Truthfully, it doesn’t matter if the agent of change is right or wrong, loud or quiet, from the left or the right — when people perceive that someone is shifting the tectonic plates of the political or cultural landscape, fear sets in. And fear, when left unchecked, becomes violence.

And now we have the killing of Charlie Kirk — the latest casualty of the fear of change. Kirk, a right-wing influencer with an extraordinary reach into Gen Z, was just 31 years old. He was gunned down in broad daylight while speaking to students at Utah Valley University. 

Moments before his murder, he had been doing what he did best — engaging young people calmly, intelligently, and without fear or condescension. He stood before an audience of thousands, not to inflame them, certainly not to encourage hate, but to persuade them. And for that, he was killed.

Immediately after the announcement of Kirk’s death, Donald Trump called him “The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk… No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better.” Coming from someone who delights in exaggeration, that was no exaggeration. 

Kirk was uniquely gifted at reaching the very people our society claims to care about but so often fails to understand: disaffected youth struggling to find their political footing in an age of cynicism, manipulation, and institutional distrust.

There’s a chilling line buried in the long litany of curses in Parshat Ki Tavo — a statement by Moses you can easily gloss over or dismiss, until real life stops you in your tracks and the ancient words hit you between the eyes.

Moses begins the section by warning the Israelites not to abandon their moral compass or lose sight of the truth, or else they will descend into darkness. And among the consequences he spells out is this one (Deut. 28:34): “You will go mad from what your eyes see.”

To be clear, this is not a metaphor and it’s not a curse — it’s a prediction, and a diagnosis. A society that is frightened of truth, and of agents of change who prioritize truth over slogans, will eventually lose its collective mind. And then it will turn on the very people trying to save it.

The medieval commentator Ramban explains that this kind of madness is not clinical — it’s existential. It is, in fact, a divinely-sourced affliction on the intellect. When a society detaches itself from plain truth and spiritual grounding, it begins to lose its ability to think straight. Eventually, it sees good as evil, and honest debate as a subversive act. 

Ramban calls it a “strike on the mind” — a kind of blindness where people no longer recognize what is real and what is destructive. Moses is warning us that the results are always terrifying.

Sforno goes even deeper. He writes that this madness causes people to act against their own interests. They’re no longer just mistaken — they become destructive. They pursue what harms them, attack those trying to help them, and misjudge the very people who might lead them to a better place. 

In Sforno’s reading, “you will go mad from what your eyes see” means the world will become so upside-down, so saturated with chaos and distortion, that even when someone shows up with reason and hope, the collective instinct will be to destroy him.

There’s also a strange irony at play here — one that even the Marquess of Salisbury might have found too absurd to imagine. In today’s world, it’s the conservatives who are trying to change things, while the so-called progressives have become the reactionaries, frantically defending a broken, toxic status quo. 

The political compass has spun so wildly out of control that someone like Charlie Kirk — a conservative in ideology, but a radical in his willingness to confront cultural decay — was seen as a dangerous revolutionary, and killed. 

What would Salisbury have made of a world where not changing is what’s dragging us into the abyss? Where the only people trying to pull us back from the edge are the ones labeled as “extremists”? 

Charlie Kirk was a conservative, yes — but he was also a visionary who believed we didn’t have to accept the darkness and craziness that has engulfed the western world. He wanted to change things by bringing us back to our best selves. And for that, he was silenced.

Charlie Kirk said, “When you deliberately distort and selectively present the truth, you lie.” That wasn’t merely a clever observation — it was a moral compass. Charlie’s determined mission was to present the truth: undistorted, unfiltered, and without fear. 

And now that mission has been cut short — not by an opposing argument, but by a bullet. We are left with the unsettling fulfillment of Moses’ warning: “You will go mad from what your eyes see.” A society so overwhelmed by lies, and so afraid of actual truth, that it can no longer tolerate a calm voice of reason. That’s a society in the grip of madness. 

But madness is not destiny. It is a warning. If we can still hear voices like Charlie’s — and in the aftermath of his untimely death, if we can remember what he stood for — then perhaps we can begin, slowly and painfully, to pull ourselves back from the edge. The alternative is too dreadful to contemplate.

The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California. 

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