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Why Have Jews Migrated and Assimilated?
Yemenite Jews walking through a desert, near Aden, before being airlifted to Israel, November 1949. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
There are very different reasons why Jews have always migrated, and many have assimilated. When we feel insecure, some of us just sit the crisis out. Others just move on to more welcoming or financially more promising situations. The present is no different, but here are two examples from the past.
In 1985, I became the rabbi of the Western synagogue off the Finchley Road in Central London. I had previously been the Rabbi of Giffnock Synagogue in Glasgow and Principal of Carmel College. In 1984, I went with my family on a sabbatical to Israel. Much as I loved Israel, I could not fit into its political world, and so I joined the Western in 1985. Unlike most of the other synagogues in London, this one was independent.
The Western had a long and noble history of independence going all the way back to its initial establishment in 1761 as a private minyan started by Wolf Liepman. He had migrated during the eighteenth century and chose to live outside the main Jewish communities in the East End of London. Hence its name “The Western.”
As it grew, it acquired its own burial ground in Brompton Road. Over the years it continued to grow. I chose the Western synagogue because it was independent. I knew that I didn’t have to worry about the politics of the United Synagogue and the Chief Rabbinate. It was a very special, warm, and genteel community, with its own social and educational center. Although most of its members were not so Orthodox in practice, they were very attached to its traditions.
By the time I arrived, the Jews of the West End area were moving further north to where the major Jewish communities of London are today. And so, after a few years, we entered into negotiations with other declining communities in the West End, to get together. Eventually the Western relinquished its independence to merge with Marble Arch, which was part of the United Synagogue. And that was when, after seven very happy and rewarding years, I resigned rather than come under the United Synagogue.
As soon as I arrived at the Western, I had been asked to deal with a very delicate problem. Its Brompton Road Cemetery had been filled completely by the beginning of the 20th century. The synagogue had been approached by developers to sell its disused burial ground which would be turned into residential buildings and would have made a great deal of money for the community. Initially the Western approached the Chief Rabbinate of Israel who agreed, on the grounds that one could move graves if it was to holier ground (in Israel).
English law required that to do this would need to have the approval of relatives of all those buried in the cemetery. The Western had all the documentation and was able to track down the relatives of the 280 bodies buried there. To everybody’s surprise, they discovered that there was not one family buried in that cemetery with Jewish descendants. They had all married out.
We were ready to go ahead, when the Chief Rabbi and the Beth Din stepped in and asked us to stop. The Western had no obligation to accept their authority or opinion. But we chose to listen to their advice. They argued that there remained a significant number of other redundant and historical Jewish burial sites across the United Kingdom. If any one of them transferred bodies to Israel for real estate development, this might begin a wave of such transfers, which would look very bad in the eyes of what was and still is an atmosphere of prejudice against Jews.
The idea of moving bodies for financial gain would be used by antisemites to prove how materialist the Jewish people were.
In contrast, my first job in the Rabbinate was in Glasgow in 1968. Giffnock was a growing, independent, dynamic, and warm community of a thousand souls. With strong religious and secular roots, Glasgow itself was a community of nearly 15,000 Jews with eight significant functioning synagogues and a few other smaller communities, built primarily by refugees from Lithuania. I enjoyed the community and life in Scotland immensely.
Since then, the Jewish population has dropped to around about 2,000. Under a pro-Palestinian Scottish government, life for Jews is not what it was. Some have indeed married out . But many have simply moved on to enrich other communities and countries. Wherever you go in the Jewish world today from Canada, the US, Australia, and Israel, to name only the largest, you will find colonies of positively committed former Glaswegians.
October the 7th and its horrific aftermath has had a huge impact. For some it confirmed their alienation from Jews and Judaism. But others realized that the Jewish people remain marked for prejudice and hatred — and that the only response is to strengthen their identity and commitment, to stand up and be counted as Jews.
We Jews have always moved on. This past year, some have moved to Israel, others have moved away. Communities rise and fall. Many have been destroyed. Who remembers that Otranto and Bari at the boot of Italy, a thousand years ago, were the most vibrant Jewish communities in Europe? Will the Diaspora now go like them, or will Israel ensure we thrive and do not disappear?
When these wars are over, I strongly believe that a new generation will do better than the past to restore our days of old. There is much to be optimistic about, despite the almost universal pathology of irrational hatred. But we are often our own worst enemies, and we must sort ourselves out first before we turn to the rest of the world. There are plenty of reasons for optimism this year.
The author is a writer and rabbi, currently based in New York.
The post Why Have Jews Migrated and Assimilated? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Security Warning to Israelis Vacationing Abroad Ahead of holidays
A passenger arrives to a terminal at Ben Gurion international airport before Israel bans international flights, January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Ahead of the Jewish High Holidays, Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) published the latest threat assessment to Israelis abroad from terrorist groups to the public on Sunday, in order to increase the Israeli public’s awareness of the existing terrorist threats around the world and encourage individuals to take preventive action accordingly.
The NSC specified that the warning is an up-to-date reflection of the main trends in the activities of terrorist groups around the world and their impact on the level of threat posed to Israelis abroad during these times, but the travel warnings and restrictions themselves are not new.
“As the Gaza war continues and in parallel with the increasing threat of terrorism, the National Security Headquarters stated it has recognized a trend of worsening and increasing violent antisemitic incidents and escalating steps by anti-Israel groups, to the point of physically harming Israelis and Jews abroad. This is in light of, among other things, the anti-Israel narrative and the negative media campaign by pro-Palestinian elements — a trend that may encourage and motivate extremist elements to carry out terrorist activities against Israelis or Jews abroad,” the statement read.
“Therefore, the National Security Bureau is reinforcing its recommendation to the Israeli public to act with responsibility during this time when traveling abroad, to check the status of the National Security Bureau’s travel warnings (before purchasing tickets to the destination,) and to act in accordance with the travel warning recommendations and the level of risk in the country they are visiting,” it listed, adding that, as illustrated in the past year, these warnings are well-founded and reflect a tangible and valid threat potential.
The statement also emphasized the risk of sharing content on social media networks indicating current or past service in the Israeli security forces, as these posts increase the risk of being marked by various parties as a target. “Therefore, the National Security Council recommends that you do not upload to social networks, in any way, content that indicates service in the security forces, operational activity, or similar content, as well as real-time locations.”
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Israel Intensifies Gaza City Bombing as Rubio Arrives
Displaced Palestinians, fleeing northern Gaza due to an Israeli military operation, move southward after Israeli forces ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate to the south, in the central Gaza Strip September 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Israeli forces destroyed at least 30 residential buildings in Gaza City and forced thousands of people from their homes, Palestinian officials said, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived on Sunday to discuss the future of the conflict.
Israel has said it plans to seize the city, where about a million Palestinians have been sheltering, as part of its declared aim of eliminating the terrorist group Hamas, and has intensified attacks on what it has called Hamas’ last bastion.
The group’s political leadership, which has engaged in on-and-off negotiations on a possible ceasefire and hostage release deal, was targeted by Israel in an airstrike in Doha on Tuesday in an attack that drew widespread condemnation.
Qatar will host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Monday to discuss the next moves. Rubio said Washington wanted to talk about how to free the 48 hostages – of whom 20 are believed to be still alive – still held by Hamas in Gaza and rebuild the coastal strip.
“What’s happened, has happened,” he said. “We’re gonna meet with them (the Israeli leadership). We’re gonna talk about what the future holds,” Rubio said before heading to Israel where he will stay until Tuesday.
ABRAHAM ACCORDS AT RISK
He was expected to visit the Western Wall Jewish prayer site in Jerusalem on Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hold talks with him during the visit.
US officials described Tuesday’s strike on the territory of a close US ally as a unilateral escalation that did not serve American or Israeli interests. Rubio and US President Donald Trump both met Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on Friday.
Netanyahu signed an agreement on Thursday to push ahead with a settlement expansion plan that would cut across West Bank land that the Palestinians seek for a state – a move the United Arab Emirates warned would undermine the US-brokered Abraham accords that normalized UAE relations with Israel.
Israel, which blocked all food from entering Gaza for 11 weeks earlier this year, has been allowing more aid into the enclave since late July to prevent further food shortages, though the United Nations says far more is needed.
It says it wants civilians to leave Gaza City before it sends more ground forces in. Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have left but hundreds of thousands remain in the area. Hamas has called on people not to leave.
Israeli army forces have been operating inside at least four eastern suburbs for weeks, turning most of at least three of them into wastelands. It is closing in on the center and the western areas of the territory, where most of the displaced people are taking shelter.
Many are reluctant to leave, saying there is not enough space or safety in the south, where Israel has told them to go to what it has designated as a humanitarian zone.
Some say they cannot afford to leave while others say they were hoping the Arab leaders meeting on Monday in Qatar would pressure Israel to scrap its planned offensive.
“The bombardment intensified everywhere and we took down the tents, more than twenty families, we do not know where to go,” said Musbah Al-Kafarna, displaced in Gaza City.
Israel said it had completed five waves of air strikes on Gaza City over the past week, targeting more than 500 sites, including Hamas reconnaissance and sniper sites, buildings containing tunnel openings and weapons depots.
Local officials, who do not distinguish between militant and civilian casualties, say at least 40 people were killed by Israeli fire across the enclave, a least 28 in Gaza City alone.
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Turkey Warns of Escalation as Israel Expands Strikes Beyond Gaza
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (not seen) at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, May 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
i24 News – An Israeli strike targeting Hamas officials in Qatar has sparked unease among several Middle Eastern countries that host leaders of the group, with Turkey among the most alarmed.
Officials in Ankara are increasingly worried about how far Israel might go in pursuing those it holds responsible for the October 7 attacks.
Israel’s prime minister effectively acknowledged that the Qatar operation failed to eliminate the Hamas leadership, while stressing the broader point the strike was meant to make: “They enjoy no immunity,” the government said.
On X, Prime Minister Netanyahu went further, writing that “the elimination of Hamas leaders would put an end to the war.”
A senior Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, summed up Ankara’s reaction: “The attack in Qatar showed that the Israeli government is ready to do anything.”
Legally and diplomatically, Turkey occupies a delicate position. As a NATO member, any military operation or targeted killing on its soil could inflame tensions within the alliance and challenge mutual security commitments.
Analysts caution, however, that Israel could opt for covert measures, operations carried out without public acknowledgement, a prospect that has increased anxiety in governments across the region.
Israeli officials remain defiant. In an interview with Ynet, Minister Ze’ev Elkin said: “As long as we have not stopped them, we will pursue them everywhere in the world and settle our accounts with them.” The episode underscores growing fears that efforts to hunt Hamas figures beyond Gaza could widen regional friction and complicate diplomatic relationships.