On Tour In America

By Moshe Feiglin

Shushan Purim is traditionally the day that Manhigut Yehudit holds its annual dinner in New York. This year, approximately half of the Jewish organizations chose not to hold dinners. Many knowledgeable friends warned us not to hold the banquet. The economic crisis has left its indelible mark on fundraising events, and annual dinner banquets are no exception. But we decided to go forward.

This year's dinner was smaller than Manhigut Yehudit's previous dinners. But Manhigut Yehudit's core supporters came through. The event was joyous and successful. The big hit of the evening was the new film, War of the Worlds, which has proven to be a very useful public relations tool.

"What you have seen in this film is just a taste of the Jewish revolution at our doorstep," I explained at the end of the movie screening. And that is the truth. The sight of the Likud members enthusing about the belief-based leadership alternative that is rapidly developing before their eyes shows how perfectly 'average' Israelis see no problem with political leadership that also fears Heaven. This sight is refreshingly new and the first taste of the revolution that is coming to life in Israel.

The day after the dinner, Shmuel Sackett, Dovid Shirel and I set out on a (hectic) state-to-state lecture tour in the US. Before one of the lectures, a young man approached me. He is a former Israeli businessman. "I fought in an elite commando unit and I was injured a number of times," he said to me. "But when Barak retreated from Lebanon and later, when the Expulsion was carried out, I understood that I was endangering my life and the lives of my children for nothing. I am no longer willing to die for arrogant politicians who don't understand what they are doing in Israel. Convince me that there is a way out, and tomorrow morning I'll be on the next plane to Israel."

At the end of the lecture a woman turned to me in perfect Hebrew and said, "I have children. I am not willing to send them to the army under irresponsible, self-centered leadership."

I was not aware of this previously, but it seems that quite a few Israelis left Israel - not to look for rosier economic opportunity - but out of despair and frustration with the country's leadership.
"We have the answers that you are looking for," I said to them, and caught the spark in their eyes when they understood what I was saying.

*

I didn't meet one Jew who still believes in America - or at least in America's economy. The general feeling is that the world's only superpower is about to collapse and that what we have seen until now is just the promo for the real thing.

"The dollar will not be worth the paper that it's printed on," a successful businessman told me. "Can you sell your house?" I asked him. "I can still get two or three million dollars for it," he answered. "So why don't you sell and come to Israel?" I queried, hoping that my voice would not reveal the urgency and frustration that I felt. "I have elderly parents here," the man explained. "I have to take care of them."

I found myself praying between flights in one of those multi-million dollar mansions and thanking G-d for the tremendous merit that I have to live in Israel and for my parents, who left Australia for Israel before I was born.

*

Saturday night. We are walking out of the synagogue in Miami Beach.

Rabbi Kahane of saintly and blessed memory wrote about the American Jews that came to Miami for vacation and from their luxury hotel rooms could watch the lights of the refugee ship St. Louis that sought refuge on America's shores after Hitler had expelled it from Germany. The Florida Coast Guard sent the ship back to Germany, and the miserable Jews aboard - to their deaths.

A car speeds by; someone sticks his head out and shouts an anti-Semitic curse.

When are we going back to Israel?