At the end of Sefer Bamidbar, the tribes of Gad and Reuven request to remain east of the Jordan on fertile pasture land, rather than cross the river and inherit a portion of the land of Canaan with the rest of the Israelite tribes.
Rashi teaches that their request was motivated by deeply misplaced priorities. He notes that when they appealed to Moshe, they requested first to build enclosures to protect their livestock and only afterwards to build cities to protect their children.
Rashi points out that in his response, Moshe reverses the two in order to teach the tribes of Gad and Reuven where their priorities should lie.
Beyond the seemingly obvious lesson that our children are more important than our property, it seems that Rashi is hinting at a deeper message that resonates deeply today.
When the time comes for the children of Israel to enter our land, Diaspora Jews might genuinely struggle with the question of what’s best for their families.
It’s not that Jewish parents actually care about material wealth more than their children, but that they might truly believe material comforts to be what’s actually best for their children.
After forty years wandering the desert – the only “home” these tribes had ever known – the promise of a comfortable life east of the Jordan, where they could raise their families without having to contend with war or poverty, was too good to pass up.
Last month, Jewish businessman and philanthropist David Magerman made waves for highlighting a troubling dynamic in the American Jewish community.
In his An apology from your American Jewish parents, Magerman wrote on behalf of the parents of Jewish Diaspora children, apologizing for decades of promoting the American Dream as the highest aspiration young Jews should strive towards.
He further called upon the younger generation to right this wrong by defying their parents, moving to Israel, and building their futures here.
I know this article resonated deeply with me, with many of my friends at the Vision movement, and with many young olim across Israel who – even before the current war, even before the meteoric rise in anti-Semitism and even before it became unmistakable that the West “was falling into an abyss of immorality and godlessness” (in Magerman’s words) – decided to defy our parents and grandparents and make the bitter-sweet decision to leave our old lives behind and come home.
Magerman followed up his apology with a more practical piece, Why I wrote the apology letter, in which he called on parents and educators, especially in Modern Orthodox communities and institutions, to radically redirect their curricula away from college prep and towards aliya prep.
All of these proposals are important steps in the right direction, but the one thing lacking might be the most important: community.
Specializing in fields that students excel at in order to build skills for Israeli military or national service rather than racking up APs and extracurriculars for college (like prioritizing Hebrew fluency) can certainly make the decision for young Diaspora Jews easier on the practical, material level. But until the dam breaks, and the majority are making aliya, an 18-year-old who’s never stepped out of his tight-knit community is still going to think twice before leaving that world behind.
Diaspora Jews in high school and university would greatly benefit from a “home away from home” – a network of aliya-minded cohorts around the world to help them achieve the social, emotional, and even ideological shifts that Magerman addressed in his initial piece.
For over a decade, the Vision movement has been working to be that network.
With active communities of olim in Israel, and a network of alumni from our in-person and online programs spread across the English-speaking Diaspora, we seek to give young Jews around the world the tools to build the Jewish future with their eyes on Israel.
But in order to succeed, we need help from our readers.
We’re currently trying to map our alumni and supporters in order to create more local “Doreinu” post-college chapters in Diaspora cities, with the goal of connecting the next generation of Jewish leaders to their peers, their identities, and the Jewish future in Israel.
Help us by filling out this survey and letting us know where you’re located and how you’d like to get involved!
