Weizman, Burg disagree over centrality of aliyah. An ideological rift over the centrality of aliyah surfaced this week between President Ezer Weizman and Avraham Burg, acting chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel.
During a daylong visit to several Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organization projects in Jerusalem, Weizman said the sole message to Diaspora Jewry must be persistent, unequivocal and clear: aliyah, immigration to Israel.
Burg, on the other hand, believes that the emphasis must lie with Jewish education, in Israel and abroad, with aliyah becoming the voluntary outcome of such educational efforts in the Diaspora.
Weizman, as guest of the Zionist Executive, toured several projects Sunday in order to become more closely acquainted with the activities of the various departments in the fields of immigration, absorption, development, and Jewish- Zionist education.
Weizman emphasized his viewpoint at the first scheduled stop of the tour, the Kiryat Moriah campus, where hundreds of Diaspora high school and university students study year-round.
Located in the Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem, Kiryat Moriah is the campus of the Joint Authority for Jewish-Zionist Education.
While speaking with the young people, Weizman asked over and over when they intended to come and live in Israel.
In response to his persistent questions, Weizman received non-committal and vague responses, which clearly did not please him.
Robert Kay, 19, of England said he was not certain whether he could live in Israel.
“It depends on whether I can Integrate into Israeli society, and in my profession as a lawyer,” he said to the president.
Kay, why intends to study law in England, also told the president that he has seen historical sites in Israel and was particularly impressed with the Kotel – – the Western Wall.
To which Weizman replied: “It’s natural that you would be impressed by the Kotel. But you should also see the new Israel — its successful industry, art and culture.”
When Lena Fishman from the United States spoke of going back home to become a Jewish leader in her community, the president asked her which was more important, building the land of the Jews, or continuing the “galut,” Hebrew word for “exile.”
Lena was hesitant at first, but finally answered: “Both:?”
To Anna Shtranizis, a student of Yiddish from Russia who intends to research the archives of Yiddish culture there, the president said: “Yiddish is the past, Hebrew is the future. The Jewish world is diminishing, and its only hope is to live here in Israel.”
Weizman also visited a factory, established with the assistance of the Jerusalem Business Development Center in cooperation with the Jewish Agency, which employees 30 people, half of them new immigrants.
At another stop, the Israel Goldstein Village of the Youth Aliyah Department, the president spoke at length with a group of youths from Israel, Ethiopia, Morocco, France, Yugoslavia and the former Soviet Union.
The tour also included a visit to Ulpan Etzion, a Jewish Agency Hebrew study and absorption center with 200 students, mainly from Western countries and the former Soviet Union.
It was during lunch with the Zionist Executive that the ideological rift between Weizman and Burg came to the fore.
While discussing the day’s events, the conversation turned to the president’s encounter with the students at Kiryat Moriah.
Weizman stressed the need to encourage aliyah based on Israel’s attractiveness, and on its advanced position in such fields as technology and industry.
Burg, on the other hand, argued that the message of Israel’s strong army or its developed industry are not sufficiently attractive for Jews living in prosperous countries.
Without the spiritual element, and without a strong Jewish-Zionist identity that is unique to the Jewish people, the State of Israel will lose its uniqueness and become “a state of Hebrew-speaking gentiles,” Burg said.
“We are approaching today the end of the catastrophic Zionist era, in which Jews escaped for their lives, and found refuge in Israel,” Burg said.
“The central question of our lives must be how to combat assimilation that destroys half of our people,” he added. “There are no simple answers to this question, and therefore it is impossible to save a nation with slogans.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
