The Topic Was Aliya

Charlotte Jacobson, chairman of the American Section of the World Zionist Organization, told the ninth annual convention of the North American Aliya Movement (NAAM) that Israel was largely to blame for the small number of Americans who go on aliya. “Had successful absorption patterns been instituted 10 years ago there would be a respectable aliya flow today,” she said.

But Mrs. Jacobson cited improvements on Israel’s part as a result of American prodding. Among these, she noted, is the current trend, wherever possible, to send former Americans as shlichim (emissaries) to the U.S. and to provide housing for single immigrants who would still retain their immigrant privileges should they subsequently get married.

The convention over the weekend, attended by some 150 delegates and numerous shlichim and Israeli members of Dor Hemshech, mapped new approaches to aliya development in the United States and to elect a new national board. Moshe Berliner was elected president of NAAM, succeeding Linda Brown.

In the keynote address, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin of the Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York City, declared that “it is not sufficient to speak of Israel from the pulpit. . . . We must find ourselves in Israel and building the land.” Riskin, who recently founded Reishit Geulah, a new Orthodox aliya group, pledged that he and his family would go on aliya.

In an indirect criticism of American Orthodox rabbis, Riskin stated that “in order to fulfill our mission of setting an example of compassion for the world we must control our own destinies. Here in the U.S. our concerns are narrower and narrower until ultimately we focus on whether tuna fish and chewing gum are kosher.”

Yeshayahu Tadmor, national director of the Israel Aliya Center, urged the NAAM national board to get involved within Jewish organizations and to play a serious role in the structure of the Jewish community in this country “because the NAAM chapters nationwide need support from the whole system.”