Second Jewish cemetery vandalized, this time in Philadelphia

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Yeah, David, this is clearly your fault.

Uh, do you think his view isn't crazy? If he told that to any of my Jewish friends they'd probably laugh in his face.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Most American Jews are way closer to them than you.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Yeah, David, this is clearly your fault.

Uh, do you think his view isn't crazy? If he told that to any of my Jewish friends they'd probably laugh in his face.

Yes, all two of them in the Midwest.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis_Park,_Minnesota

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Calling a religious Jew's desire to make aliyah in response to anti-Semitism in the West "crazy"? Really, BRTD?

I said that my Jewish friends would find that crazy and the reaction of other Jews here seems to indicate they're not alone.

Also in which country are you more likely to be a victim of anti-Semitic violence: the US or Israel? Duh.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Calling a religious Jew's desire to make aliyah in response to anti-Semitism in the West "crazy"? Really, BRTD?

Not crazy, but very weak.

There's nothing wrong with being "weak".

It's not even so much "weak" as completely illogical as the rate of anti-Semitic violence in Israel is far far far higher than in the US.

Also why has every other Jew posting in this thread found it crazy?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Calling a religious Jew's desire to make aliyah in response to anti-Semitism in the West "crazy"? Really, BRTD?

Not crazy, but very weak.

There's nothing wrong with being "weak".

It's not even so much "weak" as completely illogical as the rate of anti-Semitic violence in Israel is far far far higher than in the US.

Also why has every other Jew posting in this thread found it crazy?

I'll respond to your question with a question. I have a very left-wing Jewish atheist friend who's strongly considering aliyah because he's concerned about white nationalism and afraid of the Trump regime. Would you consider him crazy as well?

Yes actually. Trump is many things, none of them good, but it's hard to see how anti-Semitic is one of them (especially considering that his daughter is Jewish.)

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I'll also note that every Jew doing that would be tantamount to ethnic cleansing, there would thus be no Jews remaining in the US.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I'm saying it would have the same effect as ethnic cleansing if you seriously want every single Jew in the US to migrate.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Anyway my point before is what type of mindset would someone who says "all Jews should leave the US" usually have? And there is no way you'd ever get all Jews or even a majority to voluntarily migrate from the US, and some might prefer a place where rockets aren't fired at them.

Ironically David actually would agree with me that Nathan's friend is crazy especially based on the last post.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

OK here's my main point:

Why would a Jew feel safer living somewhere where rockets are fired at them than in a place where some acts of vandalism happen?

For that matter I would never serve in the military and wouldn't want any hypothetical children of mine to do so against their will, so if I were Jewish I'd sure be staying put in the US over Israel.

Not surprising. I guarantee that no Jews I know have any interest in moving to Israel and in fact most probably don't even have any interest in even visiting Israel.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Where do most American Jews have more friends, the US or Israel?

Most have as many personal ties to Israel as I do.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Also I find the implication that Lena Dunham would be better off in Israel to be utterly hysterical.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Or we could discuss the issue of e.g. the vandalisation of Jewish cemeteries and why this is a Bad Thing both in itself and as a canary-in-the-coalmine.

Of course. I don't think anyone disagrees. It's just that some think that the solution is for every single Jewish person to leave.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Where do most American Jews have more friends, the US or Israel?

Most have as many personal ties to Israel as I do.

I have no idea on either of these, but they also have nothing to do with what I said.  "A Jew" is an individual and many of them DO have direct familial ties to Israel.  Even ones that are on "your side" and would likely never move still have an emotional attachment to the place, Jon Stewart for one.

And anybody that wanted to move would have already or they have perfectly good reasons to want to stay.  I'm sure most of those are exactly because they have larger familial commitments in the US than they do in Israel.  That doesn't mean David won't feel more "at home" when he finally gets that 972 country code as his cell number.

You're right, "a Jew" is an individual. So see why there's a problem with proposing that every single one move to Israel?

Even ignoring familial commitments and the terrorism issues I can think of quite a few reasons why Jews would prefer to not move to Israel:

-Many like the advantages of living in a superpower country, this offers many more economic opportunities, plus the US's status and location gives some advantages, you can easily get from the US to most of the world, not so much the case with Israel simply due to geography. And the economic opportunities are a bit more limited, imagine if someone got a job for somewhere like Google or Apple, upon looking it up there is a Google office in Israel but it's no doubt more small and minor than the opportunities here. There are by the way no Apple stores in Israel and yes, that is for some people a really big deal. I don't think anyone can dispute that there are plenty of Jews that care far more about Apple products than their Jewish identity seeing as how people who like Apple products tend to be about them in general.
-Israel is a small country, only about the size of New Jersey, and even if its neighbors weren't mostly hostile its borders with them is mostly just expanses of desert, meaning there's not much to travel except around Israel. Geographically it's pretty isolated. Meaning if you want to actually take a trip a bit away, you have no choice but to fly somewhere.
-Many people would prefer not having to learn a second language, and I'd wager most Jews today have little if any knowledge of Hebrew.
-The US and now most of Europe has no mandatory military service, so anyone of draft age has a valid reason to not want to live there, and even people older than that have a valid concern if they don't want their children to have mandatory military service, which today would be almost everyone in the US.
-Imagine someone who loves skiing or snowboarding. They might prefer not having to fly to Turkey every time to go on a weekend getaway doing so.
-Israel's religious leaders are to put it mildly, a tad more conservative than just about all American Jews are. It's like if someone from a very moderate mainline Protestant religious background went somewhere that was dominated by hardline fundamentalists.
-In relation to that about half of American Jews who are married are in marriages that are not considered valid in Israel, and gays can't get married at all. Pre-2015 I'm sure you and many here would be sympathetic to any gays that moved to a different state so they could be married, I'd say the same applies here.
-Israel is pretty lacking in places that are both "fun" and have a reasonable cost of living, and no, that is not true for the US at least, not every major US city is New York or San Francisco. According to this article I make well over the average salary in Israel and I'm not rich by any means, based on a little research Tel Aviv apartments seem to be more expensive than Minneapolis ones too. And of course the article touches on a problem in Israel also seen in places like Hawaii and Australia, the geographic isolation increases import costs and the costs of consumer goods in general, I'd also wager that insurance for most things costs quite a bit more in Israel. Unless I was guaranteed to land a very good job it's definitely not a place I'd want to ever consider living no matter what my ethnoreligious background was.

Hell I'd be willing to wager that based on all this if you did a poll of American Jews asking if they would rather immigrate to Canada or Israel, the vast majority would choose Canada.