What the headlines do not mention is that this outflow from Israel is taking place primarily among secular Israelis
The headlines state that for the past several years, Israel has experienced net losses in its population, primarily because a huge number of Israelis have chosen to abandon Israel and live elsewhere. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis now live in Los Angeles, New York, and other major cities around the world.
What the headlines do not mention is that this outflow from Israel is taking place primarily among secular Israelis. Orthodox flight from Israel is practically nonexistent, while aliyah to Israel from abroad is overwhelmingly Orthodox.
These facts speak for themselves; they need no elaboration. But one waits patiently for some serious reaction – much less introspection — from the Israeli secular community. Its leaders continue to utter the same tired banalities, the same boilerplate remedies — and nothing changes. And all the time, the real remedy stands silently by, waiting to be noticed. But it is not noticed, because the remedy has religious overtones and would force the leadership to reevaluate the past. Those who speak constantly of intellectual honesty do not have the honesty to admit failure, especially the failure of their secular society.
But all this time, the only solution is readily at hand. What is desperately needed in order to avoid additional losses is a radical change in focus. In secular schools today, the preoccupation is single-minded: Identification with and imitation of the West and with non-Jewish values. The unspoken secular goal is to become another state on the Mediterranean, another Spain, another Italy, another Greece: k’chol hagoyim is the ideal.
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