Why Should a Jew Want to Immigrate to Israel?

By John A. Tvedtnes

Why should a Jew want to immigrate to Israel?

What will he find there besides toil and pain,

Fear from danger of war, and an insecure future—

Where what he knew as necessities have overnight

Become luxuries he cannot afford to pay;

Where food and rent and insurance

Are expensive almost beyond his reach;

Where taxes are excessive and complaints endless,

And strikes and religious strife abound;

Where one has little choice of work

Or of lodging, or of military service;

With always the unbearable heat and humidity,

The barren desert beyond the farm,

And nothing but sweat to change it all?

New customs, new neighbors, a new language—

Why should a Jew want to immigrate to Israel?

The question is often asked, the answer the same:

“Somehow, a spirit unites us and makes us return.

Why, I don’t know, but I’m glad that I came.”

The answer, my brother, lies deep in your heart,

Implanted by that God who to your fathers promised

That in these last days, Judah would be redeemed.

The keys of the return have been restored,

And, with them, the Holy Land dedicated for you.

And the words of your God echo loud and clear

In the mouth of a latter-day prophet:

“And let them who be of Judah flee unto Jerusalem,

Unto the mountains of the Lord’s house.”

No reason on earth could make a Jew immigrate to Israel,

With the disadvantages that one now finds there.

But heaven has its own reasons.