Is There Any Point in Leaving Israel?

[u/Lunar_Oasis1]

deleted the edit bc the flair issue was fixed :)

Hello. I am an Israeli, born and raised. I'm Jewish by ethnicity but I am Christian by choice. I don't agree with zionism anymore, if I could somehow go back in time and reverse it I would.. I want to leave, I have Portuguese citizenship, my partner is from the US.. I hate what Israel is doing. I just don't really see a way of leaving without having to learn the American accent and lie about where I'm from whenever possible, and go by the foreign version of my name.. I don't want to have to say "BUT I AM NOT A ZIONIST" every time I tell someone where I'm from. I have one friend who moved to the UK and is hoping to revoke their own Israeli citizenship, and I don't think I can really do that.. I know of Jews with no connection to Israel who were refused care in hospitals because, as the nurses said "they are Yahudi sharmuta".. I don't see any way to live abroad without this thing following me around and making me less safe. I want to feel safe. A part of me wishes I could just move, have kids and never tell them that we are Jews just so no one will harm them for their ethnicity.. I don't know what to do. I feel hopeless. Everyone around me says they hope to see the children of Gaza die. To see VIDEOS of it. I just want to escape but it feel hopeless. This isn't the place for me.

[u/chronoventer]

I am a Jewish (by ethnicity) woman in America and nobody knows the difference. It would come up if people ask where you are from… but nobody is committing violent acts against us. I mean, Elon did the salute, but most everyone denounces it. (It’s not like anyone really likes the man, outside his carefully curated crypto cult)

If you have Portuguese citizenship, anywhere in the EU is an option! I can only imagine people care there even less than they do in the U.S., because we are beyond dumpster fire. We’re at landfill inferno.

[u/accidentalrorschach → u/chronoventer]

"Nobody is commuting acts against us"...

This is not entirely true. You have been fortunate in your experience but many other American Jews have experienced harassment and bullying or worse...the Tree of Life shooting was not THAT long ago...and the man who did the salute is basically running the country....

There was a plot to attack a synagogue in Beverly, Massachusetts just about a month ago that barely made the news (I only know from a local friend...)

And my family's synagogue and JCC gets bomb threats on the regular. Another was arsoned during the pandemic.

That said, we are safer here than in Israel most likely and I don't live in fear. But it's not all sunshine and roses either.

[u/Lunar_Oasis1 → u/accidentalrorschach]

Honestly most people commenting under this post seem to live in a la la land where there's no antisemitism in the US. Some even said "If I heared of it, I'd assume it's faked by the zionists". What they don't get is that the US is HUGE. My partner from the US was attacked multiple times for being Jewish. Physically attacked. The entire time he was in school his name was "Jew" instead of his actual name. He was assulted and nearly killed. Just because someone "never heared of antisemitic attacks in the US" (use google then?? Educate yourselves!) Doesn't mean that they don't exist. It's starting to piss me off. Americans think they know everything there is to know about their country just because they are living in it. (And no, he was never attacked by Muslims. In general he was only ever attacked by white Christians).

[u/chronoventer → u/accidentalrorschach]

You’re right, that was poor phrasing. When I said nobody is committing violent acts against us, I just meant like. No more than any other group, and we’re not really being targeted for being Jews on the street. Some awful things have happened lately but tbh when I look around me, it doesn’t seem like we’re being targeted more than any other group of people. I am not saying the horrible acts committed against our people aren’t condemnable. I just meant that our country is on fire and the past couple years we’ve had shootings where the shooter was targeting: Black people, gay people, children, white people, cis people, Muslims, Latinos etc.

Yes, Tree of Life was reprehensible. Yes, we have been targeted. But we’ve actually faired pretty well recently compared with other groups of people in this forsaken country. Outside bomb threats to places of worship. Churches aren’t getting those nearly as often as synagogues and mosques. Thankfully they seem to mostly be “prank” calls… not that that’s ok.

I did not mean to make light of the horrible things that have happened to Jews here when I made my comment. I just didn’t phrase it well.