By Rabbi Dow Marmur
JERUSALEM — One of the many surprises that awaited me when I came to serve as a rabbi in Canada was that at Kol Nidre, the holiest night of the Jewish calendar, I was expected to dispense investment advice to the worshipping congregation. It was called the Israel Bonds Appeal. The congregation wouldn’t tolerate my refusal to do so as it would be seen as incontrovertible evidence of my being an enemy of the Jewish people.
Nor surprisingly, I wasn’t good at it. Therefore, after a few years, respected members of the congregation did the appeal and I could preach on whatever subject I saw fit. Now almost thirty years later and more than a decade after my retirement, the Bonds Appeal is still in place, albeit with less fanfare and, I suspect, a weaker response.
In 1951 when Prime Minister Ben Gurion instituted Israel Bonds, financial institutions around the world wouldn’t lend money to the new state other than by charging exorbitant interest rates. Jews had to show their faith in the imperative to build up the infrastructure of Israel by chipping in whenever possible. Thus Bonds.
But things have changed. Nowadays, every bank is only too keen to lend money to Israel at advantageous rates. In fact, the Bonds organization now has to pay the same rates in order to attract investors. Its argument that it should nevertheless keep going in case things get bad for Israel is counteracted by the view that, should that happen chas vechalila, the investors will also run away and the UJA will have to take over.
With this in mind, the editorial in the April 1 edition of Ha’aretz argues persuasively for the abolition of the institution. The reason for raising the issue now is, of course, the “Bibi Tours” affair, the allegedly lavish spending on Bibi Netanyahu and his family as well as on many other Israeli politicians across the spectrum who are said to have travelled to Europe and North America on behalf of Bonds to be lionized by local organizers at lavish dinners and similar “high class” events.
The argument in my day was that buying Israel Bonds was yet another way to connect Jews to Israel. I don’t think it was true then and it’s decidedly not the case now. Jews as well as many non-Jews buy Bonds because the rates are competitive and the investment secure. At the same time Israel can borrow money on the open market at no extra cost while saving “tens of millions of dollars” every year by dismantling the bureaucracy and not having the excuse to bring the dignitaries to give pep talks.
The editorial acknowledges that this won’t be easy because Israeli law makers are likely to want to retain the organization for the perks it provides. Moreover, institutions have a life of their own and it’s difficult to dismantle them even when they no longer serve a purpose; we all know such outfits in our own sphere of activity.
What the editorial didn’t say was that not only in Israel but in many Diaspora communities, Bonds organizations keep important people busy and provides additional outlets for “honouring” high-profile community leaders.
In my day, they also threw the odd bones at poor rabbis by offering highly subsidized trips to Israel. I wasn’t popular when I refused every invitation. They rightly saw it as yet another eccentricity of a subversive and awkward individual.
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Rabbi Marmur is spiritual leader emeritus of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. He now divides his year between Canada and Israel. He may be contacted at dow.marmur@sdjewishworld.com