By Ira Sharkansky
JERUSALEM — An Internet friend sent me an item from the Wall Street Journal, entitled “Fleeing the Czars, Defying Gravity: A Fourth of July Immigrant Tale” It tells the story of Jews who entered the US as poor immigrants in 1900, and a grandson who soared above the earth as an astronaut.
I could tell a similar tale, somewhat less dramatic, about a grandfather who entered the US at the age of 19, worked as a peddler, had three sons who spent their lives as small merchants, and did not know his grandsons who became successful and well-to-do professionals.
One of the comments following the WSJ item is even more telling than the article itself.
“This is a terrific story of a Jewish immigrant to America. . . . my Jewish grandparents came to the U.S. from Russian shtetls, speaking only Yiddish upon their arrival. my grandfather worked in the NYC garment district while they raised two sons. One son became a professor and head of a major university department and one son became a world-renowned scientist. Yes, America is responsible for enabling their intellectual successes. but so was their Jewish culture. Immigrants with different backgrounds that do not emphasize the value of education and the pursuit of knowledge often fare much less well here. It’s important to recognize that while the freedom offered in America to pursue one’s dreams is essential, so is having a cultural background and upbringing that supports and encourages one want to pursue those dreams.”
It would also be appropriate–although seen by some as an affront to the Fourth of July–to note that the story of immigrants’ success is not uniquely American.
It’s also a story associated with Britain, France, Australia, South Africa, a few other places, and Israel.
One can start with the current Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, born to a working class British Pakistani family. No American Jews have done any better than the Miliband brothers, leading members of the British Labour Party and the sons of Jewish migrants from Belgium and Poland. The former President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, comes from Hungarian and Greek Jewish roots. Israel has no shortage of successful politicians, entrepreneurs, academics, scientists, and others who came from the misery of the Holocaust, or persecution as Jews elsewhere in the Middle East.
Among our friends from the former Soviet Union are those with relatives who have gone to Germany, Canada, Spain, and back to Russia.
Migration has been with us forever, and is a great source of opportunity, success, and disappointment. It’s also part of a history that has been open to both accurate reporting and myth-making. One must be careful in claiming more than is justified, and be wary of insisting that history provides rights more important than other conceptions of justice.
Immigrants are still going to the US, but the overwhelming majority from the Third World. Most countries of Western Europe have better social indicators than the US, and may be attracting more Americans than sending migrants to the US. In the current age of globalization, professionals move between countries and continents, some of them several times in the course of their careers..
Americans’ bombast about being a land of greater opportunities than elsewhere is one item that deserves more than a bit of salt.
Another is what the Afrikaners claimed in behalf of what had been their rights prior to he mid-1990s, that their ancestors settled in much of South Africa before the Blacks.
Palestinian claims to have always been in the land should be modified by recognition that the parents or grandparents of many describing themselves as Palestinians came from surrounding areas to take advantage of opportunities developed by Jewish migrants.
And the Jews of Israel should not only condemn Palestinians who say that Jews never had a major presence here, but also avoid claiming too much by way of national rights.
The Bible written by Jews is not a solid claim of priority for what the Jews call the Land of Israel.
It’s hard to assess the meaning of Jewish history when it appears that most Jews found their homes outside of the Land of Israel beginning several centuries before the Common Era.
Things change. Discussions of further change that is appropriate should start from the status quo in order to avoid tendentious and insoluble claims of who has prior rights.
As frequently occurs in these columns, we’ve circled back to Israelis and Palestinians.
Perhaps Jews should never have expanded Jerusalem and begin settling where it controlled after 1967, but that now has its own history, and isn’t about to be undone.
Palestinians have considerable autonomy, more or less appropriate to the violence that comes from them to Israelis. Overall, they don’t live any worse than their cousins in other Muslim countries, or people elsewhere in the Third World.
There are Americans, Europeans, and some Israelis, who want Israel to undo history for the sake of Palestinians, but that doesn’t seem likely. And arguably, it wouldn’t be justified by any one view of history more legitimate than others.
Should Israel continue to build in settlements of the West Bank and East Jerusalem?
Why not?
There is no obvious, objective, or clearly justifiable response.
When Palestinians in positions of leadership are willing to argue about what’s next, instead of presenting their list of non-negotiable demands derived decades ago from a sense that they have a monopoly of suffering and justice, they may find Israelis in positions of leadership who will put aside what had been their own list of non-negotiable demands.
Meanwhile, people will continue moving. Currently the major waves are Muslims leaving the Middle East, and along with Africans seeking opportunities in Europe. The major flow to the US is coming from the lower echelons of Latin American countries.
If history repeats itself, most migrants will move from hardship to hardship. Some will do well. Some of their offspring will do better. There’ll be lots of stories, new myths, and claims of priority not yet in the media.
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Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University. He may be contacted via ira.sharkansky@sdjewishworld.com. Comments intended for publication in the space below MUST be accompanied by the letter writer’s first and last name and by his/ her city and state of residence (city and country for those outside the United States.)
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