American Jewish Immigration To Israel With Naftali Bennett's Family-Short-Time PM

 Nadene Goldfoot                                         

                    Naftali Bennett in 2021 when Prime Minister for a year

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett acknowledged that his Telegram account was hacked by Iranian-linked hackers, who published thousands of phone numbers and private messages attributed to him and his associates.  A Telegram account can be held by anyone in Israel, but the platform has been a battleground for information during the Israel-Hamas conflict, with Hamas-linked channels being restricted or blocked by Telegram (following pressure from Apple/Google) while Iran-linked hackers target Israeli officials, like former PM Bennett, suggesting active cyber warfare involving Telegram accounts. 

Update: 12/18o/25-2:08pm  Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett confirmed that his Telegram account was hacked but insisted his phone was not accessed, the Jerusalem Post reported on Wednesday.

Bennett said in a statement that the device linked to the compromised account is no longer in use, according to the report.

Earlier in the day, the group, calling itself “Handala” and linked to Iran’s intelligence ministry, alleged it had hacked what it described as Bennett’s iPhone 13 as part of what it called “Operation Octopus.”  https://www.iranintl.com/en/202512179919

Naftali Bennett (Hebrew: נַפְתָּלִי בֶּנֶט,  born 25 March 1972) is an Israeli politician and businessman who served as the prime minister of Israel from 13 June 2021 to 30 June 2022, ( 1 year)  and as the alternate prime minister from 1 July to 8 November 2022. (4 months)  Bennett was the leader of the New Right party from 2018 to 2022, having previously led the religious Zionist and far-right political party The Jewish Home between 2012 and 2018 (6 years) .

Bennett's parents were raised in non-Orthodox Jewish homes and were progressive activists during the 1960s. His father was arrested while taking part in an anti-racism sit-in protest in 1964. They later began to observe Modern Orthodox Judaism and embraced right-wing Israeli politics. After moving to Israel in 1967, they volunteered for a few months at kibbutz Dafna, where they studied the Hebrew language, then settled in the Ahuza neighborhood of Haifa.

    Houses on the Carmel - Ahuza neighborhood (Photo: Yaron Karmi)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzv_sPr_12M

    Haifa, where I also lived for a year from 1980-1981 along the sea in an Absorption Center.   Bennett's parents were 13 years ahead of me as immigrants. Immigration from the US to Israel was low before the Six-Day War but spiked afterward; between 1967 and 1973, over 31,000 Americans made Aliyah (immigrated), with many arriving in the immediate aftermath of the war, transforming from anxiety to pride and identification, though the bulk came in the subsequent years, not just that single year. Total immigration to Israel in 1980 was around 20,428, mostly from the Former Soviet Union (FSU), with Americans forming a smaller portion of the overall inflow, though many Jewish Americans have strong ties to Israel, with some studies suggesting hundreds of thousands of Israelis live in the U.S., and significant numbers of Americans residing in Israel long-term. 

Actually, I found very few Americans making aliyah, so we were really inthe minority.  Russians came in large groups.  We found friends among the English, Dutch, people who spoke English.  We were older than  many.

Bennett was born in Haifa, Israel, on 25 March 1972. He is the youngest of three sons born to Jim and Myrna (née Lefko) Bennett, American-Jewish immigrants who moved to Israel from San Francisco in July 1967.  

Both his parents were from Ashkenazi Jewish backgrounds. His father's ancestors were from Poland, Germany, and the Netherlands. Bennett's paternal great-great-great-grandfather Julius Salomonson was from Łobżenica, Poland, and arrived in San Francisco in 1851 during the California Gold Rush. His mother's ancestors lived in Russia and Poland, and her parents immigrated to the United States prior to World War II. They later moved to Israel, joining their daughter's family there, and settled on Vitkin Street in Haifa, close to where Bennett and his brothers grew up. Some of his mother's family members who remained in Poland were murdered in the Holocaust.

Having failed to defeat us militarily, our enemies resort to terror and lies. There's not much that you and I can do about the terror, other than remaining vigilant and making sure our respective governments do the same. But there is much that we can, and must, do to combat the lies, hatred and vile antisemitism being spread throughout the world and poisoning the minds of the youth and so called "educated" classes. IsraelAM is a small, yet important, way we try to spread truth and light - - and a little but of light can illuminate a lot of darkness. Keep spreading the light!

Resource:

israelAM

A Rabbi From Miami Made Aliyah to Israel and Caught My Eye

 Nadene Goldfoot                                          

Rabbi Zev Leff is a well-known American-born rabbi, educator, and author who lives in Moshav Matityahu, Israel. He has been the communal rabbi for Moshav Matityahu for over 20 years and is also the Rosh Yeshiva (head of the yeshiva) and Rosh Kollel of Yeshiva Gedolah Matityahu. 

The "shalit" part of your query likely refers to the honorific term "Shlit" (short for Shlita, which means "may he live a long life"), which is often used after a respected rabbi's name, such as in a recent appeal where he is referred to as "Harav Zev Leff Shlit"a". 

Well, I caught him on Youtube with a man asking him a few questions.They both spoke Yiddish most of the time with enough English so I thinkI know what was being discussed.  

Rabbi Leff felt strongly that it was better for observant Jews to be in Israeland of course all of us, too;  that it is a big mitzva to live in Israel, and Ican verify knowing and feeling the difference as I lived there for over 5years. 

The mitzvah of living in Israel is a complex topic with different interpretations, but many authorities, such as:

 Nachmanides, consider it a biblical commandment to both collectively conquer and settle the land, as well as for each individual to dwell there. This is based on the verse, "you shall inherit the land and you shall dwell in the land" (Numbers 33:53). 

Maimonides and others have a different view, with some suggesting the mitzvah is not compulsory in the present time, while others believe it's an integral part of fulfilling the entire Torah. Today, many view it as a strong recommendation, or a "mitzvah kiyuma" (a great mitzvah, but not an absolute obligation), especially for those who are prepared to be more observant. 

Now, Rabbi Leff might be a third asked of his opinion in the future.  Heis including Maimonides' comment about it as well. At any rate, the dis-cussion reminded me of our once Presidential candidate from Vermont, Bernie Sanders,  who made a visit to Israel and didn't like it at all.  Nowhe's always voting against Israel, and that's sad to me, as he is Jewish.He said that this isn't yet the time of the Moshiach, but he is coming.  

Senator Bernie Sanders's position on Israel has evolved over his career, but he currently is a strong critic of Israel's military actions in Gaza and the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, advocating for an end to unconditional U.S. military aid. In fact, he votes against Israel all the time for everything.

Kibbutz Sha'ar HaAmakim in 2008 (John Dodo/WikiCommons)   

Bernie Sanders went to Israel in the 1960s to work for several months on a collective farm, or kibbutz, as a young man, reporters said, but he himself,  Sanders said that in 1963 he lived and volunteered at Shaar Ha’amakim, an Israeli kibbutz near the city of Haifa, according to Israeli newspaper.    This experience is often cited as an early influence on his political beliefs, as the kibbutz was structured around socialist.  ideals.  I take it that that wasn't a reason to live there to receive thatspecial feeling one will have if a serious person.  Well, reports are that hefailed in living here; wasn't up to the work assigned to him.  

I made aliyah later, in 1980, and though a Conservative, I did have thatspecial feeling.  I was serious about living in Israel and doing my part inhelping the country by teaching English.  I had a permanent job in Oregonso I wasn't in need of a job. I know what the Rabbi is talking about. Jews are losing their Jewishness, and Israel is reviving it.  Moving toIsrael is something they could and should do if they want their family toremain Jewish.

  We're a small group, Jews make up approximately 0.2% of the world's population. This is based on the global Jewish population being about 15.8 million, which is a fraction of the total world population of roughly 8 billion people. As of 2024, Israel's Jewish population is approximately 7.15 million, which makes up about 45% of the world's Jewish population. This figure is an estimate, with some sources placing the number slightly higher, around 7.3 to 7.45 million, depending on the inclusion of occupied territories. Only in Israel  does one receive that same feeling about being in Israel.

   Which brings me back to Moshav Matityahu,  It is easy to overlook Moshav Matityahu. It is located on a strategic hill that overlooks Ben-Gurion Airport, across the road from Hashmonaim, a Modern Orthodox suburb that is popular among American olim. Moshav Matityahu is an Israeli settlement located in the West Bank (JUDEA AND SAMARIA), near the city of Modi'in Illit. It is under the jurisdiction of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council, which governs settlements in the West Bank. 

One reaches Matityahu from the road to Kiryat Sefer, the first neighborhood in the Chareidi city of Modi’in Illit. Considering that Matityahu’s population of about a hundred families is dwarfed by Modi’in Illit’s population of over 60,000, one can be forgiven for assuming it is a neighborhood of that large and rapidly growing city. Modi'in Illit is in the West Bank (JUDEA AND SAMARIA), although it is a settlement and city organized under Israeli administration and is located near the Green Line (1949 Armistice Line). It is often referred to as Kiryat Sefer and is situated midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The international community widely considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this. 

The West Bank was for a few minutes after WWI, supposed to go to theJews, said the British, but then they had a better offer for our originalhomeland.  Judea and Samaria was the land where the Bible took place,and all the town and pathways are mentioned in the Bible.  

Yet Matityahu has its own unique history and character. It is located between Modi’in Illit and Hashmonaim ideologically as well as geographically. In fact, when Modi’in Illit recently tried to annex Matityahu into its municipality, the courts ruled against the merger, partially on the grounds that Matityahu’s population would not fit well with the almost entirely Chareidi population of Modi’in Illit.

In 1978, a group of American Jewish families formed the nucleus of a Torah community they wished to build in Israel. They first moved to the community of Mevo Horon to learn the skills necessary to work the land and operate a moshav, or a collective farm, and the first twenty families moved to Matityahu in the summer of 1981. The fledgling moshav was affiliated with Po’alei Agudat Yisrael (PAI), a now-defunct political party and social movement for working Chareidim. 

During those first years—before they had telephones or a hookup to the national electrical grid, and before it had rained enough to fill up Matityahu’s mikvah—they received assistance from other PAI communities, especially Mevo Horon, with its two telephones, mikvah and small grocery store.

Resource:

https://jewishaction.com/jewish-world/israel/a-chareidi-zionist-moshav-moshav-matityahu/

https://www.timesofisrael.com/revealed-the-mystery-kibbutz-that-once-hosted-bernie-sanders/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zev_Leff

America and Russia: Motivation for the Return of Jews to Palestine

Nadene Goldfoot
                  After 2,000 years of exile, what drove us Jews to Palestine?                              

American Revolution

Why America?  Why did this country induce a return of Jews after 2,000 years to return to their origins, the land of Canaan now called Palestine?  Let me explain.

Before 1776, America's birthday, all nations were ruled by kings and queens.  
                                                       

That was the point of the little band of Pilgrims who rode the ship, Mayflower in 1620, over uncharted seas to land by accident in North America's soon to become Massachusetts.  They had come from England via Holland escaping England's politics that were against their religion.  From this brave and intelligent band, we see the spread of Democracy a century later.

Jews benefited greatly, having been the scapegoat of the world since the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE and even before by the Roman rulers.  Nowhere in the world were Jews ever given the same rights as other people.  In the United States they were given equal rights and that spread to most countries of Western and Central Europe as well.  When something great happens, it's hard to contain.  
                                                     

                                               
But in Russia....Oh no.  Being so far north, they were slow to catch on to modernity.  Czars hated the ideals of democracy.  The Jews had their largest population stuck in Russia!  They were treated with "dreadful cruelty."
                                                       

Nicholas I, Czar of Russia, who reigned from 1825 to 1855, had Jewish boys between 8 and 12 taken from their homes and put in the Russian army for 30 years or more if they could live through such an experience.  They were stationed far from their own homes and often starved and beaten. treated as low-life.  Those who survived were often forced to convert to Christianity.  Mothers would wound their own sons if they had the stomach for it to keep their sons at home.  They were getting desperate.  
                                                            

In 1855, Alexander II came to the throne and with him, progress.  He gave more freedom to all Russian people.  He even helped the Jews by ending the drafting of Jewish children.  He allowed Jews into public high schools and universities.
                                                          

Alas, in 1881 there were Russian revolutionaries abounding who set off a bomb under Alexander II's coach.  He was killed. 

 His son, Alexander III, took revenge.  He canceled most rights his father had granted.  Then he turned his anger on the Jews even though the killers were not Jews!  It didn't matter to him.  He passed laws forcing Jews out of their homes and schools and made it almost impossible for Jews to find work and make a living.  

If that wasn't bad enough, he then caused riots against the Jews.  His own government gave permission to the Christians to attack, loot and destroy Jewish communities!  These riots were called pogroms, from the Russian word for "devastation."                                 

Home at last by Moshe Maimon. The house's occupants return when it is safe, to find the house thoroughly looted. A rabbi is saying Kaddish for a member of the household who was killed.

                                                     
A leading Czarist official stated their program for Jews thusly:

1.  Drive a third out.
2. Convert a third to Christianity.
3. Starve a third.  

Few converted as we are a stiff-necked people as the bible states and that's why we were chosen..a people who would stick to the program that we were given by Moses.  The whole scene that our people went through in getting out of Egypt would cause even people of today to follow what Moses taught. It was earth shattering including earthquakes.  Surely our people must have experienced something like PTSD to have undergone 40 such years that they underwent--including that special manna that could have been spiked with some ultra strong  vitamins.  
                                                            

The Russian experience caused millions to flee Russia.  More than 2.25 million Jews, every 5 Jews in the world, got out between 1881 and 1924 when the door closed on those seeking asylum in the USA.  1881 saw the first Aliyah to Palestine, a group of Jews followed by 4 more Aliyote.  

Jews were from Eastern Europe who chose the USA.  The USA  changed from a distant outpost of Judaism to a major center, like Babylonia did.  During World War I there were more Jewish soldiers in the USA army than there had been Jews in the whole country during the Civil War!   Some Eastern European Jews opted for Western Europe or  or even South Africa as had happened to our family.  One brother chose to go to the USA while others went to South Africa.  There were still others whose only goal was to live in Eretz Yisrael (the land of Israel).  
                                                      

We always had Jews that hadn't left and had managed to remain in Eretz Yisrael no matter who was ruling.  They were there to pray and to study the Torah and other writings such as the Talmud.  By doing this, they felt they were speeding up the coming of the Messiah.  These were holy religious Jewish people.  They lived in what we would call poverty as they had a meager existence in which Jewish children in the USA would save their pennies and donate to them.  This was our main group for charity purposes.  
                                                         

Draining the swamps

The new Jewish immigrants were made of tougher cloth and had a different vision.  they wanted to farm the soil of the Holy Land and make it once again a land of milk and honey. Most of Europe had not allowed any Jews to own land or to become farmers, and anti- Semitism charged that Jews were unable to do real labor.  Young Jewish pioneers were called the Halutzim, and they were determined to prove that Jews could work as well as anyone!  After all, didn't we build storage cities in Egypt for the Pharoahs?  

In 1882 the first Aliyah had arrived from Russia.  The book, THE SETTLERS-by Meyer Levin, tells about this experience beautifully. They were made up of  handful of young adults, about a dozen men and one woman, who came from a Russian-Jewish organization called BILU.  The name was taken from the initials of words spoken by the prophet Isaiah,  Bet Yaakov l'chu v'naylcha.
                             (House of Jacob, come let us go up.) 
                                                      

These young halutzim were our real heroes.  They came from comfortable homes and had good educations, but they gave up all of this in order to rebuild the Jewish Homeland.  They had their ideals, but that was all, no money or knowledge about how to farm in rocks and swamps they found in Eretz Yisrael; nor how to fight mosquitoes.   Some stayed, some dropped out and sought out towns, others returned to Russia or America, but they had started something that did not end.  It was the impetus for the return back to our origins.  
                                                       

1907 HaShomer (the Watchmen) , our men who guarded their settlements
and kept everyone safe
The Haganah finally replaced them.  

To make Israel what it is today took much courage.  We mustn't forget what our forefathers had gone through, nor our present people for what they endure to keep our Israel safe from harm and to keep our religion alive and meaningful.  
                                                       

Today even women must join IDF and help to guard the
state.  Our new HaShomers.  

Resource:
A Young Person's History of Israel 2nd edition, by David Bamberger 1985, 1994
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogroms_in_the_Russian_Empire
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

Who Are the Palestinians?

Nadene Goldfoot
In 1882 the Jews came to Palestine in what was called the 1st Aliyah. There were always Jews there since the days of Abraham, but these people came from Europe for ideological reasons as well as from escaping from pogroms.

Knowing that they were involved in rebuilding the land, Arabs followed them hoping to find work. The Turkish and British administrators took little interest in these Arabs, but kept scrupulous records of Jews entering the territory.  These non-Jewish immigrants came from all parts of the Middle East, including Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Transjordan (now called Jordan), Saudi Arabia,  Yemen, Egypt, Sudan, and Libya. These Arabs benefited financially by these European Jewish settlers eager to build a country, and that's why they traveled hundred of miles for the possible jobs.

Palestinians, under the assumption that they are refugees, were either immigrants before Israel's creation in 1948 or the children of these immigrants. When Mark Twain visited in 1867, there were hardly any Arabs in the land at all.

This was all researched by Joan Peters, a Christian reporter who did a fantastic job finding this information. She began by being swayed to help the Palestinian problems of wanting a state and wound up finding out the much different facts that their immigration to Palestine took place during the first half of the twentieth century. People may have condemned Peters' book because of her journalistic style,  such as Professors Noam Chomsky, Norman Finklestein and Porath, but no one has been able to refute her findings.  Joan wrote "From Time Immemorial" the origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine.

Thus, the Palestinians are a mixed group of people who migrated to find work in the Jewish settlements. Now they are going to the peace table in Annapolis, Maryland in late November and demanding part of the tiniest country in the Middle East, Israel. They are backed by all the seven Arab countries who do not want to see a Jewish state in their midst.  Israel is a Jewish state, it's culture is more European and American, and the Arabs have done everything to prevent it's continuance. They have more power than Israel ever has had due to the oil that the Arab countries have and control. There never was a Palestine country. They never had their own country and never even thought of it till Israel was created, and even then they didn't until they lost the 1967 war against Israel.  . They were offered land for a country but turned it down time and time again.  . Though Israel has been attacked and has won its wars with what must be divine help, it's the Palestinians who are calling the shots at this conference and probably future ones, too.  .

Olmert is not exactly popular with his own people right now. Many feel he is ready to give away the baby and the bath water, so if he wants to stay in power, he may have to become tougher with the Palestinians at this meeting. The Palestinians are not happy with Abbas as their representative being he is a member of Fatah, and the Hamas terrorists will not recognize him as having any say in their matters. Under these conditions, Condoleeza Rice will have her hands full. Peace is the objective. Will it mean peace for Israel or a piece of Israel?

Update to August 2013.  Not much has changed.  A peace conference that has started will be going on for the next 9 months.

Resource:  From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters
Book:  "The I:nnocents Abroad" by Mark Twain