Religion & Beliefs
The New Inquisition: A Video Against Jewish Assimilation (UPDATED)
By Roi Ben-Yehuda / September 8, 2009
During the Middle Ages, the Inquisition used to "inspire" people to inform on individuals who were secretly Jewish. Today, the Israeli government – in partnership with the Jewish Agency – is getting people to inform on Jews who are not Jewish enough.
In a video that harkens back to the [anachronistic] Zionist notion of shlilatha’galut, the Israeli government and Jewish Agency have called on Israelis to identify "lost children" – i.e. assimilated Jews living in the Diaspora. The purpose of the advert is to send these wayward Jews on a year-long identity strengthening stay in Israel, courtesy of Masa.
The ad asks its viewers "Do you know a young Jew in the Diaspora? Call the Masa project and together we will strengthen his ties to Israel so that he will not be lost to us.
Oy vey, I can already envision mygrandmother (Tata) calling.
You can read more on this topic, including a very funny imaginary phone conversation between MASA and grandmother Tata at Roi Word.
Update (September 8, 2009):
Masa’s North American director sent out the following email yesterday:
Dear Friends,
At its heart, MASA is a partnership between Israelis and Jews from around the world with a common purpose-strengthening the Jewish People by bringing young Jews to Israel. The main goal of a recently launched ad campaign in Israel was to try and engage an often apathetic Israeli population in MASA and involve them in the key goal of bringing larger numbers of young Jews from around the world on long-term Israel programs. The immediate and very strong reaction to this campaign has highlighted the critical need for all Jews, whether living in Israel or outside of Israel, to develop an ongoing dialogue and greater understanding around key areas of sensitivity for Jews in all communities.
While this campaign attempted to motivate the Israeli public to be more involved in this collective enterprise, the images that were chosen touched many raw nerves. Clearly, there was a disconnect around how some of the images and wording – designed to be provocative towards an Israeli public that for too long has been largely disconnected and disaffected from its responsibility towards its fellow Jews – would be received by many Jews outside of Israel. At the same time, there was some misinterpretation on the part of the Israeli press about the actual content of the ads, which also impacted this sense of misunderstanding.
The Jewish Agency and leadership of MASA have made an immediate decision to refocus MASA’s ad campaign in Israel by moving to its next phase, which will no longer include the contentious images that have appeared on Israeli television.
Israel can be a convener and connector for Jews everywhere and MASA intends to challenge Israelis to take an active role in building a stronger Jewish future by helping expose young Jews, ages 18-30, to the "real" Israel for a semester or a year. Through a wide variety of long-term Israel experiences, we can connect the next generation to our people, our Judaism, and our homeland, and realize our shared goals of creating a more vibrant Jewish future and a diverse, welcoming and inclusive community.
I look forward to continue partnering with you to advance our common agenda to bring more and more young adults to Israel in the coming new year.
Sincerely,
Avi Rubel, North American Director, MASA
[via The Fundermentalist]
POST A COMMENT
You don’t want to pay for things? Sure then. Let us work legally *for money*, and eliminate any requirement that people participate in a damn "program". Young Jews don’t need identity programming; we know we’re Jews. And the Zionists among us know we’re Zionists. What we wonder is why we can’t spend some time in the country without being made into suckers.
Enough pampered Jewish undergrads making aliyah who expect older Diaspora Jews to pay everything for them.
I’m an avowed Zionist. I’m making aliyah after university and refuse utterly to marry a non-Jew.
And I don’t like MASA. Guess why? Because they give you less money to pay for your Israel program for every year under 21 of your age. What the hell is that? I’m 20 and wanted to come to Israel, and had to pay $1500 out-of-pocket with just my Jewish federation helping (they could only give $500). Yet the 30-year-old guy here go a full MASA grant. Why did more money go to the person more able to pay for himself?
Making me pay out-of-pocket to do volunteer work is not the way to make me like you, MASA. Instead I’m loving this country of Israel while hating the barrier of shit that sits between Israelis and American Jews and makes both get covered in filth as we try to reach out to each other.
So sod MASA, and sod their incredibly cheesy commercial. If people want Jews to stop assimilating they should go back to the foundations of Zionism, moderate (I think we call it "Masoreti" here) religious observence, and the Talmud. Enough with Jewcy, enough with faked Yinglish, enough with Boca Raton, enough with Woody Allen, GOD-DAMNED ENOUGH with Jewish philanthropies that deny funding to those who truly need it so they can pay the more able, enough Chabad, enough Jew camps full of teenagers all pretending to fuck each other (bizarrely, without actual fucking occurring), enough JDate, enough Jewish studies majors, enough Haredut, and enough telling Birthright trips not to be too Zionist.
Bring on more aliyah, more Hebrew, more engagement with the living traditions of Judaism, more Subliminal and the Shadow, more volunteering, more Tzahal, more Talmud, more Tanakh, more delicious kosher Israeli food that doesn’t feel compelled to imitate treif, more true Jewish love, more Jewish girls great in bed, more modesty to create space for real intimacy, more science, more technology, more medicine, more building a wonderful and incredible Jewish life truly worth living!
This video is so terrible, it makes me question my connection to Israel.  You can be a Jew of the diaspora and still be a great contributor to and member of the world of Judsaism.  This video makes Masa look like a cult-like, manipulative organization.  When I see "masa" I think of the fact that so much information was given to me about Masa when I was on Birthright. This makes me question my time on birthright and what the goal of it really was. Now, I happened to love my birthright trip yet, this ad is making me realize the latter. It’s true that you are pretty sleep deprived while on Birthright, you are inundated with Israeli propaganda, and at least on my trip whenever there was anti-Israeli government talk it was harshly shot down. We were also bombarded with information about programs to do through Masa where we could go back there. Sounds pretty much like a light form of brainwashing.  In short,I am disgusted by this ad.  It discourages me from supporting Masa, Birthright and even Israel.  I have always been a supporter of Israel but if the goal of it is to get every single Jew to live the same way and most importantly if it uses closed-minded, manipulative tactics to get what it wants, then I don’t want to be a part of it. Thank you Masa for taking one of Israel’s biggest fans and turning me off!  I believe that I am not the only one who feels this way.
Wanna post your own comments? Gotta log in first!