The Israeli band Shmemel recently released a controversial, tongue-in-cheek video single entitled Berlin(English translation and annotation here, courtesy of The Forward). In the song, the band sings a ballad of Israelis leaving the country – for economic opportunity, for the madness of living in a state of constant war, or for a better and more exciting life abroad. The video comprises, in part, shots of smiling Israeli expatriates holding signs saying azavti le… (I left for…), with a whole host of cities following: New York, Copenhagen, and Tokyo among them. Even the dog in the picture moved to Germany. The chorus, a riff on the very nationalist and sappy Jerusalem of Gold, sings the praises of Berlin, the euro, and cries for a foreign passport that many Israelis possess and use fully. Many of the song’s other lines make fun of right wing rhetoric, and point out that even Jacob, our forefather, went to Egypt where “rents were half and salaries double.”
Needless to say, the song has not gone without criticism: one only need look at the comments on the Forward’s article on it or the video itself to get a sense of the rankling it has caused among some right-wing folks. But one thing I should note is something the song itself addresses: the nationalist outcry over any out-migration from Israel, branding those who leave as “descending” and ruinous of the Zionist dream.
The fact of the matter is this: Israel might be designed as a Jewish homeland, but it is also a country filled with normal people with fairly normal desires. The economic opportunities in the closed, isolated, and extremely unequal Israeli economy pale in comparison to pretty much any other developed country; the cost of living comes close to that in London with far lower salaries. A constantly militarized society replete with inviolable dogmas stifles creativity, as does an educational system that is near collapse. Israel’s well-qualified workforce is finding that their skills – in computers, medicine, engineering, teaching, and even pastry-making– are better paid by other countries increasingly solicitous of skilled migrants. Hence they go across the world: to the United States especially, Australia, Germany, and even Namibia. Israeli academics are more likely than most other developed countries ’to go abroad permanently, and despite the best efforts of Netanyahu’s government and Likud cronies, a large number of Israeli migrants of any profession never return. Both my parents migrated to Israel and left – my dad after a few years, but my mother after twenty years in the country.
I think this song raises a point: no matter the ardency of the Zionist dream, the State of Israel has not necessarily been a success or beneficial to everyone. As painful as the idea of exile can be to some, there are certainly advantages one can garner in the diaspora. Furthermore, it seems that the Israeli state’s policies seem to push their own away rather than encourage others to “negate the Diaspora.” Thus the question is: is it worth it to stay? Shmemel seems to think not. Given the hundreds of thousands of Israelis living in the United States, he certainly does not seem to be alone in thinking so.
I am writing this article on a train in suburban New York, and there are no fewer than three separate conversations in Hebrew around me: one discussing where to buy a house (here), one discussing a promotion at a job (here), and one discussing the comparative merits of the rural West. Is this trend not worthy of discussion and acknowledgment?
Jonathan P. Katz is a recent graduate of the University of Chicago.
