The Aliyah Day celebrations passed yesterday without media attention and without public involvement, which is a shame.
The return of the Jewish people home, to the Land of Israel, can be considered the great miracle of modern times.
The reality of aliyah seems so natural to us that most of us tend to forget: all of us - or at least, those of us who were lucky enough to emigrate - are the protagonists of an unprecedented historical process.
Who could have imagined a hundred years ago that the waves of aliyah would bring with them to the Promised Land almost half of the Jewish people?
When I try to appreciate how many generations of my ancestors and ancestors (maybe 80, and maybe 100 or more) could only dream of immigrating to the Land of Israel, I was all chills.
Contrary to popular belief, which is mainly due to the large waves of immigration, the flow of immigrants did not stop for a moment.
In the last decade, a little under the radar, thousands of Jews and their families from all over the world continue to flock to us.
It is important to emphasize that in most cases this is not a matter of "no choice": the immigrants of the 21st century choose Israel also because it is a prosperous country, which presents them with multiple options.
Unlike my aliyahs, from 30 years ago, they are inundated with information about what is expected of them, but that does not necessarily mean that deluxe integration awaits them.
From the days of the Return to Zion to the present day, recording in Israel has always been a difficult, practical and emotional process.
Over the years, Israel has been able to refine the absorption methods of aliyah and adapt them to the changing reality.
The transitions of the 1950s gave way to the absorption centers of the 1970s, these were replaced by "absorption baskets" of the 1990s, and at the beginning of the current century a holistic approach emerged, which "sews" a package of unique solutions for each immigrant family.
But the reality has changed in another important parameter, which Israel does not yet have the courage to address. Accelerated assimilation in the large Jewish communities in the former USSR and the US, on the one hand, and the amendment of the Law of Return in 1970, which expanded the definition of "eligible" far beyond its original intention on the other, opened the gates to unrelated people. As long as Israel was a relatively poor country, this loophole was used sparingly. But when we entered a small club of rich countries, Israel's attraction grew both in the eyes of Jews and in the eyes of others, who hurried to look in the family tree of a great-great-grandfather they had never known. It turns out that most of those who join us every year are not Jews, nor are family members of immigrant Jews. This situation should be stopped.
Israel is the land of the returning Jews and their families, not of random immigrants seeking to improve their future.
There is no place for granting eligibility by virtue of return to one who has no affinity or interest in Jewish life.
The sooner we apply the "yes to immigration, no to immigration" rule, the better off we will be.