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The basketball player begs: "I am a Jew, let me immigrate to Israel" Israel today

2022-02-20T08:20:59.552Z


Eight days after I was born, I was circumcised. I was Jewish, and that's what Jews do. We kept Shabbat. We had great Passover meals with wine • When I told my rabbi that I wanted to immigrate to Israel, to live in Israel, he was in favor. We were both shocked when the Israeli government decided to refuse my citizenship application. I'm not infiltrating. I did not do anything wrong • Opinion


Eight days after I was born, I was circumcised.

I was Jewish, and that's what Jews do.

Well, many do it anyway;

Jews who are not observant sometimes are not, but my family was not like that.

We kept Shabbat.

We had great Passover meals with wine.

And on Yom Kippur, at a young age, my mother said there was no reason I should not fast my soul.

And so I was, on Yom Kippur, a catechist, dying of hunger and crying in the synagogue, like everyone else.

When I told my rabbi that I wanted to immigrate to Israel, to live in Israel, he was in favor.

We were both shocked when the Israeli government decided to refuse my citizenship application.

They have repeatedly made clear to my rabbi and me their position: We do not trust you.

We do not believe you.

Your intentions are not sincere.

its hurt.

And I do not understand that.

I'm so proud to be a Jew.

I am proud of the Jewish history of my family.

Without a doubt, this is something worth celebrating and is especially appropriate for the month of black history that we are now celebrating in the United States.

It all started more than 70 years ago, with my great-aunt.

She, who was the daughter of a Baptist priest, decided to adopt the principles of Judaism into her life, and under the influence of the Jewish community, she wanted to base her life on the Torah.

But that was in the 1940s, during the Jim Crowe Laws and racial segregation in America.

In many places, it was not legal for whites and blacks to pray together in the same place at the same time.

It is said that even today, Sunday mornings are the most racially separate time in the United States.

So for us, the Jews, Shabbat is the same thing.

My aunt encountered barriers to deepening her Jewish experience with a "white" Jewish community.

That is why she set up one of her own, as early as 1951.

From there a whole community of Jews was born - some according to their origin, some living, some born in the community, like me.

The community has evolved.

It thrives, and it does not belong to any current in American Jewry.

The aunt left a huge mark, and her soul rests in a Jewish cemetery to this day.

Even though I'm not a member of the community, a person can not forget where he came from.

I am currently a member of the Peace House community in Wilmington, Delaware.

Its spiritual leader is Rabbi Michael Bills - "Rabbi of Biden", as he is known around the world.

I love Rabbi Bills and the community, and I really went through a process of growing my Jewish identity and vocation.

For a moment I did not think anyone doubted my identity among the Jewish people.

My mother and my community taught and raised me as a Jew.

I had a duty before God to reach out and help those who were less well off than I was.

I was taught to work for the correction of the world, and that all human beings were created in the image of God.

"Every one who saves one soul, as if he had saved a whole world."

The beauty of our religion is that there are so many ways to be a Jew, but the Israeli Ministry of the Interior excludes me for some reason.

Rabbi Bills and I submitted with great excitement my request for aliyah.

He had a long relationship with my family.

My mother's sister is a member of the community he has headed for more than a decade, and the Beit Shalom community has welcomed my mother and me with open arms.

I also had big plans.

I was going to play basketball at Hapoel Haifa.

Aside from basketball, I planned to contact the State Department to help bridge the gap between Israel and the black public in America.

I expected to learn more about Israel, the land of my people.

I could even engage in public relations, or public diplomacy, as it is called.

With Rabbi Bills' connections and his familiarity with politics and society, he encouraged me to go in that direction.

He was sure that one day I would be a great asset to American-Israeli relations.

We do not trust you ...

I submitted the application from abroad and we were surprised that they did not receive my letter of confirmation of Judaism written by the rabbi. Rabbi Bills was ordained in the rabbinical seminary of the Conservative movement. I was a Jew from the beginning of my life. Rabbi Bills: I was born to a Jewish mother. But for them, something went wrong. Born to a Jewish mother? I can only tell the facts, and they wanted to understand how my mother is Jewish. They asked to see her conversion documents - although why did they assume she converted I can not say.

Jared Armstrong (center) with other participants in a discovery journey in Israel in 2021, Photo: Courtesy of the person photographed

I understand that Israel also asks these questions to other applicants - Ethiopians, Ugandans, immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Americans whose family tree or Jewish communities are not recognized by Israel's Chief Rabbinate, which is tainted with political motives.

But none of this comforts someone who feels very Jewish and knows in his heart that Israel is his home.

Still, I was willing to do eighths in the air to get things back on track.

So we sent another letter, detailing my Jewish ceremonies, the dates, and my mother's certificate from the mikveh.

But that's not all.

I decided to give them everything I had.

I sent them the proof of my grandmother's Judaism, details of my family heritage, and pictures of my family's grave in a Jewish cemetery.

Really, there was no reason not to trust me, my family or my rabbi.

We just wanted to make everything clear.

We do not believe you ...

My mother comes from a community that does not belong to any stream.

Therefore, they said, all the evidence is unreliable.

The fact that I identify as a Jew, live as a Jew, a friend in Beit Shalom - none of this has changed.

It was not good enough.

It was not reliable enough.

There was just too much doubt.

And to get rid of that doubt, I had to go through a conversion.

Only then will they agree to consider me a Jew in the State of Israel.

I was so frustrated.

What was at stake here, what was questioned, was my identity, my life.

But on the other hand, in a conversion course there are also choppers.

Every Jew knows that learning is a lifelong task.

And since I knew my status was a problem right now, this was a good opportunity to fix it.

So I converted, and I did it with Rabbi Bills.

I knew my intention was as spiritual as it made sense.

During the insane period of the plague, I was able to complete my conversion according to the halakhah, through zoom, and underwent blood covenant blood, which is a ceremonial and symbolic version of circumcision, as well as immersion in a mikveh.

Now, I believed, all doubts should go away.

As soon as our synagogue opened, I was raised to the Torah for the first time as a graduate in front of the entire congregation.

Israel, here I come ...

I came to Israel as part of a discovery, a program that connects American Jews to Israel and is proud of the people who came on the journey and eventually immigrated to Israel.

I was on the last voyage of discovery of 2021 because of the plague, and the Spirit of God was within me.

Rabbi Bills explained that traveling to Israel is one of the few commandments that a Jew must observe throughout his body.

And so I signed up.

Being in the country, being with my people, it was something indescribable.

But while I was in Israel, the Jewish Agency had another request.

They asked for a new letter.

They had to know every detail about the conversion classes, their topics and what we would learn.

My rabbi was patient and sent them a five-page letter.

Finally, I received a date for receiving my immigration documents from Israel itself.

Since I was already in Israel, it was going to be a very special day to make it official in the country I wanted to call home.

Your intentions are not sincere ...

A few days before the date at the Home Office, I received a message that the North American Chief of Staff had not confirmed my conversion.

Why?

Because it is edited in zoom.

(The conversion program conducted by the rabbinate in Israel itself also took place during the plague).

But there was probably another huge red flag in front of the office: I wanted to play basketball.

Every Jew comes to Israel with a plan: to study in a yeshiva, to study at a university, to start a business, to work in high-tech.

But basketball?

That means you just want to take advantage of Israeli society, they think.

And right now, that's the main concern that obscures my portfolio: that I converted only because I want to play basketball.

This is simply not true.

It is discrimination, inhumanity, and ignorance.

Instead of treating me like a Jew who wants to come home, they see me as an infiltrator trying to participate in something I have no right to.

And nothing of what I did changed their minds.

But I'm fighting for it.

And I will continue to fight for it.

I am Jewish and I want to come home.

But it is also my duty to fight for justice wherever there is injustice - even in Israel, even if it is for myself, and for others like me.

As a Jewish community, if we rely on the Ministry of the Interior to oversee itself, there will never be any change.

We will continue to see such results.

Some communities do not want to see any change.

The Israeli government does not care enough about how American Jews feel.

For me, not immigrating to Israel will be the end of the world, but for them, it's just another bag that goes into the drawer of refusals.

There are so many reasons for nonsense, paranoia and ignorance that those who handle my case may suspect me.

But I do not care about opinions.

I know who I am.

I'm not infiltrating.

I did nothing wrong.

I did above and beyond to prove my sincerity and understand their point of view.

I'm a Zionist.

I support the State of Israel, but I do not agree with injustice.

I'm Jewish, and I want to come home.

Photo:


Jared Armstrong (center) with other participants in the Discovery Campaign in Israel in 2021 (courtesy of Jared Armstrong)



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Source: israelhayom

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