where will you be

 You are Joe from Chicago. You start keeping mitzvos and slowly incorporating Torah values into your thinking. You don't have to become a Mir Yeshiva man or a Belzer Chosid or a Religious Zionist, replacing your wardrobe and your speech patterns with theirs. You can if you want, but you are not required to. It might not even be advisable. You might be told to forget your career plans, drop your hobbies, lose your friends, and even to cut off relations with your family and to dedicate your life to Gemara study. You might even be tempted if you are enjoying the Gemara study and feel that you have entered a new world that is embracing you. But beware, all of that might fade to large extent and then where will you be?  

The trajectory of feminism

grandmother - If you are happy I am happy.

mother - If I am happy, you are happy.

wife - I am happy.

a fair chance

 

a fair chance

 "I think that the definition of a good society is where everybody has a fair chance at life's happiness. Now as you know  most people mess it up. They have the chance but for this or that reason they mess it up. And they ruin their lives even though they had a chance."

Norman Finkelstein, INTERVIEW: Norman Finkelstein | The sickness of capitalism, Israel's war in Gaza & German complicity, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G__W0B_8ZoA, 1:05:32

If she balks, I walk.

To the sick mind healthy people are boring. They want excitement. They want to be cool. They don't want to live in places like Montana or West Virginia. Too many Churches. They want Hollywood, Manhattan, Miami. You know a person by what he wants. And shallow, pretentious people need excitement to feel alive. They don't know what to do with themselves in quiet places. They don't want to be a state assemblyman in North Dakota. They want to work for a Congressman on the Beltway in DC near all the psychopaths who vote for military aid to dictatorships.

With Orthodox Jews, the sick ones, it's New York or Israel. Every other place is just laughable. But the joke is on them, because New York grinds you down with greed. And Israel is all war, war of every kind, all day long war, but mostly a war against religion. 

Next time I go on a shidduch, I'll ask, how would you feel about living in St. Louis, Missouri. If she balks, I walk. 

Everything America has?

That's the portrayal of Nefesh b'Nefesh and other aliyah pushers. Oh, Israel used to lag behind America, but now its economy is advanced and its technology world leading. The only thing holding you back is your yetzer hara. 

So I'm here to tell you that's all lies. Israel isn't even close to America. Your standard of living will decrease 80% if you move here. I go into detail about this in other posts. And I'm not talking about granite countertops. I'm talking health care, transportation, and living conditions. And all that takes an enormous toll on your sanity, your shalom bayis, and even your religious observance.

Sometimes you hear that people are more religious in Israel. Well, aside from the 75% that violate Shabbos, the Modern Orthodox are far less religious. And the Haredim, well in Meah She'arim they are very good. But you are not moving to Meah She'arim. Wherever you move, the religious level is no better than Lakewood or Monsey. The middos are generally worse, if only because the average Israeli with whom Haredim are surrounded by is far worse. And the attitudes are militant. You lose seichel here.

You can lose motivation too. When I see a car driving on Shabbos in Brooklyn, I assume the driver is Italian. Here, it is a Jew, unless you on the border of East Jerusalem. And the mind says, he doesn't care about Shabbos. He's not being punished either. It affects you. Your own appreciation decreases. 

An English speaker also struggles because the shuls have nearly only Hebrew books. Most of the shiurim are in Hebrew. You can't speak to most of the gadolim.

You lose far more than you gain in Israel, in every way. It's not the right choice for most people. 

The myth of Israel Noble Prize Winning

According to Wikipedia, People from the State of Israel have won 13 Nobel Prizes. 3 are peace prizes. One of the peace prizes went to one of Zionist terrorists who killed 17 Jews at the King David Hotel. Another of the peace prizes went to one of the Zionist commanders who sank the Altalena, killing 19 Jews.

Of the remaining 9 (one in literature), 4 were born and educated elsewhere, but we'll ignore that. Switzerland, Austria, and Sweden which each have roughly the same population as Israel, have 27, 22, and 32 prizes respectively.  The Netherlands, which is double the population as Israel, has 21 prizes. Denmark, which has half the population of Israel has 13 prizes. So the claim that Israel "punches above its weight on Nobel prizes" is just plain false. [This claim was made by an otherwise good article that defended Charedim in Israel.] If you want to argue that the Nobel Prize was started before the State of Israel was founded, Switzerland has won 16 prizes (all in science) since 1948. That’s double the amount per capita won by people in Israel, including four who were born and educated in other countries. Sweden has won 20 Nobel Prizes since 1948. 

Jews comprise 20% of Nobel prize winners. That means 178 Nobel prizes (of 889) have gone to Jews. (This includes some that have a Jewish father only, which means that they are not halachically Jewish.). So in fact, given that half of the world's Jews live in Israel, Israel does very poorly in Nobel prizes. Jews outside of Israel won 166 Nobel prizes. Jews in Israel have won 12 (that includes 2 terrorists). Jews outside of Israel earn Nobel prizes at a far, far higher rate than Jews in Israel. Something about Israeli society actually holds Jews back. You are welcome to hypothesize what it is. Whatever your analysis, I wouldn’t go around bragging about people in Israel winning Nobel prizes.

a fair chance

 "I think that the definition of a good society is where everybody has a fair chance at life's happiness. Now as you know  most people mess it up. They have the chance but for this or that reason they mess it up. And they ruin their lives even though they had a chance."

Norman Finkelstein, INTERVIEW: Norman Finkelstein | The sickness of capitalism, Israel's war in Gaza & German complicity, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G__W0B_8ZoA, 1:05:32