by Asher Meth

Asher Meth was a student at New York University in the 1980s and a regular contributor to net.religion.jewish. In November 1985, Meth responded to a thread about Sephardi–Ashkenazi political tensions in Israel — not with politics, but with history and grief. The post is about Operation Magic Carpet, the Israeli airlift that brought tens of thousands of Yemenite and other Middle Eastern Jews to Israel in the early 1950s, and what was done to them after they arrived: the children placed in secular kibbutzim, the earlocks shorn, the men told that work on Shabbat was the price of employment. Meth is careful, warm, and unsparing. The tragedy he names is not violence but erasure — carried out in the name of progress, by Jews, against Jews. He ends where all his best posts end: with a teaching from the Talmud, and a plea for peace.

Just a reminder of some history, as far back only as the early '50's. Back in those days, Operation Magic Carpet brought thousands of Jews — from all the Arab countries that would let them out — to a new life in Israel. At that time, the Labor party ran the government, Histadrut (the labor union), and everything else.

Sephardi families were broken up: children from religious homes were taken away from their parents and sent to non- and anti-religious kibbutzim; earlocks (peyot) were shorn from the boys; men were told that they could get a job only on the stipulation that they work on the Shabbat, violating laws that they had been keeping for years and years, nay, centuries.

People were told the same "truths" as immigrants were told when they came to the Goldene Medinah, America: namely, those religious practices were only for the old country, for the preservation of the Jews in foreign countries while they were oppressed. But now you have come to Israel, where all that counts is that you live here. Or: you have come to America, and you must blend into society and be a good American — as if being a good Jew contradicted being a good American.

I do not chas v'shalom mean to knock the great hospitality we have received here in America, being allowed to live as we please, even as religious Jews to the utmost of our abilities. Indeed, it was very hard to live as a religious Jew for many years in the USA. I, who live now in the day and age when it is "easy" to live as a religious Jew in America — not discounting the old Yiddish idiom, es is shver tzu zayn a Yid — am in no position to judge those people who found it hard to retain their religiosity. On the other hand, no one can say that "the religious practices were for the old country, but we are past that stage now." Such an attitude does not help us strengthen our Jewish identity, or inculcate in our children any measure of Jewish identity.

Furthermore, those involved in Operation Magic Carpet — and all other operations that saved Jewish lives — surely merit great reward, as we are taught: "he who saves a Jewish life, it is as if he saved the entire world." All the more so, those who save many Jewish lives.

However, that which was forced upon those Sephardi immigrants, and that which happened to so many of our brethren in the past century here in the USA, measures up to a tragic loss on our part. And for those for whom religiosity is not presently a very meaningful part of their Jewishness, the cultural loss — for all those people and all their descendants — is also very great.

Finger-pointing will not solve the problem. It will not bring back the lost souls. It will not make the non-religious more religious. Would that we would only learn from our past mistakes and not repeat them.

As we learn in the last Mishnah in the Mishnayot, at the end of tractate Uktzin: the only vessel that HaShem found that could hold the good and blessings He had for Israel is Shalom — peace. Let us all strive for understanding, compassion, sensitivity, and peace among ourselves. It will help toward building a better world.

Asher Meth

Colophon

Written by Asher Meth (New York University) and posted to net.religion.jewish on November 26, 1985. The post opens in reply to a comment by Tony Wuersch on Sephardi–Ashkenazi political tensions, but the substance is entirely Meth's own. Operation Magic Carpet (Mivtza Shlomo, 1949–1950) airlifted approximately 49,000 Yemenite Jews to Israel; accompanying airlifts brought communities from Iraq, Libya, and elsewhere. The policies Meth describes — secularization of arriving religious Jews under the Labor establishment — are documented in Israeli historical scholarship and remain a sensitive subject. The Mishnaic teaching at the close is from Mishnah Uktzin 3:12, attributed to Rabbi Simeon b. Halafta.

Preserved from the Usenet archive (UTZOO tape b55, net.religion.jewish/2766) for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original Message-ID: <[email protected]>.

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