Are there any rabbis who have pulpits outside of Israel and who have no plans to move to Israel themselves, but who actively and sincerely try to get their congregants to move to Israel?
I don't believe I've ever run into one, and I suspect that they're not too common, because:
The fact that they choose not to move to Israel themselves could make it difficult for them to recommend that course of action to others, even if their own choice is driven by completely justified reasons that apply to them and not [many of] their congregants.
There's a natural disincentive to any rabbi to recommend that his congregants leave his congregation.
However, given that moving to Israel is the right thing to do for at least some significant subset of diaspora Jews, some diaspora rabbis may see it as their responsibility to promote it, despite the above considerations, just as they promote other virtuous activities (e.g. minyan attendance, in-depth learning, or procreation) that may be available only to some congregants.
I'm wondering if anyone can produce any examples thereof.
Answer
Off the top of my head:
Rabbi Pruzansky (http://rabbipruzansky.com) of Teaneck, NJ's Bnai Yeshurun is a great promoter of Aliyah in his community.
Rabbi Avi Weiss of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale (NY) (http://www.hir.org/) is also outspoken about the importance of Aliyah.
Rabbi Lopatin of Anshe Shlomo B'nai Israel (http://www.asbi.org/) spoke for many years about Aliyah and in the past few years decided he's finally making the move this year -- and bringing a number of the congregation's families along with him.
No comments:
Post a Comment