Gavin Schaffer Aliyah and its Absence he ideology of Israel, as expressed in the Zionist struggle which led to its creation, was built on the belief that the world’s Jews were living in diaspora, and that the TJewish people, if they were to survive, needed to reunite in the safety of an independent Jewish state, ending centuries of persecution, danger, trauma, and humiliation. Underpinning this vision was the idea of ‘aliyah.

The term‘aliyah has its origins in Scripture, describing the ascent of Jews to the Temple in Jerusalem to offer sacrifices, and was later incorporated to describe ‘coming up’ to the bimah (stage) to read from the Torah in synagogue, as well as the act of making pilgrimages to Palestine. In the Zionist imagination, the term was repurposed to denote international Jewish immigration to Palestine motivated by Zionist ideology.

In Britain, the idea of ‘aliyah became a significant part of the machinery of Jewish communal leader- ship mostly after Israel’s birth in 1948. Local communities set up committees of prospective migrants, and national organizations, such as the Board of Deputies, which held seminars on ‘aliyah, and adapted their infrastructures to support it. In the years after Independence, hundreds and sometimes thousands of Jews migrated to Israel every year—by 2011, official figures counted 32,594 British migrants to Israel since 1948. Aggregating 17 Frankel Institue Annual 2017 out at roughly 500 migrants a year, this figure, Borrowing Daniel and Jonathan Boyarin’s formula- as Chaim Bermant pointed out in 1969, “hardly tion, British Jews often recognized the strength of constitutes an exodus.” their Jewishness as “not national, not genealogical, not religious, but all of these in dialectical tension For most British Jews, commitment to Israel stopped with one another.” This tension included a love of short of migration. British Jews became, in Israel, but it did not reduce Jewish identity to it, Stephan Wendehorst’s words, “part-time Zionists,” creating a space between British Jews and the subscribing to the cause as “diaspora subnationalism.” inevitability of ‘aliyah. Despite sporadic preaching Here, commitment to the cause took the form of and grumbling, Israeli leaders quickly accepted this fundraising for Israel, defending and lobbying on the reality, and re-articulated the utility of diasporic state’s behalf, and visiting the country for limited Jewish centers, from which Jews would not migrate periods. Raising money, or the “philanthropic in great numbers to Israel, but would instead paradigm,” as David Mittelberg describes it, has engage, fundraise, and lobby for it. The great taken center stage in his view as a “trade-off for movements of ‘aliyah, as it turned out, would be the absence of migration” across the Jewish world. less romantic, and more rooted in the international Through my research into British‘aliyah and its logics of immigrants and refugees, despite the way absence, I seek to question what it meant to be the state wanted it to be. Jewish in the postwar period and what was entailed Notwithstanding this ongoing separateness, the in the identification of a community as diasporic bonds between British Jews and Israel have been (externally and internally). I ask what these questions substantial throughout Israel’s, and the Yishuv’s might tell us about the history of Israel and Zionism, history. Those Jews who left Britain to live in Israel and about the way a generally affluent western com- made a significant impact on the development of the munity lives and moves in the age of globalization. state. Creating communities and contributing Zionist leaders may have believed that the future of energy and expertise, British migrants made a direct Jews and Judaism would have Israel at their heart, difference, and built deep reservoirs of international but British Jews, while largely very positive about support through the friends and family left behind, the Jewish State, to a large extent resisted incorpo- who were nonetheless signed up in support for their ration. For Zionists, the entire history of the Jews loved ones’ lives in Israel. For those Jews who were of Europe was often shrunk to what my Frankel not inclined to go permanently, Israel could still colleague Yael Zerubavel has described as a “dark offer considerable opportunities. Through temporary period of suffering and persecution.” Yet this was visits, tourism, and fundraising, British Jews a picture that most British Jews did not recognize. embraced Israel into their identities variously From the vantage point of living in a country not as a home away from home, a potential refuge for invaded by the Nazis and spared the direct experi- Jews across the world, and a site of pilgrimage. ence of the Holocaust, many Jews imagined them- What emerges from this bond between British Jews selves as fully part of the British nation despite and the Jewish State is a constant two-way exchange sporadic antisemitism and their minority status. at every level, in James Clifford’s formulation of 18 Frankel Institue Annual 2017

Cover of Jewish National Fund brochure, Israeli dancing at Habonim Bayit in Glasgow Blue & White Bazaar, Glasgow, 1949. in the 1950s. © From the collections of the © From the collections of the Scottish Scottish Jewish Archives Centre Jewish Archives Centre

diaspora, as a model of “modern, international, culture of their first home, which most often transcultural experience.” While British Jews remains a core part of who they are. Zionism generally don’t move to Israel, their loyalty is often without doubt has changed British Jewry, but not deep and clear, a double consciousness that has on the terms imagined by early ideologists. British always existed for Jews, but which has been sub- Jews in Israel and in Britain navigate multiple stantially refocused by the existence of a physical loyalties, homes, and histories, which transcend Jewish state. both states and traditional approaches to diaspora, and instead offer a signpost to understanding Of course, bonds go both ways. Israel has been transnational culture and ethnic identification in marked for good by Britain and her migrants, and the climate of globalization. ● those who live there as ‘olim evolve in Israel the