A new study came out today on a topic that has been all too ignored in the religious Zionist and Modern Orthodox communities, communities that should have cared most about this topic.

In the past two years, thousands of second and third-generation Israeli doctors, engineers, and highly educated people have been leaving Israel and choosing not to come back.

They are not leaving because of the war or regional tensions. They are leaving because they have been told for the past three years that there is no place for them in Israel.

I have seen people here call them “secular elites,” “Kaplanists,” “leftist sons of former elites,” and all kinds of other names.

In 2005, when 8,600 Jews were driven out of their homes in Gush Katif, we were all rightfully outraged and heartbroken. “A Jew does not expel another Jew” was the wording on the bumper stickers.

But there is more than one way to expel a person from their home. It isn’t just by pulling someone out of their home the way it was done in Gush Katif. When you tell Jews they have no place in Israel, when you make it clear that the more of a majority you have in the Knesset, the more you will crush them and drive them out, they leave or choose not to return. They didn’t choose to leave; they were told they are no longer welcome.

The fact that the words “leftists” and “smolanim” in Israel have been successfully turned into slurs, the fact that “Kaplanists,” “reformi,” and in some cases even “Ashkenazi” have become pejorative terms, is an anathema to Zionism and to who we are as a people and does not bode well for anyone living in Israel.

The Jerusalem Post ran an editorial yesterday saying: “Israel’s secular Ashkenazi establishment, the founding elite that still largely controls the country’s media, judiciary, and cultural institutions.” Which Ashkenazi establishment? The one that was last in power a quarter of a century ago?

It is nice to celebrate the aliyah of your cousin from Teaneck or your friend from Cleveland, but that isn’t Zionism. Zionism is fighting to make sure that the State of Israel is home to as many Jews as would like it to be their home, regardless of their religious or political background.

Sadly, few of those who have rung the bell on the crisis of the brain drain, leaving Israel, have been heard on moral grounds. When speaking out, I was told the people who are leaving are Ukrainian and Russian Jews who fled war in Europe, as if that were a Zionist response to Jews leaving the Land of Israel. Now the numbers are in. The people who are leaving in their thousands are as Israeli as they come, with a sharp skew toward those with higher education. They are the doctors, the scientists, the engineers, and the startup leaders of Israeli technology.

If moral and religious arguments will not make the difference here, the argument of self-survival is one that anyone who cares about the Zionist project should think about very hard: the State of Israel cannot survive without talent. If the trend of pushing out academics, the highly educated, and healthcare professionals continues, this will endanger everyone living in Israel, with no exceptions. If the non-reconciliatory style we have seen from the Smotriches, Ben Gvirs, Simcha Rothmans, and other people who come from the religious Zionist community continues to have its day, if half of Israel is maligned as “leftists, Kaplanists, elites, Ashkenazis, smolanim,” and God knows what other names they have been called, every Israeli will feel the pain of their loss. The over 100,000 Israelis who left in the past three years will be the harbinger of what is to come.

National reconciliation does not mean asking others to be like us. National reconciliation means making sure those who are different from us know there will always be a place for them, as they wish to live, in our midst. That has not been the case, and if that doesn’t change, this trend will only get worse.

The Midrash (Tanna Dvei Eliyahu Rabbah, 30) shares the following story: “

A human king once had to travel overseas. Before leaving, he wanted to entrust his son to the care of a wicked guardian. His friends and servants said to him, “Our lord the king, do not place your son in the hands of a wicked guardian.” But the king ignored the advice of his friends and servants and entrusted his son to the wicked guardian.

What did the wicked guardian do? He destroyed the king’s city, burned down his palace, and killed the king’s son with the sword.

Some time later, the king returned. When he saw that his city was destroyed and desolate, his palace burned with fire, and his son slain by the sword, he immediately tore at his hair and beard and wept bitterly. He said, “Woe to me! How much foolishness I committed in my world, that I entrusted my son into the hands of a wicked guardian.”

Let us hope the trends we are seeing are reversible and that there is a national awakening in Israel to make sure that the future of Israel includes all kinds of Jews living together in unity and harmony.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)