The Israeli government has a new advertising campaign for young American Jews to move to Israel. Please watch the cringe-worthy video at the link (the subliminal message is that dorky Jewish guys can find girlfriends over there). The Israeli government promotion says that young Jews can both move to Israel and get “best of all a free degree on Uncle Shmuel’s tab” if they explore certain unnamed “exciting educational opportunities for new olim [immigrants] to Israel.” Tel Aviv University and “Uncle Shmuel” are featured in the video.
On a related note, Becky Sebo is one of those arrested last night at the student senate meeting at Ohio University when she kept speaking after she was warned she was disrupting the meeting. Sebo is a young dancer and leader of Bobcats for Israel, the pro-Israel group at the school.
Athens Ohio Today says Sebo is 22 and from Pepper Pike, which is a suburb of Cleveland. Haaretz, which quoted Sebo yesterday, said she “is from Cleveland.”
Sebo tweeted the Haaretz piece:
So honored to be on the front page of Haaretz supporting my country, ISRAEL http://t.co/go3pBhqwwL
— Becky Sebo (@BeckySebo) September 10, 2014
Israel supporters say that the charge of dual loyalty is a canard, but Sebo’s assertion, and the Israeli government promotion, both blur national borders, surely because Zionism entails that necessity: American Jews must support Israel so that the U.S. government will support Israel blindly.
Thanks to Mark Peterson.
Update: I said when I first published this post that the Israeli gov’t was promising American support for college educations, thereby confusing Uncle Shmuel with Uncle Sam. The ad would seem to promise Israeli government support.
I found the ad mildly offensive.
The Uncle Shmuel footing the bill refers (I believe) to Israel paying for the education and the use of Uncle Shmuel is confusing because it is so similar to Uncle Sam to cause the viewer to scratch his head and wonder: Is Uncle Sam paying the bill? I am aware that young olim are entitled to a free education among their package of incentives to move to Israel and this is what it is referring to (I believe).
I did find the first line of the ad interesting: (paraphrase): that Israel is a state still being formed whereas America is a given, a finished product, an immutable fact.
you most likely misunderstood (a common event here and always in the negative) that the “Shmuel” is not meant to be a euphemism for ‘uncle sam’. it is an Israeli version of Uncle Sam which-if you understood Israeli society-you should know there is great admiration for most things ‘American’.
I also think -on the so-called “dork” issue it is you reading in too much. perhaps you already lived out the other American-Jewish ‘dork’ cliche of finding a nice shicksa to marry and have no more empathy for ‘dorky Jews’. But this kid featured is not what one would call a typical ‘dork’. He has features like a model and the spot is strictly tongue-in-cheek while the on reference to being with a ‘girl’ is simply a shot of two young people on a beach-the guy with appalling chest hair.
Once again, MW gets all worked up, with a completely over-the-top analysis over a Big Nothing. A dumb commercial is what it is. And by no means as dumb and obnoxious as many many other Israeli and American commercial spots. (of course if you already believe Israelis are ‘obnoxious’ then it would follow that opinions of any Israeli spots-innocuous as they may be-will be thought of in the herd-like way of group-think
Thanks DaBakr I figured out my mistake right after posting and have updated it. Phil
Typical. US Jews can go to Israel and get an education paid for by the US taxpayer. A benefit afforded no non Jews who seek an education in any country on the planet.
Had enuff yet?
Also I recommend reading this well supported article about this issue : http://www.boldfacenews.com/will-america-become-the-next-jewish-state-some-would-say-it-already-is/
“in an upscale suburb of Detroit, with a median household income of $98,832, the Michigan Jewish Institute managed to “transform itself from a small campus-based college into a burgeoning online university,” in the words of the Jewish Daily Forward . In an article published earlier this month, (2012) The Forward reports that the school has done this “thanks in large part” to federal aid designated for low-income students, mainly Pell Grants, totaling more than $25 million over the past five years. And here’s the real kicker: most of this money is going to students who aren’t even studying in the U.S. Most, in fact, are in Israel. Or as the Forward puts it:
But very little of this money has been spent on men and women taking courses in Michigan or, indeed, in the United States. Instead, the majority of MJI’s students can be found working toward an MJI degree in Judaic studies at yeshivas and seminaries overseas, mostly in Israel.
Affiliated with the Chabad Lubavitch movement, the Michigan Jewish Institute “seeks to serve all segments of the Jewish community,” offering “an environment that adheres to the highest ethical standards and religious traditions of Judaism.” The MJI website lists the address of its “Main Campus” as 6890 Maple Road, West Bloomfield, MI, which also happens to be the address of “The Shul,” a Chabad synagogue (“shul” is Yiddish for “synagogue”) built at a reported cost of $6 million, with menorah-shaped glass panels on either end, and which opened its doors in 2002. “