Israel's late prime minister Yitzhak Shamir 1915-2012 is one of those international statesmen who have left a lasting legacy and it's important not to lose sight or have forgotten his remarkable contribution to his nation.
In my view his most challenging achievement was his call for Aliya (return to Israel of the Jewish diaspora), particularly Russian Jews. This took up a great deal of his untiring energy. Nothing deterred him from this path. The Jackson-Vanik Amendment opened the doors of the USSR for emigration, Shamir's Aliya policy was chiefly responsible for the arrival in Israel of over one million Olim (Jewish immigrants) from Russia and the former USSR.
Shamir believed that aggressive, tenacious, pro-active Aliya policy – generating Aliya – was the prerequisite for massive Aliya waves from the USSR, Ethiopia and other countries. During the 1990s, he projected a future Aliya wave from France, resulting from anti-Semitism and Islamic migration. Former US Assistant Secretary of State, Dick Schifter, appreciated Shamir's intense lobbying of Secretaries of State, Schultz and Baker, to stop issuing refugee certificates to Soviet Jews, thus directing them to relocate to Israel.
In addition, Shamir initiated a request from the US Senate to pass a resolution – signed by all 100 Senators – expecting Moscow to direct Jewish emigrants to fly only directly to Israel and not to Rome or Vienna. Shamir's initiatives transformed an 80% dropout rate (until 1990) to an almost 100% arrival rate, by Soviet Jews to Israel.
Ukraine Aliya and Olim
In 2005 I was one of 48 international Bridges for Peace delegates that visited the Ukraine on a study tour of Aliya. I was an eye witness of the Bridges for Peace mission work in the Ukraine, where local Christians were helping Jewish people at the lowest end of the socio-economic spectrum to migrate to Isarel (Aliya). I saw first hand the special care for the elderly poor, the infirm, the destitute and the "struggling family" poor.
Bridges for Peace had linked in with two existing local Christian groups in the Ukraine, helping the Jewish community and providing monthly food parcels, a van, food distribution centers and administration assistance. This is a mission partnership. Administrative assistance involves 'Aliyah' assistance in addition to humanitarian aid to the elderly who have no wish to resettle in Israel.
These workers helped potential Olim (Jews who wish to return to Israel) by searching for records, helping with passport applications, travel transfer assistances and the like, in order that these marginalized Jews might be helped, should they wish, to reach Israel before they die. There was very little assistanjce for such Jewish people?
Once in Israel, the Israeli State ensures they have housing, food and health care. These Christian groups are not involved in overt proselytizing but are motivated by their understanding of the biblical prophecies relative to the return of the Jews to their ancient homeland in the "latter days" of human history.
Motivation
They are also motivated by a profound awareness that Christian help was in short supply in WWII, the last time that Jews desperately needed Christian friends. These younger Christians weren't old enough (many have been born long after WWII) to help then but they feel a moral responsibility to bring practical aid now.
You may ask why is Christian help needed when the government of Israel, the Jewish Agency and various other Jewish groups are so active in both Aliyah and humanitarian aid. I can answer that. Those resources are already stretched to the limit helping the larger projects and most Jewish resources are grateful for these smaller Christian groups who help pick up the pieces in the more obscure areas.
Christian aid groups are proud to do this in the name of humanitarianism, to counter the anti-Semitism that is again on the increase in Europe. Christians in these organizations have an acute sense of responsibility to the past.
Tour explained the historial drama
In the early 1200's Jews were banished from England and they moved to mainland Europe. The western European powers likewise distrusted the Jews and all were pleased when in 1333 "King Kashimicrz the Great" of Krakow, welcomed the Jews. He saw long-term economic benefits to his kingdom. Here the Jewish Hasidic movement gained prominence.
The Hasidim had rules for every aspect of life, with classic traditions and insights of famous Rabbis. Between 1772 and the end of WWI 1918, Poland had been eliminated as a political entity and the land divided between Russian, Prussia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Jews were forced to live in the area known as the "Pale of Settlement." From 1834-1917 Jews were only permitted to live in this center of Europe - in former Polish lands and certain parts of the East.
As their numbers and influence increased, local pressures forced thousands of Jews to move eastward. The Ukraine became inundated with Jews. The movie "Fiddler on the Roof" recreates what it was like to be a Jew in the Pale and in the Ukraine in the 19th century. Polish Kings moved the Jews by decree from one location to another without recourse or compensation. The policy of anti-Semitism by Nazi Germany was received with welcome arms in the Ukraine and many Christian Ukrainians happily volunteered to do the nastiest work.
Post WWII
At the end of WWII only 40,000 Jewish people were left in the Ukraine from a population of around 1.5 million Jews. Of those remaining after WWII, many went to America, some to Israel but the poorest of the poor stayed and began to rebuild their lives amidst most difficult circumstances.
Their neighbours were often the very ones who had either denounced Jews or supervised their transport to the gas chambers and ovens of Auschwitz. There was little love for these Jewish people.
Today, these Christians are so concerned they are directing their energies to this humanitarian task and it has been his joy in the Lord to have seen first hand a tiny part of this history.
Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He mentors young writers and has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html