Knesset Opposition leader urges emergency immigration for US Jews

After calling for an emergency program to absorb a wave of immigrants from the US, Herzog is confident that the US government “will do all it can” to fight a recent surge in anti-Semitism. 

Knesset Opposition leader Isaac Herzog, chairman of the Zionist Union political alliance, called for the establishment of an “emergency national program” to absorb a large number of immigrants from the United States in light of a recent significant uptick in anti-Semitic attacks.

“I call on the government to urgently prepare and establish an emergency national program to enable a wave of Jewish immigration for our brethren,” Herzog said at a meeting with his faction.

At least nine Jewish community centers (JCCs) and Jewish day schools in the US got bomb threats on Monday, making it the fifth wave of such threats against Jewish institutions in the US since the beginning of January.

Most recently, approximately 100 headstones in the Mount Carmel Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia were  vandalized and toppled on Saturday night, only a week after a similar incident occurred at the Chesed Shel Emeth Jewish cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.

“I wish to express my shock and vociferous condemnation of the outbreak of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States, France and other places around the world,” Herzog stated. “I am sure that the US government will do all it can to put an end to this phenomenon with all its might.”

For his part, Vice-President Mike Pence took it upon himself to help clean up the Chesed Shel Emeth cemetery after it was vandalized.  President Donald Trump has referred to the recent jump in anti-Semitic bomb threats against Jewish community centers and institutions across the US as “horrible” and “painful.”

By: Jonathan Benedek, World Israel News

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