Shamir Urges Israeli Expatriates Living in L.A. to Return Home, Help Country

In an impassioned speech that brought tears to the eyes of many of his listeners, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir urged Israeli Jews living in Los Angeles to return to their homeland and work to make their country strong.

Shamir received several standing ovations Sunday from 1,200 people--most of them expatriate Israelis--who crowded into Temple Valley Beth Shalom in Encino.

Speaking in Hebrew, Shamir said his government is working to soften the harsh economic conditions that drove many Israelis to seek a higher standard of living in the United States.

The government has reduced inflation and taxes, developed new jobs, and is creating more opportunities for individual enterprise by reducing its interference in the private sector, the prime minister said to enthusiastic applause.

“We have opened the door to free enterprise. Anyone who is interested in investing and was afraid to do so because of bureaucracy and government interference is now urged to come. We will help him,” Shamir said, punching the air with his fist for emphasis. “Thousands of new jobs and business opportunities will be open for you.”

Israel’s highest income-tax bracket has dropped from 60% to 45% for individuals and from 66% to 48% for businesses, Shamir said. The Israeli consulate has reported that inflation has dropped from 40% per month to 1 1/2% per month.

“I’m not promising you an economic paradise in Israel. If you think only about material conditions, there are better places in the world,” Shamir said. “The most important attraction is that every Jew who comes to Israel has the full opportunity to live a full and complete Jewish life.

“This is a great privilege. Please come home for your own good. Give your resources, your energy. Come and let us help each other to succeed together.”

Dozens of uniformed police officers and plainclothes Secret Service men stood guard around the synagogue and in the sanctuary itself as Shamir spoke. Guests entering the temple were screened by a metal detector.

The speech was part of an Israeli government campaign to entice Israelis home by offering lower air fares, help in finding a job and an apartment, and other economic incentives. American Jews who want to emigrate also are eligible for special help from the Israeli government.

Last year, 14,000 people left Israel and only 12,000 arrived, Israeli officials say. An estimated 50,000 to 75,000 former Israeli residents now live in Los Angeles.

Before leaving, Shamir led the audience in singing “Ha Tikvah,” the Jewish national anthem, which, literally translated, means “the hope.” The words of the song describe how, for 2,000 years, Jews kept up their hope of returning to Zion, the Jewish homeland.

The historic Zionist belief of aliyah holds that the most fervent hope of a Jew striving to lead a rich and full life is to “go up” to Israel.

Many in the audience said they were deeply touched by Shamir’s speech.

“It made me cry,” said Bella Troman, 39, a married mother of three who came to the United States from Israel 20 years ago to join her then-boyfriend. “The minute I saw the prime minister something happened. I couldn’t believe the feeling I had in my heart. I didn’t realize the feelings were so deep.

“In my heart all these years I was thinking about eventually going to Israel. It’s the country of my God,” said Troman, who now lives in a four-bedroom home in Calabasas with her Israeli husband, a salesman. “I like being here but I don’t belong. Hearing this gave me a push to want to go home.”

“We are here economically. Spiritually, we are there,” said Hava Hovitz, 40, a former Israeli living in Canoga Park. “This is not home.”

But like others in the audience, Troman’s husband, Chaim, 35, was cautious. “I want to see what is going to happen. I want to see the change,” he said. “I’ve heard too much of the political garbage. Once I see taxes going down and people making a living without having to go underground, I will come home.”

Steve Schulman, a divorced, 49-year-old American Jewish photographer, said he came to hear Shamir because he plans to emigrate to Israel to help the country and to seek adventure. Schulman said he quit a 15-year job as a photographic supervisor at Hughes Aircraft Co. because he was “burned out.” Early next month, he said, he will leave on a government-sponsored, low-cost weeklong tour of Israel.

Earlier Sunday, Shamir told 2,000 people at the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Holocaust Museum that non-Israeli Jews also should move to Israel and that the intermarriage of Jews and non-Jews constitutes “slow spiritual suicide.”

Shamir came to Los Angeles Friday after meetings in Washington with Administration and congressional officials. His West Coast sojourn ended with an address to Jewish community supporters Sunday night at Sinai Temple in Westwood. He was scheduled to leave for New York today and return to Israel later this week.