Sharon invites US Jews to make aliyah

Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon has said American Jewish immigration was vital for Israel’s survival as a Jewish homeland. “The first step to ensuring a Jewish majority is aliyah – widespread and broad aliyah from the entire Jewish Diaspora, and particularly from North America. Aliyah ensures not only the future of the State of Israel, but also the future of the Jewish people,” the prime minister said in a speech to the Jewish Agency for Israel’s general assembly in Jerusalem on Tuesday. In the past, Sharon has called for 1 million Jews to move from the United States to Israel. But some experts do not share his optimism. “I don’t see those numbers now, but I think we ought to take a positive approach and do what we can to help people come, not because they are running from something but they are running to something,” Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told Israel’s Army Radio.