Rabbi Ari Abramowitz, a media personality and educator who travels around the world sharing the uplifting truth about Israel,  just released a video in which he urgently calls for American Jews to move to Israel, in fulfillment of the Biblical prophecy about the ingathering of the exiles.  

The 6-minute video is a striking departure  from the type of feel-good about Israel messages Abramowitz and his partner at the Land of Israel Network, Rabbi Jeremy Gimpel usually deliver. The video opens with a montage of clips from televised news stories about anti-Semitic violence in America. Forty-five seconds in, Abramowitz appears on the screen and asks whether the Purim story has relevance for the Jews of the world today.

Abramowitz, an American immigrant himself, connected the self-perception of the Jews of Shushan, the capital of Persia at the time of the Purim story, with the self-perception of Jews in Germany just before the Holocaust and the self-perception of Jews in America today.

With these chilling words, Abramowitz spoke directly to the Jews of America. “To our fellow Jews in America, you are in more danger than any Jews are anywhere else in the world for the simple reason that you don’t feel how much danger you’re truly in.”

In a pleading voice, he said, “I’m sharing this message with you, my fellow Jews around the world, from a place of love. As the Jewish people in the Land of Israel, it is our responsibility to sound an alarm to our Jewish brethren all around the world that it’s time to come home.”

Moments before the end of the Fast of Esther on Wednesday afternoon, Breaking Israel News had a chance to speak with Abramowitz about the decision to make this video. “I felt this for a long time, but only recently has it become so overwhelming that I felt if I didn’t share it, I would have to stand before my Creator at the end of my life and answer for why I remained silent. If you really, really love the Jewish people as I do, this simply needed to be said.”

Addressing himself to the critics who say that it’s also dangerous in Israel, Abramowitz told Breaking Israel News, “There’s a difference between the type of danger in Israel and the danger to Jews outside of Israel. The danger in Israel is from a fifth column and from enemies without.  But the nation within has proven itself to be united. In Israel, you’re in a nation of Jews.”

Abramowitz also answered potential critics who will say that it’s wrong to scare people into making aliyah [immigration to Israel] and that people should come to Israel for something, not because they are running away from something. “It’s wrong to scare people from something that is not endangering them, but if people are in danger, it would be wrong NOT to notify them. I have no ulterior motive. My message comes from a place of love for the Jewish people,” he said.

During a recent speaking tour in the United States, Abramowitz shared this message wherever he spoke. Worryingly, many American Jews were less than receptive. In contrast, Abramowitz reported that, “Some Christian groups were in near-unanimous agreement that the Jews in America are in danger and they don’t see it. A holy Christian I spoke to said I should tell Jews that if anything happened to the Jews in America, the Israel-loving Christians would hide them in their homes.”

In late January, Breaking Israel News published a similar warning from American Jewish leader Lori Palatnik.

You can watch the full video here.