Message #12296

[Sarah]

Julia,

There have always been Jews in the Middle East, in Israel, many never left. And many more have been immigrating to Israel for hundreds of years, even before it became a state. 

As for why the Jews of Europe didn't simply stay there, perhaps you weren't aware that, after World War II, many countries seized Jewish property and not only refused to repatriot them, they murdered them as well. Holocaust survivors returned to Kielce, Poland, for instance, and 37 of them were murdered, 82 wounded on July 4, 1946, which, you'll note, was after World War II was ended. 

Sarah