Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered an end to the Israeli Ministry of Absorption’s ad campaign targeting Israeli emigrants (“Yordim”) living overseas.
The campaign appealed to the Israelis to consider the cultural bonds they and their children were losing by living outside of Israel.
Some American Jews felt insulted by the campaign, because they played on Jewish fears of assimilation.
In one of the more powerful ad campaigns, the grandparents in Israel were Skyping with their children and granddaughter in America. In the background of the grandparent’s home was a lit Chanukiah. The grandparents asked the granddaughter what holiday it was, and the granddaughter answered, to everyone’s embarrassment, “Christmas” instead of Chanukah.
Some of the ads have already been taken down from YouTube.