Dual loyalties

Sir, – Dan Goldberg’s article “Prisoner X affair raises charges of dual loyalty for Australian Jews” (Jewish World, February 22) resonated with me as an oleh who spent most of his life in Australia.

The dual loyalty accusation is a hurtful and misleading stereotype from which Jews have suffered in many countries.

A person can have and live with many loyalties at one and the same time. As far as countries are concerned, there are two main aspects – political loyalty and cultural loyalty.

One can have a political involvement in one country and at the same time a passionate cultural affinity to another. They don’t have to conflict. RAYMOND APPLE Jerusalem

Sir, – With regard to “Six new MKs to renounce foreign citizenships” ( January 27), my wife and I made aliya in 2001 and we decided soon afterward to renounce the citizenships of our home countries – my wife’s was Germany and mine was the US.

The reason was primarily spiritual. We recognized in the depth of our souls that we had come home, and when we realized that there were some seven million Jews in Israel who in difficult times would never have the option to leave and go some place safer and easier to live, we decided we didn’t want to have that choice either. So we made the choice before there was a choice to make.

Most likely there will come a time when all those with dual citizenship will have to decide to which side they ultimately will be loyal. Is there any competition? I renounced my US citizenship with joy, as did my wife her German citizenship. We proudly have only Israeli passports and, like any other Israeli, have to obtain visas to be able to go to the US to visit our children.

My purpose in writing this is to encourage others with dual citizenship to make the decision to become Israeli to the exclusion of all other nationalities. God chose a people, then chose a home for that people. Show your loyalty to God by “undividing” your loyalties. YERIEL EVEN-PINAH Beit Nekofa