Olim L'Berlin

Last updated
Milky pudding in different flavors Milky (pudding).JPG
Milky pudding in different flavors

Olim L'Berlin (Hebrew: עולים לברלין‎, lit. "Let's Ascend to Berlin" but more idiomatically "Let's Move to Berlin," also known as the Milky protest) was the name of a Facebook page that coined a snowclone in 2014, and was terminated in early 2015. Comparing the high cost of living in Israel with the comparatively cheaper economic climate in Berlin, which has a growing community of Israeli expatriates, the page urged more Israelis to move to Germany, raising a storm of protest in Israeli social and political circles. Compounding the reaction was the Facebook page's use of the same verb (olim) that Jews use for aliyah (immigration to Israel).

Contents

The Facebook page based its cost-of-living comparison on the price of grocery items in Israel and Germany, among them a pudding dessert similar to the popular Israeli pudding known as Milky. The grocery bill was found to be three times higher in Israel than in Germany. The Facebook page and subsequent public debate became known as the "Battle of the Milky" (הקרב על המילקי‎) in Israel, or "Milky Protest" in international media.

Background

Milky pudding, based on a former Danone product and produced by Strauss, is one of the best-known and best-selling dessert products in Israel. [1] [2] The chocolate-flavored Milky was introduced in 1979, followed by the vanilla-flavored version in 1980. [1] In 1986, a video commercial called "Battle of the Milky" (הקרב על המילקי‎) was released in cinemas, showing supermarket customers racing each other down the aisle to grab the last chocolate-flavored Milky off the shelf. [1] [3] Evoking the cottage cheese protests in Israel in 2011, the Facebook site owner chose the popular Milky pudding as a new symbol of protest against Israel's high consumer prices, calling for Israelis to emigrate to Berlin to enjoy a lower cost of living. [2]

Berlin is known as a "cheap and shabby-chic" city with a lower cost of living than Israel [4] and a growing population of Israeli expatriates. [5] It is among the cities that now attract "the type who made Tel Aviv cool" – young, single, and often female graduates; artists, filmmakers, musicians, and other members of the creative class. [6] [7] According to unofficial estimates, between 3,000 and 20,000 young Israelis and Western European Jews relocated to Berlin between 2009 and 2014; [8] an estimated 25,000 Israelis were residents of the city in 2014. [9]

Controversy

On September 29, 2014, a Hebrew-language Facebook page called Olim L'Berlin was launched by an anonymous site owner. [4] [5] On October 5, the page showed a picture of a Berlin supermarket [10] receipt for a variety of products, including bread, eggs, noodles, orange juice, and three containers of a chocolate pudding dessert. Beside it was a picture of a Milky-like chocolate pudding product topped with whipped cream. [9] The site challenged Israelis to buy exactly the same list of groceries in Israel for less. [9] The pudding alone cost the equivalent of 1 shekel in Germany, as opposed to 4 or 5 shekels in Israel. [10] The equivalent grocery bill was found to be three times higher in Israel than in Germany. [6] [10]

Besides reminding Israelis of the high cost of living in their country, the name of the Facebook page was a distortion of the Zionist ideal of aliyah, using the same verb (olim) to suggest emigration to Germany instead. Finance Minister Yair Lapid called the owner of the site "anti-Zionist". [9] The fact that Germany was chosen as the destination struck a raw nerve across the social and political spectrum, considering Israel's founding in 1948 in the wake of the Holocaust, [11] its large population of Holocaust survivors, and the many citizens who still refuse to buy products made in Germany. [12] "Are the gas chambers in Berlin also cheaper than here?" one visitor posted to the Facebook page. [11] Israel HaYom branded the Facebook page as "an insult to all Holocaust survivors". [6] Agriculture Minister Yair Shamir stated, "I pity the Israelis who no longer remember the Holocaust and abandoned Israel for a pudding". [4]

The Facebook page garnered 13,000 likes within hours of its posting [10] and reached 1 million hits within four days. [9] The so-called "Milky Protest" was widely covered by international media. [5] [9] [13] [14] [15] The site owner refused to reveal his identity or to be interviewed by the Israeli press; he was known only as a 25-year-old Israeli and ex-IDF officer living in Berlin. [16]

Five days after the page went live, the site owner claimed he had received 12,000 messages from Israelis and was actively advising Israelis how to emigrate. [9] He told Channel 2 that he had petitioned German Chancellor Angela Merkel to issue 25,000 temporary visas to accommodate Israelis looking for work in Germany. [17] From his home in Berlin, he organized an "emigration fair" in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on October 14, 2014. Though 2,300 people registered on the Facebook page to attend, fewer than 100 participants showed up. [16]

On October 14, 2015 The Washington Post revealed that the site owner was Naor Narkis, a 25-year-old former officer of the Intelligence Corps and a freelance mobile app designer living in Berlin. [4] Narkis had first emigrated to France five months earlier, but was put off by strains of antisemitism and the high cost of living in Paris. He found much less antisemitism in Germany and a more welcoming atmosphere for Israelis there, as well as the "cheap and cool" factor of Berlin. [4] He claimed that the high cost of living in Israel was "forcing young people into exile". [4]

By October 26, The Jerusalem Post had reported that Narkis planned to return to Israel, saying that his Facebook protest had become "less effective" since he revealed his identity, [18] and that the site would be taken down upon his return to Israel. [19]

Other responses

In a play on the original page, other Olim L'... Facebook pages sprang up to provide destinations for emigrating Israelis, including Olim L'Prague , Olim L'Detroit , and Olim L'Maadim (Hebrew name for Mars). [5] Like the original page, these groups were mocked by Right-wing Zionists as Post-Zionism, which harmed their potential popularity.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demographics of Israel</span>

The demographics of Israel, monitored by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, encompass various attributes that define the nation's populace. Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has witnessed significant changes in its demographics. Formed as a homeland for the Jewish people, Israel has attracted Jewish immigrants from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tel Aviv</span> City in Israel

Tel Aviv-Yafo, sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a population of 474,530, it is the economic and technological center of the country and a global high tech hub. If East Jerusalem is considered part of Israel, Tel Aviv is the country's second-most-populous city, after Jerusalem; if not, Tel Aviv is the most populous city, ahead of West Jerusalem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben Gurion Airport</span> Main international airport of Israel

Ben Gurion International Airport, commonly known by the Hebrew-language acronym Natbag, is the main international airport of Israel. Situated on outskirts north of the city of Lod and directly south of the city of Or Yehuda, it is the busiest airport in the country. It is located 45 kilometres (28 mi) to the northwest of Jerusalem and 20 kilometres (12 mi) to the southeast of Tel Aviv. It was known as Lod Airport until 1973, when it was renamed in honour of David Ben-Gurion (1886–1973), the first prime minister of Israel. The airport serves as a hub for El Al, Israir Airlines, Arkia, and Sun d'Or, and is managed by the Israel Airports Authority.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Israelis</span> Citizens and nationals of Israel

Israelis are the citizens and nationals of the State of Israel. The country's populace is composed primarily of Jews and Arabs, who respectively account for 75 percent and 20 percent of the national figure, followed by other ethnic and religious minorities, who account for 5 percent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holon</span> City in Israel

Holon is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located south of Tel Aviv. Holon is part of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. In 2022 it had a population of 197,957, making it the tenth most populous city in Israel. Holon has the second-largest industrial zone in Israel, after Haifa. Its jurisdiction is 19,200 dunams and its population is about 194,273 residents as of 2018 according to CBS data.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramat HaSharon</span> City in Israel

Ramat HaSharon is an affluent city located on Israel's central coastal strip in the south of the Sharon region, bordering the cities of Tel Aviv to the south, Hod-HaSharon to the east, and Herzliya and kibbutz Glil Yam to the north. It is part of the Tel Aviv District, within the Gush Dan metropolitan area. In 2022 Ramamt HaSharon had a population of 48,181m and its citizens are nearly entirely Jewish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yisrael Meir Lau</span> Polish-born Israeli rabbi and Holocaust survivor (b. 1937)

Yisrael (Israel) Meir Lau is a Holocaust survivor who served as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1993 to 2003. He was previously Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, Israel. After his tenure as chief rabbi, he was appointed chairman of Yad Vashem.

Yerida is emigration by Jews from the State of Israel. Yerida is the opposite of aliyah, which is immigration by Jews to Israel. Zionists are generally critical of the act of yerida and the term is somewhat derogatory. The emigration of non-Jewish Israelis is not included in the term.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Milky (pudding)</span> Israeli dairy product

Milky is a dairy pudding produced in Israel by the Strauss Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tel Aviv–Jerusalem railway</span> Railway line in Israel

The Tel Aviv–Jerusalem railway is a railway line in Israel connecting the cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The line serves as the main rail link between the two cities, complementing the old Jaffa–Jerusalem railway. As such, the railway is often referred to in Israel as the high-speed railway to Jerusalem to distinguish it from the older, longer and slower line. In spite of that name, the line is not high-speed under the definition used by the International Union of Railways: both its design speed of 200 km/h (125 mph) and its current operational speed of 160 km/h (99 mph) are below the 250 km/h (155 mph) threshold used by the UIC to define high-speed railways, and it is traversed by IR's regular rolling stock instead of the UIC requirement for specially-designed high-speed trains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arieh Sharon</span> Israeli architect

Arieh Sharon was an Israeli architect and winner of the Israel Prize for Architecture in 1962. Sharon was a critical contributor to the early architecture in Israel and the leader of the first master plan of the young state, reporting to then Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion. Sharon studied at the Bauhaus in Dessau under Walter Gropius and Hannes Meyer and on his return to Israel in 1931, started building in the International Style, better known locally as the Bauhaus style of Tel Aviv. Sharon built private houses, cinemas and in 1937 his first hospital, a field in which he specialized in his later career, planning and constructing many of the country's largest medical centers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sigalit Landau</span> Israeli sculptor, video and installation artist

Sigalit Landau is an Israeli sculptor, video and installation artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yitzhak Baer</span> German-Israeli historian (1888–1980)

Yitzhak Baer was a German-Israeli historian and an expert on medieval Spanish Jewish history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African immigration to Israel</span> Movement from Africa to Israel of people that are not natives or Israeli citizens

African immigration to Israel is the international movement to Israel from Africa of people that are not natives or do not possess Israeli citizenship in order to settle or reside there. This phenomenon began in the second half of the 2000s, when a large number of people from Africa entered Israel, mainly through the then-lightly fenced border between Israel and Egypt in the Sinai Peninsula. According to the data of the Israeli Interior Ministry, 26,635 people arrived illegally in this way by July 2010, and over 55,000 by January 2012. In an attempt to curb the influx, Israel constructed the Egypt–Israel barrier. Since its completion in December 2013, the barrier has almost completely stopped the immigration of Africans into Israel across the Sinai border.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tel Aviv Branch Office of the Embassy of the United States</span> United States embassy branch located in Tel Aviv, Israel

The Branch Office of the Embassy of the United States of America in Tel Aviv is part of the diplomatic mission of the United States in the State of Israel. The complex opened in 1966, and is located at 71 HaYarkon Street in Tel Aviv. It served as the United States Embassy until May 14, 2018, when the seat of embassy was relocated to Jerusalem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2011 Israeli social justice protests</span> Also known as J14 protests

The 2011 Israeli social justice protests, which are also referred to by various other names in the media, were a series of demonstrations in Israel beginning in July 2011 involving hundreds of thousands of protesters from a variety of socio-economic and religious backgrounds opposing the continuing rise in the cost of living and the deterioration of public services such as health and education. A common rallying cry at the demonstrations was the chant; "The people demand social justice!".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manuel Trajtenberg</span> Israeli economist (born 1950)

Prof. Manuel Trajtenberg is an Israeli economist who was the chair of the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Council for Higher Education in Israel. He was appointed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in August 2011 to lead a committee for negotiations with the Israeli protesters and for recommending economic measures to overcome the crisis. He is currently the Executive Director of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS).

The following is a chronological summary of the major events that have been taking place during the 2011 Israeli social justice protests.

Boris Lekar, was a multidisciplinary artist, considered by critics as one of the exceptional artists of the Soviet emigration to Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Am Yisrael Foundation</span> Israeli non-profit pro-Zionist organization

Am Yisrael Foundation is a Tel Aviv and New York–based foundation and umbrella nonprofit organization for a variety of initiatives that promote Zionist engagement among Jewish young adults residing in Israel, including providing leadership platforms for young Jews who have made Aliyah, or are contemplating immigration to Israel.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Yefet, Orna (22 April 2008). "We were (almost) there first". Ynetnews . Archived from the original on 23 December 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  2. 1 2 "The Milky Way". The Jerusalem Post. 6 October 2014. Archived from the original on 23 December 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  3. ↑ Collins, Liat (26 June 2011). "Milking a Crisis". The Jerusalem Post . Archived from the original on 29 March 2015. Retrieved 22 December 2014.(subscription required)
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Faiola, Anthony (17 October 2014). "'Pudding Man' who left Israel for Germany reveals his identity". The Washington Post . Archived from the original on 30 July 2015. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Rudoren, Jodi (16 October 2014). "In Exodus From Israel to Germany, a Young Nation's Fissures Show". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 23 December 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 "Next year in Berlin: Some Israelis yearn for new lives in Germany". The Economist . 11 October 2014. Archived from the original on 24 October 2017. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  7. ↑ Hagin, Adi (16 September 2011). "Why are Israelis Moving to Germany?". Haaretz . Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  8. ↑ Faiola, Anthony; Eglash, Ruth (21 October 2014). "Waves of young Israelis find a home in the former Nazi capital". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 27 August 2019. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Salloum, Raniah (10 October 2014). "An Israeli in Berlin: The Chocolate Pudding Exodus". Der Spiegel . Archived from the original on 13 October 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  10. 1 2 3 4 "From Tel Aviv to Berlin: Social media takes notice of Israeli supermarket prices, again". The Jerusalem Post. 6 October 2014. Archived from the original on 26 December 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  11. 1 2 Schofield, Michael (27 October 2014). "Israeli's praise of life in Germany sets off fury on Facebook". McClatchy DC . Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  12. ↑ Heller, Aron; Grieshaber, Kirsten (18 October 2014). "Berlin exodus campaign sparks outrage in Israel". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 23 December 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  13. ↑ Goldmann, Ayala (8 October 2014). "Billig in Berlin" [Cheap in Berlin]. Jüdische Allgemeine (in German). Archived from the original on 28 December 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  14. ↑ Molinari, Maurizio (11 October 2014). "Appello su Facebook: 'Berlino più economica di Tel Aviv, immigriamo'" [Appeals on Facebook: Berlin cheaper than Tel Aviv; immigrate]. La Stampa (in Italian). Archived from the original on 2 December 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  15. ↑ "Teurer Schokopudding treibt Israelis nach Berlin" [More expensive chocolate pudding drives Israelis to Berlin]. Israel Heute (in German). 10 October 2014. Archived from the original on 19 October 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  16. 1 2 Harkov, Lahav (15 October 2014). "Low turnout at 'Berlin' protest in Tel Aviv over high cost of living". The Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on 29 March 2015. Retrieved 22 December 2014.(subscription required)
  17. ↑ "Israeli expats in Berlin appeal to Merkel for help in facilitating 'aliyah' to Germany". The Jerusalem Post. 10 October 2014. Archived from the original on 27 December 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  18. ↑ Harkov, Lahav (26 October 2014). "'Milky Protest' leader in Berlin moving back to Israel". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  19. ↑ Dekel, Irit (3 December 2014). "Israelis in Berlin and the Elephant in the Room". The New School for Social Research. Archived from the original on 19 February 2015. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.