You've probably seen reports like this one, about how Germany's Jewish population is on the rise. What is more interesting to me is why these people are going to Germany, although in Jerry Seinfeld's words - "not that there's anything wrong with that".

The article says that many are fleeing from the Ukraine, Russia, etc. and going to Germany because it's close. If that were indeed the case, what makes these immigrants so different from those of 100 years ago like my great-grandparents who took an enormously more difficult trip to the U.S.? I'm assuming that it's because German immigration policies are much more open than our own nowadays. Based on recent reports, it seems that we here could use an influx of immigrants to bolster the American Jewish community.

It is also a sad commentary on the situation in Israel that having decided to leave their home country, many Jews prefer the colder climate of Europe to the balmy Mediterranean. I would like to think that if I ever felt that I had to leave the United States that Israel would be my principal option. Then again, the U.S. isn't the Ukraine where I'm sure almost anywhere else would make for a better life.

Then again, maybe there is hope for the Ukraine. I just read that a Holocaust Museum and Jewish Education Center is to be built there.

In any case, good luck to them all.