Why Have Jews Migrated and Assimilated?

Yemenite Jews walking through a desert, near Aden, before being airlifted to Israel, November 1949. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

There are very different reasons why Jews have always migrated, and many have assimilated. When we feel insecure, some of us just sit the crisis out. Others just move on to more welcoming or financially more promising situations. The present is no different, but here are two examples from the past.

In 1985, I became the rabbi of the Western synagogue off the Finchley Road in Central London.