''Olim L'Berlin'' (Hebrew: , lit. "Let's Ascend to Berlin" but more accurately "Let's Move to Berlin," also known as the Milky protest) was the name of a

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

page that coined a

snowclone A snowclone is a cliché and phrasal template that can be used and recognized in multiple variants. The term was coined as a neologism in 2004, derived from Journalese, journalistic clichés that referred to the number of Inuit words for snow. H ...

in 2014, and was terminated in early 2015. Comparing the high cost of living in Israel with the comparatively cheaper economic climate in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, 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 Aliyah (, ; he, עֲלִיָּה ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from Jewish diaspora, the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel, which is in the modern era chiefly represented by the Israel, State of Israel ...

(immigration to Israel). 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

Background

Milky Milky is an Italian dance music production group consisting of producers Giordano Trivellato and Giuliano Sacchetto, with Italian singer Giuditta serving as their lead singer on their album ''Star''.Danone Danone S.A. () is a French multinational corporation, multinational food-products corporation based in Paris. It was founded in Barcelona, Spain. It is listed on Euronext Paris where it is a component of the CAC 40 stock market index. Some of t ...

product and produced by

Strauss Strauss, Strauß or Straus is a common Germanic surname. Outside Germany and Austria ''Strauß'' is always spelled ''Strauss'' (the letter " ß" is not used in the German-speaking part of Switzerland). In classical music, "Strauss" usually ref ...

, is one of the best-known and best-selling dessert products in Israel. The chocolate-flavored Milky was introduced in 1979, followed by the vanilla-flavored version in 1980. In 1986, a video commercial called "Battle of the Milky" () was released in cinemas, showing supermarket customers racing each other down the aisle to grab the last chocolate-flavored Milky off the shelf. 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. Berlin is known as a "cheap and shabby-chic" city with a lower cost of living than Israel and a growing population of Israeli expatriates. 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 The creative class is the posit of American urban studies theorist Richard Florida for an ostensible socioeconomic class. Florida, a professor and head of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management at the University of To ...

. According to unofficial estimates, between 3,000 and 20,000 young Israelis and Western European Jews relocated to Berlin between 2009 and 2014; an estimated 25,000 Israelis were residents of the city in 2014.

Controversy

On September 29, 2014, a Hebrew-language Facebook page called ''Olim L'Berlin'' was launched by an anonymous site owner. On October 5, the page showed a picture of a Berlin supermarket 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. The site challenged Israelis to buy exactly the same list of groceries in Israel for less. The pudding alone cost the equivalent of 1

shekel Shekel or sheqel ( akk, 𒅆𒅗𒇻 ''šiqlu'' or ''siqlu,'' he, שקל, plural he, שקלים or shekels, Phoenician: ) is an ancient Mesopotamian coin, usually of silver. A shekel was first a unit of weight—very roughly —and became c ...

in Germany, as opposed to 4 or 5 shekels in Israel. The equivalent grocery bill was found to be three times higher in Israel than in Germany. 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

, using the same verb (''olim'') to suggest emigration to Germany instead.

Finance Minister A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

Yair Lapid Yair Lapid ( he, יָאִיר לַפִּיד, transliterated: , ; born 5 November 1963) is an Israeli politician and former journalist who has been serving as the 14th prime minister of Israel since 1 July 2022. He previously served as the alt ...

called the owner of the site "anti-Zionist". 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 The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

, its large population of Holocaust survivors, and the many citizens who still refuse to buy products made in Germany. "Are the gas chambers in Berlin also cheaper than here?" one visitor posted to the Facebook page. ''

Israel HaYom ''Israel Hayom'' ( he, יִשְׂרָאֵל הַיּוֹם, lit=Israel Today) is an Israeli national Hebrew-language free daily newspaper. First published in 2007, ''Israel Hayom'' is Israel's most widely distributed newspaper. Owned by the fam ...

'' branded the Facebook page as "an insult to all Holocaust survivors".

Agriculture Minister An agriculture ministry (also called an) agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...

Yair Shamir Yair Shamir ( he, יאיר שמיר; born 18 August 1945) is an Israeli politician, businessman and former military officer. He served as a member of the Knesset for Yisrael Beiteinu between 2013 and 2015, during which he also held the post of M ...

stated, "I pity the Israelis who no longer remember the Holocaust and abandoned Israel for a pudding". The Facebook page garnered 13,000 likes within hours of its posting and reached 1 million hits within four days. The so-called "Milky Protest" was widely covered by international media. 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 IDF or idf may refer to: Defence forces * Irish Defence Forces * Israel Defense Forces *Iceland Defense Force, of the US Armed Forces, 1951-2006 * Indian Defence Force, a part-time force, 1917 Organizations * Israeli Diving Federation * Interac ...

officer living in Berlin. 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. He told Channel 2 that he had petitioned German Chancellor

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Oppo ...

to issue 25,000 temporary visas to accommodate Israelis looking for work in Germany. From his home in Berlin, he organized an "emigration fair" in

Rabin Square Rabin is a Hebrew surname. It originates from the Hebrew word ''rav'' meaning Rabbi, or from the name of the specific Rabbi Abin. The most well known bearer of the name was Yitzhak Rabin, prime minister of Israel and Nobel Peace prize Laureate. ...

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

on October 14, 2014. Though 2,300 people registered on the Facebook page to attend, fewer than 100 participants showed up. On October 14th 2015 ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' 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. Narkis had first emigrated to France five months earlier, but was put off by strains of

antisemitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

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. He claimed that the high cost of living in Israel was "forcing young people into exile". By October 26, ''

The Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Jerusalem Post''. In 2004, the paper w ...

'' had reported that Narkis planned to return to Israel, saying that his Facebook protest had become "less effective" since he revealed his identity, and that the site would be taken down upon his return to Israel.

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 Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

'', ''Olim L'

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

'', and ''Olim L'Maadim (Hebrew name for

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

)''. Like the original page, these groups were mocked by

Right-wing Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...

Zionists Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Jew ...

Post-Zionism Post-Zionism refers to the opinions of some Israelis, diaspora Jews and others, particularly in academia, that Zionism fulfilled its ideological mission with the formation of the modern State of Israel in 1948, and that Zionist ideology should ...

, which harmed their potential popularity.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Olim LeBerlin 2000s neologisms 2014 controversies 2014 in Israel Jewish anti-Zionism in Germany Jewish anti-Zionism in Israel Culture in Berlin Economic problems Jews and Judaism in Israel Judaism in Germany Israeli culture Mottos Neologisms Post-Zionism Protests in Israel Snowclones