Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on June 18, 2021

What makes us move to Israel? Love, need, fate?Its a subject Im exploring these days while the Jewish world seems fractured between those who are proud of or angry at our Jewish state.The answer isnt obvious.I know folks who grew up without knowing who Theodor Herzl or David Ben-Gurion are, who didnt know the difference between Tu Bshvat and Lag Bomer (and didnt care), who came to Israel on a fluke because someone told them volunteering on a kibbutz was a cheap way of travel. Nonetheless, they wound up making aliyah and becoming devoted Israelis.On the other hand, there are others who grew up loving Israel but never moved here. Decades ago, I had a job selling tax-free goods to new immigrants in the Murray Greenfield Agency in Jerusalem. We helped newcomers wisely choose everything from toasters to vehicles. There were intriguing products: clothes dryers that also heated small apartments and twin beds that zipped together. Id already been working there for several years when a luminary of my own Zionist youth movement came into our office while finally making aliyah. I sold him a Peugeot sedan. For whatever reason, he and his family didnt wind up staying.I like to recall my own epiphany: that moment when I knew I would live in Israel. I was a high school senior, just turned 18, on a Young Judaea study weekend, challenged by the Israeli emissary near Connecticuts Salmon River with its covered bridge. But that decision didnt happen in a vacuum. Id already been active in Young Judaea since I was 10 and I grew up in a home where my mother ordered any Book-of-the-Month Club selections with a Jewish theme. My father redirected our summer vacation money to the emergency funds for the Six Day War. They didnt object to my moving to Israel, indeed they came after me, as did my sister.I RECENTLY learned of the Gold family, former Americans who gathered at Kibbutz Nir Etzion south of Haifa for the four-day Shabbat-Shavuot weekend. The fragile ceasefire of Operation Guardian of the Walls had just been announced. They didnt have to worry about airports closing because nearly all 270 cousins live in Israel. A gold standard for aliyah.

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'A gold standard for aliyah' Zionism in the face of Israel-hatred today - The Jerusalem Post

Category: Zionism
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