Hamas War

Thursday, March 8, 2018

Life in Israel: Once an Oleh, Always an Oleh?

The other evening I joined a few dozen olim, ascendants/immigrants to Israel, mostly from English-speaking countries, some recently arrived and others here for about half a century. Actually, at my table we probably had the highest sum total of years in Israel. One friend has already celebrated fifty years since her aliyah. My half century is just a year and a half from now, and my other friend came not all that long after I did. Some of the audience only made aliyah after retiring in order to fully enjoy their freedom from work and to fulfill the dream of living in the Jewish State of Israel, the Land of the Jewish People.

Benji Lovitt, Joel Haber, Hani Skutch and Liami Lawrence entertaining Anglos of South Jerusalem.
About a hundred years ago, my grandparents, great-grandparents and others, who had escaped eastern Europe and moved to the United States had been active in landsmanshaft, clubs/societies of those who came from the same towns, cities or areas. My father's parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and even some cousins are buried in the Neshelsk Cemetery in New York. Nasielsk, Poland, near Warsaw was the city they came from. And I remember hearing how excited my two grandmothers were to discover that they were both from the same city in Belarus, Rogotshov. My father's mother confirmed this in a way, when she told me that my coloring is like my other grandmother. She remembered seeing her in Rogatshov as a young woman.

All of the comedians at the event based their routines on the immigrant experience, which is natural, since we all have it in common. My friends and I see a big difference between our aliyot to Israel way back when and that of many of the newcomers, but we still all laughed at the jokes. I guess that's because you do need a good healthy sense of humor to adjust to the differences we've encountered and enjoy our lives. Baruch Hashem, Bless the Lord, we are so happy we came to Israel to live and just can't imagine living anyplace else!

4 comments:

Moriah said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Praying that every Jewish neshamah has the zechut of coming home to Eretz Yisrael in simcha and ease and to appreciate the magnitude of that blessing and to live the Jewish Torah life in G-D's Holy E.Y., His gift to His children, Yisrael!

Batya said...

amen, amen

Mr. Cohen said...

Why do many nations attempt to take the
Land of Israel, especially Jerusalem,
away from Jews? The answers are found
in the Jewish Bible, known as the
Tanach in Hebrew and the “O.T.”
(Only Testament) in English:

[1] In the Biblical Book of Joshua
chapter 23, verses 12 to 13), G_d Himself
warns that intermarriage with non-Jews
will cause the Jews to fail in their attempt
to conquer the Land of Israel.

Even worse, G_d also warns that intermarriage
with non-Jews will cause the Jews to be
pushed-out-of the Land of Israel.

[2] In the Biblical Book of Jeremiah
(end of chapter 17), the prophet warns that
Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem depends on
Jews observing Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath.

[3] The Biblical Book of Tehillim
[Psalms in English] (chapter 105, last 2 verses)
teaches that G_d gave the Land of Israel to Jews
because He wants Jews to carefully obey His
commandments [chukav]. Given this verse,
what will happen to Jewish control of the Land
of Israel, if Jews fail to obey His commandments?

[4] The Biblical Book of Zachariah (chapter 14)
warns that one day, ALL the nations of the world will
attack Jerusalem. Based on my personal reading of
those verses [which could be 100% wrong], and focusing
on the word "HALF", it seems to me that their goal
will be to take HALF-of-Jerusalem from the Jews,
so it can become the capital of the world’s 58th
Muslim nation [because 57 Muslim countries in the
world is not enough to satisfy Muslims].

How intermarriage harms
Jewish sovereignty over the Land of Israel
:

http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/11/guest-post-joshua-chapter-23-verse-12.html

How Shabbat-desecration harms
Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem:

https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/12/guest-post-jeremiah-chapter-17.html