Celebrating Yom Aliyah Day

Last year I celebrated Yom Aliyah Day by officially performing stand up for the first time, something I could cross of my "bucket list." This year my husband and I attended a Betar-Likud event to which immigrants/olim from all over the world were invited.

photo taken by Yisrael Medad, from Betar blog

It was in a Netanya hotel, and I found us places to sit at a table that had a sign saying "English" on it. Other tables had Spanish and French signs. We ended up sitting with some old friends from American Betar and our shlichut, youth work job in London.

We enjoyed the rendition of Betar songs by the young band that performed. And, of course, it was nice to get together with old friends. Not everyone at our table knew enough Hebrew to understand the speeches, which was a shame. There should have been some multilingual greetings to make them feel truly welcome.

Many of my closest friends here in Israel are olim, immigrants. We come from wide and varied backgrounds. Everyone contributes to the flavor of life in Israel, like the holy Biblical ketoret, which was a combination of a wide variety of "fragrances," some ingredients being very bitter on their own. But mixed in the recipe that Gd instructed, they combined into something exquisite. That is our life here in Israel, Israeli society.

We feel very privileged to be in this wonderful time, when we see the fulfilment of Gd's promises to the Jewish People. I have no doubt that things will get even better. Jews, join us for your own sake, לך לך, Come to the Holy Land to live with us.

All except one, photos by me, Batya Medad