Aliyah, 48 Years Since We Docked in Haifa Port

Today is the 4th of the Jewish Month of Elul. Forty-eight years ago, Saturday night after Shabbat, September 5, 1970, we docked in Haifa Port as olim chadashim, new immigrants to Israel.

Yes, the title is correct. My husband and I did not fly to Israel as we made aliyah; we had a leisurely, enjoyable two week trip by ship. I can't really call it luxurious, because the cabin we were assigned to not only didn't have a porthole to see the view, but it had bunk beds.

For entertainment there was a movie every night, though as I remember, the second week was a repetition of the first. And the last two weeknights there was live entertainment. One night the Greek staff put on a show, and the second night a bunch of us "Israelis" provided a show of Israeli Folk Songs and Folk Dance. My husband and I were featured entertainers.  There were three kosher meals a day; I don't remember any snacks.

The boat was Greek Line, Annamarie, with which the Jewish Agency had an arrangement for new immigrants and a kosher kitchen which most of us required. So many people requested kosher food that the smaller "kosher dining room" wasn't large enough, so quite a number of tables in the regular dining room was sectioned off as kosher for the rest of us. We had assigned tables, and there were two "sittings," first and second for meals. We ate at the early one.

During the day we'd wander around the ship, and the last week we rehearsed for the show. The economy/tourist section we were in was nothing like the television series Love Boat. It's a good thing that show postdated our trip, or I would have been disappointed for sure.

Twice we docked for tours at foreign ports, Lisbon and Piraeus. Maybe I shouldn't call them  tours. We just wandered around; there was no organized tour with a guide. You can hear my story by clicking.

According to halacha, Jewish Law, it is permitted to sail/travel by boat on Shabbat, as long as the trip begins before and ends afterwards. Our trip by ship from New York to Haifa, Israel got us close to Israel while it was still Shabbat, so the boat had to float/waste time until Shabbat was over before docking.

After Havdala all of the Sabbath Observers rushed to our rooms to finalize packing and then go where the Jewish Agency staff was waiting to handle the bureaucracy/paperwork. There were also journalists who considered our mass aliyah of over four hundred American Jews at one time to be newsworthy. The founding garin, settlement group, to Neve Ilan was among the 400+.

Somehow we were allowed to leave the ship, found a couple of friends who had been waiting to greet us at the port, and we all got onto a bus to Jerusalem. I remember most people sleeping on the bus, but not me. I looked out at the amazing stars up above us trying to recognize constellations.

And that's how our life in Israel began... just forty-eight 48 years ago... thank Gd. And Gd willing we will continue to enjoy life until 120....

hanging laundry in our first Israeli home, Maon Betar, Plugat Hakotel, Old City Jerusalem, September, 1970

Singing Naomi Shemer in Shiloh

Naomi Shemer, 1930 - 2004, was one of the greatest, if not the greatest Hebrew songwriters ever. Many of her songs are classics, including the iconic "Jerusalem of Gold," which has been proposed to replace Hatikva as the National Anthem of the State of Israel.

Well before my Hebrew was fluent, or even passable, I sang and danced to her songs. Unlike most modern music, Shemer's tunes are very easy to follow. And now that my Hebrew has improved over the decades, I can now appreciate the beauty of her Hebrew. That was one of the great unexpected bonuses from last night's Naomi Shemer Singalong, which I attended. For the first time I really looked at her lyrics and understood more than the superficial. Some are like prayers. She mentions Gd quite a bit, asking Him to intercede.

My first awareness that there was a composer-songwriter named Naomi Shemer was in 1967, when her song "Jerusalem of Gold" became an international hit. And a few years later, when I was an olah chadasha, new immigrant in Israel. we learned a few of her songs in ulpan, the Hebrew immersion course I took.

The Naomi Shemer Singalong was advertised as a 50+ social/cultural event, but it attracted younger neighbors, too. I suddenly noticed that among the attendees were neighbors who had taught my children Naomi Shemer songs, my children's classmates and my own former students.

We sang from modern versions of the "slides," from way back when.

אנשים טובים Anashim Tovim, Good People

I was surprised to discover that a song I used to dance to in New York, מחר Machar, Tomorrow is a Naomi Shemer song. It's one of the dances I remember dancing down Fifth Avenue at a Salute to Israel Parade.

There's no doubt in my mind that Naomi Shemer's songs are far superior in every way to modern music. Last night as I sang along with my neighbors, I really wanted to dance, too.

Memories of Salute to Israel Parade, NY, 1970

We've been pulling out old albums of late, and found these irreplaceable photos.

They are from the Salute to Israel Parade. Marching are members of the NCSY Dance Group which had performed in Felt Forum, Madison Square Garden that year. I was group leader. It was the first time the Israeli Folk Dance Festival had performed there.

Previously it had been in Carnegie Hall, which has, or had, an ambience all its own. But festival director, Fred Berk had been itching for a more genuine folk dance festival feeling. He hated the stage and curtains in the illustrious concert hall. When I took his Leadership and Choreography course in 1967-68, he always stressed that true folk dance required dancing onto the performance area and dancing off of it. NO CURTAINS raised and lowered.

At the 1970 festival we all sat around the performance area, getting up to dance on and off when it was our group's turn. Then at the very end of the show, all of the groups and dancers danced together in separate circles.

A couple of months later, at the parade, my dancers and I donned our costumes and danced up Fifth Avenue. We had sewn the skirts the year before for the 1969 festival, but then we added white trim on the bottom plus the "belts" in 1970. And we wore our own white blouses. For the festivals, we danced barefoot, but of course that wouldn't work on the NYC streets.

In 1970, NCSY was given a spot near the beginning of the parade, and Betar was towards the end. So, after dancing the entire way to the end, I quickly, literally ran back down Fifth Avenue to join Betar and march again. Being just a spectator was not for me.

Who else was at that parade?

Salute to Israel Parade, Memories

Today in New York there will be the Salute to Israel Parade.  Just the name of it brings back such vivid memories.  I marched and danced at/with/in all the early parades from the first until 1970.  There were years I did it twice, rushing back to the start off.  First I marched/danced with NCSY and then I'd march with Betar.  I had such energy then.

There's only one picture I have of myself participating in the Salute to Israel Parade. It's the one that the Jewish Agency used in its poster to advertise the following year's parade.

Can you guess which dancer is me?  I'm still very close friends with the friend I had danced with then.  She also lives in Israel, not far from me.  We even sometimes take the same Bible classes.

Just recently she confided that it was the Israeli folk dancing which I had gotten her involved that brought her to Zionism and Israel.  We were privileged to represent NCSY in the Fred Berk Leadership and Choreography Course, 1967-68, which was held in the 92nd Street Y each year.  The following year we led the NCSY Dance Group in the big Folk Dance Festival that Fred was in charge of.

When I look back on my life, these events were definite highlights. All of the young Zionist activists took part in one way or another. We got to know each other in person.  In those days there weren't any cellphones or computers, internet etc.  If you corresponded you used paper and stamps.  Even phone calls were expensive.  There weren't any security concerns.  Terrorism was unheard of.  It was truly a great time to be growing up in.

I was a young high school student when the parade first began.  I traveled to the city with friends from my NCSY chapter of the Great Neck Synagogue. They were all older than me and possibly I was the only girl in the group.  They also knew their way around Manhattan and navigated, finding where we started to march.  And when it was over, they made sure I got home safely.

Almost fifty years later, Jews from all over are still marching in the parade, which makes me very happy.  Enjoy!  But remember, marching in the Salute to Israel Parade isn't a substitute for making aliyah and living in Israel. 

The message of this week's Parshat Shavua, Torah Portion of the Week is that you're not supposed to think of the pros, cons and difficulties.  Just come here and live in the Land G-d promised us.