Shalom and Welcome Home!
My name is Miriam and I was asked by Shoshanah if I would write a posting about our experiences in making Aliyah.
Israel is in the news everyday. We are just a small country surrounded by enemies who want to see our destruction. I fear for my country. Our precious homeland has known many wars in our short 63 years of the modern state. Politics is the most popular discussion topic, every citizen and non citizen has an opinion.
Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people and we must always be the majority. We have to increase our population by many and we have room for every Jew. Aliyah is the only answer.
My husband and I spoke about Aliyah for many years before we finally decided to come home. There was always one reason [excuse] or another why we should wait another year.
The summer before our Aliyah, my son and I came to spend a month in Israel. When we returned to Canada I said to my husband, we must be crazy….our children and grandchildren are in Israel and we are here.
Something is wrong. Our real problem was we both had elderly mothers. We asked our Rav if it was wrong to leave them and he said go and make aliyah.
It took eight months from our first meeting with the shaliach from the Jewish Agency until our aliyah date.
On May 31st, 1994, my husband, son and I made Aliyah and were reunited with our married daughters and our Sabra grandchildren. Both our daughters came to Israel after high school to attend a one year seminary program and decided Israel was their home and never returned to Canada. Today, B”H we have 13 grandchildren, 6 are 10th generation Israeli.
During the past seventeen years our lives have been enriched in many ways. We notice things that we never noticed before, even though they were in front of our face. We have an appreciation for rain. Every drop is a
Bracha.. We appreciate beautiful flowers, fruit trees and amazing birds. We appreciate the quiet. We went through a war and still have air raid sirens to warn us of in coming Grad missiles to our Yishuv [community].
We don’t have any more money than we had in the ‘old country’, [we were always broke] but here we always seem to have enough for what we need. We had two cars in the ‘old country’ we don’t have a car in Israel. We travel by bus or tremp [hitchhike] or just walk.
When you walk the streets of the old city in Jerusalem or Beer Sheva....you know this is where Avraham Avinu walked. I live in Yishuv Ma’agalim [in the Negev] 5 minutes away from where Avraham Avinu lived. Today, where Avraham Avinu pitched his tent to welcome visitors, and his animals grazed is a nature park with a small stream where families go to picnic, hike and just relax. My grandchildren love to go to the ‘forest’. Sometimes if you are lucky and dig down a little in the earth you will find artifacts from Biblical times.
Making Aliyah is a difficult decision. It affects every member of your family. Living in Israel is both a honor and privilege. Yes, you may have to give up the so called ‘good life’, but I can tell you from personal
experience, that even though life in Israel is a struggle the personal satisfaction you receive living in our precious land gives you a much better life.
B”H our Aliyah has been very successful. If I may, I would like to leave you with a piece of advice. Mainly learn to go with the flow. In other words, you live in Israel and in Israel we don’t do things the way it was done in your former country. But most of all have PATIENCE. Israel works at a slower pace than most countries.
Wishing you B’ hatzala [good luck] and may your Aliyah fulfill your every dream. If I can be of assistance or if you want to just ‘talk’ about Aliyah please feel free to e-mail me at saftala@gmail.com
Miriam
http://miriamswords.blogspot.com
Israel is in the news everyday. We are just a small country surrounded by enemies who want to see our destruction. I fear for my country. Our precious homeland has known many wars in our short 63 years of the modern state. Politics is the most popular discussion topic, every citizen and non citizen has an opinion.
Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people and we must always be the majority. We have to increase our population by many and we have room for every Jew. Aliyah is the only answer.
My husband and I spoke about Aliyah for many years before we finally decided to come home. There was always one reason [excuse] or another why we should wait another year.
The summer before our Aliyah, my son and I came to spend a month in Israel. When we returned to Canada I said to my husband, we must be crazy….our children and grandchildren are in Israel and we are here.
Something is wrong. Our real problem was we both had elderly mothers. We asked our Rav if it was wrong to leave them and he said go and make aliyah.
It took eight months from our first meeting with the shaliach from the Jewish Agency until our aliyah date.
On May 31st, 1994, my husband, son and I made Aliyah and were reunited with our married daughters and our Sabra grandchildren. Both our daughters came to Israel after high school to attend a one year seminary program and decided Israel was their home and never returned to Canada. Today, B”H we have 13 grandchildren, 6 are 10th generation Israeli.
During the past seventeen years our lives have been enriched in many ways. We notice things that we never noticed before, even though they were in front of our face. We have an appreciation for rain. Every drop is a
Bracha.. We appreciate beautiful flowers, fruit trees and amazing birds. We appreciate the quiet. We went through a war and still have air raid sirens to warn us of in coming Grad missiles to our Yishuv [community].
We don’t have any more money than we had in the ‘old country’, [we were always broke] but here we always seem to have enough for what we need. We had two cars in the ‘old country’ we don’t have a car in Israel. We travel by bus or tremp [hitchhike] or just walk.
When you walk the streets of the old city in Jerusalem or Beer Sheva....you know this is where Avraham Avinu walked. I live in Yishuv Ma’agalim [in the Negev] 5 minutes away from where Avraham Avinu lived. Today, where Avraham Avinu pitched his tent to welcome visitors, and his animals grazed is a nature park with a small stream where families go to picnic, hike and just relax. My grandchildren love to go to the ‘forest’. Sometimes if you are lucky and dig down a little in the earth you will find artifacts from Biblical times.
Making Aliyah is a difficult decision. It affects every member of your family. Living in Israel is both a honor and privilege. Yes, you may have to give up the so called ‘good life’, but I can tell you from personal
experience, that even though life in Israel is a struggle the personal satisfaction you receive living in our precious land gives you a much better life.
B”H our Aliyah has been very successful. If I may, I would like to leave you with a piece of advice. Mainly learn to go with the flow. In other words, you live in Israel and in Israel we don’t do things the way it was done in your former country. But most of all have PATIENCE. Israel works at a slower pace than most countries.
Wishing you B’ hatzala [good luck] and may your Aliyah fulfill your every dream. If I can be of assistance or if you want to just ‘talk’ about Aliyah please feel free to e-mail me at saftala@gmail.com
Miriam
http://miriamswords.blogspot.com
