Making Aliyah with Nefesh B’Nefesh
It was with mixed emotions of great pride, joy and sadness that on September 7, I accompanied my 23-year-old niece Suzanne to JFK Airport for her Aliyah flight. After traveling to Israel on Birthright and returning to spend her junior year in college at Hebrew University, she returned to Israel after college to participate in Otzma, a year-long volunteer program. Within two weeks of returning from Otzma, she decided to move back to Israel—this time to begin her life as a “Jewish Israeli American Girl.” Her decision to make Aliyah was eased with the help of Nefesh B’Nefesh (www.nbn.org.il), a nonprofit organization established in 2001 with the mission of revitalizing Aliyah from North America and Great Britain. NBN cooperates with the Jewish Agency and the Israel Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, offering resources to minimize the financial, professional, logistical, and social obstacles that new olim face. NBN has facilitated the arrival of over 22,000 new olim.
Upon arrival at JFK with Suzanne, we were greeted by NBN staff, who designed the experience to fully recognize the commitment that was being made by the 204 new olim on her flight from across America and Canada, ranging from 4 months to 89 years old. The scene reminded me of a modern-day version of the Jews leaving the shtetls in Eastern Europe with carts loaded with belongings of various sizes and shapes, but this trip was by choice, to fulfill dreams and hopes to participate in life in modern day Israel. There was a farewell ceremony at JFK and a larger welcoming ceremony at Ben Gurion Airport that included speeches by various dignitaries, including Tzipi Livni and a crowd of over 500 people singing and dancing. I watched the arrival ceremony live on-line and could see Suzanne take her first steps on Israeli soil as an Israeli citizen. She was in her new home ready to start a new life in a country she recognizes she will never fully understand, but loves with all her heart.
The author, Leslie Hyman, is a member of BJ’s Israel Steering Committee. She is traveling to Israel in November with a BJ group to celebrate former Marshall T. Meyer Rabbinic Fellow Chen Tsfoni’s ordination at the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. Leslie is Professor and Head, Division of Epidemiology, Department of Preventive Medicine, Stony Brook University.
The “Focus on Israel” column is edited by Robin Fleischner, a Vice President of BJ’s Board of Trustees and Co-Chair of BJ’s Israel Steering Committee.