Summer 2010 Coming Attractions

Yom chamishi, 28 Sivan 5770.

You've got to admit it.  This is really good.


Hat tip: Josh Sussman

I expect the buzz phrase of 2010 to be "in eight years, they've only lost two bags."

I plan to be in the crowd for the July 7 showing.  Hope to see you there -- at least in spirit.

A couple of responses to Michael Hirsch

Yom shishi, 15 Tevet 5770.  (Yom huledet sameach, Yeshiva Bochur!)

Michael Hirsch published in The Jerusalem Post an article entitled "American Aliya - An Exercise in Futility."  (The article can also be found here, at Matzav.com.)  In his essay, Hirsch basically slam-dunks into the ash can the entire program of Nefesh B'Nefesh, apparently because it has not emptied the Jewish streets of America into flights headed for Israel.  The article was subsequently published by the estimable Rebbetzin Dr. Rivkah Lambert Adler on her "Baltimore Chug Aliyah" list (which can be sought -- and joined! -- at http://groups.yahoo.com).

What follows is a response by one list member, followed by my comment.  (Since without Rivkah's help, I seem never able to make Yahoo work, I'll re-post here.  Google and I understand each other.)

What is the value of this article? Who cares whether promoting aliyah helps or does not help one million people move to Israel.

Promoting aliyah is designed to help one person and only one person. You.

Thanks

Tzvi

I suspect Michael Hirsch is correct.  But with all due respect, I am very grateful for Nefesh B'Nefesh.  No, the organization may not turn the regrettable tide of Jews clinging tenaciously to the Diaspora.  That will be in G-d's hands, as is every other miracle.  But Rabbi Fass and Tony Gelbart made it possible for people like my family to rise above the reality of not enough assets to fulfill our personal dream of making aliyah.  And a read of their mission statement reveals that there is not a word about bringing every recalcitrant American Jew to live in Israel.

The core mission of NBN is to revitalize Aliyah and to substantially increase the number of future olim by removing the financial, professional and logistical obstacles that prevent many individuals from actualizing their dreams. In the process of fulfilling our mission, we aim to educate and inspire the Jews of the Diaspora as to the centrality of the Jewish State to the Jewish people and its desirability as a Jewish home. Such enhanced awareness will send an unmistakable signal of Anglo-Israeli Jewish solidarity and of our mutual determination to strengthen the State of Israel and thereby increase the likelihood of an ever expanding Aliyah reality.

This seems to me to be a humble and worthy goal.  NBN wants to help those who would be living in Israel, but for "financial, professional and logistical obstacles."  They are accomplishing this goal.  I can't speak for all of the olim who have been aided by NBN; but I can tell you that without them, the Eastmans would still be living in the US.  And NBN aims to increase awareness, to educate and inspire.  The fact is that every one of us who gets our break via NBN has the potential to bring a few of our friends on our coattails.  Several of my friends who wanted to make aliyah have finally convinced their spouses, in part "because the Eastmans did it."  There are even a few who never entertained the thought of aliyah who now credit us with having made the concept worthy of consideration.

To a degree, then, I agree with Tzvi's point -- it shouldn't slow down NBN's efforts that they may not bring Home a million Jews.  Is not each soul as a universe?  But I would also argue with Tzvi that we should care about the sad realities that keep many Jews from making aliyah, because my understanding of the Jewish mission is that it's not "all about me."  We are one organism.  So we should try to enlighten the other parts of us to join us here.

Rabbi Akiva is the quintessential Jewish example of the power of a drop of water, followed by another drop of water, followed by yet another, to make even the impossible a reality.  Just as a simple am ha'aretz, hostile to the rabbis and totally ignorant of Torah, could be convinced by the water wearing away the rock to begin learning at 40, and to become one of our greatest rabbis -- so too can a people be reached, one oleh at a time.

Keep up the work you are doing on Hashem's behalf, Rabbi Fass and Mr. Gelbart, heedless of naysayers' statistics.  You are doing holy work.  Yours is not to complete the task -- that is up to Hashem.

But neither is it our task to derail the mission with doubt.

Welcome Home, to the 200-plus new olim who arrived on December 30th!  Keep up the good work, NBN!

Glossary:
Yom huledet sameach, Yeshiva Bochur!: Happy birthday, Dovid!
Chug: club
Rabbi Akiva:  one of the greatest of our rabbis and commentators, who started as a simple, ignorant shepherd, and was convinced that even he could learn Torah, by seeing that drops of water had worn a hole in a rock, little by litte
Am ha'aretz:  ingnoramous
Oleh: a Jew who makes aliyah (immigrates to Israel) -- plural: olim

 

The eagle has landed, bringing more of my brothers Home.

Yom shlishi, 15 Tamuz 5769.

Our friend Yarden has written another fine and heartfelt post on his blog, Crossing the Yarden.  He gave me the honor of agreeing to be a guest here.  If you didn't get to farewell the new olim on the North American side of the world, or greet them on the Israeli side, you can still catch a little of the Nefesh B'Nefesh aliyah fever by watching the recording at http://www.nbn.org.il/live/.

Dear Eric and Laurie,

So now you know.

No matter how much I try and explain what it is like emotionally for
those of us who have made aliyah, it is a hopeless task. In the end,
it is only those who step off the plane with an “Oleh” sticker on
their shirt and a exhausted but happy smile on their faces that can
ever truly comprehend the Aliyah experience.

You have left your homes, your jobs, your friends, and your family
for….. Well that’s just it. You know in full detail what you have left
but you cannot have anything more than a vague concept of what you are
getting. You have a vision and have followed your dream, but tomorrow
you open your eyes and see the reality.

What are these details? What will your life be like?

You will marvel that the Kotel, the holiest site in Judaism for
thousands of years is just a short car ride away. You will be
frustrated when you try and translate “taco shells” into Hebrew at the
supermarket. You will be filled with pride when your children sing
Hatikva on Yom Hatzmaut, and will be at a loss when you need to get
your car through the annual inspection process. Your children will
delight in racing around a kosher food court in a mall, and you will
wonder how on Earth everyone you know lives in “minus.”

You will scream, and cry, and grasp each other when you hear the
terrible news that is a tragic part of life here. You will be filled
with rage from top to bottom when you watch Israel’s enemies act like
human beings on television. And you will be filled with an almost
inexplicable joy every time you see a young Israeli man or woman
wearing the green of the Israeli Defense Forces.

You will have fierce arguments with friends and neighbors over
anything and everything in the news. And you will end up feeling
closer to them than friends and neighbors can ever feel. You will
laugh, cry, joke, and lean on them because that’s how Israelis get
through things, be they wonderful or terrible.

Many leaders of the world, in a sincere but naïve attempt to create
“peace,” say Jewish settlement in the heartland of Israel is not
legitimate. They will look at you and your children and label you
“obstacles to peace.” The “experts” on the Sunday news shows will try
and explain how your desire to live over the “Green Line” is the moral
equivalent of the desire of others to do you harm.
But even Presidents and experts are without a clue when it comes to
the desire of Jews to return to the  places that our ancestors were
forced out of thousand of years ago.

What you did today was not just a move. Your decision to build a home
and a life for you and your children and one day grandchildren is a
message that is heard around the world. The ongoing return of the
Jewish people to the Jewish national home cannot be stopped. And you
and your children are a part of this amazing revolution.

And maybe four years from now, you will be working in front of a
computer one morning. You will have forgotten the joy and exhaustion
of your aliyah day and be more preoccupied with paying the mortgage
and deciding what to make for dinner. Then you will take a break and
watch a live arrival ceremony at Ben Gurian airport, and the tears
will roll as you watch a few hundred more happy and clueless new
immigrants walk off a plane and onto the beautiful roller coaster that
is life in the nation of Israel.

To Eric, Laurie, and all the other Olim,

You made it. Welcome home.

Yarden Frankl, Neve Daniel, Israel

And if you still have room for a bit more vicarious aliyah, check out my friend Romi Sussman's blog post for today at Sussmans b'Aretz.  And for fans of the book, MOVING UP: An Aliyah Journal, word has it that Laura Ben David will be greeting TWO of her sisters on this flight with a very special sign.
Bli ayin hara, puh-puh-puh.  Kein yirbu.