Moving to Israel

Even after making Aliyah and moving to Israel, for an American, the deep roots of the United States never really leaves you. This becomes especially true when the worlds of Israel and America collide as it did this week with the death of former US secretary of state Alexander Haig.

Haig’s spokesman during his 1988 campaign for the Republican nomination for the presidency, Daniel Mariaschin, talked after his death about how he “always had a special feeling for Israel. I always had the impression that he considered himself a friend of Israel and understood its geo-security predicament as we moved through the years,” said Mariaschin, now executive vice president of B’nai B’rith International.

While in 1981, Haig, serving as secretary of state under president Ronald Reagan, proposed temporarily suspending the strategic cooperation agreement between the United Staes and Israel, he later on evolved into a firm believer in Israel as a powerful deterrent to terrorism. In 2001, he told the Jerusalem Post that it might not be a bad thing for Israel to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear power. “If the Israelis do launch a preemptive strike [on Iran], it may be saving the world a lot of trouble,” he said.

Powerful people in such positions are not commonly known for their dedication to both Israel and America, two of  the leaders of the world in the championing of democracy and freedom. We can only hope that more people with such integrity rise to such lofty positions and are able to make such a difference in the fight against evil.

Ari

I’ve been writing this moving to Israel blog for some time now and, as my regular readers know, I am always trying to recommend any similar content I find on the Internet. Therefore, I was thrilled when a reader sent in information about their own Aliyah blog.

“Esther’s Aliyah Experience” is written by Esther Cohen, who made Aliyah one and a half years ago and chronicles her experiences as a new immigrant from North America. She recently started her own Wine Tour Company called “My Israel Wine Tours” (www.myisraelwinetours.com) and the blog is a great read for people like me who love reading about the Aliyah experience.

Check it out, let me know what you think and please always contact me when you see something you think might be of interest to our readers.

Ari

As this is a blog about Aliyah and moving to Israel and I myself am an Oleh from the United States, I tend to focus frequently in my posts about immigration from North America. It is important to remember, however, that Aliyah is happening from all over the world and, in that vain, I refer you to an interesting piece over at Haaretz that takes a look at Aliyah from Russia twenty years after they opened its doors to mass emigration.

The author, Tracy Levy, takes a look at some of the reasons that Russian immigration to Israel has stagnated since 1989 and gives some interesting feedback on where the movement may headed in the future. A great read, especially for we Aliyah addicts.

Ari

While this blog attempts to encourage moving to Israel and to let go of the places we now call home, it sometimes astonishes me how the leaders of these very places make it so very clear to us that we are not particularly welcome anyway.

The latest example of this comes courtesy of the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who has recommended that non-Muslims take the opportunity of the month of Ramadan to fast, along with their Muslim neighbors, in order to promote “understanding between cultures.”

Johnson told members of a London mosque that with Muslims so much a part of London life, it would be befitting for non-Muslims to get to know their fellow Londoners’ customs and religion better.

The implications of such a statement are extremely dubious. For one thing, as a local English Democrat leader Steve Uncles so wisely put it, “the indigenous culture of this country is based on Christianity and Paganism. Of course, as an open and tolerant society, if people want to practice other religions, then good luck to them. But the state should not be funding them because otherwise we will lose our culture.”

This is a great point but, what should be even more disturbing amongst the Jewish people is, as the author of the article, David Lev, puts it, “there was no word on whether London Mayor Johnson was planning to suggest that Muslims and Christians fast on Yom Kippur in order to better understand their Jewish neighbors.”

As we all know, this should not be expected to be happening anytime soon and the attempted appeasement of the Muslim population will likely, if history is any indication, come back to haunt the U.K. in the future.

Again, we need to come home. There is really no place for us in countries around the world whose leaders call for the further pandering of the Jew’s (and the West’s) most ruthless enemies. Let’s continue to make Aliyah, call Israel home and make it Hashem’s laws that we practice and celebrate.

Ari

As the times continue to be challenging throughout the world people are, thankfully, continuing to move to Israel. Another Aliyah flight arrived Tuesday bringing 238 North American Jews courtesy of Nefesh B’Nefesh.

Yishai Fleisher and Arutz Sheva have put together this fantastic photo essay of the happy event as you can truly feel magic as the large group of people arrived home. Check it out and let yourself be inspired to be on that next flight.

Ari

Times were that people moving to Israel were considered to be taking on a financial burden and sacrificing many of the luxuries of the Diaspora. Now it seems to be that people are continuing to make Aliyah, not just for spiritual and idealistic reasons but for financial gain as well - an unheard of concept not long ago.

Arutz Sheva reports how the Israeli economy has become a draw for North American immigrants in the face of the economic downturn abroad. In speaking on the subject Danny Oberman, executive vice president of operations at Nefesh B’Nefesh, describes some of the examples of economic advantages in living in Israel including a wider job market for recent university graduates, families with young children being able to find more affordable Jewish or college education in Israel than back in the U.S. and Canada, cheaper health insurance rates and more.

While the financial challenges of living in Israel still, and always will, exist, it’s good to see some of the financial incentives of making Aliyah catching up to the spiritual ones.

Looking forward to seeing you all here.

Ari

As I wrote here a few weeks ago the process of Aliyah and moving to Israel is often filled with challenges and difficulties. The other day I received a letter from a potential Oleh (name withheld) describing another hurdle that was encountered.

It seems this reader has been trying to move to Israel for 9 months now and has been presented with obstacles from the Jewish Agency, the Consular Division, paper work issues and more. As he put it “All in all Israel seems to be the hardest country for a Jew to move into because of incredible bureaucracy. I wonder if anybody in Israel even knows how difficult these bureaucrats have made the Alyiah process.”

I bring this up not to discourage anyone from making Aliyah (obviously, as this blog encourages that very action) as I know that all major moves bring up issues to resolve. I bring it up to try and spread the word out to the powers that be. These stories of hassles and red tape are just all too common and if we could start to get the message across to the bureaucrats in charge it would eliminate one of the most common complaints of Jews who want to come home.

Here’s to (hopefully) moving in a new direction and eliminating all the unnecessary heartache.

Ari

As many of you probably know, there are no shortage of bureaucracy issues here in Israel. Today I was reminded of that by reader and prospective Oleh Gene Maltsev.

Gene wrote in to tell me about an experience at the Ministry of Interior here in Jerusalem and what had transpired. Needless to say the event was colored with the seemingly all too common runarounds, lack of customer service and general rudeness.

While I am happy to report that Gene did ultimately get the visa extension sought, as was hoped, without any significant issues to speak of and that many of us know that such attitude is often expected at many of Israel’s governement offices, this does by no means excuse this activiy.

People such as Gene face enough challenges when considering Aliyah and moving to Israel that crude treatment by our own brothers and sisters should not have to be added to the list.

Ari

While constantly searching for Aliyah facts and figures I remember that sometimes the best way of getting the whole moving to Israel overview is by looking at some basic, raw numbers. With that in mind I wanted to point out to everyone this fantastic summary of the Aliyah numbers for 2008 courtesy of an article found at the Support Association for Zionism (SAZ).

While serving as a terrific guide for viewing the past year in Aliyah, it is also important to note what the report says. With the exceptions of North America, South Africa and Oceania, Aliyah was down in all other locations compared to 2007 while also being a 22% overall decrease compared to the number that arrived during the same period last year.

These are discouraging numbers so let’s continue to spread the word to all our brothers and sisters: we want you to come home now!

May Hashem soon bring the day where all the Jewish people are back where they belong.

 Ari

As promoting moving to Israel and making Aliyah is the primary purpose of this blog, I often try to point out some of the negative aspects of life outside of the Holy Land that make life so hard on the Jewish people. Unfortunately, there are often no shortage of examples to come up with and today is no exception.

It seems that Canada’s York University, celebrating its 50th anniversary, is allowing a pro-Arab group to stage a conference questioning Israel’s right to exist.  Several of the scheduled speakers were involved in Israel Apartheid Week activities and are active in the Israeli boycott movement.

The university is using the all too common mantra of “academic freedom” as defense of the event that promotes hatred and encourages the destruction of the Jewish State.

Although we seem to take it for granted that the west’s universities, supposedly the foremost intellectuals and some of the most powerful voices in the world, regularly sponsor and encourage such events, we should never forget exactly what is happening outside of Israel - where our best “friends” (U.S., Canada, etc.) are the proud hosts of these horrid functions.

Ari