Tel Aviv -
Last month when I visited Israel, our UJC-sponsored media mission spent most of its time in a war zone, visiting Sderot and Baltimore’s sister city, Ashkelon. Both cities, but especially Sderot, have seen more than their share of rocket attacks coming from Gaza. The spiritual glass was half full for so many, and it seemed as if where ever we traveled, there was yet another sad story to hear.
On Tuesday morning when our El Al flight landed here, I had an entirely different point of view. There, some 220 Jews were welcomed home as part of yet another Nefesh B’Nefesh aliyah trip.
There were about 1,000 people singing and dancing and offering candy and “welcome home” to the new olim. My wife Lisa and I ran into people we knew and had to explain to them that we were covering the flight, not making aliyah.
Among the travelers was Frances Greenberg, an 88-year-old, who was a passenger on the Exodus, back in 1947.
She was denied entry to Israel then. But now she looks up and says with a teary smile, “this is simply incredible. I cannot believe it.”
There were at least five Baltimore families represented on the flight as well.
They included Mia Lazarus, Avi Werdesheim, Gavriel Zeitlin, Noah and Rissa Lasson and their three children and Karen Eisenberg and her three sons. Her oldest, Or Chaim, 13, was a bar mitzvah just the Shabbat prior at Tiferes Yisroel.
What was equally amazing were the former Baltimoreans, now Israelis, who came to meet the new olim. I ran into Alan and Andrea Friedenberg, Avi and Ruth Eastman and Alvin and Yehudis Shamroth, among others, at the airport. They were there to be part of the overwhelming excitement.
Nefesh B’Nefesh’s goal is to provide “first class aliyah.” They have brought over 10,000 olim from North America in the last five years. NBN takes care of just about everything. They help the olim cut through the bureaucracy of immigration. They help with jobs, language, education, benifits. A person on our flight went with an computer note pad with the personal information of all the family members ono their way. The applause and screams of joy from the passengers when we landed were inspiring.
Everything down to a taxi voucher for the trip to their new homes was provided.
When we left the airport we traveled to Tekoah to be with two former Baltimoreans and Nefesh B’Nefesh olim, my daughter De-De and her husband Yaakov Komisar. I can tell you first hand, judging on the fulfilled lives our children have here in Israel, that Nefesh B’Nefesh is doing exactly what it set out to do. It was Israel glass half full. It was so good to see.
In the next blog entry, conversations with the Baltimoreans who made this trip.