KUMMUNIQUE

Shalom - We are proud to present another issue of Kummunique - full of love of Israel and Aliyah inspiration!

In this issue you will find:

1. "Elul In Israel" by Malkah Fleisher
2. "Danger Doesn't Deter Jews From Moving To Israel" by Matthai Chakko Kuruvila
3. "It's Easy To Be Jewish' In Israel, Olah Finds" By David Lazarus
4. "UK Jews Say Anti-Semitism Is Major Factor In Aliya" by Hilary Leila Krieger

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1. "Elul In Israel" by Malkah Fleisher

What a wild ride we've been through this year – wow. As a dewy-eyed-Zionist type, I sometimes have a hard time even reflecting on what we've been through, as a significant chunk of it is so exceedingly depressing. How many of you have heard your mind scream "I didn't sign up for this!" sometime during the course of the last year?

I won't bother to mention the problems – I'm sure all of you who live in Israel (and probably those of you who don't, as well) can come up with a whole list, public and private, of things that destroyed your day (your week, your month) at some point or another in the Land of Israel.

Many of you may be near your breaking point, wondering how many more iniquities you can be brought to bear. In that case, I would happily introduce you and the rest of the Jewish people to your new best friend – the month of Elul.

Frequently over the last long while, I have encountered the following commentary from people I know and respect: "That's it! It's over. Israel is going right down the toilet. How can it get any worse than this? They're planning to do _______, yesterday they reported that _______, and then yesterday, someone had the nerve to do _________. I don't see any hope for the State of Israel. Argh!!!"

The month of Elul exists as a time of introspection for us. We analyze ourselves and (if we're lucky) slowly begin to cringe in self-revulsion as we privately unveil the disgusting mess whose skin you see in the mirror everyday. And this after years of arduous and concentrated work on yourself! To top it all off, after a month and a half of grueling labor and (if you're lucky) forgiveness, you and I both know that you're going to have to go through the same struggle next year. And the year after. And the year after that (not that you won't conquer many of your demons, which you most distinctly will).

Perhaps G-d could look down on each of us and say "this person is never going to shape up – for example, look at this crazy balagan named Malkah– oy! Why do I bother?" But He doesn't do that. In the month of Elul, he views us with compassion. He views us with hope, with positive expectations. He makes just as much effort to forgive us as we do to get forgiven!

Just as we are redeemable, so too is the State of Israel. Given a lot of hard work, a lot of upheaval and a lot of radical expenditures of time, money, labor and love, the State of Israel can become something to be truly proud of. Before you say that's impossible, remember that this month, someone up there might be able to say the same thing about you. As long as there are dewy-eyed-Zionist types who believe in a better Israel, as long as a loving G-d sees a flicker of goodness in you, there's still hope.

Malkah's Elul Onions (think lots of bitter layers with a terrific heart)

4 red onions

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 cup feta cheese

1/4 cup toasted pine nuts

Pinch parsley, chopped.

Peel each onion and slice off the end (the bottom end with the roots) so as to make it capable of standing on its own. Place the onions in a small pot of water, boil for 10 minutes. Remove the onions from the water, allow to cool for a minute. Scoop or cut out the center of each onion (you want to leave 2 or 3 layers on the outside), and chop. Mix the onion with the breadcrumbs, feta, and pine nuts, mashing it all together. Fill each onion "shell" with the mixture, and place in a baking dish. Any remaining mixture can be placed around the onions in the dish. Bake for 30 minutes on medium to high heat. Serve sprinkled with parsley.

Note: you can substitute raw ground beef or turkey mixed with an egg or two for the cheese, and serve with a meat meal!

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2. "Danger Doesn't Deter Jews From Moving To Israel" by Matthai Chakko Kuruvila
From the San Francisco Gate

The recent bloodletting in the Middle East threw Evan Goldstein into a fog of questions about his safety should he immigrate to Israel. But then his reasons became clear.

Israelis "need to see that there are people who believe in Israel's right to exist and still believe in a future there," said Goldstein, 27, of Walnut Creek, who landed in Tel Aviv on Wednesday. "I realized now is the time to go."

Nili Molvin went to Haifa in northern Israel two weeks ago, just days after a rain of Hezbollah rockets ripped into that city.

"It really gives courage to the Jews that live in the diaspora that people like them are still willing to go," said Molvin, 22, a San Mateo resident until this journey. "It helps the state to gain support."

Goldstein and Molvin are among the thousands of Jews from around the world who immigrate annually to Israel, the world's only Jewish state. The most recent crisis has made their decision a more serious matter. Over the past two weeks, more than 400 Americans, including at least nine Bay Area residents, have moved to Israel, according to Nefesh B'Nefesh, a nonprofit organization that provides placement assistance to Jews seeking to move to Israel, including Goldstein and Molvin. The organization charters planes for these immigrants.

The Jewish immigration to Israel -- referred to as aliyah -- also helps underscore the complex and varied relationships that Jews have with Israel, particularly in the Bay Area, where there are a multiplicity of views.

Goldstein and Molvin have different religious and cultural reasons for "making aliyah," but at its core, for both, settling in Israel fulfills deeply held dreams of living out what they see as a truer Jewish identity. It's a necessary journey for them. But that feeling is far from universal.

Many Jews see no need to live in Israel to be more Jewish. And other Jews see aliyah in a darker light.

Rebecca Vilkomerson, a decade-long San Francisco resident, moved to Israel in June because she and her Israeli husband thought it would be a good thing for their children to spend a few years near their grandparents.

But because quick citizenship is only given to Jewish immigrants, and not to Palestinians who once lived in the land, Vilkomerson sees aliyah as an unethical and unfair practice used to justify Israeli government policies. She refused Israeli citizenship and the host of government benefits and assistance that come with a formal aliyah, such as tax breaks. Instead of help, she now faces an array of bureaucratic barriers. Still, she's glad she took a stand.

"I made a conscious decision not to put my own personal stamp of approval to participate in this discriminatory system," said Vilkomerson, 34, who was active in Jewish Voice for Peace when she lived in the Bay Area.

Since 2000, 13,179 Americans have immigrated to Israel, according to the Israeli Ministry of Immigrant Absorption. They represent less than 6 percent of the total 224,641 immigrants who've come from all over the world during that time.

Jews were making aliyah to the land that is now Israel even before the political state was created in 1948. The land and even the air had a sanctified status within religious texts. But the Israeli government has long made the practice into a political issue, arguing that it is central to the protection of the Jewish state.

"Aliyah is not only the supreme historic objective of our state but a security need of the highest order," Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, said in 1955, voicing the fear that the nation would always be outnumbered by its Arab neighbors.

It's a sentiment that motivates Molvin, the former San Mateo resident, who argues that higher Arab birth rates inside Israel also pose a threat.

"Aliyah gives Israel a chance to keep up with their rate of procreation, which would otherwise, in a matter of time, really hurt Israel's chances of being able to defend herself," she said from Israel.

Molvin represents the third generation of her family to try to make aliyah. While her grandparents and mother eventually returned to the United States, Molvin believes that her move might be permanent.

But she wouldn't describe herself as particularly religious. Her attendance at synagogue is sporadic, and she's not as strict in her observance of Judaic laws as she once was.

Her Jewishness, Molvin said, "is more of a cultural thing." She loves eating Israeli food. She watches Israeli movies with her family.

"Israel has always been a very important part of our lives," she said.

She's fatalistic about her safety in Israel.

"Everyone is telling me, 'If it's meant to happen, it will,' " she said of dying.

And she's looking forward to not having to defend Israel or her Jewish identity the way she's had to do in the United States, even with close friends.

"It's so much easier to be Jewish in Israel," she said. "You don't have all those people questioning why you're doing something. You don't have to go looking for Jewish people."
Goldstein, the Walnut Creek resident, believes going to Israel will allow him to more closely adhere to his Orthodox Jewish faith, which requires strict observance to a number of Judaic laws.

Living in Walnut Creek, there are no kosher restaurants. At a work lunch, all he would order was a Pepsi. And as a young man, he's itching to get married.

"On the dating scene, there are not a lot of Orthodox single girls here," he said.

Goldstein's desire to live in Israel was fueled by a stay there beginning in 2000, when he felt welcomed by many. People went out of their way to help him. A passer-by once gave him a Passover blessing at a traffic light.

"When I'm there, everybody thinks like me," he said. "In America, I've got my Jewish life and I've got my outside life. ... In Israel, you're living one life."

But the religious significance for Goldstein is larger than that.

"Judaism tells us that the future of the Jewish people is in the land of Israel," said Goldstein, who keeps a blog about this journey at planetisrael.blogspot.com . "Here, life feels a little temporary. ... It just feels like I'm contributing toward building up the Jewish people if I'm there."

Goldstein's mother, Bliss, said that she and her husband, Dan, worried about their son's safety because of the latest war. But she believes he has to go as part of his journey to find his own identity.

"He's internally driven because of his religious beliefs," said Bliss Goldstein, 49, who lives in Bellingham, Wash. "Even though it's something his dad and I don't have to do, it's something he has to do. For him to have the identity he has, he has to live in Israel. We have no right to interfere with that."

Judaism places great value on living in the land that is now Israel, said Rabbi Benjamin Blech, a professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University in New York, an Orthodox Jewish institution.

"It is true that Judaism is a religion that can be practiced universally," said Blech. "But a higher form of religiosity is when we are in the land that is holy and when we are in a country surrounded by people who allow us to live in accord with our religious needs."

More than being just an aspiration, Blech said, "Living in Israel fulfills a religious commandment."

Despite the obligation to live in the holy land, Jews have long come to terms with living elsewhere, and some of Judaism's most respected scholars have chosen to do so, said Deena Aranoff, a professor of Jewish studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.

The decision about whether to move to the region or not "is a tension that's there," she said. "But it has existed that way for 2,000 years."

But some Jews dispute whether living in Israel draws them closer to the faith. Politics is so intertwined with religion in Israel that Orthodox Jews and more secular Jews frequently battle over how Jewish the nation should be.

"A lot of the non-Orthodox Jews feel like the Orthodox Jews are making them be more Jewish than they want to," said Orit Weksler, an East Bay psychotherapist who was born and raised in Israel and moved to the Bay Area in 2002. But non-Orthodox Israelis tended to be cynical about faith, so Weksler felt she had to be circumspect about how she expressed her Judaism.

Weksler said coming to America liberated her from those polarizing views. She now performs rituals she'd shy away from in Israel.

"I feel more Jewish" living in the United States, she said, adding that she believes American Jews "romanticize Israel."

"I have more possibilities to explore my Judaism here than in Israel."

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3. 'It's Easy To Be Jewish' In Israel, Olah Finds" By David Lazarus
From Canadian Jewish News

MONTREAL - The difference between visiting Israel and making aliyah can be vast, and that partly explains why some people who plan to immigrate end up returning to their former homes, for a multitude of reasons.

But others persevere and stay, their Zionist spirit ultimately strengthened and reaffirmed by the challenges of integrating into Israeli life and society.

Tania Korin comes across as one of the stayers.

The 24-year-old Montrealer made aliyah last fall and has faced the usual litany of fulfilments and frustrations that face young, single olim, such as becoming fully fluent in Hebrew, cutting through bureaucratic red tape, and missing family back home.

But all that has been more than compensated for, she said, by the simple experience of being immersed in a Jewish society.

"The thing is, despite all the problems, I still feel fulfilled, complete," Korin said, speaking before the outbreak of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. "Some olim have unrealistic expectations. But you can't lose sight of the reason you made aliyah in the first place."

Korin's story is like that of many young Jewish adults who finally make the big decision.

Growing up, she did a lot of the usual Jewish stuff, such as Camp B'nai Brith, BBYO and Herzliah High School, which included a school trip to Israel in Grade 9.

Later, while studying for a social work degree at McGill University, she was "appalled," she said, about the attitudes she witnessed on campus toward Jews and Israel. She became a vice-president at Hillel, because,"I felt that if I could not be in Israel, I had to be working for Israel."

In December 2004, Korin, who was already considering emigrating, went on a trip run by the aliyah office of the Canadian Zionist Federation.

"I knew that aliyah was for me, but I just didn't know how."

Finally, after completing her undergraduate degree at McGill, Korin took the big step and moved to Israel for good last year as part of the Garin Magshimim program, which provides a full year of counselling and help to Montreal olim who settle in Be'er Sheva, a city twinned with Montreal through Partnership 2000.

Korin said she found Be'er Sheva, where she lived with her friends Carmen and Jack, "beautiful, but dull," so she moved to the more cosmopolitan Tel Aviv while continuing to work on a master's degree in education from McGill using the facilities of Tel Aviv University.

She said that living as an Israeli has come with its set of revelations. In Israel, a monthly salary of $2,000 is considered "incredibly high," and Israeli banks, she said, don't tell you about how much you have left in your account, so much as they keep tabs of what your "meenoos" (overdraft) balance is – as in, "Your balance is now 'meenoos' 500," she jokes.

Everyone in Israel pays for things in instalments, Korin marvelled, even if it's for something as prosaic as a hair dryer. Also, the beach is always easily accessible, and bus drivers "decide they can change their bus routes to suit them."

Other eyeopeners: you can talk to people at a bus stop as if you have known them for years, and in the fall, you can buy Coke bottles that say "Shanah Tovah" on them.

In terms of living as a Jew in Israel, Korin said she has been told what many others have heard before her.

One relative said to her: "You're in a Jewish country. You don't need to be Jewish [religiously]!"

Jewish secular Israelis, "don't need to show their Judaism,"she was told.

But Korin sees it more simply: she can be as observant as she chooses, because she can go to a restaurant on Passover or shop at a store after Shabbat.

"The point is, it's easy to be Jewish here."

There are other challenges. Things aren't handed to you on a silver platter, she said, nor do people expect them to be.

At the time she spoke to The CJN, Korin was living partly on savings and using an Israeli website to find herself a job.

She said that making aliyah has been "the most difficult yet exhilarating experience" of her life, and that she's faced daily struggles related to "difference of mentality and culture."

Still, she wouldn't have it any other way.

"If your goal is to make a better future for yourself and for future generations," she said, "this is the place to be."

Since the start of the current crisis in Lebanon, Korin sent word to The CJN about its impact on her and those around her.

"I have been here for several months… It has been amazing, calm and fun, that is until now… This whole situation seems unreal. I, along with the entire country, am wondering how long will this go on. When will there finally be peace?" she wrote.

"I am sitting in my Tel Aviv apartment with the news blaring, the reporter interviewing victims of the missile attack on the train station in Haifa this morning, a train that I myself was about to take today to go visit my cousin in Haifa but am not taking any more.

"My boyfriend just informed me that his cousin was… one of the eight people working in the Haifa train station who was murdered while at work because his work happened to be in a city that is close enough for Hezbollah to attack."

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4. "UK Jews Say Anti-Semitism Is Major Factor In Aliya" by Hilary Leila Krieger
From Jerusalem Post

Anti-Semitic attitudes in the UK are a leading factor in encouraging aliya for British Jews, according to many of those who arrived here Wednesday.

Some 140 Britons, 140 Canadians and 240 Americans touched down together at Ben-Gurion Airport on flights sponsored by Nefesh B'Nefesh in partnership with the Jewish Agency.

The trip from Stansted was the first from the UK, and came amid a backdrop of heightened security following arrests of British Muslims accused of plotting a massive terror attack.

Several Jews coming from the UK said the terror threat hadn't dissuaded them from traveling and that other recent developments, notably the response in Britain to Israel's actions against Hizbullah, had increased their desire to leave.

"I believe there is no future for Jews outside Israel," said Yossi Vardakis, 19, while en route from London to Israel, where he plans to study rather than face hostility at a British university. "You don't feel really welcomed being Jewish [in England]. You're attacked for supporting Israel... You see this hatred coming out."

Since hostilities erupted between Israel and Hizbullah, British Jews have experienced a doubling in the rate of anti-Semitic incidents - most in the form of vandalism and threats - according to the Community Security Trust. Many members of the Jewish community have also accused the British media of incendiary coverage of the conflict.

Leila Segal, a writer and editor, described herself as living in a "mental ghetto" in London, where she felt she was "always censoring" herself when it came to her Jewish identity.

"I'm not running away from that, because we have to confront it," she said. "But I really think that coming to Israel and living in Israel, that's a very strong act we can take to affirm our existence."

Shachar Navon of the Jewish Agency's London branch said the influx of immigrants would contribute to an expected 550 British olim in 2006, the highest number in the last decade and a continuation of a trend which has seen about a 50 percent rise in British newcomers in the last few years.

She attributed that increase largely to antagonism felt by British Jews: "They say they are not fully secure here in the UK and that there are anti-Semitic acts all the time. They say they want to live in a place that welcomes them instead of looking at them as strangers."

Standing amid a sea of friends, family and IDF soldiers waving Israeli flags to welcome the new immigrants to Ben-Gurion, Jewish Agency Chairman Ze'ev Bielski said the pull is so strong that the recent violence has not deterred them from coming. In fact, some 4,000 immigrants have arrived since the beginning of the war.

"People came to the conclusion that never mind Hizbullah, never mind [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad, we are coming here because this is the only Jewish state we have," he said. "It's the only country in the world where the prime minister waits at the airport to welcome new immigrants."

Soon afterward, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert addressed the crowd, which gave him a muted welcome. He noted the difficult experience the country has recently been through, but said, "One thing that really strengthens this country is aliya."

He told the audience of teary immigrants, boisterous children and squealing pets, "When more than 500 Jews on this day come to the State of Israel, what they say to the world is, 'We are afraid of no one, because we trust the State of Israel, we believe in the future of Israel and we will build the State of Israel with all the Jewish people.'"

Debra Kalms, 44, who came from London to join her daughter here, said the current events only strengthened her resolve to come.

"It's a very historic time in our people's history," said the former executive director of Hadassah in the UK, sitting in Stansted airport with her 13-year-old son before their departure.

"To come at this time and help be a part of the country and [contribute] to our people and our faith, I feel very privileged to be in that position."

Daniel Robinson, 19, making aliya on his own from London, said the reports of Katyusha and army casualties had made him "rethink how hard it would be" to live in Israel, but "hasn't for a second made me question my plans to make aliya."

In fact, he said that when he heard Nefesh B'Nefesh was launching its first UK flight, it pushed him to come ahead of schedule.