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. "Ki-Tetzei: Don't Be Afraid" by Rabbi David Samson
2. "New School Year, New Challenges For New Immigrant Students" by Daphna Berman
3. "Three Families Fulfill Dream of Making Aliya" by Debra Rubin
4. "Herzl and Rajab 27" by Elliot Jager

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1. "Ki-Tetzei: Don't Be Afraid" by Rabbi David Samson
From Israel National News

Sometimes, when Jews in the Diaspora speak about Aliyah, they say, "Certainly we are planning to live in Israel. But with all the fighting there, we can't go now. We will go when the situation becomes more peaceful."

In this week's Torah portion, we learn something different. The opening verse, "When you go forth to war against your enemies...." teaches us that war is an integral part of our Divine national mission. Seven out of the 613 mitzvot of the Torah deal with war. HaShem Himself is called "The Master of War".

The underlying commandment to wage war, milchemet mitzvah, is explained by the Ramban as the Torah mitzvah of dwelling in the Land of Israel and keeping it under Jewish sovereignty. Establishing national Jewish life (Medinat Yisrael) in Eretz Yisrael is the way that we perform this mitzvah, to be actively pursued by the Jewish People at all times. We do this with the Israel Defense Forces and with the Aliyah of every Jew to the Land of Israel. Not only with tanks and airplanes, but with every new Jewish house, stroller and washing machine.

The Torah's commandments dealing with war teach us that, even when there are enemy nations who dispute our right to the Land, we are beholden to call up our inner fortitude and courage, and to summon our readiness to sacrifice for the sake of our Land, our nation and our G-d. Entering the Land of Israel, dwelling in it, and thus establishing G-d's Kingdom on earth, are things that we must be actively engaged in, even at the price of personal hardship and war.

The precept of defending the Jewish nation in the Land of Israel and developing Jewish settlement in all of its borders is the Divine command that beckons to all of world Jewry today, just as in the time of Joshua ben Nun. As the Haftora says, "And thy seed shall possess nations, and make desolate cities to be inhabited. Don't be afraid."

The foregoing commentary was distributed by the Aloh Naaleh organization.

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2. "New School Year, New Challenges For New Immigrant Students" by Daphna Berman
From Haaretz

As children around the country gear up for the start of the new school year, more than 850 English-speaking new immigrants who arrived over the summer are preparing for their initiation into the Israeli educational system. For most, this will mean coping with instruction in a foreign language, new classmates and a completely unfamiliar system.

According to education specialists, language skills top the list of anxiety factors for new immigrant students, followed by fears about making friends.

"The number-one concern for parents and children is definitely the language issue," said Tzvi Richter, director of social services for Nefesh B'Nefesh, which works closely with the new arrivals throughout the absorption process. "Some kids come well-prepared and are either children of Israelis or have studied in a school with strong Hebrew instruction. But even so, the language problem is still the largest single barrier facing many young olim."

Having to cope with learning new material in subjects such as history, science and math, when the language of instruction is foreign, means that students are working twice as hard in any given subject.

"In an ideal world, every oleh would arrive in first grade, so that he would learn to read and write together with the Israeli students and not be behind," said Rabbi Ari Cutler, director of Lamdeni, an educational program that works with English-speaking immigrants throughout the country. "Obviously, we are not in an ideal world and though it's wonderful that olim of all ages are coming, different-age kids soak Hebrew up at different paces."

Experts say it is important to dispel the common assumption that children can learn Hebrew in a few months. "There is a myth that kids who arrive over the summer master Hebrew by Hanukkah, and that's just not true," Richter said. "That scenario is more the exception than the rule, but for some reason the myth remains. A more realistic expectation is that within a couple of months children can understand what is going on in class, even if they don't yet feel comfortable speaking."

It can be difficult for parents to watch their "star student" child suddenly struggling academically in their new environment. "Parents should have healthy expectations," Cutler advised. "If your child was an A-plus student before, you should not expect the same results right away. But on the other hand, you shouldn't let your child 'cruise,' either. Children should be learning Hebrew and making friends and working on subjects that build on one another like math, and limudei kodesh [Torah studies] for the religious. Most important, you need to make sure that your child feels accomplished."

Experts say parents must pay special attention to children who struggled with school in their previous frameworks, and those who did not want to immigrate in the first place. The latter situation can affect childrens' willingness to learn Hebrew and to make friends.

"If school was academically challenging before, the old wive's tale that if you change your place, you change your luck, isn't actually true," said Michelle Berkowitz, a U.S.-born educational consultant from Beit Shemesh and founder of the MaLaCH consulting service. "If your child was having academic challenges before, those may become exacerbated when you come on aliyah."

Differences between the Israeli school system and those abroad also take some adjustment, experts warn. Class sizes here tend to be large, with as many as 40 students per class, so teachers have less opportunity to give individual attention to each child.

Israeli schoolchildren may be more rambunctious than in schools abroad, which can be a shock to the new arrivals. Another difference is that children here usually call their teachers by their first names.

Many of the new arrivals studied in private Jewish day schools abroad, which in addition to smaller class sizes have a different organizational culture than Israeli public schools.

"The transition from a private school to a public school means that parents may have less say than they are used to," Berkowitz said. "Parents who used to pay a lot of tuition are used to having more influence, but here, parents have a smaller voice in certain issues. Also, if parents do have issues they need to discuss with a principal, for example, they need to go through channels they may not be used to."

But Berkowitz warns parents against falling into a language trap, in which they are reluctant to approach their child's teachers simply because of their less-than-fluent Hebrew. "Most probably, their child has new challenges that parents need to relate to the teacher," she said. "It's really important for parents to take someone with them who understands Hebrew."

"Children will need help immediately," she added, "and they won't be able to wait until the parent feels more comfortable speaking Hebrew."

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3. "Three Families Fulfill Dream of Making Aliya" by Debra Rubin
From the NJ Jewish News

Three Highland Park families have fulfilled a long-held dream by making aliya, leaving behind family, friends, and a comfortable life for one of uncertainty.

Jack and Riva Ben-Ezra and their three children, Patrick and Julie Zagdanski and their three children, and Bracha Leah Samet, who is college-age, have all arrived in Israel as new olim.

"There are so many reasons," said Jack Ben-Ezra in a phone conversation Aug. 8, the evening before his departure. "It's ideology, the whole concept of a Jewish homeland where we belong. Throughout the day in our prayers we pray for our return to the land of Israel. Throughout history it's been our prayer and hope. Now it's possible today. I feel that if it can be done, and I can do something, I should."

Julie Zagdanski said her family had been mulling over the move for about 10 years since they visited Israel, but never thought it was realistic. Then, she said, "our friends made aliya about two years ago, and we heard how their life was." The family realized it was possible for them, too.

The Zagdanskis and Samet left Aug. 15 aboard flights from JFK Airport in New York arranged by Nefesh B'Nefesh, a private organization allied with the Jewish Agency for Israel, which encourages North American immigration to Israel.

Yael Katzman, the organization's director of communications, said 240 olim were on the flight that carried the Ben-Ezras. The flight carrying Samet was one of three landing at Ben-Gurion Airport in Israel at the same time. Flights from Toronto, London, and New York brought an additional 600 olim.

"It was a huge day, a record-setting day for us in terms of Western aliya," said Katzman. "It started with an Aug. 9 arrival and culminated six days later with the Aug. 15 flight."

She said despite the recent war in the North and the fragile cease-fire, there were no cancellations on any flights and, in fact, aliya in general is up.

"Since Nefesh B'Nefesh started in 2002, aliya has gone up tremendously," said Katzman.

Rabbi David Bassous of Congregation Etz Ahaim in Highland Park, where all the new immigrants were congregants, said they are among nine member families who have made aliya in recent years.

"We are losing three very good member [families] — it's a big loss — but for a very good cause," he said, noting that while visiting his sister in Netivot several weeks ago, Israelis were talking about the flights bringing the hundreds of newcomers.

"They were really excited," he said. "It gave them quite a morale boost, especially now with all the troubles. It was like a vote of confidence in the country. It says Jews around the world support Israel not just financially but are willing to forgo the luxuries and amenities of America to live there."

Push and pull

Bassous said Israelis he met during his visit were unruffled despite the rockets being launched into the country.

"A Kassam [missile] landed down the road from my sister's house while I was there," Bassous recalled, and "everyone was pretty calm about it."

The Ben-Ezras are living on Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu in Beit She'an in the North, which Jack described as "being on the edge" of where the problems have been. Despite that, he said, his family had no reservations about the move. They include Isaac, seven, Renatya, four, and Chava, five months, as well as a dog and two cats.

"It's something we started thinking about two years ago, but really got serious about a year ago," he said. "We wouldn't have planned it this way, but that's the way it worked out, and we're not changing our plans."

The Zagdanskis are settling in Hashmonaim "in the middle of the country" with their children, Esther, 13, Charlie, nine, and Eliana, almost three, in the same community in which their friends live. The Zagdanski youngsters "are very excited," according to Julie Zagdanski.

"It's a Jewish country, run like a Jewish country so the Jewish holidays are the national holidays," she said.

An educator who ran her own cooperative preschool program, she said she plans to establish a preschool in Israel. Although her husband has family in Israel, including a brother who previously made aliya, she has none.

"There are a lot of people who have helped us out, giving us a little push to go," she said. "Others over there are giving you a little pull, so you're not so alone."

On the eve of her departure, Julie Zagdanski said she was not worried about the current violence in the Middle East, adding, "I wish I was there already."

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4. "Herzl and Rajab 27" by Elliot JagerFrom the Jerusalem Post

It's been a hard, tense summer and many of us share a lingering sense that our troubles are not over yet. The indecisive war with Hizbullah has revived existential worries that are never far from the surface.

It doesn't help that the renowned Middle East scholar Bernard Lewis recently raised the possibility that Shi'ite Islamists in Iran will do something nasty on the 27th day of the Muslim month of Rajab - which this year falls on August 22 - because the date is religiously propitious in the struggle against infidels.

While I'm hopeful we'll all make it to August 23, this sort of gloomy talk makes me think maybe we Jews shouldn't put all our eggs in one basket. Maybe - for lots of reasons - Theodor Herzl was wrong in advocating the negation of the Diaspora.

The longer I'm in Israel, the more appreciative I become of the Diaspora. It's not just the extraordinary outpouring of emotional and financial support we've received in the course of the war with Hizbullah; it's also a recognition that Israeli society needs the cross-pollination offered by a healthy relationship with a pluralistic Jewish world.

And it's not just the warning from Bernard Lewis that got me thinking along these lines. This week also marks the first Jewish settlement in Manhattan, in 1654, as well as Herzl's arrival in Basle to prepare for the first World Zionist Congress in 1897.

The Diaspora came to North America when Jacob Barsimson of Holland arrived on the Pear Tree precisely 352 years ago tomorrow, August 22. In September 1654 an additional 23 Jewish settlers arrived in New Netherlands, probably from the West Indies, on a ship called the Saint Catarina.

The "diversification" of Jewish civilization to the New World had begun in earnest, and a golden era of American Jewry was on the horizon. Whatever the many challenges faced by US Jews today, they do not detract from the community's unique contribution to the larger Jewish narrative.

AS FOR Theodor Herzl, he arrived in Basle on August 25 to prepare for the Congress (which opened on August 29) and brought together some 200 delegates from 20 countries, including the United States. The Congress proclaimed that "Zionism seeks to secure for the Jewish people a publicly recognized, legally secured, home in Palestine."

It is sobering that 58 years after Israeli independence what we thought was "publicly recognized" and "legally secured" apparently isn't; that assurances offered by the "international community" don't seem to have much of a shelf-life.

In his address to the Congress, Herzl forecast that once the Jewish state was established world Jewry would be transplanted to Israel, and the Diaspora would wither away: "Those who are able or who wish to be assimilated will remain behind and be absorbed."

In this way, anti-Semitism (caused, Herzl was certain, by Jewish statelessness) would gradually decrease as Jews either assimilated or immigrated to Palestine.

"Thus it is," he said, "that we understand and anticipate the solution of the Jewish problem."

Not quite.

Far from putting an end to Jew-hatred, Israel has tragically - and metaphysically - become a lightening-rod for Jew-haters.

Over the years we've had no luck in fighting - or talking - our way out of the existential conundrum we find ourselves in. And all the while, an amalgamation of well-meaning friends, deceitful allies and intransigent enemies urge us to withdraw to vulnerable armistice lines that are even more dangerous today than they were when established in 1949.

ALL THIS makes it hard to be sanguine about Israel's future. Herzl, for all his genius, misjudged the nature of the Jewish problem as well as the utility of the Diaspora.

It turns out that one of his critics, Asher Zvi Ginsberg - better known as Ahad Ha'am - was in some respects a better prognosticator than Herzl.

Ahad Ha'am, the father of "cultural Zionism," envisioned the Zionist state as the spiritual home of Jewish civilization. But he accepted that there would always be a Diaspora, which was fine by him so long as it maintained firm Jewish values.

Ahad Ha'am was no wimp. He favored Jewish self-defense and actively opposed efforts to establish the Jewish homeland in any place but Zion. Yet he was by nature a pragmatic pessimist with little faith in the political promises of the international community.

Moreover, where Herzl was oblivious, Ahad Ha'am anticipated that the aspirations of the Palestinian Arabs would have to be addressed.

In a sense, the man was also an elitist. He didn't want just anybody making aliya. He wanted immigrants to be adequately prepared intellectually for the sacrifices life in the Jewish state would demand. He himself came here in 1922.

For him, creating a Jewish state was not an end in itself. He expected it would help Judaism in its encounter with modernity. As opposed to the Jewishly illiterate Herzl, Ahad Ha'am was identified with Jewish tradition, though also ambivalent about it.

I'M STILL sentimentally attached to Herzl. But especially after the summer we've been through, and the likely troubles ahead, don't we Jews need to reduce our risk and diversify - demographically, culturally and politically? After all, ideological purity isn't much use to a country at risk of annihilation.

Looking beyond Rajab 27, the pragmatic pessimism championed by Ahad Ha'am may well serve strategic Jewish interests better than the messianic optimism of Herzl.