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. "Netanyahu: No future For Diaspora Jewry" by Gil Hoffman
2. "Frustrated Immigrant: Stop Aliyah. Period" by Ashley Rindsberg
3. "Coming Home" by Iris Maimon-Toledano
4. "I'm Finally Home" by Iris Maimon-Toledano

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1. "Netanyahu: No Future For Diaspora Jewry" by Gil Hoffman
From Jerusalem Post

Opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu questioned the future of Diaspora Jewry in a closed-door meeting with American contributors to the IDF's Nahal haredi program on Thursday morning.

He warned that assimilation and intermarriage would threaten the future of Diaspora Jewry and said the Nahal haredi program was the answer to the rifts inside Israeli society. Netanyahu told participants to do everything possible to prevent assimilation in their communities, but said Israel is what is keeping the Jewish people together.

"There is no future for Jews in the Diaspora, because of assimilation and intermarriage," Netanyahu said, according to participants. "The only future for the Jews is in Israel. The only hope for the Jewish people in the Diaspora is Israel."

Sources close to Netanyahu confirmed the quotes and said his point was to emphasize Israel's central role in maintaining Diaspora Jewry.

Netanyahu's comments surprised people in the room and Diaspora Jewish leaders.

Israeli politicians who deal with Diaspora relations compared Netanyahu's statements to those of President Moshe Katsav, who caused an uproar on September 10, 2000, when he said that Israeli leaders should no longer justify Jews living abroad.

"We have legitimized living in the Diaspora and have said it does not bother us," Katsav said at the time. "The only branch that can ensure the continuation of the Jewish nation is the Jewish state" and not Jewish education, which he said was a stopgap measure that "could at best last two or three generations."

Reached in Cordova, Spain, United Jewish Communities-Israel director-general Nachman Shai said he hoped "Netanyahu will be convinced that Diaspora Jews are not lost" when he attends next month's UJC General Assembly in Los Angeles.

"The fact that there is a Jewish state does not change the fact that Jews will always live abroad," Shai said. "I would like all Jews to come to Israel, but it won't happen. We have to bolster them and build relationships with Jews all over the world, especially with the Jews of the US, the most powerful Jewish community ever. Assimilation doesn't mean that the Jews in the Diaspora will suddenly disappear."

Former Diaspora affairs minister Michael Melchior (Labor-Meimad) said that statements such as Netanyahu's "turn people off to Israel" instead of encouraging Diaspora Jews to make aliya.

"It's a very unintelligent approach to the Jews of the world today," Melchior said. "As a staunch Zionist, I believe that Israel is the heart of the Jewish people and we have the potential for a more complete Jewish life here than outside the country. I would encourage every Jew to come on aliya with all my heart. But to say that there is no future for Jews outside Israel has no basis in reality. There are many flourishing Jewish communities, religiously, culturally and educationally, which are doing wonderful work to reinforce the future of the Jewish people."

Meretz leader Yossi Beilin, who initiated the birthright israel program, said that nowadays, no cause is more Zionist than guaranteeing that the Jewish people will thrive in their communities abroad.

"Netanyahu's comments are empty slogans with no policy behind them," Beilin said. "I find it strange that Netanyahu, who rejects the idea of the Diaspora, is the same Netanyahu who as prime minister and finance minister contributed so much to making Israel a less secure place to live, with socioeconomic gaps that recall the Third World."

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2. "Frustrated Immigrant: Stop Aliyah. Period" by Ashley Rindsberg
From YNET

Personal account of American Jew adjusting to life in Israel. Frustrated with widespread neglect of immigrants, he points out that aliyah is not rosy picture painted by Jewish Agency. His conclusion: Best to stay put and not come until Israel can absorb existing immigrants

Many of us have lived, at some time or another, in places all around the world. From Beijing, Bali, and Bombay to San Francisco, New York, London, and Melbourne. And, for those of us who have spent any amount of time in Israel, we can all agree that this strange and beautiful country is definitely not third world… but it's not quite 'first world' either.

Alfonso Rubin, a 59 year old former financial manager, experienced the effects of this in between-ness firsthand when he immigrated to Israel from New York 26 years ago.

Rubin came to make a fresh start. He was inspired by the glowing description his Jewish Agency representative, or 'shaliach', gave him—he would be welcomed open-armed, accepted by an absorption center brimming with people like himself. All he had to do was choose: Would you prefer the quaint seaside community of Ashdod, or the more bustling oasis of Beer Sheba? A room facing the park, or the sea?

He opted for Ashdod, sea-facing. He got something quite different. Rubin arrived in Israel, 36 years old, after leaving a job that paid him USD 50,000 (in 1979), full of the expectations that his shaliach filled him with.

The first sign of trouble was when there was no one at the airport to greet him. The next bad omen was the absorption center he arrived at (after taking at taxi from the airport)—it was closed for the day.

Black market Nearly 30 years later, Rubin's troubles in Israel have only multiplied. Today, he is sinking in a mire of debt, has been repeatedly hospitalized, and, somehow, spends a good part of each day avoiding the police who have a warrant for his arrest.

"I sit at home like a dog. I'm lost in the world," he confesses over an iced coffee. He takes another sip, and the story unravels.

The troubles began when Rubin was leaving his last apartment. He gave the landlord two checks that, he realized sometime later, would bounce. So, mindful of the financial practices of his former profession, he immediately went to the bank to cancel the checks and called the former landlord to inform him of the situation. Everything seemed okay.

Six months later Rubin received a phone call from an unidentified man in Tel Aviv informing him that he owed this man NIS 11,000 for the two checks. Rubin didn't understand and promptly told the man, in New York terms, to please go away.

The unidentified man did not go away. He brought a lawsuit against Rubin for NIS 52,000 - 11,000 for the first two checks, the remainder for interest and damages. The man, it turns out, had bought the checks from Rubin's landlord on the black market, not an uncommon practice in Israel.

Debts in hospital Soon after, Rubin needed treatment for an intestinal hernia, a potentially fatal condition if left untreated. While in hospital he faxed the court the proper forms to delay the trial.

Two of his cases (he is also being sued by a bank and a cellphone company for debt he couldn't pay on account of the first suit) sent him letters of approval, informing him that the delay was accepted. The third case, the black market check case, never responded. At least not until they served him with a notice informing him of his absence in court and the warrant that had been issued for his arrest because of that absence.

"I'm not a criminal who's trying to get away with things. I want to pay these debts. I've been hospitalized three times this past year. I'm backed up on my bills, I'm ill, and they want to arrest me."

Rubin, who works five nights a week at a Tel Aviv hotel, has reduced his lifestyle to only the barest of bare necessities. After struggling in Israel for more than 25 years he confesses that he's had enough: "I would leave Israel within 40 minutes at this point. But I don't even have the money to have pictures taken for my passport."

Determination, but what for? It's a low that, 25 years ago, he never thought he would sink to. When his optimistic shaliach reminded Rubin that, if he didn't like Israel, he could always come back, Rubin refused that mentality. "I said no, if I go with the mindset that I can come back then I will definitely come back. If I'm going, I'm going for good."

So when he finally got to the closed absorption center, he was still determined to stay. When his promised sea-facing room actually faced the building's garbage dump, he was still determined to stay.

When he had to share a room with a mentally ill Russian immigrant who threatened, with the little English he knew, that he was going to kill Rubin, he was still determined to see it through. But now, coming up on his 60th birthday, he's thrown in the towel.

"No one from the Jewish Agency ever pitched in to help me," Rubin says, reflecting on his years in Israel.

"I'm not saying that new immigrants should get everything for nothing just because they're new immigrants. They should work. But they need to be given the opportunity to work." And just as importantly, he explains, there needs to be a way for immigrants to get reliable, clear, and consistent information.

"You ask a question to 10 officials in Israel and you get 12 answers," he says. The confusion and opacity are, in part, what started the disaster with the sold checks. It turns out that in Israel, two parallel lines must be placed somewhere on the check in order to denote that the check can only be cashed by its addressee. Rubin (probably like most immigrants) did not know that.

"Two little lines," he says, "and now they're trying to arrest me. But what about the man who sold my checks? Isn't that illegal? Why don't they arrest him?"

It's all about the freedom

But, through all of this, Rubin has preserved enough perspective to point out some of the country's qualities that he still loves. He says about Israel that, "You have more freedom here than you have anywhere in the world."

He points to two teenage girls sitting by themselves at the café, at the late hour: "It's amazing, there is nowhere else in the word that girls can sit in a big city and feel safe and free like that."

He also returns to the comment he began the interview with, that the casual approach to things in Israel which has led him to disaster financially is something that he values socially.

Rubin is nearly glowing when he explains that in Israel you don't have to make an appointment to go see a friend. "It doesn't matter what time you come, day or night. You just show up and they'll welcome you in and make you coffee. That's phenomenal."

But returning to the issue at hand, Rubin remarks that, "This country needs more organization, from top to bottom. There should be one law for everybody. And for people who are not born in this country, they should be explained all the laws of healthcare, banking, communication, employment etc.

"But people - Russians, Ethiopians, Americans, are brought here and just dumped. Don't bring more immigrants until you can deal with those you have," he says with a serious look on his face. "Stop aliyah. Period."

It's a drastic statement but one that, given Rubin's experience, is perhaps understandable. It does not take into account the huge number of immigrant success stories within Israel, but it expresses a frustration that many immigrants, even the most successful, have felt at one point or another.

"If we want Jews to come here and live," he concludes, "we'd better change our ways."

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3. "Coming Home" by Iris Maimon-Toledano
From YNET

10 years abroad is a long time – too long. Still, it isn't easy packing up and starting again

A few weeks before I and my family return to Israel after ten years in Canada, we are in the throes of packing and checking – what do we have to do about health insurance and national insurance? What about import duty, education, and finding a new place to live?

We are closing our lives here, gathering up the things we'll need in Israel, and I my anticipation and my worries are keeping me awake just about every night.

Gripped by fear

But the panic that struck me today was different. Today, I was overtaken by fear, a debilitating panic so powerful I couldn't even concentrate on the things I was supposed to be putting in the cardboard boxes all around me. As I watched my children playing happily in the garden, by heart suddenly started racing, and for the first time in months I asked myself, "What the hell am I doing?"

And my standard answer – "I'm going home" – didn't work this time. Neither did my laconic answers, the ones constantly on the tip of my tongue like a mantra and come out almost automatically. "Because my children think Canada's their home. I want their only 'home' to be in Israel."

Or: "Because if I don't do it now, I never will." Or: "I've got to give Israel an honest chance. We've never lived there as a family, and Israel is supposed to be heaven for families." Or a host of other answers.

I don't have a lot of family left in Israel. Two sisters and their families, some uncles and cousins we see at family celebrations, and that's about it. The "glue" we all know so well is no more.

Even my return will not give me back the years lost, the time I wasn't by their sides. It also won't atone for feelings of regret and guilt.

Maybe it will be easier to mourn, and to connect to the loss. When you are far away, even the death of a parent can be considered so distant as to be unreal. When you are far away, it's amazing just how easy it is "to continue."

My Israel

I'm coming home to my beloved country, a land I love so much it hurts. My Israel makes my laugh and cry, it warms my heart and freezes me with shock and horror. My Israel gave me a stubborn root. Even if it were to be removed, nothing could replace the hole that would be left.

Israel is a mother, a daughter, a wise old man who has seen it all, and who sometimes dresses up in clothes that don't belong to it, adopts foreign customs that add nothing positive to the country or culture. No other country inspires its people to the same levels of anger and love, of loathing and admiration, happiness and sadness like Israel.

Israel's got everything, and yet the country is poor and shabby, and for some reason I am afraid that I and my children are going to live there.

Building tomorrow

Naomi Shemer wrote about a better, nicer "tomorrow." For the past year, I have been living inside songs such as "I have no other country" and "Songs from the land I love." Is the reality of my Israel to be found in these lines, or is the reality to be found in the prophecies I encounter day after day, year after year, when I sit down at my computer?

I want to come home so I can play a part in perfecting our society and creating that better "tomorrow" for my Israel. Over the past 10 years I have done this in a foreign country. Today, I have great dreams and faith in the power of my ability to do it all again.

The fear that has overtaken me came from a conversation I had with a dispirited Israel who somehow found his way to Vancouver. There are hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands like him around the world.

Kosher émigrés

I never closed my ears to all those "dispirited Israelis". We were Israelis who went abroad for "kosher" reasons – teaching, aliyah representatives, etc. These claims allowed me to survive for several years happily and with no pangs of a guilty conscious.

But the years go by too quickly. Our visions of serving the country abroad dimmed as we moved on to other positions. Eventually, the years catch up with you and you begin to feel uncomfortable.

The Israeli I met today caused me to feel radically uncomfortable. He ran away, he harbored a deep hatred. He had been broken by life in my Israel. When I told him my entire house was for sale, that I'd just packed up my 40th box, he looked at me like I was a fool. Not crazy, not innocent.

My beloved awaits

So I packed up my kids toys and bid farewell to my distressed friend. When I heard them babbling about the squirrel running up the tree and about the fact it was cold already, I was filled with fear, so much so that I couldn't think about anything else.

I went in the house, stared at 40 packed boxes in the corner and a lot more to go. There are Israeli passports to renew, a huge health insurance debt to repay, and a million other things to do.

10 years, a fool's happiness, a little girl killed by a shell in Gaza, another Pesach abroad, a child who calls me "Mommy." And my Israel, by beloved, awaits.

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4. "I'm Finally Home" by Iris Maimon-Toledano
From YNET

Israeli who moved back from Canada shares her experiences

Two months have passed since the day we landed in Israel overwhelmed by excitement mixed with some anxiety over the new beginning. The truth is that up until those first days in Israel we didn't quite realize how difficult the beginning might be, so difficult that in the past weeks I wasn't even able to sit down and write.

I also wanted to, a while ago, express my heartfelt gratitude for the touching words you wrote in response to my "I'm coming back home" column. During the difficult moments those responses reminded me again that I'm privileged to be a part of our special, genuine, and warm people.

Two days after landing in Israel, the war broke out and with it new family experiences, such as the need to respond to innocent questions by a child that doesn't understand what's going on.

A child that was born and raised in a vastly different reality. He was asking who in this war were the good guys and the bad guys, as if it was another episode of the Power Rangers. He didn't understand why we were crying while reading the newspaper, what's a funeral, and why I'm not excited the way he is over fighter jets flying above us constantly.

As we planned and dreamed back in Vancouver, we rented a nice house in the Galilee. Because of the war we didn't have the courage to go as far north as we initially wanted, but the lower Galilee was certainly no compromise. And so, by the end of the war we were driving around area communities to look for a home, while hoping not to encounter Katyusha rocket fire.

Now, when everything is calm, the hopes have become more practical and normal: That the northern job market would be kind to us, that the kids find friends in the neighborhood, and that we won't get discouraged when things get tough. On such days, an interested and encouraging phone call from the Absorption Ministry could do wonders – now here's something to think about.

Pre-move visits not recommended

Now that the squills are blooming and the cold night air carries with it the powerful scent of eucalyptus, it feels so much like home. Streets named after people, flowers, and places etched in the consciousness of this wonderful country still touch me. It will pass, because it's mine forever.

I'm glad I wasn't here for a pre-move visit, the kind you undertake to test the waters. Perhaps this is a recommendation to those who are thinking of moving back here and are very scared, convinced that a preparatory visit could help. I know some people in Canada who abandoned the idea of returning to Israel after such visits.

There are no surprises here. It's the same difficult country where many people are struggling daily. The bureaucracy, the foot-dragging, the shady deals, the low service standards, the July-August heat, the terrible poverty, fears of the enemy, fears about the future, the blatant discrimination and other social maladies that aren't new.

Before we returned to Israel we had naïve fantasies about success. Today my way of looking at things is more realistic. At the same time, I also see things that I forgot I missed so much during the 10 years I spent abroad:

The best friends that live here, the most delicious fruit and vegetables, the special and simple cheeses, the newspapers, entertainment, designs, arts, plays, and shows; the fascinating books that perfectly match my identity and speak to me without pretensions; the historical sites, the multiculturalism, the holidays on all their glory, the meaning, family, values, abundance, and kindness.

This is my Israel, with all its sorrows and joys. Every day I discover it anew and even if it's hard, I'm finally home.

Iris Maimon-Toledano returned to Israel after a decade in Canada.

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. "The spiritual significance of Sukkot" by Yishai Fleisher
2. "Right On: A Miracle Of Biblical Proportions" by Michael Freund
3. "The Aliyah Connection" by Cindy Sher
4. "Sixty Years After War, First Rabbis Ordained In Germany"

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1. "The spiritual significance of Sukkot" by Yishai Fleisher
From Israel Insider

Succot is the most prayer- and mitzva-laden holiday on the Jewish calendar, full of the symbolism which makes Jewish life so rich.

A Succah, a booth of sorts, must have at least 3 walls, but its most striking feature is the schach.

Schach, the roof of the Succah, must be made of plant material like tree bark, bamboo, reeds, or palm branches. The Schach must come from the earth, yet be detached from the earth. The Schach is not meant to be a very useful roof -- you must be able to see sky through it. It is this unusual thing called Schach which make the Succah unique and filled with symbolism.

LIFE CYCLE AND THE SUCCAH
The Womb: The Succah, with its peaceful inner-sanctum and its semi-permeable Schach, resembles the womb. Inside its safety the Jew is protected from the slings and arrows of persecution, and manages to reproduce spiritually and physically generation after generation.

The Canopy: The wedding canopy [chupah] is the Succah of Peace which descends upon a bride and groom at their wedding day. So too, the Succah is the canopy of the marriage of the Jewish people and Hashem. The Holiday of Succot is the wedding which follows the cleansing period of Yom Kippur.

The Grave: the Schach above our heads, made of earth-grown plants, also symbolizes the earth itself. We are buried under the earth, and yet we are still alive. The message of Succot is the cycle of life: we are born, we marry, we die, and we continue on through the next generation and through our faith in Tchiyat Hameitim, the Resurrection of the Dead.

Yechezkel (Ezekiel) 37:
1. The hand of Hashem was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of Hashem, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones.
2. And he caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.
3. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord, thou knowest.
4. Again he said unto me, Prophesy over these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of Jehovah.
5. Thus saith the Lord unto these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live.
6. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am Hashem.
7. So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and, behold, an earthquake; and the bones came together, bone to its bone.
8. And I beheld, and, lo, there were sinews upon them, and flesh came up, and skin covered them above; but there was no breath in them.
9. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
10. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.
11. Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.
12. Therefore prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, O my people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel.
13. And ye shall know that I am Hashem, when I have opened your graves, and caused you to come up out of your graves, O my people.

It is because of this life cycle focus of Succot that we read Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) Chapter One, which laments this very cycle:

4. One generation goeth, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth for ever.
5. The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to its place where it ariseth.
6. The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it turneth about continually in its course, and the wind returneth again to its circuits.
7. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; unto the place whither the rivers go, thither they go again.
8. All things are full of weariness; man cannot utter [it]: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
9. That which hath been is that which shall be; and that which hath been done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

It is also for this reason that we invite the Ushpizin, the Holy Guests Avraham, Yitchak, Yaakov, Aaron, Moshe and Yoseph, into our Succah. Tzaddikim pass away, but they never die. They are bound up in the great cycle of life and they join us again and again every Succot.

The Seed: Looking up from our Succah we see the Schach, but now instead of being buried, we are planted. "A person is like the tree of the field" (Deut. 20:19) We are a seed planted beneath the soil, and rain is coming soon. G-d is giving us the gift of life, the chance to make the most of this world - to reach out of the Schach and into the world beyond.

The Bird Nest: Seeing Jews prepare for Succot is like seeing birds prepare their nests. Everyone is fluttering around looking for material for their nests. Indeed, we are but chicks, and it is Hashem who "Like an eagle arousing its nest hovering over its young; he spreads his wings, he takes it, he carries it on his wings." (Devarim 32:11)

IN JEWISH HISTORY:
Yaakov: Jacob is the forefather associated with Succot. Immediately after Jacob's successful duel with his brother Esau it is written: "And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built him a house, and made booths for his cattle: therefore the name of the place is called Succoth." (Bereishit 33;17) Jacob originally ran to Haran to escape his brother's wrath - coming to Succoth signaled the end of his personal exile and his return to the Land of Israel.

The Succah's characteristic is of an impermanent mobile structure. Jacob's characteristic too is always to be mobile -- always on the go: "How fair are your tents, O Jacob" (Bamidbar 24;5) Settling down is not for him, he goes from place to place in the Land of Israel and in the world -- his is always a spiritual journey.

Bereishit (Genesis) 28 reads:
20. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear,
21. and I return to my father's house in safety, then the LORD will be my God.
22. and this stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God's house"

Yaakov asks for three things: food , clothing, and protection on the journey. But what is missing? A request for permanent housing of course! Yet this construction of permanent housing, Jacob reserves for He Who needs no housing -- for the Lord Himself. This is Succot -- we, the Jewish people, will live in impermanent dwelling all our generations so that our journey could lead to us to the construction of His permanent dwelling.

Mishkan and Mikdash - [The Tabernacle and the Temple]: the Succah resembles the Tabernacle in that it too was an impermanent structure, and sadly our Holy Temple in Jerusalem was impermanent as well for it was destroyed twice because of our sins. "In that day I will raise up the fallen Succah of David, and wall up its breaches; I will also raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old" (Amos 9;11) The fallen Succah of David, is a term of endearment for the Temple - may it be rebuilt in our lives.

Clouds of Glory: Our rabbis tell us that the Succah represents the clouds of glory that escorted the Jewish people in the desert. The clouds kept our cloths clean, and kept danger away from us. These clouds were also a form of womb, raising a new Jew to enter the Land of Israel. They also directed us:

Shemot (Exodus) 40:
36 And whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward, throughout all their journeys.
37 But if the cloud was not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up.
38 For the cloud of HaShem was upon the tabernacle by day, and there was fire therein by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.

The Holy Ark: The wings of the Cherubs above Aron Hakodesh [the Holy Ark] acted like the Schach of the Succah, protecting the Holy contents within. It is written in "And the cherubim shall spread out their wings on high, screening (Sochechim) the ark-cover with their wings, with their faces one to another; toward the ark-cover shall the faces of the cherubim be" (Shemot [Exodus] 25: 20) In the Succah, we are the Holy objects which G-d protects with his wings, we are the carriers of the living Torah.

Hashem sends His canopy to us to nurture us, to marry us, to protect us. Through the sliver of sky seen through the Schach we are reminded of G-d's nearness: "My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, he is standing behind our wall, He is looking through the windows, He is peering through the lattice. (Song of Songs 2;9) No wonder this holiday is called Zman Simchateinu -- the time of our happiness.

May we merit the words of the Sabbath prayer:

"Safeguard our going and coming, for life and for peace from now to eternity, and spread over us the Succah of Your peace. Blessed are you Hashem, Who spreads the Succah of peace upon us, and upon all of His people Israel and upon Jerusalem.

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2. "Right On: A Miracle Of Biblical Proportions" by Michael Freund
From Jerusalem Post

In a few weeks' time, Sara Haunhar will at last fulfill a lifelong dream, one that she has been nurturing for over the past eight decades.

Together with her daughter Miriam, and some 216 other members of the Bnei Menashe of northeastern India, the 84-year old widow will board a charter flight next month, and finally begin the long journey home to Zion.

It is a voyage that began many centuries ago - 27, to be exact - when the Assyrian empire invaded the Land of Israel and cast most of our people into the darkest recesses of the exile.

It was the ancient equivalent of a Holocaust, a devastating blow in which the overwhelming majority of the world's Israelites - ten out of twelve tribes! - suddenly and mysteriously vanished.

Many thought they were gone forever, as they marched off into the mists of history, with little or no apparent hope of return.

But now, after so many years of wandering and dispersion, the descendants of these "lost Jews" are finally, triumphantly, coming back.

The significance of this should be readily apparent, even to the most hardened of cynics. After all, whoever heard of an ancient lost tribe returning to its ancestral homeland 2,700 years after their deportation? Without exaggerating, it seems fair to say that this is a miracle of Biblical proportions.

Sara Haunhar certainly thinks so. Last year, in September 2005, she sat patiently before a rabbinical court, which had been dispatched to India by Israel's Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar to restore the Bnei Menashe to the Jewish people.

Previously, in March 2005, the Chief Rabbi had ruled that the Bnei Menashe are "descendants of the Jewish people," and he agreed to do what he could to help them to return.

The rabbinical judges peppered Sara with questions about Jewish life and lore, gently probing her knowledge of Judaism and her commitment to formally rejoining the people of Israel.

ONE OF the rabbis who was there later described the ensuing scene with great emotion. Impressed by Sara's sincerity and dedication, the judges informed her that they were pleased to welcome her back into the fold of Israel.

Naturally, Sara began to cry, with the flow of tears rolling down her furrowed cheeks moving all those present.

When one of the judges leaned over and asked her if she was alright, Sara composed herself and told them, "All of my life, I was afraid that I would die before I would merit to see God's Holy Land. But now that you have accepted me as a Jew, I know that I will soon be able to set foot on the land of my ancestors, the Land of Israel."

Growing up, Sara had always lived an intensely Jewish life, along with the rest of the 7,000-strong Bnei Menashe community, which resides primarily in the northeastern Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur. The Bnei Menashe observe the Sabbath, practice circumcision on the eighth day, keep the laws of Kashrut and scrupulously uphold the rules of family purity.

Thanks to the tolerance which epitomizes Indian society, the Bnei Menashe have been able to build dozens of synagogues across the country's northeast, where they turn three times a day in prayer towards Jerusalem, longing to be reunited with their friends and family already living in the Jewish state.

In just the past decade, nearly 1,000 members of the community have made aliya. They are valuable and productive members of Israeli society, serving in the army, working hard and supporting their families, and raising adorable Jewish children.

Indeed, this past summer, at the height of the war, a dozen young Bnei Menashe men were fighting on the frontlines in combat units in Lebanon and Gaza, defending the land of Israel and the Jewish people. One of them, St.-Sgt. Avi Hanshing, a 22-year old paratrooper, was injured during a clash with Hizbullah terrorists in southern Lebanon.

"I had to fight to come to Israel," Hanshing said, recalling the inexplicable obstacles that Israel's government routinely puts in the way of Bnei Menashe aliya. "Now," he added, "I have to fight for the country."

THE ARRIVAL next month of the immigrants from India will mark a welcome turning point for the community. For the first time, a large group of Bnei Menashe immigrants will arrive here together, proudly, as Jews, with their heads held high and their hopes bright for the future.

As chairman of Shavei Israel, an organization that assists the Bnei Menashe, it is a day that I am looking forward to with a lot of very special anticipation. For years, we have lobbied, struggled and pressed the Bnei Menashe's case, in an effort to persuade the Israeli government to open the door for these wonderful people.

In June, we nearly had to petition Israel's Supreme Court to force certain government ministers to allow the aliya to take place, and it was only after we met with aides to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that the final approval was actually forthcoming.

And so, I can not help but pray that this first batch of 218 immigrants next month will herald the arrival of many, many more in the years to come.

This special event will take place thanks in no small measure to the friendship, backing and support of Jewish Agency Chairman Zeev Bielski, and Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, who are teaming together with Shavei Israel to make this aliya a reality.

Pooling their resources, the Agency and the Fellowship will fly the immigrants here and enable them to be housed in Israel's north, in the towns of Karmiel and Upper Nazareth, where they will receive added absorption benefits thanks to the generosity of Christians and Jews alike.

There is something extremely fitting about this, too, for as the prophet Isaiah foretold some 2,500 years ago, the nations of the world would play an active role in the return of the Jewish people to their land.

In Isaiah 49:22, the Bible says: "Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the nations, and set up my standard to the peoples, and they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders."

I have no doubt that the love, concern and practical help being provided by Israel's Jewish and Christian supporters worldwide is part and parcel of the fulfillment of this verse.

And it sends goosebumps down my arms when I think about how the vision of Isaiah is literally coming to pass before our eyes.

The aliya of the Bnei Menashe is a historic event. It is a timely and welcome example of just what Israel, and its wondrous rebirth, is truly all about: the ingathering of our exiles, not only from the four corners of the earth, but from our people's dark and often painful history, too.

And it should serve as a potent reminder that despite all the problems and difficulties this country may face, we should not hesitate to join Sara Haunhar and her fellow Bnei Menashe in declaring, "Thank God for the State of Israel.

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3. "The Aliyah Connection" by Cindy Sher
From JUF

This summer, when the Lehrfield family made aliyah–immigrated to Israel–Debbie Lehrfield's husband, Yoni, told her, "I feel like we're home."

Many other Chicagoans have made their way "home" this year and even this summer amidst the newest Hezbollah attacks against northern Israel.

It's the Israel Aliyah Center's (a local grantee that receives a significant portion of their budget from the Jewish Federation) job to get them home. The center, affiliated with JUF's overseas arm, the Jewish Agency for Israel, facilitates the entire immigration process for Midwesterners considering making aliyah or staying in Israel long-term.

As the shlichat aliyah (immigration emissary) and the Midwest regional director of the Lincolnwood-based center, Wendy Keter just began her last of three years stationed in the Chicago area. Originally from Philadelphia, Keter made aliyah 35 years ago, right after graduating from high school. "I realized you can be active for Israel or active in Israel," said Keter.

She says she understands firsthand what olim (immigrants to Israel) are going through because she has walked in their shoes. Today, as a mother, she also empathizes with parents of children moving to Israel, especially since her son currently serves on reserve duty in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Most people who make aliyah, says Keter, have a strong religious identity. The Hebrew word aliyah comes from the phrase "going up" and describes the spiritual ascension of taking one's Jewish life to the highest level by moving to the Jewish homeland.

Being in Israel, it's something unique–you live in a country that celebrates your religion with you, said Rachel Slovin, originally from Lincolnwood, who made aliyah on July 20–a week into the Hezbollah fighting–and lives in Rechavia, a Jerusalem neighborhood. "Being in Israel is just a different feeling; you're proud to be a Jew. It's the land that was given to us and it's a great place to live.

Though there are many miles between Slovin and her family members back in Chicago, she says, they're always just a plane ride away.

Improved communication technology also helps bridge the distance for families separated by an ocean. When I made aliyah in 1971 there were no cell phones, there was no e-mail. I talked to my parents once every two weeks from the phone down Jaffa Road in the post office if I was lucky, said Keter. "With all the modes of communication today, you can literally be on the phone all day with your family and loved ones [in the States]. Between e-mail and "Skype" and "Voiceover" (both Skype and Voiceover are Israeli Internet technologies allowing people to talk free to people in other countries), you can be in constant communication."

The Lehrfield family, from Skokie, dodged the hurdle of separation altogether by relocating their whole family to Israel. For 24 years, Debbie and Yoni Lehrfield had talked about making aliyah, but life and responsibilities always got in the way. But now, as their four kids are getting older (they range from age 10-21), they realized that all of their children would eventually study in Israel, with or without them. The parents figured, why not move with them and keep the family together?

If we don't encourage them to stay in Israel, then chances are we are going to be scattered–some in the United States and some in Israel," said Debbie Lehrfield. "If we have any chance of keeping our family together, this is the time."

The Lehrfields made aliyah on July 5, one week before the violence broke out, and live in Maale Adumim, just east of Jerusalem. Despite the events that were unfolding in the north, the Lehrfields are there to stay.

It's sometimes frightening–when you walk around you have to keep your eyes opened," said Debbie. "On the other hand, it's our land, it's ours. And I can't exactly say that I felt 100 percent safe when my kids would walk around the Chicagoland area."

The Lehrfields weren't the only ones to pack up and move to Israel this summer. Immigration from Chicago has remained buoyant in the weeks since the Hezbollah violence erupted. We have not had one cancellation, ken ayina hora (not to jinx it), said Keter, but added that most Midwesterners and North Americans who made aliyah settle in central, not northern Israel.

Rather than discouraging potential olim, the surge in hostilities has strengthened the resolve of new olim because they believe that living in Israel is the most powerful way to support their Israeli brethren. "The phone is ringing off the wall," said Keter. "People call and say 'I've been thinking about [moving to] Israel and I realize this is the time for me to go.'"

Zaq Harrison, now a coach and manager for Israel's national Little League team, moved with his family from Skokie to Ra'anana, north of Tel Aviv, last year. He had made aliyah the first time around in 1982, at the height of the Lebanon War. Before that move, Harrison had wavered over whether or not to go to the Middle East during wartime. He recalls his father urging him not to derail his dream of living in Israel. "You don't go when it's convenient for you," his father told him. If it's important to you, you go! Make a difference!

More than 30 years later, his father's wisdom resonates today. "If something's important to you, if you have a family member who needs help, you don't pick and choose when you're able to help. You do it," said Harrison, who, in the wake of this summer's violence, has been volunteering in northern Israel by providing humanitarian aid to the sick, elderly, and poor.

The number of Chicagoans, like Harrison, making aliyah has been rising steadily since the beginning of the terror war in 2000. In 2004, 57 people from the Chicago metropolitan area made aliyah. This year, that number has nearly doubled, as more than 100 Chicagoans will make their way to Israel. And this summer alone, 65 Chicagoans will make aliyah. Keter says word-of-mouth has precipitated the jump in numbers because people who have moved to Israel tell their friends back in Chicago, "Come, it's good."

While aliyah numbers grew during the terror war, Israeli tourism suffered. Today, Israel-lovers are still striving to counteract the blow that Israeli tourism took during that time. "During the terror war, when the numbers of people didn't go, it caused serious economic times, [but] tourism this summer was amazing," said Keter.

"People are realizing that the best thing they could do is go to Israel, support tourism, and that will keep us going. Besides, it's the message that it sends to people in Israel that we're one people."

Maya Golan has taken her love for Israel to the next level–by joining the Israeli army, which is mandatory for everyone who lives in Israel up to a certain age. Maya lived in Israel with her family until the age of 8, when they moved to Rockford, Ill. Last year, Maya made aliyah, along with her older sister, Yasmine (now 18). Maya, now 17, lives in the northern Israeli town of Afula, where she is an Israeli Scout, volunteering in schools and at summer camps. Since the violence began, she has spent much of her time conducting camp activities for children inside bomb shelters.

Many young people, like the Golan sisters, make aliyah so that they can enlist in the IDF. "It's part of being in the country and being part of youth in Israel. Everyone has to go into the army," said Maya. "I want to feel like the rest of the Israeli kids and help the country in some way."

In order to further promote immigration and programs in Israel, the Jewish Federation established the Aliyah Council of Greater Chicago in the 1980s. Chicago is the only Federation in the United States to offer financial grants to all olim from Chicago, according to Keter. It is a message to olim that Chicago looks at their olim as strengthening the community, she said. This community sees it as a blessing.

For information about aliyah contact the Aliyah Council of Greater Chicago, (847) 674-8861, or send an e-mail to shalom1948@earthlink.net.

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4. "Sixty Years After War, First Rabbis Ordained In Germany"
From the Guardian

Germany's Jews will today celebrate a remarkable stage in the slow and often painful recovery of the community that faced annihilation in the Holocaust - the first ordination of rabbis on German soil since the second world war.

Daniel Alter, Tomas Kucera and Malcolm Mattiatiani will today be ordained as rabbis at a synagogue in the east German city of Dresden. All three graduated yesterday from Abraham Geiger College, a progressive rabbinical seminary near Berlin set up to cater for more than 100,000 Jews in Germany.

Germany has the fastest growing Jewish community in Europe, second only in size to France and Britain. This is largely because of massive, and at times chaotic, immigration of Russian Jews to Germany in the 1990s from shattered pieces of the former Soviet Union.

Today's new rabbis include a middle-aged German, a Czech and a South African, who recently worked at a synagogue in Pinnar. They are the first to be trained here since the Gestapo closed Berlin's last rabbinical seminary in 1942, snuffing out a tradition of Reform Judaism that had gone on since the 1830s.

"I'm excited. I feel rather privileged," Malcolm Mattitiani, 35, said yesterday. Mr Mattiatiani - whose grandparents were Jewish Lithuanian refugees, and who lost a great-uncle in the Holocaust - will take up a job next week at a liberal synagogue in Cape Town. He said he did not think it strange to have done his studies in the country that carried out the Holocaust.

"We will never forget the Shoa. But we should remember that Jews have thrived in Germany for centuries," he explained. "Modern Germany is making an effort, and has succeeded in large degree, to correct the mistakes of the past. We need to start moving on as well."

British Jewish leaders will take part in today's ceremony, including Baroness Julia Neuberger, whose grandparents fled the Nazis. "It's fantastic," she said. "There was no German Jewish community to speak of after the war, with only about 12,000 left. Feelings towards Germany among Jews were very negative. Now we have a new community, largely made up of people from the former Soviet Union."

The immigration by Russian Jews since the fall of the Berlin Wall has been spectacular. Around 200,000 Jews from Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan have begun new lives in Germany. Reunified Germany's government, mindful of the country's historical guilt, and keen to atone, has offered the Russian-Jewish newcomers generous social benefits, flats, German courses and citizenship.

Some newcomers flourished - they include the Russian-Jewish writer Wladimer Kaminer. Others failed to get a job. A few vanished, prompting federal interior ministers to toughen up rules for prospective Jewish immigrants. Although 200,000 Russian Jews came to Germany the country's active Jewish community is officially put at 105,000. The discrepancy can only be explained by the fact that many Jewish newcomers were not in fact Jewish.

With four out of five German Jews now originally from Russia, established Jewish observers admit there have been tensions. "In many Jewish communities there are conflicts between older Germans and Russian immigrants," says Christian Böhme, editor of the Jüdische Allgemeine, Germany's weekly Jewish broadsheet. "There have been differences in perspective over the Holocaust. Many Russian Jews don't want to remember the Holocaust as the Holocaust, but instead prefer to celebrate Russia's victory over German fascism."

Active Jewish religious communities have sprung up across Germany. There has also been a renaissance in Jewish academic studies. As well as the Abraham Geiger College, established in 1999 in co-ordination with Potsdam University, new Jewish departments have been set up in German universities.

Yesterday, however, one Jewish leader suggested the community had a long way to go. "We need at least another 30 rabbis," Dieter Graumann, vice-president of Germany's Jewish Council, told a press conference in Dresden. "We are happy for these three, of course, but we shouldn't lose our sense of perspective. Germany is hungry for more rabbis."

Roman origins

Jews have lived in Germany since the Romans set up communities along the Rhine. At the end of the 19th century German Jews were prominent as bankers, lawyers and doctors. Nineteenth-century Germany was less anti-semitic than France or Russia. Some 120,000 German Jews died in the first world war

In 1933 when Hitler seized power around half a million Jews lived in Germany. About half got out. The Nazis' genocide began in 1938, with many German Jews deported to Polish ghettos, where they perished in concentration camps. Only 12,000 survived, including 1,200-1,500 Berlin Jews.

Holocaust survivors, and displaced Jews from across Europe, were joined in the 1950s and 1960s by Jewish returnees from Israel and South America. The biggest wave of emigration took place in the 1990s. Some 200,000 Russian-speaking Jews settled in Germany.