Making "Aliyah"
by Shira Abraham
Aliyah was always a main topic in our house. Every day the topic was mentioned at least five times, and every Shabbat 'Aliyah' and 'Israel' was the consistent focus of our meals. Coming home each week after learning Chumash in school I kept on seeing that each Parsha says to keep all the mitzvoth Hashem commanded us in Eretz Israel. My family and I after many years of living in America decided that Israel, the land Hashem promised us, is our homeland.
I was in 6th grade at the time when we started making "real steps towards Aliyah" - my siblings and I made booklets for our parents on Aliyah, hung up pictures of Israel and the map of Israel all over the house with the saying "this is my home" on the pictures, and started telling our whole community of Elizabeth, that we were making Aliyah. I refused to hand in my 7th grade school application because I didn't want to face the reality, that I wasn't making Aliyah that year.
I entered 7th grade in Bruriah and absolutely loved my teachers and my friends, but I wasn't giving up on Eretz Israel and Aliyah. My parents decided we were definitely making Aliyah in the beginning of that year (2003) and the whole family was very excited. Around October I returned home from school and felt a sense of happiness in our house and my mother broke the news to me that my father got an offer of a transfer from his job in New York to go to Israel. Now that my father got a job it made the stress factor of finding a job disappear and our Aliyah plans a lot easier. From then on we did the "normal" Aliyah packing and getting ready to leave routine, packing up the house, goodbye parties, tears, and more tears. It was hard to leave all my friends and family but it all works out, for my grandparents are God willing making Aliyah and our friends come to visit us here often.
A couple of days before getting on the plane, Nefesh B'Nefesh called us and asked if we would want to be video taped by an Israeli video crew. We excitedly said yes and decided we had to do something exciting for our last days in America on TV. We decided to go boating in Manhattan with one-day left to go till the big day, and a lot more packing to do.
After all our goodbyes, tears, hugs, and kisses we boarded the plane for an experience of a lifetime. Being on the Nefesh B'Nefesh plane gave each one of us an incredible feeling, and then the ceremony once we arrived in Israel was emotional and amazing.
After being here around a year and a half I realize how lucky I am to have made Aliyah to our homeland of Israel. The everyday life here and the 'Kedushat Haaretz' (Sanctity of the Land of Israel) make me proud and special to be a Jew living in my own land.
Shira Abraham, aged 14, made Aliyah with Nefesh B'Nefesh (NBN), an organization dedicated to revitalizing North American Aliyah in July 2003. NBN has recently launched a competition entitled "Homeward Bound" for 6th-8th grade Jewish students across North America. The object of the contest is to create and design a logo for their "Summer 2005" chartered airplanes of Olim to Israel. The winning logo design, capturing & depicting the essence of 'Aliyah & Homecoming', will be painted on the body of one or more of the flights bringing hundreds of Olim from North America to Israel. The winning artist will be invited to accompany this special flight, joined by his/ her parent and/or school representative.See www.nbn.org.il/logocontest.
Shira and the rest of the Abraham family reside in Beit Shemesh, west of Jerusalem.
Write to Shira at write@ttt.org.il
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