Brushing aside terror concerns, families migrate to Israel

By Pat Milton
Associated Press Writer
July 12, 2005
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/
ny-bc-ny--movingtoisrael0712jul12,0,6082428.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork
 
NEW YORK -- Little could darken David Berman's mood Tuesday 
as he waited to fulfill a longtime dream by emigrating with his 
family to Israel. Not even the news that the city they had chosen 
as a new home had just been hit by a suicide bomber. 

"I am aware of it, but I am not fearful," Berman said as he waited 
with scores of other smiling, excited Jewish families at John F. Kennedy 
International Airport. "I think God looks out for you when you're 
there in Israel." 

The plastic surgeon from Potomac, Md., was among 350 people 
from around the United States who were to leave New York on 
Tuesday on flights for Israel. Another 150 were scheduled to 
leave simultaneously from Toronto, Canada, in what organizers 
were calling the largest one-day migration of North Americans to 
Israel in the country's history. 

The families were seen off by Israel's Ambassador to the U.S., 
and were to be met upon their arrival Wednesday by Prime Minister 
Ariel Sharon and Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres. 

The flights were sponsored by in part by Nefesh B'Nefesh, 
an organization that encourages Jews to move to Israel and 
expects to see 3,200 North Americans do so in 2005. 

Frequent violence hasn't stopped the flow, and Berman, 48, his wife 
Temimah, 43, and their four young boys, ages 8, 10, 12 and 14, 
were excited to be headed for their new apartment in Netanya, 
on the shores of the Mediterranean. 

The city's calm was shattered Tuesday when a suicide bomber 
detonated an explosive near a shopping mall, killing himself and 
two women and wounding about 30 people. 

Max Berman, 14, had other things on his mind. 

"I'm going to miss my friends, but I will be living on the beach, 
and everyone is Jewish in Israel, and I think that will be cool," 
he said. 

Other families departing from New York for Israel on Tuesday 
said the strife with the Palestinians is no reason to stay away 
from a nation they have long considered home. 

A number cited religious and cultural reasons for their move. 
Several said the conflict only made their desire to emigrate stronger. 

"God gave us this land. We need to live there," said Michael Aaron, 
35, of Englewood, N.J., who was leaving with his wife Michele, 
and four children. 

Among the emigrants was one who has already escaped terror once. 

Henry Fuerte, 33, of Brooklyn, said he was in an elevator on the 
78th floor of the World Trade Center's north tower when it was struck 
by a jet on Sept. 11, 2001. 

Fuerte said he was thrown in the air and suffered knee, back and 
eye injuries in the explosion, and resolved afterward to make a 
home in Israel. 

He said he was leaving the United States mostly for religious 
reasons, saying he didn't feel quite at home in New York. 

"Life for a Jew in Israel is difficult, but pretty soon, life for a Jew 
outside of Israel is going to be impossible," he said. "America is 
a great country, as far as opportunity, but as for religious life, 
such as keeping kosher, Israel is where a Jew belongs." 

Nefesh B'Nefesh tries to make migration to Israel easier for Jewish 
families, partly through grants and loans. 

Many of the families leaving Tuesday were headed for immigration 
centers that would help them find work and housing. 

For decades, Israel has sought to solidify its future as a Jewish 
state by encouraging immigration and settlement of contested 
territories. 

Israeli Arabs now make up about 19.3 percent of the country's 
population, and are growing at about double the rate as the 
country's Jewish population, according to Israel's Central Bureau 
of Statistics.