Pushing Aliyah  

by Michele Chabin - Israel Correspondent
The Jewish Week
12/13/2002

New organization encouraging students at Israeli yeshivas to 
make their move permanent. 
                        
While a sizable number of North American young adults studying 
in Israeli yeshivas and seminaries ultimately immigrate to Israel, 
many of the schools have avoided making an all-out "aliyah pitch"
out of fear that parents would object. 

Aloh Naaleh, an 8-month-old organization founded by a group of 
North American rabbis now living in Israel, is challenging that 
taboo. 

The organization recently held a festive melave malke, a holy 
meal after Shabbat, at Jerusalem's Renaissance Hotel dedicated 
to the theme of aliyah. The gathering, which was held in 
cooperation with some 15 prominent yeshivas, attracted 800 male 
students. An evening for female students is planned for January. 

An unnamed donor sponsored the $25,000 event, which included 
free bus transportation, lectures by prominent rabbis, 
refreshments and live music. It attracted post-high school 
students from a variety of noted yeshivas, including 
Keren B'Yavneh, Ohr Yerushalayim, Shapells/Darche Noam, 
Har Etzion, Derech Eitz Chaim and Hamivtar Orot Lev.

The organizers were able to attract such a large crowd thanks 
to the cooperation of several yeshiva heads, who informed their 
students of the event and assisted them in arranging 
transportation. Officials from various yeshivas had attended 
Aloh Naaleh's planning meeting and helped shape the program. 

Despite the intifada, several thousand Orthodox men and women 
from overseas currently attend Israeli yeshivas and seminaries, 
and the numbers are, in fact, rising. This is in sharp contrast 
to students from other religious denominations, as well as those
from secular universities, whose numbers continue to dwindle. 

During their presentations, the event's speakers stressed that 
aliyah is a mitzvah and that Torah Jews like themselves should 
give the move some serious thought from a religious perspective. 
At the same time, they were careful to state that aliyah isn't 
for everyone, is financially and emotionally challenging, and 
that students should make such a decision in consultation with 
their parents. 

In his speech, Rabbi Shalom Gold, the organization's founder, 
mixed Jewish and American themes. Quoting President Theodore 
Roosevelt, he said, " 'He who does not participate in the passion 
of his time will be considered as not having lived.' 

"The passion of our time is Eretz Yisrael," Rabbi Gold concluded. 

In an interview with The Jewish Week, Rabbi Yerachmiel Roness, 
the group's executive director and a former New Yorker, said 
Aloh Naaleh was created for one purpose: "to motivate yeshiva
students to think of aliyah as an option." 

As it is, Rabbi Roness said, "The yeshivas that participated 
have between a 20 to 35 percent rate of aliyah" among their
alumni. While this number is very high, and accounts for the 
vast majority of those North Americans who have immigrated to 
Israel in recent years, Rabbi Roness "would like to see it double." 

To accomplish this, he said, yeshiva students need to think of 
their Israel-based studies as a possible aliyah tryout rather
than a break from school or career, no matter how enriching. 

Those who attend the one- or two-year programs "come because 
they see Israel as a central feature of Jewish life. But all
too often they view yeshiva study the way others view Swiss 
finishing school - you go back to home and reality. We want them 
to realize that living in Israel can also be a reality." 

Rabbi Shaya Karlinsky, dean and rosh yeshiva of Shapells / 
Yeshivat Darche Noam, believes that due to their religious
beliefs, yeshiva students are the obvious choice for aliyah 
recruitment.

"A yeshiva student has a natural connection with Eretz Yisrael 
on a spiritual, transcendent level. Aliyah is the natural
implementation of this vision," he said. 

Non-yeshiva programs have to work harder, Rabbi Karlinsky said, 
because "they are not built on this [foundation]. They have to 
appeal to students on some other dimension that may or may not 
be as effective." 

Approximately 40 percent of his yeshiva's overseas alumni have 
made aliyah, Karlinsky noted, obviously proud of this record.

Rabbi Mallen Galinsky, dean and rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat 
Shaalvim, shares the view that aliyah should be more central to
the thinking of young yeshiva students. He termed the melave 
malke "an attempt to try to at least expose them to the 
possibility of living in Israel." 

"We feel the only place in the world where one can live a full 
Jewish life is in Israel," Rabbi Galinsky said. 

He said his yeshiva had "encouraged" students to attend the 
event but that it was optional. "We don't try to brainwash our
students, just to show them that aliyah is one of several 
options," Rabbi Galinsky said. 

According to Rabbi Roness, the rabbis did not inform the 
students' parents ahead of time that an aliyah-oriented event
was taking place. Those parents who learned of the evening did 
so via their children. 

"We did not feel it necessary to seek permission, inasmuch as 
speaking about the Torah and the commandments is part of why
these young adults were sent here," Rabbi Roness said. 
"Our program proceeded along these lines." 

Nachliel Dyson, executive director of the national office of 
the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, where Aloh
Naaleh is headquartered, called the organization's objectives 
"bold" and "refreshing." 

"To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time in more 
than 50 years that yeshiva students have [attended an event]
en masse to hear about aliyah," Dyson said. 

Dyson accused Israeli and Jewish institutions of sidestepping 
the importance of North American aliyah out of fear that it
would turn off diaspora Jews. 

"You won't hear a Jewish Agency emissary or Ariel Sharon 
approaching various federations and saying 'we want 1,000 people
from your community to make aliyah next year,' " Dyson said. 

"There are too many diaspora Jews who don't want to hear this. 
They say, 'we'll send money but leave our children alone.' "

While some of the rabbis interviewed for this article - and who 
asked not to be quoted - acknowledged that aliyah is a potentially 
explosive subject for some North American parents, they insisted 
that many are in favor of such a move for their children. 

One such parent is Michael Miller, executive vice president of 
the Jewish Community Relations Council in New York, whose three 
children all studied in Israel after high school. 

"Speaking as a parent, we encourage our children to consider 
aliyah an option, and we would be very pleased if at the time
that is right for them, our children were to make aliyah," 
he said. 

Still, Miller believes that the rabbis should have informed 
the parents about the event's agenda, realizing it might have
promoted anxiety in some. "I think it is then the obligation 
of the parent to speak with the child," he said. 

As for other parents, Miller said, "I don't think they are 
necessarily upset. I think most parents want their children to
come back home safe and sound, and then to decide on their 
life's path."

Another father, who asked that his name not be published for 
fear that it might embarrass his child, said: "I think it 
would be foolish for any parent who has sent their child to 
Israel to study not to expect their son or daughter to come 
back with a very Zionist attitude, intent on making aliyah 
someday. 

"To think otherwise," he said, "would be really naive."