Aliyah Summer By Jane Calem Rosen August 3, 2007 http://www.jstandard.com/articles/3008/1/ALIYAH-SUMMER As Abigail, Steven, and Elana Leichman of Teaneck prepare to fly to Israel on Monday, they will be joined there by a number of others from this area - singles, couples, and families - moving this summer or in the upcoming months. The local olim include 40 singles and 38 families; 85 percent identify as Orthodox and 15 percent say they are Conservative, Reform, or otherwise religiously affiliated, said Dena Wimpfheimer, a spokesperson for Nefesh b’Nefesh, which facilitates aliyah. Their average age is 34, she added, primarily members of young families. They also represent a range of professional experience: physical therapy; real estate; teaching; database and network administration; law; sales; finance/banking; psychology; accounting; and marketing. Once in Israel, they plan to settle throughout the country, in cities large and small and on kibbutzim. Among the locations indicated in their applications are Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Bet Shemesh, Ramat Bet Shemesh, Kibbutz Yiftach, Ra’anana, Yad Binyamin, Modi’in, and Chashmonaim. "There has been a steady increase of olim from this region since 2002, with a gradual increase in the numbers of Conservative and Reform," said Wimpfheimer in an e-mail to The Jewish Standard. Cong. Beth Aaron, an Orthodox synagogue in Teaneck where the Leichmans have been affiliated, has seen a spike in families making aliyah this year, six, from the one or two a year who have moved over the previous five years, said Rabbi Lawrence Rothwachs. Of this year’s boom, he remarked, "It’s a number that we are certainly proud of and hope to see grow." Maintaining that aliyah is "an undeniable tenet of our faith," Rothwachs said he is nonetheless "mindful not to preach to individuals," recognizing how personal and courageous the choice to "uproot one’s family and leave one’s birthplace, which demonstrates a profound commitment to the land of Israel and the people of Israel." Indeed, those who shared their stories with the Standard expressed a love of Israel and desire to fulfill a dream of living a fully Jewish life that they felt could only be realized by taking this step. Candid about the challenges they will face, they are relying on meticulous planning and strong faith to aid them on their journey. They will also be assisted by Israel’s Ministry of Absorption, which provides an immigration "basket" with a variety of benefits, depending on a person’s individual circumstances. Everyone is entitled to a free one-way airline ticket and several months of ulpan, classes in modern Hebrew. Other perks may include mortgage assistance, free tuition for college students, and employment leads. Said Jacob Dallal, a spokesperson for the Jewish Agency for Israel, which oversees applications for citizenship granted by Israel’s interior ministry, "Those who are working pay no employment taxes for a year, for example." Nefesh b’Nefesh also provides an array of services, including job counseling and handling plane reservations and guiding olim through the bureaucratic maze once they arrive, all detailed on the organization’s website: www.nbn.org.il. Following are a few snapshots, as people from North Jersey prepare to leave. Aliyah portraits The perfect time: Abigail, Steven, and Elana Leichman No snow in Ma’ale Adumim. That’s something Abby Leichman is looking forward to finding in her new home on the west bank. About the size of Teaneck, Israel’s second largest settlement is considered by many to be a bedroom community of Jerusalem, where her husband, Steve, hopes to find work in his field of information technology. With friends in the community who made aliyah earlier, they are already booked for meals, she said, which should ease the transition as well. Leichman said she is particularly "excited about living in a Jewish land, where bus drivers say ‘Shabbat Shalom’ on Fridays, little things like that, and having my vacation and holiday schedule coincide with the national vacation and holiday schedule. "Another thing I’m looking forward to is the ability to be part of the process there, to be able to effect change through my vote, instead of sitting here and complaining. I’ll have an effect on what’s going on in Israel that I’ve never had before." On the backburner since their marriage 25 years ago, the timing of the move couldn’t be better, with the Leichman’s youngest child, Elana, 18, ready to embark on her post-high school year in Israel. The 2007 Frisch graduate will enter the Israel Defense Forces. "I’m moving to be part of the culture, so I don’t want to spend a year in an American yeshiva," she said. When Elana resumes her education, the tuition will be free. An older son, K.J., 23, now studying tuition-free at the Jerusalem College of Technology, made aliyah several years ago during his post-high school study, while their middle child, Joseph, entering senior year at Queens College this fall, will remain behind for the time being and continue as an occasional contributor to the Standard. "Everyone has offered to have him for the holidays," said Leichman. "They’re forgetting his grandparents are still here, but I appreciate my friends’ concern." Her biggest fear? "I have been learning Hebrew, but I am nowhere near fluent," she said. Leichman plans to take advantage of the five months of free ulpan, working class time around a part-time job as a copy editor she already has lined up. "It scares me, but at first, we’ll rely on our children, just like immigrants in any other time and place." Off to college: Raquella Siegel When Raquella Siegel left her Teaneck home for Israel on Monday, she knew she would find her two best friends aboard the flight, one from London, the other from Atlanta. Roommates at Nachon Gold, a Jerusalem yeshiva where Siegel, 20, had spent the year after graduating from Frisch in 2005, each had decided on her own to declare citizenship. "We all knew we wanted to live there someday. It was just a matter of when," said Siegel. The three, in fact, decided to extend their term at the time, with Siegel spending another half year at Ayelet Hashachar, a seminary that combined study with community service. There, she worked during the day at a performing arts center for religious women, Hamachol Shel Bnos Miriam, completing her studies in the evening. Both institutions are in Jerusalem. A dancer, Siegel dropped out of Stern College last year after only one semester, planning now to enter a four-year program in dance education at Orot, a college/conservatory in Elkana, a west bank community north of Jerusalem. Her two friends will be students at Bar Ilan University, a short bus ride away. Siegel’s mother, Nancy, is treating her departure as any mother would whose daughter is leaving for college, even though both know she will not be returning any time soon. And despite the fact that she said she will miss her family terribly - Siegel is also close with her two brothers and a sister - "the best time is now," she reasoned, "when I am alone and can make it on my own and build a family there instead of having to move a whole family [later]. With a school to support me, I don’t have to fend completely on my own and will be able to merge into Israeli culture." That cultural climate will also make it possible, she hopes, to someday perform professionally, something that, as an observant Jew, she could not easily envision in the United States. "Because I am a Jewish dancer, who chooses not to dance in front of men, I have very limited opportunities" in the United States, she said. "In Israel, there are a lot of Jewish dancers and an audience. It will help my career and spiritual growth as well. "I know it is a clich?," she continued, "but the air is different in Israel. Everyone there understands Judaism and is striving for something mutual. It opens up all this opportunity to grow in every way." Joining the children: Hedda and Michael Reuben with Morris "Zaide Moishe" Bendkowski The two reasons most people voice for not making aliyah - no family and no job in Israel - simply don’t apply to the Reubens. "As mazal would have it," said Hedda Reuben, her husband’s company, Lycored, a maker of vitamins and other supplements in Orange, was recently taken over by an Israeli company in Beersheva. Michael Reuben, a chemist and vice president, was given an option to continue here or fill a position there. "You don’t look a gift horse in the mouth," she said. Meanwhile, the Reubens’ two grown children, Yair, 22, now married, and Tehila, 21, both of whom made aliyah during their post-high school year of study in Israel, "are counting the days until we arrive," said their mother. Past the stage of having to arrive in time for children to start the school term, the couple plan to leave in December when the temperature in Beersheva is known to be more forgiving than it is in summer. The desert city is considered the capital of Israel’s south, with hot, dry winters. The Reubens are moving to Metar, a gated community of private homes, "a good transition for us coming from a private house," she said. Sorting through their belongings deciding what to take along has not been easy. "My husband has thousands of slides and photos. The collections are very dear to us and will come before many other things," Reuben said, although they will bring furniture that was handmade in Michael Reuben’s native South Africa, where his mother and a brother still live. The Reubens will also have another family member in tow: Hedda Reuben’s elderly widowed father, Morris Bendkowski, affectionately known as Zaide Moishe. In hiding in Poland throughout the war, in 1948, with the help of a cousin, Bendkowski managed to come to the United States, where he met Reuben’s mother a year later. "It was bashert," she said of her parents’ marriage, "but moving to Israel was always something he wanted to do. He’s very proud to have two grandchildren living there." Having spent a year of college in Israel and over the years, attending lectures in Hebrew whenever she could, Reuben is not worried about the language barrier. What she finds most daunting about the move is packing up her house in Teaneck. "We’ve been in this house for 22 years, and we’re collectors; we’ve filled every inch. Packing, selling the house, saying goodbye to everyone here and separating," she lamented. "I’d just like to wake up there one day." No going back: Shoshanna Schnaidman "My post-high school year living in Israel made me realize I couldn’t be anywhere else," said Shoshanna Schnaidman, 20, who is booked on a Sept. 3 flight arranged by Nefesh b’Nefesh. "I know it sounds sentimental and clich?, but it’s true," the Ma’ayanot graduate insisted. "When I come back to America, I feel so out of sorts, I spend every day just wanting to go back." Schnaidman, who several summers ago interned at the Standard, will continue her studies in political science and journalism at Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan, where she completed her first year of college following her post-high school year of study at Orot. Since she is making aliyah within 18 months of having lived there as a student, she’s not only entitled to the free tuition extended to all students who declare citizenship. She will also get a $3,500 grant from JAFI and another grant for several thousand dollars from Nefesh b’Nefesh. Schnaidman is still sometimes surprised at the direction her life has taken. "In high school, I just wanted to graduate and pursue the American dream: to go to a New England college and study liberal arts." Her parents, though, sensing that with her passion for Zionism, laid-back personality, independent streak, and tenacious nature she would thrive in Israel, convinced her to defer college. By November, said her mother, Esther Schnaidman, Shoshanna was determined to make aliyah. "I changed," Schnaidman said matter-of-factly. "I’ve seen a better way of living as a Jew." She quickly added, "I’m not stifled here, and I am proud to be a Jew in America, but there is where the Jewish people are, as opposed to, ‘I happen to be Jewish’ here." Schnaidman believes that the advantages she had growing up in America will help her adjust to life in Israel, she said. "For example, my mastery of English, I’m grateful for that. I’m taking that and moving on to what I believe is the next step in my life." Much as she will miss her daughter, Esther Schnaidman said, "We brought up our children to believe certain things, and I’m proud of her for wanting to live there. She’s also thankful to have close relatives in Israel who can be a support network for Shoshanna. "Going alone at 20, it’s a big jump," she said. In the meantime, she contemplates the possibility of the rest of the family’s joining Shoshanna in the future. A younger daughter, now at a yeshiva in Baltimore, can’t wait to go, as is the case with the Schnaidmans’ son who will celebrate his bar mitzvah in Hebron this fall after entering Torah Academy of Bergen County. Her husband, David, has also expressed a desire to move. Though she would be reluctant to leave the job she loves as a librarian at the Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey in River Edge and the couple’s parents, hers in St. Louis and David’s father, a rabbi, in Washington Heights, she concluded, "If all my kids are going to be there, eventually we’ll go. With so many people going, it’s no longer a foreign concept; it’s more realistic and attainable, although we have no timetable right now." Met there, they’re going back: June and Jeffrey Glazer The year was 1973, and in the wake of the Yom Kippur War, Zionism had gripped Jews around the world. Young adults flocked to Israel to volunteer for a year through JAFI in development towns, June and Jeffrey Glazer were no exception. Israel has been in their family narrative ever since. Once their year of service ended, the Glazers returned to spend another year in a yeshiva, learning Hebrew and studying Jewish texts. It was an adventure that led to a commitment to Jewish observance, much to the chagrin of their non-observant families back home at the time. Reluctant to alienate their parents, the couple returned to the United States, first for seven years to Texas, where Jeffrey hailed from, later moving to Teaneck, where they raised their three sons, now 31, 29, and 27. Married with their own children, the Glazer boys, educated at Orthodox day schools, all feel a strong commitment to Israel. "They all say they want to go, but have no immediate plans. We hope our move will motivate them, but that won’t be dependent on us, but on their own desire to go, as well," predicted Jeffrey Glazer. This time around, the Glazers’ adventure will begin with a road trip around the United States, "to see all the places we haven’t seen," he said, before they leave for Israel in December. June Glazer will be leaving her job as a senior editor and writer for the Communications Department at Yeshiva University right after Sukkot, but Glazer said his Internet-based real estate appraisal business makes their plan financially feasible. "The brave ones are those who are going and starting over," he said. Having June’s elderly parents support their decision also made it easier, he said, observing, "Now they are nervous but very excited." And although the Glazers’ Hebrew skills are rudimentary, he joked, "We know how to ask, ‘Where’s the bathroom?’; ‘Where’s the water?’; and ‘Where do you eat?’ - all the essentials." They will enroll in ulpan in Jerusalem, taking some time to explore the terrain before deciding where to ultimately settle. The hardest part, said Glazer, is going to be how much they will miss their five young grandchildren, who range in age from 1 to 6 years old. Still, he said, "A Jew can’t be 100 percent fulfilled until he moves to Israel." Describing life as a puzzle, he explained, "when you are at the end of life, there’s a big picture. We always felt that the picture would not be complete if we couldn’t live in Israel. When you think about all the Jewish people who have wanted to go, but couldn’t, we consider this a privilege. At no time in the history of the world has it been as easy for Jews to go to Israel