I am sitting in my room in Kfar Saba and in eight days I will be moving up North, to Kibbutz Yiftach. I so guess I have a lot of explaining because I have been in Israel for a little over a month.
For starters, I live in, as I said, Kfar Saba. Kfar Saba is a city north of Tel Aviv right next to Ra'anana and one city over from Hertziliyah. I'll go one more step back to make sure we're all on the same page. However, before I do so, I would like to apologize for the various mistakes I am inevitably going to make in terms of spelling and maybe some grammar. Keep in mind I am having hearing less and less English these days and although I have been reading in an attempt to keep the quality of my English level somehow the 19th Century narration of Mark Twain, in Innocents Abroad, has not been as helpful as I had expected. So bear with me!
For starters, I live in, as I said, Kfar Saba. Kfar Saba is a city north of Tel Aviv right next to Ra'anana and one city over from Hertziliyah. I'll go one more step back to make sure we're all on the same page. However, before I do so, I would like to apologize for the various mistakes I am inevitably going to make in terms of spelling and maybe some grammar. Keep in mind I am having hearing less and less English these days and although I have been reading in an attempt to keep the quality of my English level somehow the 19th Century narration of Mark Twain, in Innocents Abroad, has not been as helpful as I had expected. So bear with me!
One Tuesday June 24th I arrived at JFK airport with a one-way ticket to Israel. I was still a little bit tired from the night before. I had some last minute packing I expected to do after a nice family dinner, however, little did I know but my friends had planned a surprise going away party. Packing had to wait until after my surprise party. Getting back on topic, I was flying with two friends from my Garin, 50-60 other olim chadashim (new immigrants to Israel) and the regular El Al customers.
Just in case I failed to explain what my "Garin" means; it is a reference to Garin Tzabar. Garin Tzabar is a program formed nearly twenty years ago by children of Israeli parents who were part of the Tzofim (Israeli Scouts in America, all activities are conducted in Hebrew) who wanted to move to Israel and serve in the Israeli army. Over the years Israelis living in North America but not affiliated with the Tzofim began to join the program. In the past few years North American Jews who were not part of the Israeli community began to hear about the program's success and they too joined the program. The idea of the program is to make aliyah (move to Israel) with a group, which will then be absorbed onto a Kibbutz. The first three months on the kibbutz consist of volunteer work and an ulpan (intensive Hebrew study course) and becoming good friends with your group. The program encourages, or forces depending how you look at it, group bonding by making every other Shabbat a "Closed Shabbat" (Closed Shabbat is an army term which means you must guard the base over Shabbat and cannot leave for the weekend). So we have a group to come back to on our free weekends and a group of friends we can depend on to help us out during hard periods of the army.
Throughout my flight it didn't quite sink in that I was moving to Israel. I thought that it was going to be much more exciting of an experience, however, in actuality it felt very normal. I had spent time in Israel from August 2007 until February 2008 working on a kibbutz doing ulpan and improving my Hebrew. When I landed and spent the first few days in Israel it felt as if I had never left! Nothing had changed hardly and when I saw friends I hadn't seen in months after no time we talking as if we had seen each other the day before.
I certainly did not remember the flight being so long! I fell asleep three times and each I awoke I could not believe how much time on the flight remained, the first time I woke up we had yet to take off.
Finally we landed and I got my first taste of Israeli bureaucracy, even though it was only a small dosage. My flight was arranged by Nefesh B'Nefesh, not to be confused with the Jewish Agency which actually arranges aliyah with the Israeli Consulate. Nefesh B'Nefesh is a private organization that encourages Jews to make aliyah by providing assistance such as clarifying new immigrant rights handling a fair load of the required paperwork, etc. It was a good thing Nefesh B'Nefesh helped out with the paperwork because it only took an hour. I have no idea, nor any inclination to ask, how long it would take otherwise.
Although I did not quite finish typing up all that I have written in my notebook and I didn't quite get as far as I expected to I think I will have to call this a first entry in order to just post it up already. Hopefully I will be able to finish writing another post or two relatively soon, however, be sure to expect a brand new post with in the next 10 days or so once I go up to Kibbutz Yiftach. There is going to be a big ceremony in Tel Aviv at Bet HaChayal. Ehud Barak, the Defense Minister, former Prime Minister, and the most decorated Soldier, is scheduled to speak.
Until then I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer. I would love to hear feedback, comments, and to hear from you in general. Hill.AaronJoseph@gmail.com is my e-mail address. Additionally, it is very nice to think of all of the support (or concern!) I have from friends and family.
Aaron
Just in case I failed to explain what my "Garin" means; it is a reference to Garin Tzabar. Garin Tzabar is a program formed nearly twenty years ago by children of Israeli parents who were part of the Tzofim (Israeli Scouts in America, all activities are conducted in Hebrew) who wanted to move to Israel and serve in the Israeli army. Over the years Israelis living in North America but not affiliated with the Tzofim began to join the program. In the past few years North American Jews who were not part of the Israeli community began to hear about the program's success and they too joined the program. The idea of the program is to make aliyah (move to Israel) with a group, which will then be absorbed onto a Kibbutz. The first three months on the kibbutz consist of volunteer work and an ulpan (intensive Hebrew study course) and becoming good friends with your group. The program encourages, or forces depending how you look at it, group bonding by making every other Shabbat a "Closed Shabbat" (Closed Shabbat is an army term which means you must guard the base over Shabbat and cannot leave for the weekend). So we have a group to come back to on our free weekends and a group of friends we can depend on to help us out during hard periods of the army.
Throughout my flight it didn't quite sink in that I was moving to Israel. I thought that it was going to be much more exciting of an experience, however, in actuality it felt very normal. I had spent time in Israel from August 2007 until February 2008 working on a kibbutz doing ulpan and improving my Hebrew. When I landed and spent the first few days in Israel it felt as if I had never left! Nothing had changed hardly and when I saw friends I hadn't seen in months after no time we talking as if we had seen each other the day before.
I certainly did not remember the flight being so long! I fell asleep three times and each I awoke I could not believe how much time on the flight remained, the first time I woke up we had yet to take off.
Finally we landed and I got my first taste of Israeli bureaucracy, even though it was only a small dosage. My flight was arranged by Nefesh B'Nefesh, not to be confused with the Jewish Agency which actually arranges aliyah with the Israeli Consulate. Nefesh B'Nefesh is a private organization that encourages Jews to make aliyah by providing assistance such as clarifying new immigrant rights handling a fair load of the required paperwork, etc. It was a good thing Nefesh B'Nefesh helped out with the paperwork because it only took an hour. I have no idea, nor any inclination to ask, how long it would take otherwise.
Although I did not quite finish typing up all that I have written in my notebook and I didn't quite get as far as I expected to I think I will have to call this a first entry in order to just post it up already. Hopefully I will be able to finish writing another post or two relatively soon, however, be sure to expect a brand new post with in the next 10 days or so once I go up to Kibbutz Yiftach. There is going to be a big ceremony in Tel Aviv at Bet HaChayal. Ehud Barak, the Defense Minister, former Prime Minister, and the most decorated Soldier, is scheduled to speak.
Until then I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer. I would love to hear feedback, comments, and to hear from you in general. Hill.AaronJoseph@gmail.com is my e-mail address. Additionally, it is very nice to think of all of the support (or concern!) I have from friends and family.
Aaron
1 comment:
I am proud of your ambition, direction, and perseverance to make your dreams become reality.
I love you, Aaron!
Mom
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