Ladies and Gentlemen, we are beginning our descent.

September 28, 2006 - 10:58 PM by

I’m lucky in that, in the three years I’ve been here, none of my friends have “made yeridah,” that is, “descended” from Israel to foreign shores (to “make aliyah” — that is, to immigrate to Israel, literally means “to ascend”). I have one acqaintance who moved here from New York, and returned to the Big Apple after 6 years for social reasons (the English-speakers’ dating scene had not included a husband for her), but no close friends. No one who made me say “things here can get so bad that maybe someday I’ll go back to the States.” On the contrary, I’m extremely happy, and so are all my close friends (knock on wood!). Life is hard, but mostly in ways that it’s hard anywhere. And regarding the security situation . . . well, Israel has many redeeming qualities.

Unfortunately, Eliesheva has been having a different experience:

It always lingers in the air; it’s the black hole of the aliyah process:

Yeridah.

Returning to the motherland from where we came; financial reasons, social reasons, relationship reasons… It lingers over all of us. Lately, it seems the lingering has become more of a hovering, which seems to be really weighing in on quite a few friends of mine.

You start out the aliyah process ideological, passionate, confident, even cocky. Even if you’re not cocky, you are, because everyone around you makes a big deal out of it. There is so much pride involved. So to return – that must be so hard.

Whereas before I got to Israel and at the beginning of my aliyah, I might have tsked at those ‘making yeridah,’ I just can’t do that now, after almost two years of living here. I don’t believe that just anyone can make aliyah, either.

Even the word aliyah (ascent, to go up) evokes so much pride and ego; with the state of the Israeli state these days, maybe we should all just say we are ‘moving to Israel’; it hasn’t felt like so much of an ascent, lately.

Tags: • Category: Immigrant Moments 

Comments

One Comment on Ladies and Gentlemen, we are beginning our descent.

  1. David on Fri, Sep 29th 2006 3:42 AM

    2. Immigrating anywhere is difficult. Essentially the mental adjustments are the most difficult. One does not move anywhere and be successful at it, even if you are practically settled [work, housing etc] unless you are prepared to embrace the culture of the place you are at.

    The biggest barrier to people from a country such as the US is the language. This is in my view primarily what stops, and will always severely limit and torpedo aliyah from English speaking countries.

    Then there are the Israeli manners in Israel. Many Anglo-Saxons simply do not enjoy the mid-East type of rudeness – and I can’t say I blame them. In the United States the mid-East, including Israel to a large degree is viewed as an uncivilized place where there is no possibility of stability ever.

    To me, the Israeli love affair with everything American is worse than pathetic. America is a great country and gave the world the greatest idea ever in history: individual rights, but every country ought to find itself and rely on its self.

    The addiction of Israel to American aid is my personal greatest embarassment as an Israeli. Unlike most of my fellow countrymen I have confidence in Israel. Period.

    Jewish women in New York are after one thing: money and status. They could care less about values or principles. As far as I am concerned, Israeli girls in Israel are just the greatest and are far nicer and prettier.

    Unfortunately walking the streets of NYC and it is not unusual to hear Hebrew and the locksmith and taxi industry are for whatever reasons “owned” by Israelis that have left Israel.

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