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SEPTEMBER 1, 2005 Issue
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Grandmother leaves Akron behind
to join family in Israel
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Jeremy Litt greeted his
mother, Natalie, among a throng of olim and their
families when she arrived in Israel last month. The
Akronite is one of 3,200 residents of North America to
make aliyah this year. | by Paula Maggio, Editor
Most people don’t move to another
country once they enter their golden years. But Natalie Litt
isn’t most people.
Last month, the 70-year-old
grandmother filled a 20-foot-long crate with 69 boxes of
belongings and boarded an El Al plane for Israel. She had
already moved out of her home, said goodbye to her friends and
been feted by the local chapter of NA’AMAT.
Litt made
the big move so she could be closer to her only son, Jeremy --
who immigrated to Israel 10 years ago -- his wife Diane and
their four children.
The Akron native is one of 3,200
North American Jews making aliyah in 2005, which marks this
year as the first since 1983 to see such an influx of new
immigrants from this part of the world.
She left for
Israel Aug. 16, traveling on one of six charter flights
sponsored by Nefesh B´Nefesh and the Jewish Agency for
Israel.
When her plane touched down in Tel Aviv the
next day, she was greeted by a throng of well wishers before
being ushered to a stage set with blue and white balloons,
Israeli flags and a banner that proclaimed, “Welcome home to
the New Olim from the U.S. and Canada.”
Ehud Olmert,
Israel’s finance minister, was among the dignitaries who
appeared on stage to speak words of welcome at the three-hour
ceremony for the new olim and their families and
friends.
But before she boarded her El Al flight, Litt
spoke about her decision to leave Akron behind and head for
Modiin, a 9-year-old architect-designed city that lies in the
center of Israel, between Jerusalem and Tel
Aviv.
“Being with my family is the number one thing,”
Litt explained. She missed being a part of her grandchildren’s
everyday lives – and her grandchildren missed having her
involved.
“All of my grandchildren’s friends have
grandparents there. So they have been telling me they want to
have me there, too,” she said.
Now that her four
grandchildren – two girls and two boys who range in age from 8
to 19 -- will be living just a bike ride away in nearby
Chashmonim, she plans to make up for lost time.
“I will
be going to all their baseball games and school events. And I
will be there for the weddings and the births and the bar
mitzvahs,” Litt said.
She also plans to learn Hebrew,
perhaps taking lessons from her youngest grandson, Eitan, 8,
who she says “speaks Hebrew very well,” and she wants to “meet
Israelis and learn to do things their way.”
Her new
two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment will be located in a
1-year-old building that boasts a patio view of Israel’s
busiest city on the Mediterranean. And she may be putting that
outdoor area to good use when her 69 big boxes of possessions
from Akron arrive.
“I don’t know where I am going to
put it all, because they say my apartment is small, but I
guess I’ll have to put it out on the patio until I figure it
out,” she said.
“It’s really going to be an
experience.”
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