Our efforts to return and live in Israel to help build the Jewish homeland began in 1982. Edie was President of a Hadassah chapter in New Jersey and a delegate to the Hadassah National Convention in Jerusalem. Mort decided to accompany her and research job opportunities in Israel. While Edie was happy being an armchair Zionist in the United States helping build the land through her work in Hadassah, Mort was determined to be part of the ingathering of the Jewish people.

When we returned home after the convention, we started an Aliyah Club. Our little group had meetings each month with guest speakers arranged through the Sochnut (Jewish Agency) and an organization called the North American Aliyah Movement, affiliated with AACI (Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel). Each time we concentrated on a different aspect of life in Israel, ranging from school systems to housing to health care. By 1984, we were ready to go with our daughters aged 1, 4 and 6.

Both of us had found employment in Be’er Sheva: Edie in computers, as the Assistant Director of the computer lab in the Mathematics Department of Ben Gurion University; Mort in chemical marketing at Bromine Compounds, a subsidiary of Israel Chemicals, Dead Sea Bromine division. We had friends from graduate school who were living in Omer, a little town outside of Be’er Sheva, with beautiful private homes. They helped us find a home to rent and helped us settle in.

Israel gave us A1 Temporary Resident status. This was a special status provided to Americans since at that time, one could forfeit their American citizenship when overtly accepting Israeli citizenship under the law of return. Under this status, one passively received Israeli citizenship after 3 years, enabling dual citizenship.

We loved the lifestyle in Be’er Sheva. The weather was pleasant all year; bureaucracy was tolerable and the full work day was 8AM-4PM including time for lunch and aruchat esser (late breakfast). We had Friday and Saturday off. Since we both had good jobs we did not suffer from the typical financial woes of new immigrants.

We made one big mistake however, which caused us to return to the US after only 2 years, so we never became Israeli citizens. We did not live amongst other Anglo immigrants which would have provided us with a natural support group and we did not integrate well due to language, religious and cultural barriers. This created emotional difficulties for us. We weakened and returned to New Jersey in 1986. We decided then that we would not give up on Aliyah, and would try again when we retired, learning from our mistakes.

In 2002, we heard about a new community being built in the center of the country where many Anglo immigrants were settling. It was located in Ramat Beit Shemesh (Beit Shemesh Heights), which is midway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. We bought an apartment there in anticipation of moving there when retired. In the interim, two of our daughters (and families) lived in it for periods of time.

Finally, in 2008, we fully retired. We started coming to Israel 4-5 months each year, 2-3 months in the fall for the fall holidays and 2-3 months in the spring for the spring holidays. However, our elderly mothers in Atlanta needed our help, and we were unable to make the complete move. These extended visits allowed us to get acquainted with the community, make friends and adapt before making Aliyah again. Our Ramat Beit Shemesh neighborhood has many immigrants from South Africa and they are a warm, friendly group with a culture that is remarkably similar to ours. There are also immigrants from Australia, England, Canada, the United States and even a few immigrants from India. Our synagogue, which is directly across the street from our apartment, has a rabbi from Far Rockaway, New York; Divrei Torah in English and announcements largely in English. Further, there are many retirees in our neighborhood and we belong to two senior social groups: The Maor Seniors (we live on a street called Nachal Maor), and the 55Plus Club. There is also an English speaking women’s senior group called Oleh B’Gil. All of these groups run social events, lectures, and trips. The local government runs special programs for seniors as well. The local joke is that “here in Ramat Beit Shemesh, one can hop on a bus and in 5 minutes you are in Israel.”

Beit Shemesh is in the foothills of Harei Yehuda (the Judaean Hills) about 1,000 feet above sea level (similar to Atlanta – But the views here are more breathtaking with a sense of holiness). However, the winters are milder and shorter and the summers are brutally hot but less humid. Beit Shemesh is rooted in Tanach, and is first mentioned in the Book of Joshua as a city in the territory of the tribe of Judah on the border of the tribe of Dan. Later in Joshua 21, Beit Shemesh is mentioned as having been set aside as a Levite city. We overlook the Elah Valley where David slew Goliath. Here, one can imagine the battle scene as described in Samuel 1, ch.17, with Saul and the men of Israel massing on one side of the valley, the Philistines stationed on the opposite hillside, with the ravine between them.

Beit Shemesh is mentioned in the book of Samuel I as being the city to which the ark of the covenant was returned after having been captured by the Philistines in battle. We are a short drive away from an area near Latrun, where the Maccabees defeated the Seleucids enroute to the miracle of Hanukka.

In 2010, one of our daughters and family made Aliyah to Ramat Beit Shemesh. Now we had family in Israel as well as friends and community. After our mothers passed away, we started really thinking about making the move. We had been involved in many charitable communal organizations in Atlanta and we passed on our responsibilities to others. 2016 marked exactly 30 years from the time we left in 1986. It was time to return.

Making Aliyah is much easier today than it was 30 years ago.  Nefesh B’Nefesh (NBN), based in Jerusalem, partners with the Jewish Agency (Sochnut) and is partly funded by the Israeli government.  It is well structured to facilitate Aliyah from North America and the United Kingdom. We opened an on-line file with NBN in January 2015 and uploaded the requisite Aliyah application information including proof of being Jewish (a letter from our rabbi), US passport, birth certificate and health declaration.  Further, to prove we no longer resided in Israel and left 30 years ago and resided full time in the United States, we had to supply a list of exits/entries into Israel and proof of continuous employment in the US for the past 30 years.

We then contacted the Jewish Agency in Miami to manage the Aliyah application and set up a personal interview.  Although Atlanta does not have an Aliyah desk we didn’t need to go to Miami, as one of the Israeli representatives based at the Marcus JCC in Atlanta met with us.

Approval under the Law of Return should have been automatic and rapid, but after 10 months, numerous phone calls and e-mails to Miami, the only feedback we received was that since we made Aliyah 30 years ago and were classified as former A1, our case was special and required review by the Professional Committee of the Misrrad HaKlitah (Absorption Ministry) to determine our new status and “rights.”   So we appealed to Nefesh B’Nefesh to investigate on our behalf and within 3 weeks, our approval was granted on November 2015.

We were given the status of Oleh, or Immigrant, with most of the rights offered to Olim Chadashim (New Immigrants):

1. Sal Klitah – a monthly stipend over a 6-month period to help with initial living expenses. For us it was 29,400 Shekels or about $7,500 in total.
2. Basic government medical insurance upon arrival (although we are purchasing supplemental as well)
3. A 67% discount on property taxes on our apartment for one year
4. A modest reduction in import taxes for a new car
5. A free one-way flight to Israel on El Al Airlines with Nefesh B’Nefesh
6. A free taxi ride to our home in Ramat Beit Shemesh from Ben Gurion Airport.
7. Ability to bring in three suitcases each on the Aliyah flight

However, the two rights we needed most of all, exemption from Israeli income tax on our passive American income for 10 years and the right to bring in our household possessions from Atlanta without paying import duty would need to be determined and managed by us only after we made Aliyah.  Apparently this was the “Catch 22 penalty” for having made Aliyah 30 years ago but never becoming citizens – our “in-between” classification placed certain burdens on us.  So it made sense to make Aliyah a few months earlier than planned so we could open the file with Meches (The Israeli Finance/Duty Ministry) to obtain clarity before we shipped our personal belongings.

Nefesh B’Nefesh helped us to get on an Aliyah flight in March and greeted us at Newark airport with special luggage tags, hats, flags and reassurance.  They arranged that we would get our citizenship papers (Teudat Zehut) at Ben Gurion airport when we landed.  It took less than 3 hours to process us at the airport in Israel. 30 years ago it took 8 hours.  As we left the Ben Gurion Airport arrival area we were greeted by a group of young people with songs and words of welcome and encouragement.   It was good to be home, at last, this time as Israeli citizens for the first time.  For over two millennia the Jewish people prayed daily to return to the Land of Israel.  Three times a day we petitioned the Almighty: “Gather us from the four corners of the world, bring us upright to our land, return in mercy to Jerusalem, Thy city, and dwell in it as Thou promised.” On every Yom Kippur and Passover, we fervently voiced the hope that next year would find us in Jerusalem.  We are home, what a lovely ring these words have:  We are home.

At Beit Knesset (synagogue) on our first Shabbat after making Aliyah, Mort received the Levi Aliyah to the Torah and when finished, the entire congregation burst out in song with the verse from Jeremiah 31:16 – “And there is hope for your future, says the Lord, and the children shall return to their own border.”  Oh, and when we opened a bank account at PAGI (Bank Poalei Agudat Israel, part of The First International Bank of Israel), the banker with whom we spent at least 1.5 hours filling out the paper work said he had a gift to give us. Where else in the world would that gift be this beautiful Tallit carrying bag. What a country!!!!

Want to know about the first set of administrative duties of a new Israeli citizen? The ups and the downs of Israeli bureaucracy?

We had our citizenship papers (Teudat Zehut) but not our New Immigrant booklet called a Teudat Oleh. That is the official recognition of new immigrant status and necessary for receiving one’s “rights” as a new immigrant. To obtain that, we needed to go to the Misrad HaKlitah (Absorption Ministry) office in Beit Shemesh. We also needed to open a bank account before that visit so that our stipend (Sal Klitah) could be deposited monthly. To our dismay, the Absorption Ministry needed to send our records to the Beer Sheva office since that was where we had registered 30 years ago. We assumed the worst and worried weeks would pass before anything would happen. To our pleasant surprise, in three days we had our booklet. Surprise #1. Happy Day!

Next, we had to go register for our national health insurance at Bituach Leumi (National Insurance). This, we thought, is merely a formality. Not so! Even though the Jewish Agency ruled that we would get our health insurance coverage immediately, the autocratic Bituach Leumi clerk in Beit Shemesh decided that we should be treated as returning citizens, ignoring our status as new immigrants and told us we must wait 6 months. We had to provide many documents to prove that we are actually living here now and was forced to fill out a four-page application in Hebrew. Our application was sent to the main office in Ramle to be evaluated. A black hole was about to engulf our health insurance! We thought this would be easy….surprise #2: It was NOT easy. But Nefesh B’Nefesh again came to the rescue – we contacted their Government Advocacy Department and they are correcting the error. We expect our approval to arrive any day now.

Next, we went to Meches in Jerusalem (Finance Ministry – Import Duty section) to see if we were entitled to bring in a shipment without taxes. We were expecting all kinds of trouble. To our pleasant surprise, the employee there was so sweet and happy that we made Aliyah that she just signed us up for the duty exemption, no questions asked. Surprise #3 – this should have been difficult but was easy! Happy Day #2.

Now we needed our Israeli driver’s licenses. This required an eye test from an approved optometrist and a doctor ‘s confirmation to verify fitness to drive. We anticipated the need to take at least one driving lesson and a road test. We were hoping that we could just renew our old license from 30 years ago and forgo the rest. Miracle of miracles, they did it for Edie. She now has an Israeli license. But because Mort takes oral medications for Diabetes, he was required to go the Licensing Office in Jerusalem and submit a doctor’s note that he is safe to drive. The Licensing Office doctors now have to review his case. Hopefully, it will not take more than a month to determine his status. He has a year to convert to an Israeli license.

Then we went to the city property tax department, to the water company, the electric company and the gas company to ensure the bills were in our name and charged to our new bank account.

Finally, we applied for our senior discount card. Seniors get discounts at museums and on public transportation if you show your senior card. Of course, they are now modifying the card so we anticipate a long delay in receiving the senior card.

All in all, we are doing well and with the help of volunteers and the wonderful people at Nefesh B’Nefesh, we are on our way to a smooth klitah (absorption).

Exiled and scattered throughout the world for 2000 years and suffering endless cycles of persecution and mass murder climaxing with the Holocaust, we Jews miraculously resurrected a nation state. We transformed deserts into gardens, created a democratic, technologically and agriculturally innovative oasis in a region in which primitive barbarism reigns.

Israel enabled an ingathering of exiles from all corners of the world, providing a haven for survivors of the Holocaust, refugees from Arab persecution, Jews from underdeveloped countries like Ethiopia and over a million from the former Soviet Union. Out of this melting pot Israel has created one of the most vibrant and resilient societies in the world.

How exciting it was to celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut (Independence Day) as Israeli citizens. Watching the IAF (Air Force) flyby brought happy and proud tears to our eyes.

We give thanks to the Almighty for enabling us to be blessed and privileged to live in freedom in our resurrected ancient homeland. We remind ourselves that Israel’s success defies rationality and by any benchmark must be deemed miraculous. What a privilege to be alive and here at this time.

About the Authors:

Mort and Edie Barr have lived in Atlanta since 2006 and made Aliyah March 30, 2016. Mort is retired as Director of Technology at Colgate Palmolive and was Executive Director of Congregation Beth Jacob. He is the Founder and former CEO of the Jewish Interest Free Loan of Atlanta. Edie retired from a career as Activities Director in Assisted Living and volunteered at NORC, Berman Commons Assisted Living and at the Carlton, formerly Eden Brook. She is a former President of the Mount Scopus Group of Greater Atlanta Hadassah (GAH) and served on the GAH Board and was once active in the Beth Jacob Sisterhood.