JERUSALEM
(EJP)---Having driven 4,000 km for 18 days from London to Athens, and
then onward via an El Al plane to Israel, a convoy of 28 classic
cars and motorcycles arrived earlier this month at the Knesset,
Israel’s parliament, in a rally organized by the UK’s Jewish National
Fund.
Among the rally drivers were two who
are remaining in Israel as new immigrants , Yaniv Cohen, 26, formerly
of Manchester, and Aly Singer, 28, originally from London.
After showing off their 1948 Rolls
Royce Silver Wraith – which will be returning to the U.K. – the new
immigrants were presented with their Israeli ID cards by Dalia
Izik, Speaker of the Knesset.
“Amazing. How amazing is it to be
here in front of the Knesset as the band plays Hatikvah, Israel’s
national anthem,” said Singer, waving his new teudat zehut.
Singer, an accountant with experience in both London and New York, is beginning a new job with Ernst & Young in Tel Aviv.
“When I told my friends that I am
making aliya (immigration) in a 1948 Rolls Royce, they weren’t sure
what was more crazy – that I drive such an extraordinary car or hat I
am moving to Israel,” said Cohen, formerly a derivatives trader in
London’s financial district The City who is now studying Hebrew at
Ulpan Etzion.
The two new immigrants made aliya
under the auspices of Nefesh b’Nefesh – an immigration advocacy group
that has brought 15,000 immigrants from the US, Canada and Britain
since it was founded in 2002.
The car rally, which was
organized to mark Israel's 60th anniversary, had left London's
Waterloo Place on May 18 and made its way through France,
Switzerland, Italy and Greece where all 28 cars - including
a 1954 Cadillac Eldorado convertible and a 1970 Jaguar 'E type'-,
were loaded onto a new El Al 747 cargo plane in Athens and
transported to Ben Gurion airport.
This summer 4,000 new Israelis will be arriving on Nefesh b'Nefesh's charter flights from New York, Toronto and London.
