Sirena Rubinoff was born in the island of Guam while her father was stationed on the naval base there, in 1985. Her family later moved to San Diego, California and became Baalei Teshuva in the late 1990’s. Sirena has an undergraduate and graduate degree in Broadcast Journalism from Northwestern University. She has a Rotary scholarship to study Arabic, and she is currently freelancing for an American website, writing four articles a week. She recently spent 12 months in Israel and decided to make Aliyah on the July 6th Nefesh B’Nefesh charter flight.

Commentator: Why did your family decide to become bal Teshuva?

Sirena Rubinoff:         I was the reason my family became religious. When I was really little I would get invited for Shabbas meals to religious friend’s houses. I was so little that my family would get invited to come with me. We would drive to the Orthodox shul and I was so embarrassed I would hide when we left shul so no one would see me go to the parking lot. My parents felt really bad so we started talking about moving forward religiously.

C:        What did you do right before the flight?

SR:      What I did in New York was I repacked my bags, we went and got bagels and coffee and I took a cab there alone.

C:        What did the cabbie think of your moving to Israel?

SR:      He was from Ecuador and when I told him that I was going to Israel, he thought I was crazy. He compared it to going to Columbia like some horrible place that you will die if you go.

C:        Were you nervous when you arrived?

SR:      I show up, alone, and with two really heavy bags, I drive up get out of the car and say to myself, “OK here I go, all by myself.” I get out, and this guy comes up to me and asks, “Are you going with NBN and he says, Hi my name is Marc Rosenberg” (the Project Manager of  Overseas Programming). He helped me carry my bags so I didn’t need to get a cart, he walked me all the way to the desk and showed me who to talk to. He was really friendly and really nice. He helped my get a cart when I needed to go to the security lines. I kept seeing him, once through security, on the plane, and on the ground. It was really good to have this familiar face that had seen me from the very beginning all the way to the very end. I don’t even know if he remembers me, but he was there from start to finish.

C:        What did you think of the ceremony in JFK?

SR:      I enjoyed hearing Rabbi Fass speak; he made me cry. There is one point in the speech when he said, “well if that makes you cry,” he was looking right at me.

C:        Was the flight restful?

SR:      After a few hours everything calmed down, people settled, it felt like a relatively normal flight.

C:        Did you meet anyone really interesting on the flight?

SR:      I met a guy who was here nine years ago, this is his first time back in nine years. He is going to feel the newness for a while.

C:        How did it feel when the plane touched down?

SR:      It felt like I was finally coming home.

C:        What was it like at Ben Gurion?

SR:      There were soldiers lining the way and one gave me a flag. My friends had two or three signs for me and we started dancing, my friend’s fiancé gave me a rose. There was all this energy and then we came inside at it was like eating <!--[if !supportAnnotations]-->[BA1]<!--[endif]--> and calming down.

C:        When did it finally feel real? When did it sink in that you had moved to Israel?

SR:      I went for dinner with some friends. You could see the Jerusalem light bridge and the pink and orange sunset from the restaurant, it does not look anything like San Diego, New York, or any other place I’ve been. That is when I knew, I’m back.

C:        How long did it take you to fill out the paperwork?

SR:      I left Israel May 5th, I started the application process May 7th and I made Aliyah July 6th. I did the entire process, from start to finish in two months, which is ridiculous. Nefesh B’Nefesh made the whole thing very smooth.