Tucson native Aaron Greenberg isn't shy about his American roots.

His brother is a captain in the United States Army, he told Jewish News over the phone from his home in Modiin, Israel.

His father, a first-generation American, left Russia in 1929 when he was just 8 days old. Greenberg's paternal grandfather wanted to move the family to Palestine but couldn't get in. After bouncing around Europe, the family finally settled in America. That same grandfather fought for the U.S. during World War II.

Although his grandfather never got the chance to live in the Jewish homeland, Greenberg shares his Zionistic spirit.

"I just always, even from a young age, as a Jew, (viewed) Israel as home," says Greenberg. "America is a place in the Diaspora, and that's the way I always saw it."

Such a love of Israel was instilled in the Tucson Hebrew Academy graduate, he recalls, that by the time he was 7 or 8 years old he had made up his mind he was going to live there, though he didn't have the opportunity to visit until the age of 17.

"My first trip to Israel ... was a family trip, and I instantly fell in love," remembers Greenberg. "I told my parents as soon as I graduated (high school) I was going to

make aliyah and join the IDF (Israel Defense Forces). They persuaded me with a college education to stay in America, and every visit - I came here six, seven times before I made aliyah - I determined to make aliyah. Life just kept getting in the way."

Life remained in the way until January 2002, when his aunt died and he accompanied her body to Israel. (Her only son made aliyah in 1969 and she wanted to be buried nearby so her son, grandchildren and great-grandchildren could visit her grave.) It was during this trip that an artist friend of Greenberg's convinced him that he needed to spend some time in Israel to heal; in addition to his aunt's death, he was in the process of getting a divorce.

"I went down to the Negev and basically re-found myself, and that was the turning point when I decided I wasn't going to let my life get in the way of my dreams anymore," he says.

Greenberg made aliyah in July 2004. He lives in Modiin with his second wife, Jennifer, and their two children, Zev, 3, and Devri, 20 months. They are expecting a third child in June.

But as urgently as Greenberg wanted to move to Israel, he postponed his plans for nine months so he could make aliyah through Nefesh B'Nefesh (NBN) - Hebrew for "Jewish souls united" - a nonprofit based in Jerusalem whose sole purpose is to simplify the aliyah process for olim (new immigrants) coming from the United States, Canada and, as of two-and-a-half years ago, the United Kingdom.

"I had a friend that was on one of (NBN's) 2002 summer flights, and the way he spoke about the camaraderie of everyone on the plane making aliyah was just different from the experiences that I had heard about from my other friends," says Greenberg, now a graphic designer for the nonprofit.

Founded in 2002, Nefesh B'Nefesh's goal is to eliminate the obstacles that prevent North American and British Jews from making aliyah.

"It was more a recognition of, at the time, aliyah was not perceived in a particularly positive light in North America," says NBN Vice President of Operations Danny Oberman, who made aliyah from Australia in 1975. "There were many people who wanted to make aliyah, but - and that's with a capital B-U-T. Once we identified what we now call the barriers to aliyah, to enable people to fulfill their dream and make aliyah, we had the model to the organization."

The major issues, says Oberman, were five-fold. The first was employment - people didn't believe they could get jobs in Israel. The second was social - prospective olim were uncertain where they could live comfortably and find good schools for their children. Another problem was money; NBN solved that predicament by giving out loans to new immigrants that became grants if they remained in Israel for more than three years.

But perhaps the most complex issues were cutting through all of the Israeli bureaucratic red tape, which required olim, many of whom didn't speak Hebrew, to stand in line at numerous government offices to obtain legal immigration documents; additionally, there was an American perception, based largely on the reporting of major news networks, that Israel was not a safe place to live.

NBN addressed those problems by organizing flights to Israel where every person on board was making aliyah. "It's a very different feeling making aliyah with 200-300 people than just to be the sole oleh on the plane," says Oberman.

During the flight, Israeli government officials help the new immigrants fill out the necessary paperwork so that they don't have to visit a series of government offices. Additionally, NBN not only videotapes the takeoffs and uploads them onto YouTube, but also receives a significant amount of media coverage.

"(The publicity) enabled people who had taken into consideration aliyah to turn to their neighbors and their friends and co-workers and say, 'Look, I'm not the only person doing that,'" says Oberman. That helped remove the stigma, he says.

Nefesh B'Nefesh continues to grow exponentially. In 2002, when the organization was founded, its five employees helped 500 people make aliyah that year, according to Oberman. The now-75-person nonprofit is projected to help 5,000 olim make aliyah in 2010, says Oberman, bringing the total number of olim moving to Israel via NBN to more than 25,000 since its inception, 73 from Arizona.


Difficult transition

Amy Adelman had her feet planted firmly in the Valley. A first-grade teacher at Pardes Jewish Day School in Phoenix, Adelman helped found ShabbatLuck, a monthly potluck experience held on Shabbat for Jewish adults in their 20s and 30s, in January 2007.

She met her now-fiancַ, Lior Rahav, at a ShabbatLuck event shortly after the organization's creation. A native Israeli, Rahav is employed by Intel and had been sent to the company's Chandler branch for several months for training. The two struck up a relationship that was mostly long-distance, although Intel did send Rahav to Chandler one more time.

"We had to make a decision," says Adelman. "I decided to move to Israel."

She made aliyah with the help of Nefesh B'Nefesh in July 2008; the couple now live in Modiin and plan to marry in July.

After a long search for work, Adelman found a job teaching in an English-immersion program in the Armenian Convent in Jerusalem. Most of her students speak only Armenian, Adelman says, although some know a little Arabic.

Her overall comfort level in Israel is not where she would like it to be, either. She's struggling to find a good group of friends who live close by, she says, and to get involved in the community the way she was in Phoenix.

Adding to the difficult transition: Her Hebrew isn't fluent. "Oh, it's not good," she laughs. "I can get by, but I don't feel comfortable."

But she also knows she's come a long way.

"When I moved out here ... I didn't have a job and I really didn't know Hebrew and I didn't know the area," says Adelman. "I didn't feel comfortable with the train, the bus or driving myself. I was uncomfortable with every little thing - going to the bank, getting gas, little things that people take advantage of.

"It's still very difficult. ... I feel pretty good about how far I've come, but I know I have a lot more to go. With patience, I know I'll get there."


If not now, when?

Ask Bonnie Brooks what's easier, the move from Westport, Conn., to Tucson, or from Tucson to Jerusalem, and she'll say "Tucson to Jerusalem."

The artistically talented Bonnie and Harvey Brooks - Bonnie is a freelance film producer and Harvey is a well-known bass guitar player who has performed with the likes of Miles Davis, Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix - have been in Israel, with the help of Nefesh B'Nefesh, since August 2009.

"We've never really been in a Jewish community, Harvey or me," says Bonnie. "We're very assimilated. We decided to take this adventure and do something for us and do something positive.

"Harvey and I don't ever think about who we are - we're Americans. This trip has allowed us to be both (Jewish and American). We made a stand by saying we're also Jewish, and neither one of us has ever done that."

Theirs is the second marriage for both of them - they both grew up in Queens, N.Y., and have known each other since junior high school, says Bonnie, but went their separate ways and reconnected with each other when they were both in their 40s. They've been married for 21 years.

The Brookses used to vacation in Israel often; one of their three daughters lives there. However, Bonnie says the last time the couple visited in spring 2008, they agreed they would never make aliyah. Then, in October (2008), they changed their minds.

"We go by our heart. I think if we were accountants or lawyers or other kinds of people, we might have said, 'This is crazy.' But we're artists, and artists don't work by the same clock."

She says they're looking to move to Tel Aviv because that's the center of Israel's film and music culture, but they don't plan on leaving Israel any time soon.

The move is convenient for Harvey, who plans to travel around the world to play music - he is now closer to Europe. He will also perform in the United States, says Bonnie, so they will be back in the United States more frequently than most olim, and she intends to travel with him, when possible.

"We'd been coming back and forth from Israel for a very long time," Bonnie says, "and we decided if we didn't (make aliyah) now, we'd never do it."