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TORONTO – “The exponential growth in ‘Aliyah of choice’ year-by-year signals a significant emerging trend in Western Jewry,” declared Tony Gelbart, co-founder and chairman of Nefesh B’Nefesh (NBN). “As more North American and British olim make successful lives for themselves in Israel, we notice this is having a snowball effect on their friends, family and peers back home.”
Since its founding in 2002, NBN has created what has been referred to as an ‘Aliyah Revolution.’
According to a spokesperson for the organization, about 4,200 North Americans will be moving to Israel in 2011. Roughly 400 Canadians have been making aliyah through NBN annually during the past four years; this summer will see almost 300 Canadian olim (among approximately 2,500 worldwide) – including my husband and I – which is on track with previous years.
The Jewish Tribune interviewed a few locals who are taking the leap now. Most were raised in an atmosphere that encouraged aliyah, but their backgrounds are diverse.
Noa Orzy, 18, and Adam Renkosinski, 22, will be joining the army with Garin Tzabar. Garin, Hebrew for ‘seed’ or ‘core,’ is a term used for a group of soldiers who choose to experience their army service together as a social unit of mutual support and camaraderie, as explained on its web site.
Orzy went to United Synagogue Day School (now Robbins Hebrew Academy) and Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto (CHAT).
“I spent a year at Hebrew University at the Rothberg International Program,” she said. “I’ve been to Israel many times, [I’ve done] March of the Living, [I’ve been] a counselor at Camp Koby [in partnership with Israeli teens] and with family. I went to Camp Ramah, which was very Zionist.
“I think all these things together, and me being old enough to go to the army now,” resulted in the decision to make the move, she explained. “I just realize that it’s what I want to do.”
Her parents are “very proud. I always say that you can’t send your kids to Israel so many times, to Camp Ramah…for a Zionist education and not expect it and not be supportive.”
Her long-term plans include going to university in Israel.
“My friends go through so much here,” she said. “There’s lots of antisemitism and negativity about Israel [on campus]. That’s very scary, but the real scary thing is Syria, Egypt....”
Her 20-year-old brother made aliyah in May and will join the IDF as well.
Renkosinski was born in Toronto to Israeli parents and grew up in Thornhill. He graduated last month from the Schulich School of Business and hopes to use his education, after completing his military service, “to get some entry-level position in business and go for my master’s degree.”
Having studied in the public school system, he is learning Hebrew now; his parents rarely spoke the language at home. Discussing what motivated him to make such a strong Zionist commitment, he said:
“I read a lot about the Holocaust when I was younger and I think that had an impact on me. I see parallels with what’s happening today….
“I went to York University. Nothing really substantial is happening to change the negative atmosphere, not just there but on campuses here in general.”
Renkosinski had been to Israel on family trips as well as with Birthright.
His parents are supportive, albeit concerned. “They, too, love the country,” he said.
Amir and Ilana Tamari, a young couple with nine-year-old daughter Tal, are practically starting over career-wise, but “no pain, no gain,” Amir said. “It’s never an easy thing” to relocate, “but moving to Israel is not just moving to any country.”
The son of a Canadian father and a Syrian-born Israeli mother, his family moved back and forth a number of times; his wife, whom he met before starting law school at University of Manitoba, has family near Haifa.
Tal, a Robbins Hebrew Academy student, just finished Grade 3.
“She’s very excited and wants to be with her two cousins who moved to Israel five and a half years ago,” Amir said.
“The bottom line is: Canada is a great country, but if I walk down the streets here…there’s no emotional attachment, whereas in Israel, every place, every street, every name relates to me.”
To practise his profession there, he’ll have to write new exams.
Ilana is a family clinician and some of her clients have asked to continue with her long distance.
“We really like the neighbourhood in Carmel,” Amir said, adding that “Nefesh B’Nefesh has been great” in helping them out.
Joshua Goldberg, 22, is also joining Garin Tzabar. A graduate of the Hamilton Hebrew Academy, he achieved an honours BA in History at York University.
“I have met everyone I will be living with for the next two years and I can’t wait to live on Kibbutz Sa’ad with them already,” he said.
“I have been thinking of aliyah for the last five to six years or so. Many of my close friends from my gap-year program, Nativ, have joined the army and made aliyah, which got me thinking more about it. I spent much of my time with them when I studied at Hebrew University during my third year.
“My family feels both proud and sad. They have been expecting this for a while and they are very proud of my decision. However, I will be the first person in my immediate family to move to a different continent, so the distance makes everyone a bit sad.”
As for me, I’ll start off as a freelance journalist; my husband works in high tech and has already been networking in his field – with lots of help from NBN. We’ll move temporarily to a furnished townhouse in the Beit Shemesh area (one neighbour is an ex-Torontonian; the other, Israeli), right down the street from our daughter Devora, who married Ofer Strauss, a “Thornhill boy.” Imbued with the Religious Zionist spirit through Netivot HaTorah Day School, NCSY and B’nei Akiva Schools, they made aliyah four years ago, also with NBN, and have three small children.
“Working together with the Jewish Agency and the government of Israel, we look forward to facilitating the aliyah of an ever-growing number of Jews in years to come,” NBN’s Gelbart stated. |
