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25 December 2008
An Olah Without A Parachute: Chanukah edition
Happy Chanukah!!
It is really such a delight to walk down the streets in Israel and see all the lit menorot that the municipality puts up. There are shining chanukiot on the street lights and Chabad has put up their menorah sans fire truck in the center of town. The chanukah cheer is further reinforced by [...]
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28 September 2008
An Olah Without A Parachute: My Aliyah Adventure IX
I am going to institute an Israel idiosyncrasy -Ism (the triple “I”) to my column because.. well why not?
Banks charge you for taking out your own money. … I know!! They charge you when you want you to use your credit card. They charge you when you want to open other savings account. I’m not [...]
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23 September 2008
An Olah Without A Parachute: My Aliyah Adventure viii
An Arab terrorist decided to drive his car into a group of soldiers tonight. I had been close to that location earlier tonight. Although, I probably wouldn’t have been at the specific spot; I can’t help but think what would have happened if I was.
Why can’t they stop? I feel such a deep sadness for [...]
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17 September 2008
An Olah Without A Parachute: My Aliyah Adventure vii
“Welcome to Israel.”
No, I’m not being redundant. This is what I hear every day, many times a day. The thing is, people aren’t saying it in a friendly, warm way, but rather in a sarcastic, cynical way. For example, if your apartment has bugs in it –”Welcome to Israel.” If workers do a shoddy job [...]
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11 September 2008
An Olah Without A Parachute: My Aliyah Adventure vi
I’m heeere!
After all the waiting, all the emotion, and taking care of all the specifics, I have arrived. The Nefesh B’Nefesh flight went smoothly and all the olim were treated like rock stars. How? (you are probably wondering.) Well, tons of photographers and a half dozen videographers were recording our descent from the plane. Then [...]
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7 September 2008
An Olah Without A Parachute: My Aliyah Adventure v
When first asked to write a column about my aliyah experience - I thought that at best, it would be a help to someone going through or wanting to go through aliyah and at worst, a boring couple of minutes for someone who wasn’t so interested in what I was writing.
Imagine my surprise when I’m the [...]
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2 September 2008
An Olah Without A Parachute: An Aliyah Adventure iv
My last post was about the trials of packing, this post is about what I am feeling this very moment.
I’m scared.
It’s starting to really hit me. I think what opened this dam of emotion is something my grandmother said to me. She asked if my father was sad that I was leaving. So while I [...]
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13 August 2008
An Olah Without A Parachute: An Aliyah Adventure iii
This is a rite of passage that I have to take, like many who came before me and many who will after me. This column is not here to judge anyone who has a different journey and this is not a column to postulate or pontificate the best way to go about making aliyah. This is just a column to share and perhaps provide some entertainment about my aliyah adventure.
And I think that’s how I have to look at it - as an adventure. So, here goes my jump from a precipice of familiarity: Welcome to an Olah without a parachute.
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5 August 2008
An Olah Without A Parachute: an aliyah adventure ii
Since I gave such a grand introduction to this blog, I shall now start to back it up.
Want to guess the #1 question people ask when I say I’m moving to Israel?
The reaction after I tell people is always interesting. Some of my friends nod like it is the most natural thing in the world [...]
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28 July 2008
An Olah Without A Parachute: An Aliyah Adventure i
Phew! Coming up with a title for a column is hard work. So many I mulled over, brainstormed and massaged and I still landed with the original one. You’re probably wondering about other front-runners. Well, there was “shifting into D4″ (too ambiguous) or “Just following orders” (too WWII) and then there was my favorite which [...]
