18 August 2006

I keep using the word "surreal" to describe this experience, for a lack of a better word. And I dislike using aphorisms, similes and metaphors to describe my feelings – I think it means one doesn't have any thing original to say – the image in my mind that I kept expecting to exemplify was from "Contact" with Jodie Foster: After she's approved to travel on the mysterious machine, she slowly walks the gangplank into the travel apparatus with the only organic sound heard by the audience being her breath. She travels to another planet – another dimension? – by passing through a "wormhole."
While I like the romance of this visual, it never manifested in reality. The Boeing 747 that took us to Israel was filled with a motley crew of fellow American Jews, from babies with bone-rattling cries to 20-somethings with no post-landing game plan. Perhaps we did go through some wormhole-like dimensional divide in the course of the flight, perhaps during the 20 minutes that I was able to fall asleep during the 10-hour flight. I'm clearly not knowledgeable about quantum physics, so I'll stop speculating.
Even after landing, the reality of the situation hadn't sunk in.

Some of the many note-worthy moments:
-Having an empty seat between me and another young guy sitting on the aisle: Great for spreading out, bad for the missed opportunity of one more Oleh Hadash.
-Landing, with the standard Israeli music mix EL-Al plays for all flights.
-Being met at the outdoor hangar by my two good friends from college, with a welcome sign in Arabic (Welcome, You've Arrived Last, Dinner's On You) and a bottle of the finest cheap champagne.
-The IDF Chief Rabbi's band singing a mix of songs (Shuvu Banim, Ratziti SheTeda, etc.) whose messages made my Israeli friends uncomfortable with their thoughts also linked to friends in Lebanon.
-The stirring speech by Minister of Absorption Zeev Bo'im in Hebrew (and only Hebrew), quoting Psalm XXX, whose power was probably lost on the majority of Olim who do not understand Hebrew on a working level.
-The electioneering done by the Prime Minister….this way to your immigrant papers and Kadima Party registration forms.
-The Absorption Hall in the old arrivals terminal. Think classic Israel (parquet as far as the eye can see + filthy white walls), with all the signs in Russian, faded posters from the 1980's, and little cubicles where we lined up to receive our Immigrant Certificates, assorted forms, and the first installment of a government grant to make absorption easier (aka a huge wad of cash).
-Absorption Ministry was a breeze; Interior Ministry took forever. In the time it took to get to the front of a 5-person line to verify my signature, I had a 10-minute phone interview in Hebrew with a TV station and fielded several other calls.
-Getting driven by my two aforementioned friends to Jerusalem in a car that clearly had a bias against any place outside of the Tel Aviv Metropolitan area. How we got up the Judean Hills with three people and 150+ lbs. of luggage is thanks to God and 15-year old brakes.

What else?
I was interviewed in Hebrew live on Channel 1, which has the same reputation of CBS back in the States: a senior-citizen friendly channel. Afterwards, we returned so I could promptly pass-out from exhaustion. I'm house-sitting for a colleague of mine from Hillel, which worked out very well: besides she's definitely one of my role models, she has a very nice apartment.

In looking back at the process of making Aliyah with Nefesh b'Nefesh, they've definitely made the process easier – I get my National ID in a few days, and never have to wait in line at the Interior Ministry.
While I wasn't surprised by the lack of outwardly-looking "secular" people on my flight, it's still a real disappointment. In this country Jews are "secular" or "religious" with varying degrees existing only in the latter. While I hate both terms – I hope to make my "Just a Jew" label stick here – this country could use more "secular" American Jews as citizens. The quality of life they enjoy and their varying relations to Judaism as a religion would bring a breath of fresh air here. I have nothing but respect for those identifying as religious who come here out of religious reasons, but to be blunt/Israeli about it, tapping into the American religious community for Olim is like shooting fish in a barrel. At some point those numbers will run dry, and the vast majority of American Jews – Reform, Conservative, unaffiliated, etc. – will all the more disconnected. Watching all the Nefesh b'Nefesh staff and not seeing a single "secular"-looking one in the bunch doesn't help in the least.