In Part Two of this series, two American `transplants', or
chutznikiot describe their absorption in Israel. In
the eyes of both, the point of attraction to life here is not
lifestyle or mentality, but clearly only a high spiritual
level and the existence of Torah centers that enable perfect
Torah study for the husband.
"I don't know if Israelis are aware of one's accessibility to
gedolim which in my opinion greatly influences the
spiritual progress of every person. When you can come to ask
and get advice almost 24 hours a day, your life turns into a
daily existence of Daas Torah. It was clear to us and
to the children that we were all waiting to immigrate to
Israel," tells Nechama (the name has been changed at her
request), only eleven years in the country.
Nechama made aliyah when her eldest daughter was already 14,
and close family waited for her in Israel, therefore she
didn't feel lonely. "In his youth, my husband learned for two
years in Bnei Brak, while I spent a year in a seminary in
Jerusalem. Our marriage in the States was based on one common
dream, to return again to Israel right after the wedding. We
had to remain for a year, and in the meantime my husband was
offered the opportunity to transfer to a new and unique
kollel in a distant city whose goal, besides intensive
learning, was also to assist the religious-chareidi community
there and strengthen it. My husband accepted the challenge
and in the end we stayed there for 18 years. I formed deep
and warm bonds with the women of the community and the
parting was not easy. But Eretz Yisrael drew us with its
magic, mainly due to the quality of its spiritual and Torah
life.
"My children thought that all the people in Israel would
either look like us or like the people who live in Meah
Shearim, where the children sit all day saying Tehillim, that
on Shabbos all the girls wore a white blouse and a blue skirt
and all had braids. We also had high spiritual
expectations.
"Abroad, you get the impression that all the Avreichim
in the country sit and learn in kollel without limit
until they are old and gray. In reality we met those whose
Torah was their only `craft' but there were others. Something
else unique in the life of Eretz Yisrael which struck us was
the ease and frequency with which we could reach Gedolei
Torah. For us, the main difficulty in immigrating to
Israel, in our situation, when the children were big and we
were no longer young, was leaving elderly parents alone,
without our support. The knowledge that I couldn't be close
to my parents to support them when they needed me,
overshadowed my happiness of integrating into spiritual life
here in Israel."
What is she looking for out the window?
"When I attended my daughter's first PTA meeting, and the
teacher told me that she couldn't understand why my daughter
was always looking out the window, I couldn't explain it to
her -- the language did not yet flow fluently from my mouth.
I wanted to ask her: If she had been sitting in a class where
Chinese or French was being spoken, what would she be doing,
if not looking out the window? But this problem was solved
pretty quickly, and my children picked up the language
easily, integrated into the community and married here with
local spouses when that time came.
"Practically every olah is confronted with the
challenge of getting used to a standard of living lower than
which she was accustomed abroad. Today, the technological
advances are slowly arriving here and enter each of our homes
sooner or later. Friends of mine tell of their aliyah some
twenty years before me, when, in order to inform their
families that they had had a baby, they had to cross a number
of streets to get to a public phone. Today many homes already
have two lines, a cell- phone, a cordless and a fax.
"Our main fear was the level of absorption of our children,
who were already big and with minds of their own. I heard
from many friends that many families had to send children
back to the States to a boarding school or to Grandma and
Grandpa because they were unable to learn the language, to
integrate into society, to get used to the mentality etc. But
we saw here major siyata dishmaya. All our children
easily passed the difficult absorption process. I know that
many refrain from coming here in our situation because of
their fears for the children. My daughters were accepted by
the daughters of our relatives who came here before us, and
this greatly eased the social integration. Learning the
language and adapting were accomplished without pressure. We
took a deep breath. We knew this was a process and each one
would go through it according to his ability and skills.
"A few weeks after we arrived, there was a Shemirat Halashon
Kenes at Binyanei Haumah in Jerusalem. My daughter traveled
there together with a relative who saw her sitting transfixed
and she asked whether my daughter understood what was being
said there. My daughter answered her: `I hardly understand a
thing, but I'm absorbing the atmosphere well, and it's so
exciting and uplifting.' I was happy to hear this, for, after
all, that's why we had come to the country, in order to get
the elevated spiritual atmosphere, found in every Jewish-
Chareidi area. We knew they would learn the language one way
or another, sooner or later.
"The one who is liable to go through a personal and financial
crisis in transferring from country to country is the
husband, especially if he is a businessman and must start
from scratch or find an alternate profession. But my husband
was totally immersed in learning, and the Torah is identical
everywhere, so that here he was immediately able to open a
sefer to the same page where he had closed it in his
kollel abroad.
"But there was a difference. We came from a small unique
community where he had a position and a certain status, to a
big city of Torah, where he didn't know anyone. But he
preferred an Israeli Yeshiva to position and prestige.
Baruch Hashem, he found a Yeshiva to his liking, and
the very fact that here he can sit and only learn in
kollel is a special privilege. So my husband is also
going through the absorption process easily and has quickly
found his place.
"As for me? I had the company of my eight children, and I
didn't need society urgently. But to my surprise, the
neighbors welcomed me warmly. In our second week here, a
neighbor called me over and said: `I'm going to a
simcha of one of the tenants, I imagine that you're
probably embarrassed to go alone, so why don't you come with
me and we'll introduce you all around?' I willingly agreed,
and since then, there's been a pleasant relationship between
my neighbors and me.
"There are those people for whom the transition from a life
of ease and even luxury abroad to the simple living
conditions and life here in Israel, leads to a crisis. We,
Baruch Hashem, did not have this kind of difficulty,
for the simple reason that even in the States, we weren't
used to an especially indulgent life. Although we lived in an
affluent community, where most people lived, without
exaggeration, in houses with 30 rooms, and each family had
two to three automobiles, we, kollel families, lived
on a simple and lower standard. We lived in small apartments
and had what a family needs, not more than that.
"Maran HaGaon Rabbi Yaacov Kaminetzky was a mentor of our
community, and when he frequently came to us,
avreichim from the community would seek his advice.
Someone once asked him whether an avrech could ride a
bike to kollel, that is, if there is no disrespect to
Torah in a neighborhood where there were a number of cars per
family? Maran Hagaon R' Kamitetzky answered them: `You
bnei Torah seem to these people, with all your
differences in lifestyle, as if you came from another planet.
So, really, you can drive by whatever mode of transport you
see fit, especially if it serves you faithfully, cheaply and
quickly.' "
To be continued...
