It is 3 a.m. on August 17, 1977, and I am at Ben-Gurion Airport with my wife, Rita, and our three children – Avie, Elissa, and Tuvia. We are here with a woman, the only other person making aliyah, in a hall with dim lights, devoid of individuals, and we walk toward a sign in Hebrew on a door that reads “Merkaz Klita – Absorption Center.”
We open the door to our new life. There is an empty desk, perhaps a sign that we are not wanted. Maybe, we think, we should fly back to the US.
Then a woman rushes in. “Shalom aleichem. We have your names. You are about to return to our ancient homeland, the State of Israel.”
She has six swabs in her hand. “Open your mouths please,” she says. “We need to make sure you are healthy to make aliyah.” She swabs our throats and puts the sticks in a solution that then shows the results. “You are all healthy. You can live here.”
We can see her fingers moving up and down on a device. She hands me an identity card for each of us. Then she stamps a card and explains: “With this, you can receive your shipping container, tax-free. You can also buy a car and pay just 60% tax.
“You will need money,” she says as a cash drawer pops open and she hands 250 lira to each of us. “A gift from Israel.”
By now it’s 4 a.m. The clerk gives us slips for a free taxi to Jerusalem. A teenager appears with a cart to load our 15 suitcases. Our kids are feeling at ease, laughing, juggling a ball, playing with toys, and eating the candy given to them by their grandparents in the US.
While in the taxi, we can’t believe we are headed to Jerusalem. We get to the city quickly. All we see are empty streets – and we arrive at the absorption center in Malha.
“Here are two keys,” the manager says. We open the door. There are five mattresses on the floor. Exhausted, we fall into a deep sleep. Rita and I wake up about three hours later. Our children are nowhere to be seen. Surely, they realize this is home.
“I remember the heat when we got off the plane, even though it was nighttime,” recalls my daughter Elissa. She has been married to Chemi Burg for 37 years and lives on the Golan Heights. They have three children and one granddaughter.
Elissa enjoyed the freedom that Israel offered. “I could travel on my own with my friends on a public bus. In Wilmington, Delaware, where we lived, you and Mommy took us everywhere – to school, friends, and other activities.”
Almost 48 years later
It's almost 48 years later, and we are still here with all our children and their families – now true Israelis. Currently, there are 17 of us, with two more on the way.
This is not America. You learn fast that Israel is different! Our pockets were always filled with asimonim – phone tokens; without them, we were cut off and couldn’t reach people by phone. I was frequently at the Central Post Office on Jaffa Road, where there were public phones, to make collect calls to the US. Fortunately, we owned an apartment in Givat Mordechai, which we had bought a few years earlier, but we were still waiting for a phone.
Let me share how we completed tasks that are so simple today.
In my family, I was elected to pay bills. I learned how to “play the line” to pay bills at the post office. Frequently, speaking fast in Hebrew, I would say: “My wife and kids are waiting for me at the doctor’s office.” That would help me move up a few places in line. But then at the counter, the teller would get up, saying: “I have to go to the bathroom.”
During the Begin-Sadat negotiations, president Jimmy Carter flew to Israel on a Saturday night, the Shabbat of our son’s bar mitzvah. In 1979, Israel produced special commemorative stamps for important events like this. By Sunday morning, I was at the post office, found my favorite postal teller, and asked him to sell me about 100 envelopes with that special Carter stamp.
How fortunate we were that our two sons and two of our grandsons were able to go to the Western Wall to put on their tefillin. There was much more of a spiritual feeling then, as having the Western Wall in Israel’s hands after the 1967 Six Day War was still novel.
In Givat Mordechai, our daughter attended Amalia High School. At her graduation, the girls sang with such feeling.
The people who contributed to the success of our aliyah were our cousins – Holocaust survivor Prof. Dov Levin, his wife, Bilha, their daughters, Nitzana and Basmat, and their son, Zvika. When we cried, they wiped our tears away.
And when we were exasperated, our close friends Sara and David Herling always made themselves available. “Calm down,” they would say quietly. Sara provided us with many wonderful meals; David took us on hikes because he knew Jerusalem, the city of his birth, so well.
It's all been so meaningful. Our children and their families live here, thriving and building a better Israel.
What has been most important to me? There is no question: seeing my children, hearing about their lives, witnessing many grandchildren growing up – and now a great-granddaughter – going on hikes with them in the country, being at their graduations, and seeing them enlist in the IDF, like our children before them, but now we are more tense. Some have professions, are married, and are enlarging my family.
What has been the biggest change for me? The light rail in Jerusalem and the new lines to be completed soon, demonstrating what was actually proposed more than 100 years ago in an American newspaper.
The first train in Israel
I rode the first train in 2011 with my son, and have been keeping score, with close to 5,000 rides. For me, the train is an example of the vibrancy of our city of Jerusalem and life here. Of course, after owning four cars, which I no longer have, I rely on the light rail and buses, using my senior transportation card.
For me, traveling on the light rail is the only time I see the many different citizens of our city together – sometimes squashed together. I can rub shoulders with anyone. I see newborn babies in carriages, watch riders working on their computers, observe the bearded and non-bearded “learning.” Most beautiful for me is that so many people, young and old, offer me a seat.
It took close to 100 years, after the light railway was first suggested, for one to be built. Now numerous Jerusalem lines are under construction. There will be more in Tel Aviv as well, plus a light rail (tram-train system) that will connect Haifa and Nazareth.
Identity card miracle
I had my own identity card miracle at Jerusalem’s Interior Ministry. Somehow, my identity card had either been stolen or lost. Several weeks before the current war, I arrived at the Interior Ministry at 7:45 a.m., a quarter of an hour before the office opened. I showed the guard my passport, the only Israeli document I had that proved my identity. He looked at it, saw it was authentic, and looked at my cane. “Stay by my side,” he said. “You will be the first to go in when the door opens.”
I went in, and showed the woman at the desk my passport. Ten minutes later, my new identity card was ordered. Last Sunday, it was delivered to my home. The Interior Ministry in Jerusalem shows what efficiency means! May all government offices be so blessed.
But I sense that the holiness of our city and the uniqueness of Jerusalem are losing some degree of meaning because of all the tall buildings being built. More housing is needed so that young people can move back to Jerusalem. However, I have not heard that sufficient low-rent or less expensive apartments are being constructed. How can people afford Jerusalem apartments that cost millions of dollars?
Feeling blessed
My life today is so wonderful because of my family. In their busy lives, I am touched daily by their love for me and for Israel.
I am very fortunate that the editorial staff of The Jerusalem Post and The Jerusalem Report have offered me the opportunity to be a freelance writer for 47 years. Their kindness has truly inspired me and encouraged me to learn more on my own, initially through books and learned journals at the numerous libraries in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa, plus other locales, and now through the Internet.
I feel that my life has been blessed because of all the journalists I have met in the newsroom, in the three different locales where The Jerusalem Post has been located.
I have been given the opportunity to work with a great woman scholar for almost a decade. My initial task was to work with her on a specific project. Subsequently, I have learned so much from her, as she published her recent books and articles. I have also become a gadfly for her as she continues to bring new wisdom to the world.
My suggestion: If you can, find someone to help. Your life will be enriched.