Why I Moved to Israel (1)

This is the first in a series of guest posts on “Why I moved to Israel.” These days Zionism is such an abstract word which is meaningless to many people. So why do people move to Israel? Practical reasons, ideology, a sense of belonging? Something else? In this series, people who made aliyah will explain their motivation.

(Readers who would like to write a post for this series can leave a comment below.)

Guest post by Carol Warady

We didn’t move to Israel because I knew it would kill my mother-in-law. I thought I should clear that up in the beginning so it’s not in the back of your minds as you read about why I moved to Israel!

I can actually pinpoint the events that led me here. Step one was summer camp at Camp Betar when I was fourteen years old. The camp’s slogan was “Not just another camp!” No truer words have ever been written on a brochure for a sleep-away camp. Betar is a zionist youth movement and I became a member. As part of the movement’s activities we had someone from the movement who had made aliyah come and speak to us. He talked about a beautiful country where the people were Jewish and nobody locked their doors. For this girl, born and raised in NYC unlocked doors seemed like paradise to me. I was hooked. This was a time in Israel not like today. No one really had anything worth stealing! Not everyone had a phone let alone a car or a computer. We’ve come so far in such a short time. Or have we? In any case I wanted unlocked doors and lots of crazy Jews around me. It was like camp only bigger!

Other things affect us on a subconscious level. My parents escaped the Nazis. My father was the only one from his family to make it out of that hell. To him Israel was of utmost importance. He came from Austria to a displaced persons camp in England. He was not allowed by the British to go to Palestine so he chose the United States. I’m grateful for that because then he met my mother and well here I am! As a very little girl I remember the Six Day War. Actually what I remember is my Dad coming home from a long day of work and me jumping all over him as he immediately went to the radio to listen to the news. No CNN in those days! Did I mention I was “very little”? Very little being the operative words. Can I stress that enough? For those six days my Dad sat by the radio to hear if that tiny fledgling state would survive. I had to learn to be quiet. This sliver of a memory tied me to a place I knew only by name.

Following the Hollywood formula girl meets boy and at the same time girl finally gets to go to Israel. After high school I went on a year program to Israel as a representative of Betar at the Institute for Youth Leaders from Abroad. Here I met the boy who became man enough to marry me! I also got to meet my people and see my homeland. I was in love and not just with the boy. I loved seeing the actual places where my ancestors made history. I loved the crazy mess of people that made up my people. People here actually knew their neighbors and looked out for each other. People argued and had opinions. People let their Jewishness show and didn’t worry about it. I could sit with my friends very late on Friday night by the Kotel and my non-religious self could feel in that quiet that it was in the presence of something bigger than me. I could actually go to the place where the father of my people, Abraham, rested. How cool is that?

These three events are what shaped my destiny. As destinies are wont, they often take some twists and turns as mine did. However in the end we packed up the kids after promising to buy them a dog and we moved to Israel. It should be noted that two dogs and two cats later we are happily living here in Israel and it has become home. Israel is a great place to raise kids. Children here have freedom that their American counterparts can only dream of having.

Being Jewish and living here for a long enough time I of course will part ways by giving some unsolicited advice! Just do it. Pack up your sense of humor and come on over. Leave your expectations behind. Don’t expect this to be America. It’s not. Don’t expect this to be easy. Unless of course you have rich parents! The only expectation you should bring is to expect the unexpected!

I moved to Israel because I had a crazy Zionist dream and it became reality. While you can be Jewish anywhere and you can certainly be fully religiously observant anywhere in the free world you can only be fully Jewish in Israel.

Explore posts in the same categories: Opinions