The Night Before

I've been anticipating this very post for months now, constantly thinking about what I would include to sum up everything about living in America and my feelings on the immediately impending emigration to Israel. Now, only hours away from boarding the flight to my new home, the night is finally here. It's my last night living in the United States.

Throughout the duration of this blog, we've discussed a lot about the processes involved in emigrating. The best place for me to begin this post would be explaining exactly why I got involved in the process and why I'm choosing to leave my life in America behind to go serve in an overseas army.

I've been exposed to Zionism for a good portion of my life. I've grown up with an ardently Zionistic brother and I've been educated about the State of Israel and what exactly it means to us as Jewish people. Through visits to and learning about the tiny country in the Middle East that an entire religion calls home, I've come to appreciate it as both the foundation of our history and the safe haven for our people.

While I always held this deep appreciation and admiration for Israel close to my heart, it wasn't until a trip to Poland that I made up my mind about my future and what I needed to do to help insure Israel's: become a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces. The sites of the horrors and tragedies the Holocaust created serve as a chilling reminder that evil exists in the world. Unfortunately the Jewish people have faced those evils on more than one occasion throughout history. Now that we have a homeland to call our own, it's imperative that we protect it and defend the Jewish people against any who seek to harm us. It's this very notion that's fueled my desire to pursue this goal and make Aliyah.

It's never easy to leave the comforts of home that have become all too familiar. The routines I've become accustomed to, the college life, for example, will now be replaced with new routines, the army life. The packing is always tedious, the goodbyes always difficult. I'm under no false illusions, a great challenge awaits. I go into it with passion in my heart and a firm belief in a cause. I'm ready to take the challenge.

I've been blessed with a beautiful home, a loving family, an incredible girl, a few best friends as well as many close ones, and the best upbringing I could have ever asked for. I'm turning the pages, closing out an unbelievable chapter in my life. Tomorrow, I'll board an airplane to open the the next one. Tomorrow, I will be realizing my dream.

I'd like to conclude by mentioning how astounding the support pouring in from home and abroad has been. I appreciate it more than I'll ever know how to say!

-Brett

Tomorrow

Tomorrow I fly to Israel. I become a citizen. I follow my dreams. 

I will never forget sitting in my great-grandfather's living room in Johannesburg, South Africa, days before emigrating to America at the age of nine. I remember him grasping a miniature set of the five books of Moses, with his eyes fixed upon me, weeping. Over the course of the next emotional hour or so, he detailed the story of his exodus from Lithuania. Discovering my ancestors, his immediate family, massacred in their own home in a violent pogrom, he decided to find a life for himself somewhere a bit safer for a Jew, he explained. Clutching the texts in his fist, he begged me never to forget who I was and where I came from.

Stories like those of my family members are common in every Jewish household and come from a time before the Jewish state and its army existed. Every society in history lost its tolerance of the Jewish people at some stage. Although extremes vary, my people have been exiled and slaughtered around the world for who they are and where they come from. After the most tragic example of this, the Holocaust, the Jewish state and its army were born to say, "No more!" Israel was and continues to be a statement to the world that the Jewish people will fight for self-determination. It is the declaration that we will not be forced to give up our customs, have our villages destroyed, our stores boycotted, our blood banned, or our bodies burned.  My decision to make aliyah and enlist in the Israeli Defense Forces is a contribution to the message that Jews can now have a say in their own history. 

On an ideological basis, I find it wrong that I would be able to rely on the safeguard of Israel's existence throughout my life without having given what every other citizen gives. While Israel will absorb any Jew into its borders as a citizen on the basis of the Law of Return, and will even rescue endangered Jews and bring them to safety (see: Operation Solomon/Ethiopia), I could never forgive myself for not doing my part for this privilege to be maintained. If one day, at 85 years-old,  I am no longer safe to live in America as a Jewish man, should I be content to fly to Israel, receive my benefits, become a citizen, and live out my years in safety, without having first done my part? I could never.  In my many conversations with friends and family, it has been pointed out to me that there are many things a Jew can do for his people. While I agree and would never discredit anybody or their own contributions, whatever they may be, nothing else I can do for Israel is mutually exclusive with my army service or my living in the land. This is something that I have always wanted for myself and see as my responsibility. I am taking this step to grow, to understand and appreciate the sacrifices we have made to get to where we are as a people, and to give of myself to our collective struggle. 

Tomorrow I fly to Israel. I become a citizen. I follow my dreams.  It has been an intense process to prepare for and the farewells have been getting increasingly more challenging. More than anything, I am excited to finally realize this ambition I have always had. The road ahead is filled with triumphs, failures. smiles, frowns, opportunities,  obstacles, and everything in-between, but I am expecting the time of my life. 

                   - Darren 

P.S. Thank you to everyone who has sent well wishes and kind messages, the support is overwhelming! I can't tell you how much it means. 

A Garin is Born

Garin Tzabar prides itself on its ability to bring together young adults who are compelled to make aliyah and serve in the Israeli Defense Forces. In order for the organization to achieve the goal of successfully providing a framework of success in Israel through a unique group environment, each Garin (usually representative of a specific region or state, like Florida or the Midwest) has to develop and grow as a close-knit “family.” The idea is that the people in your Garin become your brothers and sisters, those people who share your good times, and pull you through the hard. Now that we have completed our seminars (having attended the final one this weekend), it's all starting to come together!

It should first be said that the nature of the seminars allows for people to “come and go” along the way, meaning that someone who attended the first seminar may find that the program doesn't suit him/her or that someone may only discover the program after the process has already started, joining a little bit “late.” Although there has been a core around from the beginning, the Garin now has more than twenty members, with roughly half from the United States and half from Canada (the two sides only meeting this past week!) We are even rumored to be having a few European additions once we arrive in Israel.

Even with the diversity of backgrounds, our Garin has already started to show its potential for fulfilling the “family” environment it is supposed to.

Every family has its jokes. Ours has plenty. There is Frank (not his real name), the janitor of the hotel where we held our seminars, who became as much a part of the group as anyone else. There are the many interesting games that we came up with in our free time (in other words, when we had a minute to breathe), like playing Bocce Ball with glass bowls on a conference room table. There are the fake and outrageous combinations of injuries and ailments we invented for one of our Garinim when he met with an army representative, which have somehow stuck and found their way into every second conversation. We never miss an opportunity to advertise his many “allergies!”

Every family has its roles. Ours has plenty! In fact, individual “family members” often take up many roles. We have the loud and the quiet; the very outgoing and the reserved; the “ideas” people and the “plans” people...we have all types. Although just about everyone is still only finding his/her position in the dynamic group of ours', it's always possible to see who brings what to the table.

Every family has goals. Ours has one big one and many, many smaller ones. It's always fascinating to hear the conversations between different members of the Garin, sharing hopes, fears, and advice about the decisions they are making and this journey the group is embarking on. A family is there for this exact kind of support and encouragement.

Sitting in our circles and our group activities this weekend, or enjoying any of the above and more, it became apparent that this young family formed far from Israel will be the best foundation for our success and happiness there. It may, yet, grow or shrink a small amount, but our Garin, the family we are taking to Israel has been given the start its life and its identity.  

         - Darren 

Another Seminar and First Farewells

"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts."  John Wooden

This weekend, we participated in our second-last Garin Tzabar seminar. At the beginning of my process with Garin Tzabar, I wondered what they would do to keep our workshops interesting as they went along, or how each one could maintain value. After all, four weekends on the same subject seemed a bit much.  Yet, they have all managed to develop the process for me. Israel, the army, immigration, living on a Kibbutz, culture shock, group dynamics, and the political climate are just a few areas we dealt with, in-depth, this time, alone.

In my senior year of high school, as for much of the rest of my life,  I was convinced that I was going to volunteer for the IDF as a lone soldier before college and that I knew the best way to do it. I had read about the army, I had spoken to friends who were serving or had finished their tours, and I had done my research, I thought, enough. I can safely say, three years later, that each new piece of information, discussion, or discovery just teaches you that you cannot know what the experience entails until it arrives. Although Brett and I have "done our homework" and exhausted every resource available to us for the past however-many months and years, the process itself is the only education that matters. That has been true for the period of "getting ready" as I'm sure it will prove, on a much more heightened level, at each new phase.

With that said, Garin Tzabar has been an amazing opportunity to prepare for the change we are about to make in our lives. For some examples of the kind of insight it gives to a prospective lone soldier, this weekend we were able to meet with a representative of the army, who presented us with information on the positions potentially available to us in the IDF. He entertained our curiosities and interviewed us personally with the goal of determining any obstacle which may stand in the way of eligibility requirements for our ambitions in the army. We also interacted with a panel of Israeli government representatives who shared, on a personal level, their experiences in the IDF, and offered words of advice (to the whole group and individually). Like at the other seminars, we had many discussions and group activities, and even had a surprise Saturday night trip to a roller-skating rink. (I didn't know places like that still existed!) It's good for us, too, that we have been able to connect with the people in our group and feel that we are building friendships which we will see us through some of the harder times to come.

The most important and meaningful moment of my weekend, though, was saying "farewell" to my fraternity brothers at my last chapter meeting ever as an undergraduate member of Beta Theta Pi. While I was at the seminar this weekend, I was missing my brothers, who were initiating twelve new Betas and then attending our "Formal," an end-of-the-year celebration which would have been the perfect way to spend quality time with the people who have made my college career everything that it has been. It was one of the first times that i have felt what it would mean, on a personal level, to sacrifice for this dream I have. Brothers called to say how much they missed me and sent text messages and pictures. It was a glimpse of the future, in many ways, for me.

Needless to say, the weekend away only built up to how extremely special my last chapter ended up being. We stayed until three in the morning to part ways with a brotherhood that has meant so much to us. I will never forget the words of support, the recollections of memories together, the feelings and emotions shared, and the outpouring of love I personally received, and it will be a comfort to me and something I carry with me always. It is fitting that I didn't have to say "goodbye" alone, and that there were so many of my closest friends beside me to feel it with me, being sent off on their own personal journeys.

To my brothers, thank you. I appreciate you endlessly and will never be the same for the impact you have each made on my life.       
                                                _ kai _ 

           A "farewell" gift with personal messages and signatures 


And don't worry, while the rest of the week, and those to come, will certainly be filled with bittersweet goodbyes and "see-you-laters," this will be my only post about it! With these first farewells behind me (along with two classes - three to go!) the pressure of tying things up at college has started to alleviate and I will be able to focus on enjoying my short time remaining here.

With the summer, and the date of our aliyah, fast-approaching, Brett and I will be enjoying plenty of vacation time with loved ones in different parts of the world. In very positive news, we have both had our flights approved by Nefesh b'Nefesh and will be arriving in Israel when we had hoped to. Our 'plan" has started to fill in, as well, and looking at the calendar, it's incredible to start to see it all come together. Eagerly anticipating the discovery of which kibbutz our Garin will belong to, we also have another (final) seminar in a few short weeks. There should be lots to tell.

         -    Darren

Next Year in Jerusalem

The past few weeks have moved us much closer to the big move in more ways than one. We're obviously now just over two months away, but we've also taken care of almost all of the small tasks and documents that needed to be submitted and reviewed before any approval for Aliyah takes place. As Darren mentioned before, we've been given our Aliyah visas and now simply need to wait for our free plane tickets to be issued to us, most likely in the next couple of weeks.

During the busy few weeks, we also participated in the second Garin Tzabar seminar. After the first one concluded on such a high note for us and the other participants of the program, there was a high level of excitement on everyone's part for the second. Suffice it to say, the seminar did not disappoint.

While many of the activities were similar to the ones we took part in during the first weekend, this most recent seminar still proved to be a unique experience.

I touched on it a bit in the previous entry, but watching the group dynamics evolve during the structured conversations and activities is still something that amazes me. While the first time we met each other involved a bit of anxious excitement and the participants may have been shy or hesitant in getting to know each other too intimately, this seminar proved to reveal more about each one of my future roommates. The developing bonds of true friendships between different members of the Garin were clear for anyone to see. With each weekend that passes, the emigration draws nearer and the realization that each of the group's participants will become the family and support system we rely on in a new home grows stronger.

Among the more exciting features of the weekend came when an alumnus of the program Skyped in to speak to us about his experiences and answer the many questions all of us had about Garin Tzabar, life in Israel, and the army service. While I've spoken to many lone soldiers in the past, his words focused on our specific circumstances and were enlightening, to say the least. Sometimes they were a bit refreshing and sometimes they weren't exactly what we wanted to hear, but hearing from someone who has walked the path we're currently finding our way down gave us a vital resource to use during the preparation stage and the beginning of our army services.

After the seminar concluded, we went back to our lives outside of the program, taking care of what we need to take care of and spending precious time with those close to us. Included in that time were the Passover seders, our last here in the States. We spent the first night at some new family friends and I spent the second at my girlfriend's family's home. The seders turned out to be exceptionally special, something fitting for our last major holiday in the U.S.A. The time spent with those we love has become increasingly valuable and their support has been a huge help in this massive decision we've made.

On these nights specifically, “next year in Jerusalem” held more meaning than any in the past. This year, we spent Passover with our friends and family, celebrating the escape from slavery and freedom of the Jewish people. Next year, we spend Passover in Israel, defending that very freedom.

Immigration and the Aliyah Process (Part 2)

Yesterday morning, at the Israeli Consulate in Miami, we watched as our passports received Israeli oleh (immigrant) visas as casually as any other transaction or exchange. It was amazing to see something so significant printed and placed in such a relaxing manner, in a matter of minutes, on what are now the most important pages of our traveling documents. Well, then... if only the entire process were that easy.

The first time I wrote about the aliyah (immigration) process, only a few weeks ago, we were expecting to have something of a wait to see when we would be moved along the process. As our interview at that stage was, for the most part, to determine that we had all of our documents in order and that we were eligible to make aliyah in an objective sense, we weren't sure when we would actually be approved to receive our visas that entitle us to become Israeli citizens upon our arrival there. We have learned by now, though,  that expectations in a journey like this, for better and for worse, are mostly incorrect. In this case, it was for the much better, as we were contacted within the week with the good news that we had been approved for visas and would need to begin the necessary declarations to receive them. 

To keep with the tradition of the first post, an anecdote... In preparing these new documents, we were also asked (although this is quite obvious) to take passport pictures. I had known that I would need passport pictures eventually, but put them off for as long as I possibly could. For some reason, it has never exactly been my favorite thing to do, and it more than likely has something to do with the fact that I have literally never once had a decent passport picture. Needless to say, I didn't get the photos done during Spring Break (two weeks ago), nor did I get them done during the next week at school (last week) and so, they just kept getting pushed back. Having arrived from college together on Friday afternoon for our second Garin Tzabar seminar (post coming soon), Brett and I didn't have moment during the weekend to get the pictures taken and so it came down to... Sunday night, which will now forever be considered the least photogenic time of the week. With all due respect to CVS Pharmacy and the very talented photography staff there, this one was the worst of the lot. Exhaustion, a general lack of enthusiasm for this little errand, and some very messy hair created a perfect storm for my most tragic-looking passport picture to-date. Brett had the unfortunate dilemma of having to compare his passport pictures on the night to some he had taken a few weeks ago - it was, in his eyes, a choice of the lesser of two evils...  we were both unsurprisingly unimpressed! The positive side of it is that we both managed to get some good laughs every time we had to use the pictures (checking we had the documents, seeing the visas made, etc.) and it's become quite a joke! 

We rose early (and reluctantly) on Monday morning to venture back to Miami for a reunion with the Jewish Agency and our stop at the Israeli Consulate. Despite the fact that both of us would happily have taken a few extra minutes (see: under-exaggerated) of sleep, we were also excited to receive our visas. We had a bit of a challenge finding the place, as has now become tradition (for those of you judging us, it was a different location to the last time), but we eventually managed to find it. After some very funny interactions with the very Israeli staff, a source of great amusement for the two of us in general, and then with the aliyah workers, we had our documents checked and were on our way to get our visas.

Our journey wasn't without further navigational mishaps, either. Downtown Miami has proven to be a maze, of sorts, and there were many laughs to be had with the situations we got ourselves in just getting to the consulate! But before we knew it, we were sitting at a window, watching our passports become entirely more significant in content. A milestone was happening before our eyes.

It didn't escape my notice, either, that a very tragic occurrence took place in Toulouse, France, yesterday, where a still-unknown coward took the lives of three Jewish schoolchildren and a Rabbi outside of a Jewish day school. As a human being, my instinct is of disgust, that anybody could plan and execute the murder of innocents, no less children. Descriptions of the attack left me feeling sick (I won't re-tell them, but they are very public). As a Jew, it was an in-your-face reminder that the Jewish diaspora still, today, has to navigate the perils of anti-Semitic hatred. This "new pogrom" was a fascinating story, then, to hear on the day we had our passports stamped with immigrant visas for Israel.

To end on a positive note, Brett and I were so excited to get our visas that we decided it was completely necessary to take a trip to Sunrise Pita on the way (not -so- on the way, actually) home from Miami. We soaked in the little bit of Israel that exists in South Florida, feeling that much closer to the day that we will not have to go very far, at all, for shawarma and chicken laffas. 

                                                   Brett enjoying his shawarma laffa


Presently, we are both back at school, entering the final weeks of the semester and waiting for confirmation of our aliyah flight from Nefesh b'Nefesh. We will have another update in the very-near future about our second Garin Tzabar seminar, which was, as mentioned, this past weekend.

    -   Darren 

Immigration and the Aliyah Process (Part 1)

First and foremost, if you do not know what aliyah means, let's learn. It literally translates to "ascend" or "rise up." In the Jewish world, it mostly refers to immigration to Israel. To "make aliyah" is to do just that.

An oleh is an immigrant.
                                                                                    

In order to become a citizen of the State of Israel, as with other countries, there are some requirements that must be fulfilled. Brett and I have become all too familiar with these over the course of the past few months, navigating the procedure of immigrating to Israel all the way through our interview with the Jewish Agency this morning.

The first step to making aliyah is to open an application through the Jewish Agency and Nefesh b'Nefesh, which is quite painlessly done online. You are taken through a series of the kinds of questions that give a very broad overview of who the candidate for aliyah is -  family information, contact details, yada yada. It's question-and-answer with the likely twist of adding a supporting statement explaining why on Earth you are choosing this.

Upon completing this, you are tasked with your first, relatively mild, adventure in Israeli bureaucracy, made tame by the two special organizations mentioned earlier. (It should be said that the Jewish Agency and Nefesh b'Nefesh have worked hard to make the experience of making aliyah as easy as possible and have been of assistance from the first step. The fact that we are attached to Garin Tzabar has also given us a more personal relationship with at least the Jewish Agency, as demonstrated by the case worker for South Florida speaking with us at our first Garin seminar.) The Jewish Agency and NBN administer this second phase of the process and manage an online database for you to upload and store all of the documents needed to move along toward aliyah.

I am still quite shocked that I was able to track down the documents I needed, even despite some potential setbacks. There were at least five unique moments when I would think all hope was lost in attaining something, only to be rescued by its miraculous discovery or the assistance of somebody special (thanks, mom!)

One quite hilarious result of our quest for documents, among others, was the realization that our Hebrew names were not what we have believed they were for our entire lives. To the non-Jewish readers, I'm sure you are thinking "Yeah, hilarious" really sarcastically. Feel free to move to the next paragraph. To our Jewish brothers and sisters, laugh with us at this scenario: Brett has always believed his Hebrew name was "Baruch," while I always thought mine was "David." Well, with the reception of a letter from our Rabbi certifying that we are Jewish, it turns out we were both on the right track, but unfortunately not -quite- there. My name is, indeed, "David..." except i have a middle name, and it is "Baruch." Strange? Maybe a bit... but the best part is that Brett's Hebrew name is... wait for it... "Ilan!" What? Nothing like a tiny little identity crisis to shaken things up.

Having acquired and turned in all of our needed documents and declarations, we had our interview today with the case worker for the Jewish Agency and it all seemed to go well, despite our interesting drive around Miami looking for the office. As she rightly pointed out as we arrived, apologizing for getting lost, we are going to need to work on our navigation before the army!

We are at the next phase in our process now, which we will report on once it has passed successfully!

Things are moving quickly and as each day draws our move closer, we are looking more forward and becoming excited at what is in store.

     -- Darren