My Nefesh B'Nefesh Essay

(We have returned from our pilot trip, and I really have so much to report, and to write about.  However, all of my time for the past 2 weeks has been spent getting over pneumonia, and filling out the Nefesh B'Nefesh application that is due this week.


However, part of the Nefesh B' Nefesh application is a supporting statement (i.e. essay) on why you want to make aliyah.  I thought I would include a draft of my essay here as a post. I am in the process of revising this essay and will repost when it's final)

The land and State of Israel have been pivotal in forming my Jewish identity.

Let me explain.

My grandmother is a Holocaust survivor.  I grew up in her house and we always have been very close.  She grew up in a wealthy home in Berlin and vividly remembers the horrific anti-Semitic tide that spread through Germany when she was a child.  She remembers Kristalnacht, she remembers being called anti-Semitic names in school, and she remembers being present at the 1936 Olympics, watching Hitler march across the fields. 

Growing up with my grandmother, there was a certain heaviness associated with being Jewish.  In fact, she would never disclose her Jewish identity to outsiders, and my mother was trained to also be secretive about being Jewish.  As a child, Judaism was presented as something to run away from, not something to embrace.  

My perspective drastically shifted in 9^th grade after reading one book — “Exodus” by Leon Uris.  Published in 1958, “Exodus” is the unbelievable story of the history of Zionism and the founding of the State of Israel, told through the eyes of fictional characters.   I came to realize that my grandmother only presented half of the story to us.  Yes, this horrible thing that is beyond words happened called the Holocaust.  However, that is not the end of the story.  The Jewish people would rise up again from the ashes to achieve amazing feats, particularly returning to their ancestral homeland.  From that moment, I declared to my family and friends that I would one day live in Israel. 

I would eventually fulfill this dream and come to Israel after college in the year 2000.  While in Israel, I learned in several yeshivot.  One summer, I decided to take a break from learning and became a madrich for an Israel touring program for college kids.   While touring across Israel, I kept mysteriously bumping into this one madricha from a similar Israel trip.  She and I decided that it was too much coincidence that we kept being in the same places at odd hours (dawn at Massada , midnight at the Kotel, etc) and began to date.  4 months later she was my “kallah” walking through the old city to our chupah the overlooked the Kotel.

As you can tell, Israel has always been a magical place for us, especially since it’s the place I met my wife.  We ended up beginning our marriage in Israel as I continued my studies in yeshiva but we did not end up staying, mainly because there were not the resources that exist today, in terms of information about different communities to live in Israel and different professions for me to work in Israel, and therefore I was unable to bridge the gap between learning in an American yeshiva, and being part of Israeli society as a whole.

I can tell you honestly that we have regretted our decision to come back to America almost from the moment that we stepped off the airplane.  Ever since then, living in Israel and dreaming of aliyah has been a commonplace topic in our home.  However, a special trip last year is what endowed with this determined spirit that we will move back to Israel, and make a life there for us and our children!

Last year, serendipity led my wife and I to lead her high school class of 11th graders on a 2 week tour of Israel .  The 2 week trip was simply magical.  Armed with an emotional Israeli tour guide who clearly was madly in love with all aspects of the land, we first went to the North for a week.  Oh, how magnificent the hikes were that we went on in the Galil and the Golan! And what a holy Shabbat we spent in Tzfat!  The next week we went around Jerusalem and connected to the standard religious experiences, like the Burnt House in the whole city where a video reenacted the destruction of the second temple.   At the end of the video, the protagonist, who was standing in the supposed recent ruins of the 2^nd temple looked into the camera and dramatically proclaimed: “One day I imagine that my people shall return here, with children once again playing in the streets.”  We also went to Har Hertzel, where we paid respects to the fallen soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice so Jews could live in their homeland.  For the grand finale, we marched in the Yom Yerushalime parade to the Kotel, remembering the great miracle of reclaiming Jerusalem in 1967.

At one point during the trip, I looked over to my wife and quietly said: “We must move back here.  We can and we should be living here – so why aren’t we?  Why watch history, when you be a part of it?” From that moment, our minds were set.  We would be coming home.

Upon returning from our trip last June, I immediately started doing research to plan our pilot trip.  We recognized that to make a successful aliyah for our entire family, we needed to look at the different communities, and see which would be the best match for us.  I also wanted the opportunity to network for employment.  So over the course of many months, I started to look into potential communities throughout the country, trying to be as thorough as possible.  We knew what we wanted. A small, strong Torani community that is warm and friendly and has a presence of Anglos.   The NBN and Kehillot Tehilla websites were indispensible for our research.  Through the websites, we were able to start emailing communities all over Israel, in the North, in the South, in the middle of the country.  I asked direct questions and got good replies for very helpful Olim.  I would read the responses to my wife and slowly a list of 50 communities dwindled down to 8, mostly in the Jerusalem area.  To prepare for the pilot trip, I also spent extensive time researching careers that I could enter.  I posted on listserves, I called contacts, and I was in touch with NBN’s employment office.  I also was able to meet with NBN when they came to Baltimore (Yishai Fleisher in June and Kim Ephrat in November).

Finally, after much work was completed, we departed our pilot trip.  The trip was a success.  We were able to make great employment contacts with professionals that I now consider as mentors, like Paul Schindman, Paula Stern, and Goel Jasper.  More importantly, we saw the communities.  We would start in the house of someone I had contacted over the internet, and then start going door to door to meet Anglo families.  By the end of the week, we had narrowed down our list, either Maalei Adumin or Ramat Shilo.   Finally, we were able to connect with the life of “olim,” to hear about difficulties and successes in aliyah, and receive invaluable advice.  We also were able to be reacquainted with the differences between Israelis and America, in terms of negotiating, driving, and even in terms of the way elementary schools are run.

We are now back in Baltimore, submitting this application, with the goal of move to Israel this summer, which hopefully will be a good time for our children to transition.  We are preparing for the move and taking the steps to move forward, like spending serious time improving our Hebrew, networking with jobs, etc.  We are 

very excited for the move!

(I took out from this post the section of the essay that had the pitch why we would like a grant, etc).

I would like to end with a sentiment of sincere gratitude to all of the employees and the organization Nefesh B’Nefesh.  Yes, Nefesh B’Nefesh is amazing on the grand scale because it igniting a new resurgence of aliyah in North America.  Beyond that, however, on a personal level, I have already gained so much.  NBN has been the determining factor that has brought our aliyah from dream to reality.  Thank you.

 -Yisroel (and Tzivia) Reiss

(Now, I have to finish submitting the documents and then begins the waiting period until we hear a response)