Two pro-Aliyah events were/will be held at the Renaissance Hotel in Jerusalem this week.
The first featured some 750 students currently participating in one-year programs in Israeli yeshivot who gathered together this past Saturday night, the second night of Chanukah. Aloh Naaleh, an organization promoting aliyah from North America, sponsored the event. Rabbi Sholom Gold of Har Nof, Jerusalem - formerly of Toronto, Canada and West Hempstead, New York - compared his days as a foreign student in Israel, "when you could almost count the number of North Americans here on the fingers of both hands," with the situation today when there are thousands of such students. "It is a great Kiddush Hashem [Sanctification of G-d's Name]," he said. David Zeevi, who studied a few years ago in one of the 15 yeshivot represented at the event, told the audience how he returned to the U.S. for his college education, and how he and his wife had come on aliyah six months ago. The evening's message was clear: Israel and aliyah must be a serious option for the future. Aloh Naaleh (email: "aloh-naaleh@aaci.org.il") plans a similar event for female students next month.
The second event, sponsored by the Yisrael B'Aliya party's Anglo division, will be held this Wednesday night. Dubbed a "Celebration Of Western Olim and Our Contribution to Israel," it will feature an address by Deputy Prime Minister and party leader Natan Sharansky; greetings from Efrat founder Rabbi Shlomo Riskin; remarks by Avital Sharansky on "Past and Present Struggles for Freedom;" and musical entertainment.
The first featured some 750 students currently participating in one-year programs in Israeli yeshivot who gathered together this past Saturday night, the second night of Chanukah. Aloh Naaleh, an organization promoting aliyah from North America, sponsored the event. Rabbi Sholom Gold of Har Nof, Jerusalem - formerly of Toronto, Canada and West Hempstead, New York - compared his days as a foreign student in Israel, "when you could almost count the number of North Americans here on the fingers of both hands," with the situation today when there are thousands of such students. "It is a great Kiddush Hashem [Sanctification of G-d's Name]," he said. David Zeevi, who studied a few years ago in one of the 15 yeshivot represented at the event, told the audience how he returned to the U.S. for his college education, and how he and his wife had come on aliyah six months ago. The evening's message was clear: Israel and aliyah must be a serious option for the future. Aloh Naaleh (email: "aloh-naaleh@aaci.org.il") plans a similar event for female students next month.
The second event, sponsored by the Yisrael B'Aliya party's Anglo division, will be held this Wednesday night. Dubbed a "Celebration Of Western Olim and Our Contribution to Israel," it will feature an address by Deputy Prime Minister and party leader Natan Sharansky; greetings from Efrat founder Rabbi Shlomo Riskin; remarks by Avital Sharansky on "Past and Present Struggles for Freedom;" and musical entertainment.