When I grew up, I imagined, I would find myself carrying a briefcase and wearing high-heeled shoes. I imagined riding in an elevator to a high floor, wearing a tailored suit, working in an office. Nothing more than that. No content. No idealism. Just the picture of success. The image.
How differently my life has turned out! How strange. So far from that empty fantasy.
Today I live in a “settlement” in the Southern Hevron Hills. It is like a village with 200 families. All Jewish. All religious. Mostly Israeli. I was born in America and moved to Israel at the age of thirty-three with my American husband. We didn’t know anyone at all when we arrived.
Why did we move to the other side of the globe, so far away from family and friends? We wanted our children to grow up like proud Jews. We wanted them to have Jewish friends, speak Hebrew, and grow up with the confidence of living in their own land.
Before moving to Israel, I was an Intellectual Property Attorney specializing in Trademark Prosecution. B-O-R-I-N-G. My husband was a teacher in the Philadelphia Public School System. S-T-R-E-S-S-F-U-L. Today, almost 20 years after our Aliyah, I am the American Fundraiser and Spokesperson for the emergency rescue organization Hatzalah in Yehuda and Shomron. I am also the host of “Returning Home” - a radio talk show about Aliyah.
In the summers, I am also a lifeguard at the Susya Swimming Pool where I teach a “Young Lifeguard” course and run weekly swim races. And I am the manager of the “Second Hand” clothing store and its 15 volunteers.
Not one of these things is boring. It is a very meaningful life. True, I have to piece together a few things to make ends meet, but all in all, everything I do matters. Everything contributes to the community. From the Hatzalah work, I know all the medics in Yehuda and Shomron. I distribute defibrillators, medical equipment, ambulances, and training sessions all throughout 150 yishuvim.
When I fainted from dehtdration last week at the end of a long day outdoors, the medics who came to my aid were people I knew. The medic bag which I saw on the ground beside me is one I personally helped to buy. I know the donor! At the pool, I know all the kids, all the parents. I see small babies grow up and I help their mothers teach them how to hold their breath, how to kick, eventually to swim. As they grow, they improve and enter the swimming races. It is wonderful to be part of their lives and to help them mature.
My husband is today an English Instructor at Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheva in several disciplines, and the Head Coordinator of English at the Eilat Campus. He is very involved with students. He loves it.
In Israel, you can cling to your old life and old goals or make new ones. There are many possibilities here in the Promised Land. There is a sense of belonging, of being a part of a holy enterprise far greater than your private existence. Our lives became very meaningful here. For us, materialism is far less important than it was in our past. Nonetheless we live with a sense of fulfillment.
Come to Yesha. Play a part in the Redemption of the Israelite Nation. For a Jew, there is nothing more meaningful and fulfilling than that.
Natalie Sopinsky is Director of Development for Hatzalah Yehuda and Shomron, the volunteer first-response medics in Yehuda and Shomron. www.hatzalah.org.il
