The theme of the event, as all those organized by Aloh Naaleh, was Aliyah [Jewish immigration] to Israel. This year's gathering, co-sponsored by Yeshiva University, also hosted many yeshiva deans and teachers. Speakers included Rabbi Yerachmiel Roness, Exec.-Dir. of Aloh Naaleh; former Kerem B'Yavneh student Avi Hermon, who explained why he and his wife moved to Israel; and Rehovot's Chief Rabbi Simcha HaCohen Kook. Rabbi Kook said that the thousands of students now learning in Israel could make important contributions to Jewish learning in Israel, just as many rabbis and scholars did over the centuries.
Rabbi Shalom Gold, formerly of Canada and the United States, spoke of what motivated him to consider Aliyah. He said that his late father left him a small suitcase that contained a letter from the authorities in Palestine, dated August 1946, stating that though his application to make Aliyah from the U.S. was granted, the British authorities refused to grant more visa certificates. Making Aliyah, then, Rabbi Gold stated, was "the fulfillment of my father's dream... It was getting extremely difficult for me to daven and bentch [a reference to the many mentions of the Holy Land in the daily prayers and Grace after Meals]... You have to rekindle the passion for Eretz Israel so that you too will suffer from that blessed difficulty." He concluded by saying, "The Land of Israel is the passion of our time - and, as Theodore Roosevelt said, 'Whoever does not participate in the passion of his time, will be judged as not having lived.'"
Rabbi Shalom Gold, formerly of Canada and the United States, spoke of what motivated him to consider Aliyah. He said that his late father left him a small suitcase that contained a letter from the authorities in Palestine, dated August 1946, stating that though his application to make Aliyah from the U.S. was granted, the British authorities refused to grant more visa certificates. Making Aliyah, then, Rabbi Gold stated, was "the fulfillment of my father's dream... It was getting extremely difficult for me to daven and bentch [a reference to the many mentions of the Holy Land in the daily prayers and Grace after Meals]... You have to rekindle the passion for Eretz Israel so that you too will suffer from that blessed difficulty." He concluded by saying, "The Land of Israel is the passion of our time - and, as Theodore Roosevelt said, 'Whoever does not participate in the passion of his time, will be judged as not having lived.'"