![\"Aliya\"](\"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Aliya.jpg\")
<\/a>Aliya<\/p><\/div>
\nMy doorbell rang at about 23:00 last night. Oi, I thought. Because good news rarely knocks on your door this late at night. But this time I was wrong. I opened the door to my friend Sarah, a huge grin splitting her face in half, triumphantly waving a brand new Teudat Zehut (Israeli ID card). Sarah had been in the process of making aliyah (immigrating to Israel). Yesterday she received the final paperwork. Sarah was officially an Israeli citizen. <\/p>\n
And so we squealed a little. Hugged each other. Did the little jumpy dance that girls do when they are really excited. Because this is big. Huge. Awesome\u2026<\/p>\n
I met Sarah a few months ago in the park while walking Bella the basset hound. We bonded over a shared love of, well, basset hounds and Israeli ice-cream. Sarah is 21 and hails from California. She certainly looks the part. Wavy sun-streaked hair, huge aqua eyes. She\u2019d finished her undergrad studies and was considering which grad school to attend when something changed. Sarah visited Israel for the first time. <\/p>\n
Sarah is Jewish but not what you would call religious. The Bible is more of a historical account of her people than anything else. God might exist. He might not. She\u2019s not sure. She never considered living in Israel. Life was good in America. But then things changed. \u201cI came to Israel and I didn\u2019t want to leave. This was my home. I\u2019m Jewish. This is where I belong. I went back to America of course. But I felt this urge, this pull to come back home. To start my life proper here.\u201d <\/p>\n
And so she did. At the ripe old age of 21 Sarah became the first of her family to make aliyah to Israel. She did so all by herself. No family, no friends, no comfort zone. In a few months, Sarah will be joining the army for two years. She doesn\u2019t have to. She is past the mandatory age for women. But she wants to. She is Jewish. And this is her homeland. <\/p>\n
Brave girl, I know. But Sarah isn\u2019t the only one. It\u2019s been a particularly difficult few months for Israel. There is the unceasing onslaught of rockets that families have to cope with daily. The emotional anguish of waiting for news from sons, husbands and fathers defending their families settled like a blanket of sadness over the city. And the scathing criticism that the international community so cruelly hurls at a nation in torment reinforces the message that Israel has received so many times in the past, \u201cYou are on your own. We don\u2019t have your back.\u201d The throngs of tourists so typical for this time of year have slowed to a trickle. American and European airlines suspended its flights to and from Israel. Trying times indeed\u2026 <\/p>\n
Yet neither the threat of violence nor the public outcry could stem the surge of Jews from the Diaspora choosing to make Israel their permanent home. From Alaska, Canada, America and Europe, specifically France, nearly 2 000 Jews have made aliyah in the 17 days of Operation Protective Edge alone. Sure, immigration is not something that happens in a day or two, but according to Natan Sharansky, Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, none of the new immigrants tried to cancel or postpone their coming to Israel. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s all in line with what God promised. Over and over again. From the four corners of the earth He promised to gather them (Isaiah 11:12), from all the countries (Jeremiah 32:37) and returned them to the land of their fathers to possess it (Jeremiah 30:3-4). And they came. In trickles, in waves and in droves. And still more is to come. <\/p>\n
As the olim chadashim (new immigrants) touch down on Ben Gurion International Airport, one cannot help but wonder whether the current world events, in which Israel continues to play a central role, act as an incentive for Jews to return to their homeland.<\/p>\n
The recent pro-Palestinian demonstrations sweeping Europe resulted in a surge of anti-Semitism that shocked and distressed. France, the Western Europe country boasting the largest Jewish as well as Muslim populations, was hit particularly hard. Sharansky believes that it is the reoccurrence of disturbing incidents such as these that sow seeds of doubt about a future for Jews in France. <\/p>\n
Could it be that the growing hostility and violent attacks are drawing the French Jews back to the promise of safety and acceptance in their Jewish homeland? It is certainly possible. The past three years have seen a dramatic increase in the number of French Jewish immigrants. Moreover, the 430 French Jewish immigrants who landed in Israel form part of an estimated 5 000 French Jews who is expected to make aliyah by the end of 2014.<\/p>\n
Possible yes\u2026 Because we serve a God who promises beauty for ashes (Isaiah 61:3) and who manages to draw the positive out of what we perceive as the disasters in our lives \u2013 all for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28). <\/p>\n
As I watch word events unfolding into what seems like overwhelming chaos and disarray, I\u2019m reminded again and again that God\u2019s plans are always proactive and never in reaction to what we as humans manage to get up to. God is never taken by surprise, never confounded, never has to revert to Plan B. His promises continue to hold firm. And when everything seems to tilt and shake, He continues to be our Rock. <\/p>\n
<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/div><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Elisabeth Hinze My doorbell rang at about 23:00 last night. Oi, I thought. Because good news rarely knocks on your door this late at night. But this time I was wrong. I opened the door to my friend Sarah, a huge grin splitting her face in half, triumphantly waving a brand new Teudat Zehut more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1888,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[136,28],"tags":[177,75,625,631,178,179,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-1887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israeli-culture","8":"category-israeli-life-culture","9":"tag-aliya","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-israeli-news","12":"tag-israeli-life","13":"tag-law-of-return","14":"tag-melting-pot","15":"tag-news-from-jerusalem","16":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1887"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1889,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1887\/revisions\/1889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}