Focus on Israel/Dov Gilor

We created an organization of former Bnei Akiva of North America members who have fulfilled the dream of living in Eretz Yisrael.

I recently had the pleasure of sitting in on a meeting of the "Lishka" of the renewed Sanhedrin in Israel.

Part I of this article discussed the background and early days of the new Sanhedrin.

Renana and Jay (Yaakov) Wolff made Aliyah in 1993 from Oak Park, Michigan, where they were serving as the Bnei Akiva internal emissaries (young couples who, prior to leaving to live in Israel, serve in towns that do not have a large Jewish college presence).

San Francisco is a lovely city and we enjoyed its many tourist venues. The famous Lombard Street, known as “The Crookedest Street in the World,” was beautiful, with its floral decorations. We shopped at Pier 39, and we bought matching San Francisco jackets. We really needed them since it was cold in San Francisco. Barbara added to her magnet collection, which contains magnets from dozens of countries around the world that we have toured. She’d never been in a store that sold thousands of magnets and she just loved looking at all the magnets on the walls.

Israel recently commemorated Memorial Day in memory of its fallen heroes. Sadness permeates the day as we remember the sons, daughters and parents who have sacrificed their lives so that the Jewish Nation can continue to exist.

As a Tehilla volunteer I have been going to the airport for many years to assist new immigrants (olim) during their first hours facing real Israeli bureaucracy.

The Yishuv community of Hashmonaim and Yeshivat Bnei Akiva "Ner Tamid" recently celebrated a beautiful Chanukat Habayit dedication of a million-dollar Beit Midrash.

After a good meal in Houston Thursday night, we spent the evening at the Quality Inn near the Space Center. Early Friday morning we left for the Space Center so that we could get an early start before Shabbat.

Our fourth Shabbat was observed in Toronto. My former Chabad chavrusah, Yosef Baruch Spielman, had arranged Shabbat hospitality for us at the home of his niece and nephew, Elisheva and Rabbi Chaim Weinman.

In the 1940's and 1950's, many young American Jews were brought up with the twin goals of living in Eretz Yisrael and replacing the lost Jews murdered in the Holocaust.

While in Las Vegas, my wife, Barbara, fed several quarters into a machine that really cleaned us out. She then fed more quarters into another machine that dried all of our clothes.

The new Sanhedrin first met in Tiberius because it was foretold that it would be renewed there and would be relocated to Jerusalem.

Hashmonaim is a community in central Israel blessed with wonderful neighbors, and lovely houses and greenery. However, it has few commercial enterprises. It is a typical bedroom community, and most of those with jobs drive out each morning and return home each evening. Some commuters even get on a plane Sunday evening and do not return until the following Thursday or Friday. Yet, those who remain behind each day enjoy some of the most wonderful experiences available. The community is warm and friendly, with a strong social support system. Many families share meals on Shabbat and rotate between the many invitations available each week. The children practically live in each other's homes and enjoy the community almost as much as the adults do.

Shabbat in Santa Fe, New Mexico with the local Chabad reminds the author of the fantastic kiddush Hashem done by the Chabad emissaries; impressed anew each time by the warm and wonderful families who willingly suffer their personal isolation from the centers of religious Jews in order to bring a little Yiddishkeit into the lives of their fellow Jews.

Part I of this article discussed the background and early days of the new Sanhedrin.

It is too depressing to think about ceding land and releasing Arab terrorists from prison on the promise that has already been broken. Let's talk baseball instead.

Israelis love to travel, and after being an Israeli for some 38 years, we, too, have learned to love traveling. My wife, Barbara, and I recently decided to take a six-week trip with my brother, Avi, and his wife, Martha, across the United States. We loaded up their van in Florida and took off for California.

It was not easy and it took a long time but recently the Hashmonaim community was finally able to celebrate the dedication of a new ambulance with the latest life-saving features.

Spies who caused American deaths and worked for enemy states received lighter sentences than Pollard.

I recently joined an overflow crowd of more than 1,000 current or former Bnei Akiva members for a reunion at the Jerusalem Theater.

There seems to be a whole group of people who have little or no knowledge of early aliyah from America, but who insist on making ridiculous statements about us.

This time of year in Israel is a time of sadness and a time of joy. We commemorate the murder of six million Jews in Nazi Europe and we commemorate the deaths of our children in times of war and the terrorist murders of our people during periods of "peace." When our sadness reaches a crescendo as the sun sets on Memorial Day, we pause, raise our flag from half mast to its highest height, and joyfully begin to celebrate Israel's Independence Day.

Is it true that creatures from outer space visited New Mexico and that the U.S. government suppressed the story to avoid worldwide panic?

One of the unexpected dividends of our coming on aliya 20 and 30 years ago is the practically 0% rate of intermarriage of our grandchildren.

As Israelis suffer the stress of disengagement and the beginning of the dismemberment of the Jewish homeland, it is still important for American religious Jewish families to come on Aliyah.

Unfortunately, the question as to where to raise your children and where you and they should live is not a hot topic in the American Jewish community.

Mordechai and Barbara Goldman came on Aliyah in 1975 from Toronto, Canada. Barbara grew up in Toronto and was active in Bnei Akiva (madricha and rosh snif) and NCSY.

We left Santa Fe on our way to visit the Painted Forest and the Petrified Forest in Arizona. Part of our day was spent traveling on the historic Route 66 and we stopped at the state visitor's center as we entered Arizona. At each state visitor’s center, we stopped to gather information about interesting sites and to request coupon booklets with reduced entry coupons.

There was a time in Israel when any yarmulka was a negative factor in attaining a senior position in a company. When I first arrived in Israel some 38 years ago, the situation for senior religious employees very much reminded me of my days in America when I was looking for a computer job 42 years ago in New York City.