45 Years as Israelis!!!

Last night, September 5, after Shabbat was the non-Jewish date marking forty-five 45 years since my husband and I docked at Haifa Port on the Greek Lines Anna-Maria and became Israelis. There were over four hundred 400 other olim chadashim, new immigrants on the ship. We got full citizenship close to three years later, but that's a minor detail.

By using the date converter on the internet, I've discovered that we missed out on the Jewish anniversary of our aliyah by a couple of weeks.

Saturday night, the 5th of September 1970 = 5th of Elul, 5730 ה׳ בֶּאֱלוּל תש״ל

But considering that the move is something I have never regretted and celebrate daily, the exact Jewish date is not that important.

soon after arriving in Israel

My husband and I were young and admittedly immature when we got married announcing to all that we were not staying in the USA for long, but it was the wisest decision we could have made.

We first lived in the Maon Betar in the Old City of Jerusalem, before the area was called the "Jewish Quarter." There were very few Jews there besides those in Yeshivat Hakotel and NaChaL Moriah.

When our first child was born we moved to the Bayit Vegan neighborhood of Jerusalem to an apartment we had bought. In the mid-1970's we went on shlichut to do Zionist youth work in London with our then two daughters and returned home with a third.

On September 1, 1981, with four children including a newborn son, we moved to Shiloh. Just over two years later, our second son was born, and we still live in Shiloh. We've seen Shiloh, its school and the entire area around it grow and thrive over the decades. It feels very natural that I've spent more than half my life living in Shiloh, and so has my husband. What does feel strange is that we are now considered the "elderly" of the community. I really don't feel that old.

I have found a couple of other people who were on that ship with us and would love to find more. It would be amazing to have a reunion.