No Place to Call Home

One of the most important practices in the Jewish faith is making "aliyah", or pilgrimage to the holy land of Israel. The trouble with this however, is that Israel only became an official Jewish state again in 1948 after roughly 2,000 years of foreign occupation. Jews were forced to move away to Europe, or like my ancestors, to the deserts of the middle east. It is widespread theory in my family that my ancestors were probably nomadic for hundreds of years to escape persecution in Roman and Muslim controlled lands. However, sometime in the mid 1800's my family settled in Baghdad, Iraq. They lived there until 1948 when Israel was reinstated as a Jewish country, they left what little they had behind and moved a day after they heard the news.

Growing up in a young Israel, my parent's generation was faced with a bittersweet childhood, on one hand they had a land to call home, but constantly dealt with foreign powers attempting to destroy Israel, forcing them to want a different life. For many Israeli's born from 1948-1975, America was seen as the only place that they could live in freedom and in peace. This triggered one of the most massive migrations of the era, and for a while, America alloted Israel one of the highest quotas for immigrants out of any country.

As my parents and their fellow Israelis started to move to the United States, Israel became a more developed country economically, militarily and culturally. This improvement in living conditions and identity prompted many Israeli Americans to move back to Israel. In fact, in 2008, for the first time ever, more Jews moved from America to Israel than the opposite. Amid all the violence that goes on in Israel, Jews finally stood up and made their "Aliyah's". This shows how badly some Jews yearn to live in the 'promised land' and how much they will risk to go there. Apparently all they needed to be able to move there is a sense of identity and culture.

Sorry this came late, I forgot about the assignment during the holidays.

http://www.ujc.org/page.aspx?id=78046