Doubling of Aliya from U.S. Urged As Priority Issue

Describing the intermarriage rate in America as a “silent Holocaust.” Moshe Shechter. Director of the Israel Aliyah Center of North America, challenged the 225 delegates at the National Convention of the North American Aliya Movement (NAAM) here last weekend to this year double the number of immigrants to Israel from the organization and the number of chugim (groups of potential olim) in North America.

“From the time a Jew knocks on our door, it takes from six months to two years to bring him from America to Israel,” Shechter said. “This doesn’t leave us time for promotion, and every NAAM member should be promoting aliya.” Shechter added that the Aliyah Center’s other plans for promotion include bringing short-term shlichim (emissaries) to America, and placing aliya on the agendas of Jewish Federations throughout the country.

Shechter has requested that Israeli government officials who visit the United States include aliya promotion in their speeches to Jewish audiences. Israel Ambassador Moshe Arens is planning to devote 25 percent of his time to promoting aliya, according to Shechter.

EFFORT AIMED AT YORDIM

Another new project of the Aliyah Center is the creation of a special shaliach position in New York City to deal with the problem of yordim, former Israelis now living in America. Shechter said. “This is the first time since 1948 that Israel has officially recognized this problem,” he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. In the past few months, the new program has encouraged several hundred yordim to return to Israel, he said.

Elaine Kopp, president of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel (AACI), NAAM’s sister organization in Israel, described North American aliya as an “antidote to the problem of yordim.” She stressed the importance of American olim showing Israelis that Israel has a positive pull for American Jews. “When we make aliya, the infusion of American culture and education strengthens Israel. We can only make a difference from the inside,” she said. Kopp made aliya from Oklahoma nine years ago and now administers programs for new olim in the development town of Ma’alot.

Zipporah Liben of New York, national president of NAAM, pointed out in her keynote address that American Jews are not a persecuted people. “Aliya is a change we make willingly,” she said. “We leave here because aliya is a commitment that every true Zionist must fulfill. America has been good to us and given us the courage to make our decision and leave. We leave with pride.”

PERSONAL SHALIACH

Liben called on every NAAM member to reach out to the American Jewish community and act as a personal shaliach to others. “I believe one purpose of NAAM is to heighten the consciousness of the American Jewish community to the need for aliya,” she said.

NAAM services some 2500 members in 50 chugim organized into seven regions throughout the United States and Canada. Sylvia Eisen, a NAAM vice president and convention chairman who is also national aliya chairman for Hadassah, said the purpose of the convention was to “inspire, support and motivate” those who are committed to aliya.

“The people who want to go to Israel need moral and emotional support, and here they can feel the strength of others who also believe that Eretz Yisrael is where they belong,” she said. “In addition, they can get practical information and help with specific problems, from shlichim present at the convention.”

The 225 delegates, from as far away as Winnipeg, Canada, ranged in age from the teens to post-retirement. The fact that 40 percent of North American olim are now Orthodox was reflected by a large contingency of young Orthodox Jewish couples, mostly from New York City. The convention bid farewell to 20 members who are leaving shortly on aliya, including Rabbi Moshe Berliner, Executive Director. Liber was reelected president for 1982-83.