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August 19, 2008

Nefesh B'nefesh: Scenes from a Flight

Mitzvah at High Altitude

“We’re having a Sheva B’rachos at seat 24, come on over, okay?”

I’m on the Nefesh B’Nefesh flight to Israel and one of the NBN staff members have just invited me and my friend, the great blogger Treppenwitz to help celebrate the sheva b’rachos for a young married couple.

Soul by soul, or one soul at a time, that’s the translation of Nefesh B’Nefesh. And oh my, what an appropriate title. For even here at 30,000 feet NBN make sure to take care of all the needs of the new Olim, immigrants to Israel.

Treppenwitz and I grab our siddurim, make our way down the aisle, and with scores of others, help celebrate. I am always moved at a sheva b’rachos, but here, in the crowded aisle, as children, like frisky puppies, climb over their parent’s laps and adjoining seats, as cameras flash, catching the chosson and kallah luminous with joy, and as the familiar tunes wash over me, I feel a nugget, like a walnut, trapped in my throat for here is the Jewish people at their very best, a faithful community supporting one another in the performance of the eternal mitzvos .

Welcome Home

New immigrants to Israel

I step into the sunlight, I step onto the land of Israel. I blink at the waiting crowd, hundreds of men, women and children. There are banners welcoming the new Olim. There are unarmed soldiers lined up like an honor guard. all waving Israeli flags. A man grabs my hand, “Welcome home,” and he hugs me. I stammer that I’m not an Oleh, I’m a blogger here to write about the experience, but the kind and generous man just smiles patiently and says, “You are a Jew, welcome home.”

Yours truly all choked up

I have no clever comeback. My seemingly inexhaustible supply of snappy dialog has abruptly run dry.

Over the years I have heard numerous stories about the difficulty of immigrating to Israel. Of course, there are the obvious obstacles: leaving home, getting a new job, being absorbed into a new culture. But always the true horror stories were about government bureaucracy: mountains of paperwork, surly bureaucrats, endless lines at an endless parade of government offices whose purpose was never quite clear. Too often, Olim felt like they were being put through some hellish obstacle course, an increasingly complicated maze designed for rats rather than lovers of Zion.

Nefesh B’nefesh does away with faceless and hostile bureaucracy. NBN, it seems to yours truly, is the perfect conservative response to callous big government, an elegant reply to waste and inefficiency.

Founded by Tony Gelbart and Rabbi Yehoshua Fass NBN is a deeply personal and powerful alternative to atrophied government, to programs that had global Aliyah steadily declining over the years.

Welcome home

Everywhere I turn NBN representatives are calmly going out of their way to provide help, answering questions, resolving problems.

Since 2002, NBN has revitalized western Aliyah—immigration to Israel—and brought over 15,000 Olim from the USA, Canada and the UK.

NBN help remove financial, professional, logistical and social obstacles for new Olim.

Dressed to Kill

A few words about fashion and females in uniform.

Somewhere in the state of Israel there is a tailor who is making out like a bandit. I mean this guy is a genius.

No army in the world issues trousers that ride about three inches below the hips—
not unless the State of Israel has hired Versace to design their uniforms, and I really don’t think that’s happened—yet.

But every single female soldier at the welcoming ceremony is wearing fatigues that are precisely cut and I’m telling you, I feel like I’m casting a film and my office is filled with gorgeous Israeli women soldiers looking to score a gig in a movie about, um, gorgeous Israeli soldier girls.

Israeli soldier girls. Great and fashionable army.

Look, I work in Hollywood, I know the image business, I am intimately familiar with the hard work of glamor, and there’s one thing I can tell you about the female of the species: You can put her in a shmatte, but she is going to find away to make it work, she is going to make it fashionable, she is going to make herself, well, feminine and purty. And so, thousands of Israeli girl soldiers, with military precision, take their army issue trousers and have them altered—just so.

Military analysis at it’s most superficial.

Speeches?

I’m thinking, oh my gosh, speeches, after an eleven-hour flight? NBN must be kidding.

Refreshments are laid out on a dozen tables. Everywhere the NBN staff smoothly move about making sure that the children get something to eat, making certain that all the new Olim have rides to their new homes. In short, making sure that everything runs efficiently, that everyone feels welcome.

I sit, exhausted, but strangely elated.

NBN founders Tony Gelbart and Rabbi Fass both speak briefly about NBN’s mission. But they are not here to congratulate each other. Nope, they are here to applaud the new Olim. Their words are all about the hope, the ancient love of the land that binds all Jews.

I turn to Treppenwitz and say: “This just sweeps away all that post-Zionist poison, doesn’t it?”

Treppenwitz says: “If you’re not moved by what’s going on here, then you probably have no heartbeat.”

I place my hand over my heart. It's pounding away like a Ginger Baker solo.

This is Your Land

Treppenwitz nudges me: “Bibi is on his way.”

Secret Service agents are quietly fanning out in the terminal. Oh man, talk about central casting. These guys are tall, toned and chiseled. They are wearing those dopey short sleeved safari jacket—call Michael Kors, puh-lease!— with nice fat bulges under their armpits. Hey, just like in the movies, they cup their ears and whisper into their mikes.

I’ll be it’s something like: “Hey, Yossie, did ya catch the cute soldier girl with the blond dreads?”

I ask Treppenwitz if I can take a picture of the hard guys or whether that bit of fandom will get me shot. These guys actually look, oh, I dunno, like they can do some serious killing and then go out and have a pizza.

Treppenwitz says: “Better not.”

Hence, no pic of the guys with guns.

Bibi Netanyahu enters. The crowd roars.

Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, Israel's next Prime Minister.

Me: “He’s gonna be the next Prime Minister, right?”
Trepp: “He better be.”

Bibi says: “You all come from great countries. The United States is a great country…”

I’m nodding my head: Well sure, it’s the good ol’ U.S.A.

Bibi continues: “Great Britain is a great country…”

I’m like: Eh, not so great.

Bibi adds: “Canada is a great country.”

I roll my eyeballs: What-ever.

Bibi goes in for the kill: “But this is your country!”

The soldiers come forward, we all rise and sing the Israeli national anthem, The Hatikvah, The Hope.

Singing The Hatikvah

I never saw Babe Ruth hit a home run. Never heard the crowd roar as the ball sailed over the fence, never saw the faces of little kids as the mighty Bambino lumbered round the bases.

But this is what it must have felt like.

My heart is stampeding in my chest and my vision is blurred.

This is my land and I am home.

Next: August 20th, at 5:00pm, Israeli time, The First International Jewish Bloggers Conference. If you haven’t signed up to attend by webcam, just click here, fill out the form, you still have time.

Look, you know me, I don’t normally kvell—well, unless I’m talking about silent film star Clara Bow—but the conference is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, so drop in.

You don't have to be a blogger to attend by webcam. Just click here and register.

And if you’re lucky you might catch a glimpse of the legendary Karen.

Yup, Karen has landed—on a separate flight.

Don't even ask.

You can view a webcam of the arrival and opening ceremonies here at the NBN website.

More amazing NBN Bloggers:

Jameel of The Muqata

Gil from Hirhurim

Esther of My Urban Kvetch

And here's the NBN page with all the fine blogs collected in one easy to read spot.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at August 19, 2008 06:52 PM

Comments

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Posted by: alan d. busch at August 19, 2008 08:05 PM

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