My Aliya

  In 1986 I made aliyah with my husband and daughter. It seems so long ago. Writing in 2025, I have lived here half of my life.  Over the years, my husband died and my daughter returned to live in South Africa, which she continued to regard as her 'home'.

We were in our forties when we came to live here; the beginning of middle age.  My husband had been well established in his career as an educator, and for the past fifteen years or so,  as the principal of a Jewish day school in Cape Town.  He had loved his career and the children who attended his school. I worked as a social worker in Jewish welfare services in Cape Town and was currently the principal of a Children's Home.  I loved my job.

Although we were committed Zionists, we had no plans to make aliyah.  However, the political situation in South Africa was dire. The Black people were fed up with being exploited by the Nationalist Party (Whites), who were determined to keep power in their hands and to keep them servile. The government had established the Bantustans and, with a stroke of a pen, disenfranchised millions of Black people. Countries across the world, had imposed severe sanctions on us and isolated us politically, economically, and in just about every sphere.  Our country was stagnating, and the level of anger was explosive.  

We hated living under the apartheid system.  I had worked for The Early Learning Resource Unit, that strove to educate (primarily) Black women, raise their awareness of their rights and worth.  We developed opportunities for them to learn to prepare pre-school children for school.  It was an amazing organization and a great privilege to be involved in such a meaningful program. More than work skills, the women who participated in our programs regained their dignity and self-worth and go out as emissaries into their own community, to educate and spread awareness.  For me, this was a formative experience.

However, as the violence exploded, we found it increasingly difficult to live in South Africa.  While we believed in the necessity and justice of revolution, there was danger everywhere.  For my husband, leading a school dedicated to white Jewish children while millions of black children received less than a basic education was unconscionable.  It was impossible to live within the oppressive apartheid system.

Israel, in the 1980's was an attractive proposition.  There was certainly tension here - has there ever been a time when there wasn't?  But, although I believed in and supported the Black fight or equality in South Africa, my beloved Israel also needed our skills, and the notion that we could participate in building up a young country inspired us.  Our daughter was a teenager, and we decided that if we wanted her to assimilate and master the Hebrew language, the time to make aliyah, was now. 

Here I am, forty years later.  My husband died some years ago, and our daughter returned to South Africa, which she still thinks of as her home.  She lives in a beautiful house on the slopes of a mountain in Cape Town and is an activist in her community. She recently won public recognition for her work in conserving the vegetation and ecology of Table Mountain. She is happy there.

I have grown a lot older.  Three years ago, I moved into a Retirement Home with assisted living facilities.  This was a momentous decision for me and it has turned out well.  I have a cute little cottage with a pretty garden.  I live with my dog, Sushi, and my fat cat, Tuli and we are very content with our lot.

Life in Israel is vibrant.  We live in a community awash with opinions, schisms, interests, and conflicts.  People are engaged and live actively and assertively.  We argue over values and vie for resources.  We are a young country that has made miraculous progress, but we don't yet have a Constitution and we are struggling to reconcile our moral values with political realities in our heterogeneous world.

  In the 1950s, we absorbed millions of immigrants, exiled from Arab lands with little but the clothes on their backs.  We come from the East and the West, and we are a melting pot of colors and cultures, held together by our Jewish heritage. We strive to build a good country, although we have different opinions on how this would look. 

Our main problem is that we are still surrounded by enemies, and some problems seem insurmountable. Still, we are decent people and resourceful, and I have confidence that we will prevail. I would like to live out my remaining years here. My deepest wish is for us to find a way to live with our neighbors so that we may all be safe and prosper.