"I SAID TO MYSELF, IF THIS
IS WHAT I HAVE TO DO TO
BE JEWISH IN AMERICA, I
REALLY NEED TO GET BACK
TO ISRAEL.'
"—Dov LEVY
"EVERYTHING IS A FOR-
TUNE, AND EVERYONE HAS
AN OVERDRAFT AT THE
BANK."—ELIZABETH LEVY
28
"It's going on throughout the States,"
he says. "I think people are more aware."
As metro Detroit's shaliach (liaison
with Israel), Jeff Kaye considers it his
duty to foster realism without deflat-
ing the idealism that motivates most
intercontinental relocations. Practical-
ity, he says, is more important than
heartfelt yearnings and lofty Zionist
convictions.
He points to cats. Stray cats. Dirty
cats. Tel Aviv cats that are bound to
rummage through your garbage. "Can
you live with that?" he asks each aliyah-
aspirant.
"If they've never thought about things
like that, I recommend they go on sab-
batical, take 5 percent of their assets
and check out life" in Israel, he says.
In the end, it is the shaliach's job to
approve or deny the aliyah. Mr. Kaye
never gives the go-ahead until a metro
Detroiter has visited Israel at least one
time. That's a worldwide rule, with an
exception for Russians and Ethiopians,
olim from danger zones who have been
evacuated to Israel on government-
sanctioned missions.
It's hard to say no, but Mr. Kaye has
said it. One elderly widower came to
him shortly after the death of his wife.
The man, who needed daily living as-
sistance, had few assets and no rela-
tives.
Sadly, he had never set foot in Israel.
Instead of refusing him outright, Mr.
Kaye prompted the man to visit Israel
and establish a plan. There are gov-
ernment-run agencies and charitable
groups to help Jewish elderly live out
their final years.
But finances are getting tight, large-
ly due to demand generated by recent
waves of immigration. Since late 1989,
more than 635,000 refugees — many of
them elderly — have come to Israel, pri-
marily from the former Soviet Union
and Ethiopia.
Promoters of aliyah say there's never
a bad time to move, but different age
groups experience the relocation in a
myriad of ways. Children under 12 gen-
erally make a smooth transition. They're
not too entrenched in American culture.
They pick up on Hebrew with relative
ease.
For many adults, the strategic time
to move is before they lock into a home
mortgage, start a family and embark
on a definite career path in the States. (
"You have less strings attached. You
have flexibility," says Eliot Goldstein
with the Consulate General of Israel in
Chicago.
Orthodox newcomers generally find
a social niche within their synagogue
circles, and young secular Jews can join
the army to make friends and fit in.
But for teen-agers, life can be tough.
The Jerusalem Post Magazine in De-
cember 1993 published interviews with
adolescents who moved to Israel with