From Midwest
To Mid East
Michigan Jews who start over in Israel.
n January 1991, when Iraq was bombing Israel
with Scud missiles, University of Michigan stu-
dents Dana Miller and Renee Himelhoch had
CNN going 24 hours a day.
Six years later, the two are Israeli citizens.
Close friends since college, both feel the 1991
war played a key role in strengthening their
connection to Israel.
"During the Gulf War I realized how attached
I was to Israel," Ms. Miller recalls. "I was so
worried about what was going on [in Israel]."
A native of Orchard Lake, Ms. Miller made aliyah
(the Hebrew term for immigrating to Israel) in 1994
after living in the country for two years. "I felt a
strong need to be in Israel and not watching it on
TV," she said.
"I always thought Israel would be a cool place to
live — even before I ever came," said Ms. Himelhoch,
of Southfield, who had spent time studying and vol-
unteering in Israel before making aliyah in 1996.
"But, I think that it was being here before and after
the Gulf War that sort of cemented my thinking."
Ms. Miller and Ms. Himelhoch are two of hundreds
of Michiganders who have made aliyah in the past
ten years. Although a diverse group, i F share a com-
JULIE WIENER STAFF WRITER
mitment to Israel that goes beyond simply writing
a check.
When Sima (formerly Darra) Phillips of West
Bloomfield went to Israel in 1992 on her junior year
abroad, she was planning to become a Humanistic
rabbi.
By the end of the year, she had met her future hus-
band and was studying in a yeshiva for ba'alei teshu-
va (newly observant) women. As an American
student at the Hebrew University, she found her-
self attracted to the spiritual life in Jerusalem.
Ms. Phillips made aliyah in 1996 and lives with
her husband and baby daughter in Jerusalem.
"Because we were recent ba'alei teshuva, being in
Israel was really crucial to us," she said. "The learn-
ing here is unparalleled to anywhere else, and we
felt like leaving wasn't an option."
While Ms. Phillips first went to Israel and then ac-
quired her religious knowledge, Noam Koenigsburg
moved to Israel because of what he had been taught
in the United States.
"I was educated that God told us in the Torah many
times that the Jewish people are supposed to be in
Israel," he said.
Originally from Oak Park, the 24-year-old Mr.